community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Government Cheese(cake)?
by infoshop reader
Friday, Sep. 19, 2003 at 9:14 AM
for pgh indymedia Is the 'sexy' consevative model who spams imc's a gov't agent? Victoria indymedia repost
The Model, her Shadow, the Payload, and the IMC: A grey propaganda operation on the Indymedia network.
Propaganda comes in three colours: White propaganda is messages sent through offical channels from an acknowledged source. When you go to the Whitehouse web site, you know you�re being fed the US line. Black propaganda is disinformation created by spy agencies and PR firms whose source is intentionally misrepresented. The �Iraqis Dump Babies from Incubators� story was a black propaganda operation that was used to justify the first Gulf war. Grey propaganda is the murky area between black and white that includes planting news or opinion that is disguised as coming from a neutral source.
This report details a grey propaganda operation that is being systematically run through the international IMC network, hijacking our own open publishing tools to distribute pro-war propaganda.
Here is how it works...
Gabrielle Reilly is a modestly successful �super-model� working the swimsuit, thong and trade show circuit out of Kansas City. Or she was � then one of two things happened�
Scenario 1: Things may have been getting lean � gigs not going well [scroll down to � Can you hear me now?� ], popularity so-so, and no sign of the big pay-out on the horizon� so, when she was approached to front for the Shadow, she saw her patriotic duty clear as cash, and enlisted with Uncle Sam in the War on Terror.
Scenario 2: Or maybe not. Maybe Gabrielle herself casts �the Shadow� , and really has suddenly discovered a previously deeply hidden talent for writing, illustrating, and distributing US pro-war propaganda targeted at the �M 15-25/Gr 6 Reading Level� demographic. Here�s the official story, from a bio page that is no longer posted on the web:
�I am very passionate about the need to improve America�s image around the world so fewer people are so vigilantly inspired to run planes into our buildings... I write articles for web sites and do interviews to share my political and global idea�s and views. I work completely independantly but have a network of CEO�s and VP�s of different companies that fly me around the country to meet with international groups... The fact that I am Australian and not American helps this process tremendously since we are almost perceived as a �neutral� country.�
�Over the next six months I have plans� to promote different causes using my site and database in a unique manner... My swimsuit pictures capture that huge market segment from all around the world... widening my audience... �
In either event, shortly thereafter a web site was born: http://www.gabriellereillyweekly.com � pumping out a hormone-dosed combination of cheesy-yet-weirdly-conservative pinups and simplified pro-war propaganda, with new installments weekly. �Show no Nipple and Keep it Simple� seems to be the working motto of the Shadow�s team of flacks, with stories ranging from �Al Qaeda = Bad� to �America = Good� with the odd nod to the environment: �Global Warming = Natural�. The Shadow�s calculations must show that this is the perfect combination for the target audience of repressed Kansas farm boys and middle-class Muslim teenagers� and hey � the money is there big-time for this kind of thing, after 9/11.
But this isn�t another trade show gig � this is the �War on Terror�, so naturally the Shadow has made sure that the URL is effectively cloaked: You can run a WHOIS search �til you�re blue in the face, but the Shadow won�t talk � 216.71.200.233 is part of a range of IPs (216.71.0.0 � 216.71.223.255), that expose almost no detailed public information, leaving ownership of the site more than a little murky. The Shadow�s a pro � no smoking gun here�
They built it, they launched it, but nobody came� Voluntary links to the site are few and far between � a smattering of conservative blogs, and that�s about it � because in the web world, pinups and politics go together like anchovies and ice-cream.
The quality of the site itself is semi-pro, but the hundreds of �feeder� pages planted on the web are the real payload: slick and professional, every word is tuned to appeal to a politically naive US teen audience and an international target group for whom english is a second language. After all, the stakes are high � every hour those young men spend oogling Gabrielle and reading homeland propaganda is one less hour spent on the flight simulator or on some �commie-symp-soft-on-Islam� web site like http://www.indymedia.org, plotting future acts of terrorism� but how to best deliver the payload to the target?
Wait� Indymedia! Now there�s an idea�
The Shadow sez: �Those anarcho-geeks that run the IMCs have built what they call an Open Publishing newswire. It reaches everywhere, it�s got street cred, and anyone can publish anything there. Even better � they are so committed to �Free Speech� or some such pinko bullshit that they won�t be able to yank our stuff even when they know they�re being hosed! We can use their network to pump our message out to their audience of punk thought-criminals.�
So it is that Over 97% of all links to http://www.gabriellereillyweekly.com start out as stories planted systematically on the Indymedia network � from Istanbul to Japan to Victoria, the US payload is delivered direct to you � by us!
The Future
As the �War on Terror� ramps up ever higher, the mainstream and alternative media will become increasingly saturated with white/black/grey propaganda � much of it far more sophisticated than the Shadow�s lame attempt at hormonal engineering � the IMCs will have to choose: does open publishing mean becoming a pipeline for made-in-the-USA propaganda, or will the network develop an editing system that treats these US government grey ops as the trolls they are?
Asshcroft can't approve
by -
Friday, Sep. 19, 2003 at 10:15 AM
God hates boobies!
Even I have been tricked...
by BraveNewWorldOrderFighter
Friday, Sep. 19, 2003 at 2:12 PM
My heart is broken. My soul is sick. I had myself believing that civilization seemed to be getting more civilized.
I was wrong.
mk-ultra
by peter piper
Friday, Sep. 19, 2003 at 5:50 PM
Gabrielle may be an MK-Ultra sex slave.
Who is behind Gabrielle Reilly?
by YelloCat
Thursday, Oct. 16, 2003 at 8:07 PM
"The Model, her Shadow, the Payload, and the IMC: A grey propaganda operation on the Indymedia network" -- Full text with links and discussion thread at : http://victoria.indymedia.org/features/media/
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