Provocation 101

Provocation 101

There are a number of on-line sources that published the following image claiming that this was a photo of Justice John Roberts with Ghislaine Maxwell. It is not, the man in this image is a French modeling agent named Jean-Luc Brunel, AKA Le fantôme” (The ghost).  The source of these uploads is the Kremlin’s information warfare unit AKA Internet Research Agency.

Jean-Luc Brunel
Image 1
: Jean-Luc Brunel with chillin with Ghislaine Maxwell

Circulating falsely identified images is an age-old intelligence agency trick. But, now, this practice has become popular with the fact checker networks, who recycle products produced by the IRA on a large scale for the purpose of discrediting legitimate conservative content. To learn more about how some guardians of the internet galaxy use this type of provocation, check out the following:

  1. Operation Snort
  2. Down the Discreditation Rabbit Hole
  3. Need a Nazi for a Project, but Can’t Find One? Here’s How to Make One Up
  4. Is You is or is You Ain’t Ilhan Omar?

For an in-depth discussion on how the real professionals do it, check out the Agency’s Study of Provocations and Harassments and the foundation of influence operations. They are oldies but goodies.

Document 1: The US Intelligence Board Security Committee – A Study of Provocations and Harassments of U.S. Citizens in Soviet/Satellite Countries

Document 2: The Foundations of Effective Influence Operations guide


References and Sources
XRVision Sentinel AI Platform – Face recognition, image reconstruction, and object classification

Copyright 2020 Yaacov Apelbaum, All Rights Reserved.

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