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.

Cia Study Of Provocations

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

Influence Operations Guidel

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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