Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic ( www.reuters.com )

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.

The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.

Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan – Tagalog for China is the virus.

schizoidman ,

To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal

Henry Kissinger

SkybreakerEngineer ,

Also Kissinger: let's do even more of that, and drop bombs on random grid squares just to be a dick

Cosmonauticus ,

Can we start adding war criminal next to war criminal Henry Kissinger's name like we do with convicted rapist Brock Turner?

Zehzin ,
@Zehzin@lemmy.world avatar

Honestly, war criminal doesn't even cut it. Dude is a class of piece of shit on his own. One of the largest shitstains on the toilet bowl of history

NOT_RICK ,
@NOT_RICK@lemmy.world avatar

This is ridiculous. Fucking spooks

rbesfe ,

The Philippines is a major US ally in the region, hopefully they raise a stink about this. Nothing changes pentagon policy quicker than a potential loss of military strength.

null ,
@null@slrpnk.net avatar

So basically the people claiming that vaccines are dangerous and part of a secret government scheme to control us were actually the victims of a secret government scheme to convince us that vaccines are dangerous.

Crikeste ,

They are the thing they despise the most: Sheep.

bungalowtill ,

it‘s okay. They’re just protecting our values, or morals, or culture, or something. Ah, I‘m sorry, it‘s markets.

reagansrottencorpse ,

Nothing sinister my govt does can really surprise me anymore.

mhague ,

The Shinzo Abe situations are always weird to me. One or more people decided to do this, in the sense that the buck stops somewhere.

It's easy to find addresses, workplaces, family members, an itinerary.

It's like in order to make it to these positions you need to have a defective brain that allows you to hurt lots of other people while ignoring how easy it is for one of them to reach out and touch you. I'd need constant anxiety meds.

CluelessLemmyng ,

Article doesn't come up for me. However, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the brainchild of those farts in the Trump administration who thought the virus would kill off Democrat voters and were happy to see response slowed.

djsoren19 ,

Wonderful to see our country is continuing our tradition of nonsensical psy-ops designed to exploit a tragedy and inflict as much harm as possible. I'm glad there's no consequences for a nation abusing their power in such an egregious manner.

Lucidlethargy ,
@Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works avatar

Where is the source for this? I see zero source.

AdrianTheFrog ,
@AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world avatar

Reuters is the source, they’re fairly reputable.

Lucidlethargy ,
@Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works avatar

It was mentioned, but it was emphatically not linked.

androogee ,

🤨

It's the primary source. It's original investigative journalism, not a Wikipedia article or a listicle. Link to what? Itself?

masquenox ,

Nothing shocking, nothing surprising.

We here in South Africa had our turn with US psyop shitfuckery last year.

HiddenLychee ,

Please share! I fell out of contact with my friends there over the pandemic and heard nothing about this.

masquenox ,

A Russian ship docked in Cape Town last year carrying armaments destined for the "War On Terror - Mozambique Edition." The US embassy pretended it didn't have access to that intelligence, and accused the SA government of (supposedly) supplying Putin with weaponry. The rapidity with which these accusations was championed by white supremacist political organisations (including the second largest political party) made it all even more suspicious. We literally had people here (you can imagine which kind) calling for the US to regime change us.

The incident raised more questions than anything - but the white liberal media here in South Africa didn't bother with those... it merely seemed interested in using the entire affair to attack the ANC. It was pretty clear to people here that there was something bigger going on than merely one measly little Russian ship - and, personally, I suspect that the ANC's "sudden" concern over what is going on in Gaza is a retaliation against the US for this. They sure as hell didn't have these concerns when they allowed Israel to buy up South African corporations left, right and centre...

mightyfoolish ,

Covid is related to SARs which East Asian people seem more susceptible to. This is very evil. Well, hopefully this was only under Trump's turn, Biden doesn't need more ammo for Genocide Joe.

bloodfart ,

If you don’t feel disgusted by this enough: the Biden regime shut down the insulin price cap faster than it shut down this program.

TachyonTele ,

We all believe you .ml

assassin_aragorn ,

The article says Biden shut it down in Spring 2021. Turns out your comment is completely wrong -- Biden shut down the program faster than it implemented insulin price caps.

This is why the person replying to you mocked .ml. You can't even read the damn article.

Technically, accounts were still in place afterwards and they didn't properly clean up the disrespectful mess of a program, but that isn't what you said. You said shut down the program, which demonstrably happened quickly.

bloodfart ,

The Biden regime stopped all trump regime executive orders on January 20th, 2021, two days before the trump regimes part d insulin price cap would have taken effect.

The stop on January 20 was called a “pause” because after 60 days to evaluate the ones it wanted to keep, the Biden regime said it would continue the good executive orders. I can’t find any indication that the insulin price cap actually went into effect until a year and a half later as part of a huge bill I can’t remember the name of.

The Biden regime shut down the insulin price cap before it shut down the cia antivax campaign.

TachyonTele ,

Does saying regime multiple times make you feel special?

bloodfart ,

No, I say it to at least recognize that there is an entire apparatus behind these decisions as opposed to attributing them to one person.

I choose to use the word regime to in some small way make reference to the different relationships to different power that each apparatus has. It’s important to not equate the two.

TachyonTele ,

Are you American?

bloodfart ,

Yes I am, why do you ask?

TachyonTele ,

Which state and city are you even in? Because I don't believe you. I've already called out other non Americans for trying to influence the US elections here, I've been correct, and frankly you being a part of .ml is one of the biggest red flags on Lemmy.

Your wording is simply not something Americans use. So you can either stop trying to influence a different countries elections than your own, or you can sit back down in your mom's basement and keep your immature opinions to yourself.

bloodfart ,

Of course, send any abuse or what have you over to my address:

200 N Blount St
Raleigh, NC 27601

Surely you don’t think a person from the instance focused on open source and privacy would just dox themselves, right?

TachyonTele ,

So, another non American ml account. Got it.

bloodfart ,

If you want to go through my post history I bet you could put together where I’m at.

What would prove I’m American to you aside from doxing myself?

rambling_lunatic ,
  1. The antivaxxers were complaining a conspiracy when this whole time they were the conspiracy.
  2. This whole time antivax kept getting blamed on Russian troll farms, when the troll farms were Western all along. Golden.
Duamerthrax ,

This whole time antivax kept getting blamed on Russian troll farms, when the troll farms were Western all along. Golden.

Just because the US was doing it, doesn't mean Russia wasn't also doing it.

archomrade ,

Right because that changes the ethics of us doing it?

Duamerthrax ,

Not what I said.

homesweethomeMrL ,

The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found.

Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos Americans, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign.

Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.

FTFT. Also horse de-wormer, hydroxychloriquine, and bleach. The Pentagon was just doing what other wrong-thinking military psyops orgs were doing. The MAGAts were, of course, the targets for those.

Unsurprisingly led by the demented orange rapist who embraced all the garbage and spread it widely, and bigly.

girlfreddy OP ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

You're mistaken. Literally the first paragraph of the article says ...

the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines

Doom ,

He's making the point that everyone is doing this to each other.

girlfreddy OP ,
@girlfreddy@lemmy.ca avatar

They said someone else ...

The MAGAts were, of course, the targets for those.

homesweethomeMrL ,

My point is that the same article, with just a few minor substitutions, could be aptly applied to right-wing MAGAs and Qult members who joined in and amplified said message. I have no doubt there is some equivalent to the Herman Cain Award winners in the Philippines.

DaCrazyJamez ,

Pretty sure this was being done TO the US by ops in Russia,China, Iran and others

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