Posted originally on the CTH on March 2, 2023 | Sundance 

Matt Taibbi has done another extensive review of Twitter data in File Release #17 HERE. This information release focuses on the Global Engagement Center (GEC), an internal sub-agency within the State Department as constructed by the Obama administration.

As noted by Taibbi, the GEC was funded mostly from the Pentagon and the financial outlays were to various leftist organizations who constructed the Trump-Russia narrative.

The outcome of the original deception created a need for the illusion of “foreign influence agents” in U.S. social media, specifically in this instance, Twitter.  The GEC was created as a targeting system to label any voice adverse to the Obama interests as a “foreign actor.”

Generally speaking, the GEC network identified usernames and social media account information they deemed adversarial to the Obama administration, then told Twitter to take down the accounts.  The people working within GEC were political activists, financed through government agencies by the very taxpayers’ they were targeting.  Ironic, no?

I strongly urge deep weed political walkers to review the entire outline – SEE HERE.  However, in the bigger picture I would not the motive that pixel-focused Matt Taibbi cannot see.

Labeling domestic social media users as “foreign actors” was/is indeed a good way to remove voices who might oppose the administration agenda.

Yes, it is also government censorship carried out on a mass scale, but, well, details, details…. Congress -through inaction- has already evidence, they don’t care about this issue. Yet it is simultaneously good for fundraising and political soundbites.

There is actually a bigger issue behind these “foreign actor” labels as applied.

How many of these user accounts were then subsequently subjected to NSA level DHS surveillance under the legal justification of ‘foreign actor’ designation?

The various interagency groups, funded by taxpayer dollars, were essentially designating accounts as foreign influence…. ergo, national security applies.  We’ve long discussed how ‘national security’ designations now mean no oversight from any other agency or branch of government, including the legislative and judicial branches.

Accept that reality and suddenly you realize the GEC activity is creating a legal mechanism to do metadata surveillance on the account (an actual person) and all of their contacts.  Think of it like FISA Title-1 search warrants applied domestically to social media.  After all, John Smith in Omaha, Nebraska, was just designated as a potential national security threat by the Global Engagement Center.  See how that works?

Lists are generated, DHS portals open up, NSA and FBI databases are accessed, keystrokes are made, search perimeters are input and voilà, John Smith’s entire life and the life of his contacts is available within moments.

To those who cannot see the bigger picture of this system, please remind yourself this is nothing more than an extension of a concept triggered by Attorney General Eric Holder when the first system using the IRS schedule-B’s was deployed.  Lists created, backgrounds checked, targets made, and domestic threats defined as political opposition.

Use of the IRS data became public in 2012, and they switched to the now more modern metadata collection available through DHS (FBI) contractors with access to the NSA database. Insert years of FISA Court and NSA teeth gnashing here, as the weaponization of the database raged on with promises to stop doing it… and promises… and promises… and even more promises.

Take the GEC overlay, which is essentially the targeting definitions of domestic threats, and look at the GEC outcomes through this prism of ongoing surveillance. What do you see?

Yes, that would be the Fourth Branch of Government.  See how it all connects?

If the GEC (DHS/FBI) was conducting this process through Twitter, the strong likelihood is that they were also using the exact same system on all other social media platforms. Heck, they probably still are.

All of it, from the origin with the IRS to the NSA databases, to the GEC definitions, is one massive network Obama era created domestic surveillance, under the auspices of national security.

Can you see it now?

Last point… to the issue most concerning to Matt Taibbi, the internecine support and alignment by media.  The GEC used media to create the justification for their work, and the stenographers in the media gleefully complied.

Lee Smith makes an important point in this brief podcast excerpt. {Direct Rumble Link Here}  We have outlined his point on these pages for several years.

Essentially, this is the point Lee Smith was driving home last October. The U.S. Corporate Media and the Big Tech monopolies are the front force of the new national security and intelligence state.

It is a relationship that extends far beyond the customary leanings of media, and now covers a full synergistic relationship.  WATCH:

“We’re all familiar with the fact that the press has historically leaned to the left. That’s not what we’re looking at now. We’re looking at something very, very different. We’re looking at the press as being a part of the intelligence community. They are the ones who is putting these operations out there.”

The New York Times and Politico are the public relations firms for Main Justice, the DOJ and FBI.  The Washington Post handles the needs of the Intelligence Community (IC) and the Central Intelligence Agency.  Meanwhile CNN is managed by the needs of the U.S. State Dept.

These direct relationships have been discussed here for several years; the Twitter Files are just putting details on the issue.  This release is also highlighting how purposeful those govt-media relationships are in keeping the American public under surveillance.