Pentagon Linked to Online Smear Campaign Against US Journalists

In the US, two journalists for the USA Today news organisation have found themselves at the centre of a story with potentially far-reaching implications. Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker claim to have been made the target of an online smear campaign aimed at destroying their professional reputations. They believe the campaign was provoked by their investigation into private companies suspected of being employed by the US Department of Defense to conduct propaganda wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

These “psyops” are designed to influence the opinion of local populations in countries where the US military is deployed, in order to facilitate military operations. The two USA Today journalists had implied that the cost of these propaganda wars could be hefty for the US taxpayer.

Unsurprisingly given the sector in which their investigation wasbeing carried out, the two journalists were identified from their first contacts with companies involved in the Pentagon’s program. Companies such as Leonie Industries, which has grown as a result of lucrative contracts with the US Army.

Last January 7, just two weeks after the initial phone calls of their investigation, the sites RayLocker.com and TomVandenBrook.com appeared online. These were quickly followed by fake Facebook and Twitter accounts purporting to belong to the two journalists.

Whoever was responsible for the fake sites and social media accounts had sufficient computer skills to be able to hide their identities using proxy servers and false addresses in Colorado, USA. The sites attempted to undermine the reputations of the real Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker by implying that they were working on behalf of the Taliban. The initial “e-aggression” confirmed to the pair that they were on a promising track with their investigation – they decided to keep digging.

On February 8, a Wikipedia page created in the name of Vanden Brook wrongly claimed that he had “gained worldwide notoriety” for his “misreporting” on the Sago mine disaster earlier in his career.

Six years earlier, in January 2006, an explosion occurred in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia, trapping thirteen miners underground. A report containing erroneous information was delivered by the mine’s manager and forwarded to a number of news organisations, amongst them  USA Today. In the confusion, Vanden Brook announced that twelve miners had been rescued. In reality, only one miner would emerge alive.

The fake Vanden Brook Twitter account  (@TomVandenBrook) was then used to publish tweets purporting to be from Vanden Brook defending his reporting on the disaster. Contacted by OWNI, Ray Locker explained that his superiors had asked him not to speak further on the matter. In a recent interview, he deplored the way the incident had been used to harm Vanden Brook.

They used it to try to undermine his credibility. It’s something I’ve never experienced in 30 years.

The Twitter and Facebook accounts, along with all the websites usurping the identities of the two journalists, have since been shut down. USA Today has refused to rule out the possbility that the websites in question were launched using federal funds. Such funding, in addition to the question of violations of freedom of the press in the United States, would be in violation of federal American law prohibiting “propaganda for domestic purposes“.

The investigation of the two journalists was published on February 29. It revealed that the Pentagon had paid hundreds of millions of dollars to these private companies to instigate “psychological warfare” operations. The Pentagon assured AFP that it was “not aware” of such activities being carried out by contractors under their employ.

Ray Locker is philosophical about the case:

I think it’s good that we brought attention to it (the propaganda). I’m glad that the people I work for have my back.