BREAKING NEWS: Jan Oberg and others are “information terrorists” and suspected “military criminals” – says Ukraine

Ukraine smears about 70 people around the world
as part of the disinformation war

My original article of July 30, 2022

The Center for Combating Disinformation seems to be tasked with telling the world who carries the truth and who are “Spokespeople who are pushing a rhetoric that is in tune with the Russian propaganda.” (This link no longer works, the document was taken down and then, later, uploaded here. I am now the second last).

I’m included on a list issued by the Center together with around 70 fine experts around the world. The Center published the list on its Facebook page with a rather weird text about how they have put us all in three categories: the third, for instance, “condemn Russian aggression, but inclined Ukraine to negotiate and oppose the supply of weapons to our state (20%).” Condemning Russian aggression and being in tune with Russian propaganda. Oh, well!

I suppose I am in that category since I distanced myself from the Russian invasion of Ukraine but I also believe that the present arming of Ukraine is utterly counterproductive and will have unspeakably destructive consequences for Ukraine in particular. But, sadly, the US and NATO countries are united – so far – in (mis)using Ukraine as the battlefield to weaken Russia and “win” over it. That is, as a proxy – fighting for itself and the US/NATO to the last Ukrainian. See my article on that here.

On the list are a series of diplomats, professors, politicians, media people and even former CIA people and some of them have already expressed their surprise at seeing themselves on that list – for instance, Edward Luttwak who has lobbied NATO governments to send weapons to Ukraine and is generally known as a hawk.

In summary, it is one of those intellectually and morally poor attempts, of course, to smear people who have a balanced view or are not 100% on one or the other side. It’s based on a simple twofold table and not a fourfold table – as I say in the video below. The Centre’s employees have no idea about how one makes a professional conflict analysis and choose to do what many do these days: Attack your position without understanding analytical content or substance.

Some media may like to make this into: Are you a pro-Russian researcher? Is there something truthful about this list? This is a discussion I shall not engage in. That amounts to being a censorship-legitimising discussion and cancellation justification; it is also to take this smearing campaign serious.

I do not engage in “standpoint” quarrels but always respond when someone is willing – and able – to engage in substance: What I have written and said without categorising me. And – as mentioned above – how a conflict analysis is done.

And I can be quoted on these points.

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Should anybody ask me, the relevant perspective on this list is the erosion of the – rapidly decreasing in the West – right to free research and opinion-formation, the right to speak and write openly, and whether or not a country whose highest authorities run such a smearing campaigns abroad qualifies as a democracy – as we are repeatedly told. It smacks more Soviet Union, Western mainstream media omission and fake as well as social media censorship to me.

It will, therefore, be interesting to see whether governments in which we are citizens will take this up and convey their concerns about it to Ukraine.

Russia Today – RT – is the Russian equivalent to, say, CNN or BBC. But unless you have a proxy server, you cannot see their articles and programs because numerous Western countries have prevented access to it – in violation of your human rights, but that doesn’t bother them. They wanted to do a report and panel discussion and approached me as one of the participants. The other participant is Bradley Blankenship who is also on the Ukrainian list.

Let me be very clear – also with reference to my principled media policy: If a Ukrainian TV channel had done the same, I would of course be pleased to accept its invitation too. Let’s see whether they dare do a face-to-face with the people they have smeared on their list – best Joe McCarthy 1950 style.

I hope the link below works for you, if not here is the link to RT on Yandex – you know, RT has been thrown out of Google-owned YouTube…Enjoy!

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Addendum

This is an addendum to the article below published on July 28, 2022. The thing was worse than I had thought. I’ve been alerted to the fact that the acting director of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, Andriy Shapovalov, had this to say at a recent seminar with the telling title: “Truth And Security”

“Andrei Shapovalov: Individuals who knowingly spread disinformation are information terrorists”

Representatives of state authorities, public organizations, mass media and international experts took part in a roundtable on combating disinformation.

Participants discussed the methods used in Ukraine and abroad, as well as the legal framework and specifics of interaction between the civil society and state authorities to counter fakes and disinformation in the context of cyber security.

During the discussion, the acting head of the Centre for Combating Disinformation Andriy Shapovalov said that people who knowingly spread disinformation are information terrorists. He argued that legislation should be amended to protect the information space.

“Information terrorists must know that they will have to answer to the law as military criminals,” he added.

Also during his speech, the Acting Head of the Centre said that Ukraine has definitely taken the upper hand in the information warfare.

The roundtable was organized by the National Security Service Academy, the Civilian Research and Development Foundation of the United States (CRDF Global Ukraine), the International Academy of Information, and the coordinating platform National Cyber Security Cluster. The event was supported by the US Department of State.”

The government of Ukraine runs this Centre for Combating Disinformation as part of its National Security and Defense Council directly under President Zelensky who has this article – about making the Center an international hub – on his homepage. It’s part of a larger framework:

“The National Cybersecurity Cluster is the coordination platform that joins resources, capabilites, competencies of the Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation (CRDF Global), government institutions, international partners and private sector” – all of which participated in the mentioned seminar.

One notices the close relations with US like-minded institutions and that the seminar was “supported by the US Department of State.”

The whole thing appears bizarre and hilarious. Unintentionally comic. For years, I have argued for a peaceful solution to the conflict, including protecting Ukraine by a huge United Nations peace-making mission. See just two examples from 2014 here and here. And here are nine other articles from 2014-2017 with the word “Ukraine” in the title. I have written about Ukraine in so many other articles.

Just browse the titles and judge for yourself. Do they make me a pro-Russian disinformer? A terrorist? A man to be sentenced by a military court? Hilarious!

But this intellectual and political level makes one wonder whether what we hear from Kiyev these days is at the same level and equally untruthful.

It also makes you wonder what role the US plays in this information war.

I expect the governments of the countries in which these 70+ are citizens to take up, without delay, this smearing campaign with the Ukrainian authorities.

Notes

(1) In this article in the Indian daily, The Print of July 29, 2022, Mr Mykhailo Podolyak states the following about the ‘military lustration list’:

“The inclusion of certain people, including representatives of foreign states, in the ‘military lustration lists’ is absolutely justified because information is an extremely important part of the war as a whole,” Podolyak told me. “Information can either stimulate or demoralise the population. The information may be true, or it may be part of propaganda, the purpose of which is to justify the killings [of Ukrainians] or reduce aid to Ukraine. Of course, any justification of the war in favour of Russia, any mention that Russia had the right to attack another country, the denial of Russian war crimes and the spread of disinformation, is an indirect form of participation in a hybrid war and support for the massacres of Ukrainians. Ukraine constantly monitors which public figures in the world are spreading Russia’s cannibalistic narratives. Recording such facts, we consider these people to be unconditional agents of Russian influence. Even if they don’t understand it themselves. This means that we officially respond to this with sanctions both within the country and seek sanctions against them in other countries of the civilised world. I will repeat once again because it’s important: These people consciously or unconsciously disseminate Russian propaganda theses and thus deliberately participate in the information war against the free world, against the ideals of freedom, indirectly support the massacres in Ukraine, and therefore they themselves are a kind of instrument of war. And of course, Ukraine is obliged to limit the influence of such people.”

According to the Wikipedia page about Mr Podolyak, “he controls the entire information policy of the Office of the President and advises Volodymyr Zelenskyy directly. In addition, he prepares ministers of the Ukrainian government for broadcasts in the media so that their theses are coordinated with the content promoted by the president.”

The word ‘lustration’ has to do with cleaning, and purifying but may also mean purge. Here is an article in the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law about it and its role in Ukraine’s governments over time. And how the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that it violates human rights. And here is one from Washington Post – “What is lustration and is it a good idea for Ukraine to adopt it?” – which shows how Ukraine’s illustration law is different – harsher – from other similar cases.

More about this blacklisting – the oldest at the bottom

Ukrainas svarta lista över personer de ser som krigsförbrytare

Ukraine sortlister danske forskere

CHIAMATA ALL’AZIONE – CHIEDIAMO UN’INDAGINE SUL CENTRO UCRAINO PER LA LOTTA ALLA DISINFORMAZIONE

Ukraine og det frie ord

Krigen om sandheden – Ukraine sortlister danske forskere

Hier die eingereichte Frage zum Verhalten der Bundesregierung bzgl. der neuen “Feindes-Liste” in der Ukraine

Ukraine’s Disinformation Board: Terrible Idea, Terrible Results

Ukraine government issues blacklist of “Russian propagandists”

The 3 Indians on Ukraine’s blacklist are not Kremlin stooges, their views are just outdated

Præsident Zelensky fortsætter sortlistningen – denne gang af Amnesty International, der også er med terroristerne…

Scott Ritter: Chuck Schumer’s War on Free Speech
The Senate majority leader pushed through a funding bill that now supports a structure under which U.S. citizens and politicians — including a challenger for his own seat — are being targeted as “information terrorists.”

Ukraine blacklists Indians over ‘Russian propaganda’

Kommentar på Facebook om udenrigsminister Jeppe Kofods larmende tavshed i denne sag

Forsker overrasket: Er endt på Ukraines sorte liste

Fire danskere er blevet sortlistet af Ukraine: “Det er jo ikke første gang, jeg er blevet kaldt Putin-apologet.”

Foreigners in the Service of Kremlin Propaganda: How The Media Support System for Russia’s War Against Ukraine Is Organized (Ukrainska Pravda, Kyiv).

Jan Øbergs sortliste response: Ukraine sviner folk over hele verden til som led i disinformationskrigen.

Ukrainske myndigheder har sortlistet fire personer med tilknytning til Danmark

Twenty-Five Prominent Individuals Denounce Being Targeted as Putin Agents by Ukraine-U.S.-NATO

Aalborg-professor er på sort liste hos de ukrainske myndigheder

As Ukraine ‘blacklists’ some Americans, one journalist wonders if Zelenskyy watches ‘Morning Joe’

MF Marie Krarups forespørgsel til udenrigsminister Jeppe Kofod

Ukraine offentliggør liste over udlændinge, som fremmer “russisk fortælling” om krigen i Ukraine, tre danskere figurerer på listen

Here a very informative video with Colonel Richard H. Black. It’s a very interesting first part that covers the list’s origin in the US and the Department of Homeland Security. This is a Ukrainian list – but it is also a United States list:

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