The GEC Twitter File

The GEC Twitter File
By Terry A. Hurlbut
Yesterday at noon, Matt Taibbi released, as promised, Twitter Files 17. This file profiles the Global Engagement Center, or GEC. Actually, Mr. Taibbi discussed GEC once before – in Twitter Files 12. Back then, Taibbi called it “the bellybutton of the FBI.” Twitter Files 17 discusses GEC in greater detail, including its origins, its interaction with Twitter, and the monstrous network that grew around it and continues to this day.
WTF did GEC come from?
GEC began with EO 13271, which Barack Obama issued on March 14, 2016. He created it, allegedly to:
counter the messaging and diminish the influence of international terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), al Qa'ida, and other violent extremists abroad…
Or so the Executive Order read. And indeed the vital Section 3 did concern itself exclusively with the voice of the government toward “foreign audiences,” and propaganda beginning outside our borders. But the tangled web we see today concerns how GEC turned inward, to creating a mirage of “domestic terrorism.” And not violent acts only, but “mis-, dis-, and malinformation,” which is the brief of CISA. (See “State actors – for real.”)
In a preview article he published to Substack, Mr. Taibbi blames Obama for setting the current censorship regime in motion.
Whether by malfunction or design, this abrupt course change of Washington’s contracting supertanker would have dramatic consequences. In fact, the tale of how America’s information warfare mechanism turned inward, against “threats” in our own population, might someday be remembered as the story of our time, with collective panic over “disinfo” defining this generation in much the same way the Red Scare defined the culture of the fifties.
CNAV’s official position is that the turning-inward of “America’s information warfare mechanism” was by design. The Trojan Horse works by leveraging greed and fear, which is what GEC did and does. We’ll have more to say on that in our Analysis below.
The thread
Herewith the thread, beginning with the anchor tweet, continuing with the odd numbers, and finishing with the last tweet.
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338650901389322
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338656144269315
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338661479424014
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338666214785024
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338671075991556
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338678013272064
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338683549851658
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338690931826711
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338698368327692
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338706597552139
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338712897290240
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338718639398932
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338723857113095
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338730333122561
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338735949234177
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338740487528464
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338745621356559
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338751262695432
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338756417499136
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338762650230811
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338767612092435
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338778341122063
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338782703198226
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338787308544013
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338790013870103
To provide context for some of the statements in this thread, CNAV has found the link to DFRLab.
The “India Accounts List” turned out to be too big to load from Google Documents. So Mr. Taibbi deleted Tweet #6 and uploaded the list to Dropbox. You can find it at this link:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631353043915530248
After dropping the thread, Mr. Taibbi dropped this tweet linking to another Substack piece.
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631343358797914143
This piece lies behind a paywall, but the introductory text ends with these paragraphs:
The original concept of the GEC was to gather pros from this world, who’d put their heads together and come up with kinder, gentler ways of “disrupting” ISIS propaganda. From the point of view of the Pentagon, which paid most of GEC’s original budget, it was a no-lose play: spending $70-$80 million a year was worth it if it meant even one fewer death in the field, be it of a U.S. soldier or a bystander to a drone strike.
Then 2016 happened, and GEC’s mission changed on a dime.
Which is exactly the point – or is it?
Reaction
Reaction to this thread, like that to all the Twitter Files threads, varies from “Wow!” to “Grrr!” to “Trumpus quoque!” In the “Grrr!” category come tweets like these:
https://twitter.com/Raamana_/status/1631343442428141585
https://twitter.com/SillaViben/status/1631345772460482565
https://twitter.com/hugowiz/status/1631352309727780866
One person warned that the legacy media would not receive this latest drop well, if they commented at all.
https://twitter.com/_emergent_/status/1631351798836387852
Another person quoted a nasty proverb from an even nastier operator during the Second World War:
https://twitter.com/MarkAMilam1/status/1631345943244152837
When another user asked why anyone would use support of a political party to justify restricting an account, Taibbi replied:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631371744932929540
In the “Trumpus Quoque” category comes a bald assertion that “Republicans did it, too.” To which another user replies:
https://twitter.com/LividsRevenge/status/1631346934836281344
Along that same line, someone challenged Taibbi to testify under oath about Trump doing it, too. Taibbi replied thus:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631356892290113546
Someone challenged him on a tweet in an earlier Twitter Files thread saying “Both parties had access to these tools.” Taibbi replied:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631360341174018060
Taibbi also took pains to point out that no one should celebrate when the government picks on one side only. His point: a government that picks on one side, could pivot and start picking on the other side.
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631358587942363143
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631359521644765205
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631355442617016337
Another user tried to connect Taibbi’s upcoming testimony before the Weaponization Subcommittee to the abortion debate. Taibbi put paid to that one:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631354862809108480
Analysis: GEC is the enemy of freedom
As usual, Matt Taibbi, like his colleagues at The Free Press, does a great service to the friends of liberty. He tears to tatters what certain alphabet-soup agencies have now become, and points out that some weapons are better never used and even never made. In some of his tweets, he could almost be making the case for the destruction of Sauron’s One Ring to Rule them All.
His fellow travelers don’t see it that way. They want the censorship, and want the destruction of livelihoods and lives. Nor can they conceive of anyone turning their weapons against them. “We’re going to win, and make our victory good for all time!” they seem to say. Well, if 2016 doesn’t convince them, maybe the Rumanian Christmas Revolution of 1989 might. Just saying.
Why can’t Matt Taibbi see that Barack Obama intended all along for GEC to be what it became? Because he is a liberal himself, as he freely avows. Perhaps that’s why, when he says he searched in vain for instances of Trump weaponizing the government as Biden has now done, one can believe him. Certainly he wanted to believe that Trump was just as bad as Biden – but then could find no evidence. Tellingly, he promises to say as much over the green table – and that must scare Biden and his apologists most.
Lessons from ancient history
Any student of history should have seen this coming. Consider the Varian Commission before Rome’s Social War, charged with punishing advocates for extending Roman citizenship to southern Italy. But after the Social War, the Plautian Commission had the exact opposite charge. In the exact same fashion, the January Six Committee has given way to the Weaponization Subcommittee. Only the most arrogant and pompous fools could not have seen that coming.
But some people still want to fight the war. They won’t be satisfied unless and until they can turn the United States into a prison system like the GULAG. (Or at least like the Soviet Union, which used the GULAG as its Ultimate Cellblock.) As ever, the Twitter Files brings out the worst in people.
Understand this: no one who has any concept of freedom, can support GEC. The people must make its abolition and dismantlement a campaign issue in all elections, moving forward, until it happens.
Link to:
The article:
https://cnav.news/2023/03/03/foundation/constitution/gec-twitter-file/

GEC Home:
https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-public-diplomacy-and-public-affairs/global-engagement-center/

EO 13271
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-13721-developing-integrated-global-engagement-center-support-government

Preview article:
https://www.racket.news/p/twitter-files-gec-new-knowledge-and

The thread:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338650901389322
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338656144269315
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338661479424014
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338666214785024
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338671075991556
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338678013272064
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338683549851658
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338690931826711
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338698368327692
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338706597552139
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338712897290240
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338718639398932
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338723857113095
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338730333122561
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338735949234177
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338740487528464
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338745621356559
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338751262695432
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338756417499136
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338762650230811
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338767612092435
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338778341122063
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338782703198226
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338787308544013
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631338790013870103

DFR Lab:
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/programs/digital-forensic-research-lab/

Tweet with Dropbox link to the India Accounts List:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631353043915530248

“Original Sin” Substack piece:
https://www.racket.news/p/the-original-sin-of-the-anti-disinformation

Tweet linking to this:
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631343358797914143

Various reactions and replies:
https://twitter.com/Raamana_/status/1631343442428141585
https://twitter.com/SillaViben/status/1631345772460482565
https://twitter.com/hugowiz/status/1631352309727780866
https://twitter.com/_emergent_/status/1631351798836387852
https://twitter.com/MarkAMilam1/status/1631345943244152837
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631371744932929540
https://twitter.com/LividsRevenge/status/1631346934836281344
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631356892290113546
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631360341174018060
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631358587942363143
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631359521644765205
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631355442617016337
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1631354862809108480

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https://twitter.com/DecTruth

Conservative News and Views:
https://cnav.news/

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https://cnav.store/

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https://oursilverlines.com/