Buzzfeed just published this article yesterday:
These Americans Were Tricked Into Working For Russia. They Say They Had No Idea.
There have been several stories here at dkos recently talking about how Putin’s henchmen were trying to foment racial unrest in the US, by buying targeted Facebook ads, writing blog articles, etc. I wrote one of them myself.
BLM, Putin, dailykos and Louise Mensch
In my diary I wrote this about a CNN article:
But IT DOES NOT SUPPORT HER POINT. Anyone reading “you, Russia, funded riots in Ferguson” would read that as Russia funding rioters, like those paid fakes at that Milo protest. Or maybe, stretching the point, if Russia were donating money and/or weapons/supplies to factions of BLM that they hoped would become violent and riot, her point would be supported.
“you, Russia, funded riots in Ferguson” does NOT mean the same goddamned thing as “you, Russia, funded propaganda to incite rioting in Ferguson”. Maybe blame it on Twitter’s character limit, but she could have done a Twitter thread instead of making such incendiary remarks that insinuate that BLM protesters were directly funded by Putin.
I still think Mensch was premature in saying that the CNN article supported her point, and that was sloppy journalism on her part. However, now the article in Buzzfeed does support her point:
James said that when he found out there was no organizer for the event, he offered to organize the rally himself and was told by the page’s manager to contact a woman named Stephanie Williamson, who he described to BuzzFeed News as a spokeswoman. While James said he found this odd, the only other detail that struck him as strange was a white man who he said accompanied Williamson and never said a word or smiled.
Other things checked out, however. Williamson gave him a bank card to pay for expenses such as microphones and speakers, James said. And the permits for the event appeared to be in order. James said he also organized a second, larger rally in October for BlackMattersUS that took place in tandem with a national set of protests organized by the NAACP, the ACLU, and other groups. BuzzFeed News could not immediately track down Williamson. A video hosted by the Black Matters YouTube account is titled “Stephanie Williamson at BM Charlotte protest.” James says that he no longer has Williamson’s contact information. It’s unclear whether Williamson was herself tricked into participating.
--snip—
One of the trainers listed on the Black Fist website, Omowale Adewale, says he was directly contacted by what he now knows to be the troll farm to hold courses in New York City. He's been active in politics for years, his personal website says, and is also an MMA fighter. His Instagram feed is filled with posts about civil rights and his vegan lifestyle. (A fourth person, who was also listed as a trainer on the site but did not wish to be named, said that they had no connection with the group and was unaware of their listing.)
Adewale, in an interview with BuzzFeed News between personal training clients, said that he was first contacted by the man he knew as "Taylor" via his Instagram in January 2017, to teach four self-defense classes a month. Though he was initially wary, his concerns dropped once the first of the payments came through — $320 per month. Adewale, like White, described the man with whom he spoke over the phone but never met, as having "an accent from the African continent."
Ferguson specifically is not mentioned, but Mensch’s general point is certainly made, that Putin wasn’t just trying to influence US politics through propaganda, but through direct funding of protesters. I would consider her vindicated in her scoop.
Granted these protesters were tricked but in a sense that makes it worse. We should probably be on our guard here at dkos for similar shenanigans.
Making everything even more complicated is this thread about the source company, the Internet Research Agency: