India - Pakistan Standoff 2019
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Retired Pakistani officers behind ‘fake news’
DECCAN CHRONICLE. | COREENA SUARES
Published May 14, 2019, 1:08 am IST
Updated May 14, 2019, 1:08 am IST
It was from these handles that fake reports on the death of Jaish-e-Mohammed Masood Azhar originated, besides the alleged Indian attacks on Fort Abbas and Sialkot in Pakistan. (Representional Image)
Hyderabad: An independent social media tracking operation that commenced after the February 26 Balakot air strikes has found that there are at least eight Twitter handles that pose to be ‘independent observers’ behind Pakistani defence lines but are spreading unconfirmed news, many at times fake.
It was from these handles that fake reports on the death of Jaish-e-Mohammed Masood Azhar originated, besides the alleged Indian attacks on Fort Abbas and Sialkot in Pakistan.
An investigation by ‘GreatgameIndia’, based in Hyderabad, found a couple of these handles being managed by social media intelligence (Socintel) operators under the guidance of retired Pakistani generals.
On March 2, the Twitter handles put out reports saying Masood Azhar had been killed in the Balakot air strikes. The ‘story’ was picked up by many media houses who quoted “top intel sources”.
The source of the story was later detected to be a blogpost, ‘Masood Azhar is DEAD: Confirmed; along with a top rank former ISI officer’, which was originally floated by the website ‘Times Prime’.
Another instance was the fake news that the Indian Air Force had carried out another air strike, this time across the international border near Fort Abbas in the Cholistan desert in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur district.
The information was spread by a handle F Jeffery (timestamp 4.01 pm, March 4). India denied the report.
On the day of the air strikes, a Twitter handle reported artillery firing from across the Line of Control in Sialkot. Mr Shelley Kasli, co-founder of GreatgameIndia, said, “We began tracking certain suspicious Twitter handles after the Pulwama attack. They remained low until the Balakot air strikes. The morning after, loads of (unconfirmed) information was being pumped in through these shady networks, posing as neutral observers from behind enemy lines.”
Mr Kasli said, “Certain Indian journalists interacted with these handles and the information was reported by their media houses quoting ‘top intel sources’. When their followers flagged them on Twitter regarding the suspicious nature of the information the journalists were forced to change the line.”
“These are not just random false alarms or over-enthusiastic tweeting, considering it was a sustained effort after Balakot. It is seen that this is primarily been done to create an environment of confusion and chaos, to escalate tensions between India and Pakistan and India and China,” Mr Kasli said.
A Twitter handle, ‘KashmiriIntel’, was spreading such information on threats to national security, that the Army complained to Twitter, which subsequently blocked it. The information, regarding by the Army as harmful to the country, is being spread by another handles.
On the claim that certain handles were managed by retired Pak generals, the investigators found that the account Faran Jeffery, who purported to be a neutral observer, was deputy director and head of the South Asia desk at the Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism, a think tank headquartered in London. What is not mentioned is that he is associated with a Pakistani national security think tank called CommandEleven.
“CommandEleven is a Pakistani propaganda outfit created and directed by retired Pakistan Generals specialised in information warfare. Its new website Home - CommandEleven is down since the Pulwama attack,” Mr Kasli said.
He said India was the target of sophisticated information warfare. “In the words of Lieutenant General H.S. Panag (retired) we lost the perception war in the first 60 hours. A huge chunk of the information originated from CommandEleven,” said Mr Kasli.
Retired Pakistani officers behind ‘fake news’
DECCAN CHRONICLE. | COREENA SUARES
Published May 14, 2019, 1:08 am IST
Updated May 14, 2019, 1:08 am IST
It was from these handles that fake reports on the death of Jaish-e-Mohammed Masood Azhar originated, besides the alleged Indian attacks on Fort Abbas and Sialkot in Pakistan. (Representional Image)
Hyderabad: An independent social media tracking operation that commenced after the February 26 Balakot air strikes has found that there are at least eight Twitter handles that pose to be ‘independent observers’ behind Pakistani defence lines but are spreading unconfirmed news, many at times fake.
It was from these handles that fake reports on the death of Jaish-e-Mohammed Masood Azhar originated, besides the alleged Indian attacks on Fort Abbas and Sialkot in Pakistan.
An investigation by ‘GreatgameIndia’, based in Hyderabad, found a couple of these handles being managed by social media intelligence (Socintel) operators under the guidance of retired Pakistani generals.
On March 2, the Twitter handles put out reports saying Masood Azhar had been killed in the Balakot air strikes. The ‘story’ was picked up by many media houses who quoted “top intel sources”.
The source of the story was later detected to be a blogpost, ‘Masood Azhar is DEAD: Confirmed; along with a top rank former ISI officer’, which was originally floated by the website ‘Times Prime’.
Another instance was the fake news that the Indian Air Force had carried out another air strike, this time across the international border near Fort Abbas in the Cholistan desert in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur district.
The information was spread by a handle F Jeffery (timestamp 4.01 pm, March 4). India denied the report.
On the day of the air strikes, a Twitter handle reported artillery firing from across the Line of Control in Sialkot. Mr Shelley Kasli, co-founder of GreatgameIndia, said, “We began tracking certain suspicious Twitter handles after the Pulwama attack. They remained low until the Balakot air strikes. The morning after, loads of (unconfirmed) information was being pumped in through these shady networks, posing as neutral observers from behind enemy lines.”
Mr Kasli said, “Certain Indian journalists interacted with these handles and the information was reported by their media houses quoting ‘top intel sources’. When their followers flagged them on Twitter regarding the suspicious nature of the information the journalists were forced to change the line.”
“These are not just random false alarms or over-enthusiastic tweeting, considering it was a sustained effort after Balakot. It is seen that this is primarily been done to create an environment of confusion and chaos, to escalate tensions between India and Pakistan and India and China,” Mr Kasli said.
A Twitter handle, ‘KashmiriIntel’, was spreading such information on threats to national security, that the Army complained to Twitter, which subsequently blocked it. The information, regarding by the Army as harmful to the country, is being spread by another handles.
On the claim that certain handles were managed by retired Pak generals, the investigators found that the account Faran Jeffery, who purported to be a neutral observer, was deputy director and head of the South Asia desk at the Islamic Theology of Counter Terrorism, a think tank headquartered in London. What is not mentioned is that he is associated with a Pakistani national security think tank called CommandEleven.
“CommandEleven is a Pakistani propaganda outfit created and directed by retired Pakistan Generals specialised in information warfare. Its new website Home - CommandEleven is down since the Pulwama attack,” Mr Kasli said.
He said India was the target of sophisticated information warfare. “In the words of Lieutenant General H.S. Panag (retired) we lost the perception war in the first 60 hours. A huge chunk of the information originated from CommandEleven,” said Mr Kasli.
Retired Pakistani officers behind ‘fake news’
There are hundreds of these handles, even before Pulwama I was tracking 15-20 of them exclusively claiming themselves as Kashmiri however just repeating what one handle tweeted or exaggerating or spreading fake news.
I reported all of them, some 10-12 are suspended by twitter, Kashmirintel is blocked in India from long. The handle is notorious for pure fake news, what's sad is our credible analysts and journalists use these handles as source of info or atleast provide them credence by interacting then instead of using their following to get them suspended.
Thankfully our forum stayed clear of that Jeffery guy after my request and multiple post edits, the man was Pakistani and he gave it away very early, I remember someone quoting my post after his identity got exposed.
I have worked with tools where you just feed spintax, multiple accounts info and proxy details. The bot will take care of all accounts, login from different IP, different location using proxy, spin the spintax to generate new tweet and post it under a specific hashtag. Therefore a single person can manage hundreds of accounts and spread misinformation at scale. However they do leave some pattern and trail and when twitter get suspicious they suspend all those accounts rendering whole system useless.
Few Tips for new twitter users who want to help India by doing a 30 second service-
- Report fake accounts, twitter can suspend whole network of such accounts if they find pattern.
- Always exploit the fault lines whenever there is a blast in Pakistan, never claim responsibility even when it looks like a revenge. Tell the truth, tell those snakes are biting you, that this is the result of their oppression.
- Never do the fatal mistake of rejoicing enemy soldiers or innocent civilians, doesn't matter how happy you are feeling just keep it offline, it will put your account in danger and unite the enemy, instead create divide by telling truth of how generals own agenda is destroying Pakistan, it will also help in reducing number of Pakistanis rejoicing on our casualties.
This is a long battle, government is not willing to do anything at all on cyber warfare front. The best they have done is made CERT teams to stop a website from being hacked. This propaganda domain is left open, so please be careful, do not do self goals like Jihadis, you are way better than that.
Babaji reporting BAT attempt last night, I thought we achieved some deterrence or so did media made us believe few days back.
Pakistan asks for de-escalation, provide moving SSG from LOC.
Another report said No BAT attempt after Balakot. (Forgot the link)
Edit: More tweets on subject.
Pakistan asks for de-escalation, provide moving SSG from LOC.
Another report said No BAT attempt after Balakot. (Forgot the link)
Edit: More tweets on subject.
Not all the information available are true..... There has been very little information post 27th......Other than baba and few headlined here and there......Lot of info are interpretations.....
Question - We can deploy say Akash within 5 km of the border, with its outbound radar signal switched off but receiving over secure link with IFF as switched on. So, the enemy will be unaware if there is a SAM close by. However, our AWACS from deep inside our territory can monitor if the enemy aircraft is within the range of our SAMs and once within the hit range, the AWACS can remotely trigger the launch of the SAM with inputs of the latest 3D coordinates as well as guide it in the first 25/50 % traverse and then allow the SAM to maneuver itself through its radar to the target. Is this a possible way the SAM can work in a network centric warfare?
As far as I can tell you are more or less on point. Just a few additions.
The Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) runs on AFNET backbone integrating all ground-based and airborne sensors, AD weapon systems and C2 nodes. The AFNET allows transfer of radar picture, guidance info, UAV video feed and much more.
AWACS cannot trigger SAMs to fire. I mean it can be done, but we don't use it that way. At best AWACS can command SAM operators when to fire. But the missiles need to be manually fired by operators. AWACS can however take over target guidance role should ground radars be unavailable/unusable.
I guess if AWACS cannot trigger SAMs to fire, then the control room where they assimilate input feeds about the target's approach within the SAM kill-area from AWACS, and in the mean time activating SAMs via secure link to be ready, so that when the target is within the SAM's range, it fires from signal from the control room and then locks on the target midway so as to not expose its launcher coordinates to the enemy. Else covering at most 60km (2x 30 of Akash's range radius) for a fighter just below sonic boom will not take more than 3 minutes to cross over. I guess that is enough time even for a manual trigger of SAM!
I had posted about the internal conflict within PA and how some Generals of PA do not trust Qadiani Bajwa. We might have a coup against Bajwa followed by major skirmish on Border.
They are still celebrating Kargil victory and like a chap put it, 1971 was a partial loss.
Call for de escalation is a fraud. Pakistan Army has been bringing in more towed artillery units all along the LoC in last few days and vacating out the major terrorists launch pads and moving terrorists out to much smaller groups spread all along the WB and LoC.
PAF IL78, C130 and C235s have made several trips to Ukraine, China and Italy in last couple of weeks. They are again stacking themselves up.
Thats why IA has upped its ante. We are expecting something stupid from the Pakistanis. That's why the recent decision to move Army Air Defence Units near the border.
Thats why IA has upped its ante. We are expecting something stupid from the Pakistanis. That's why the recent decision to move Army Air Defence Units near the border.
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