The fucking isrealis are worse occupiers than the French when it comes to occupation wtf is Thaore thinking 🤔 Thaore has been resisting against colonization all this time ffs the isrealis are the worst colonizers out there.
Hollow? Perhaps. But as far as optics go it's a win for the terrorist entity and a lose for Traore. This is not the time to be shaking hands with anything israhell. I also wonder if there's any talk of gold for military gear off camera?
You are damn right I would love to know what the hell is going on there, are they planning an attack on the people of that country,If he is an ISNOTREAL I DO NOT TRUST HIM, I don’t give a damn who tells me this or that about him, I don’t want to see him shake their hand or any GOD DAMN THING.ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THE BROTHER BETTER NOT GO TO SLEEP ANYTIME DAY OR NIGHT IF HE FEELS LIKE he’s going to sleep get some damn sticks or toothpicks and prop his EYES OPEN. I don’t give a damn who he is or why he’s there. If he’s associated with ISNOTREAL IN ANY WAY SHAPE FORM OR WHATEVER DO NOT TRUST HIM.
Africa Israel investments Lev Leviev 🤔 Somaliland recognition so that Israel 🤔 is able to target Yemen 🤔 A pro-israel network emerging -pro-israel efforts to redraw south Africa and Zimbabwe 🤔 in response to their support for Palestine 🤔
"Spy vs. spy: How Israelis tried to stop Russia’s information war in Africa"
originally titled “How Israel's Percepto fought Russian disinformation in French-speaking Africa”
Elizabeth Dwoskin
October 21, 2023
This never-before-told tale reveals how covert online battles in the French-speaking Sahel region helped topple governments."
It is framed as a russiarussia story, with the heroic Israelis battling Russian disinfo. But, there are some interesting points to contemplate.
~ ~ ~
A. Why was Dwoskin drawn to write this hagiography of an Israeli propaganda company urgently flying to Burkina Faso, exactly 2 weeks after Oct 7?
There are a number of possible reasons. Here are just a few I have come up with. They each contain multiple possibilities for other potential scenarios.
- prebunking the future mentions of Israeli propaganda outfits: they might have been expecting news about companies like Percepto. See my old Note here about government-private activities propagandizing worldwide: https://substack.com/profile/12626241-letterwriter/note/c-101058140 .
- tilling the ground for hasbara, by spreading the image of Israel battling vast disinformation networks.
- seeding a mental image of the terrain Israel is entitled to battle within, as larger than the existing borders of the occupation, to get people comfortable with Israel spreading everywhere.
~ ~ ~
B. On the surface, this wasn't related to the events that on the byline date were consuming and obsessing every Jewish writer: October 7. Yet, as we have seen, detached disinterest in Oct 7 is extremely unlikely to have been the case. So, what is under the surface?
In what follows I keep in mind that this author, Raphael Parens, *is* an American analyst of the russiarussia type. He therefore *would* be inclined to write against Russia and China, as he does here. He *would not* be inclined to write negatively about America's "special relationship", and I haven't found any examples of him doing so.
Here are some aspects that stand out to me from Parens' article:
~
"Burkina Faso is many things. The country is considered to be the epicenter of global terrorism today. It is ranked number one on the Global Terrorism Index Scale (2024), marking the first time in the thirteen years since the database’s inception that Iraq or Afghanistan have not topped the index."
1. How did this country rise so fast? How did the gods of war bring terror to this location?
~
"...the regime’s propaganda forces paint Burkina Faso in a very different light. All appears well in the digitally-constructed alternate reality of President Ibrahim Traoré. In deepfake videos seen by millions worldwide, the country’s president is beloved by international stars...Traoré’s alternate reality represents an unsettling new world, one in which government-dominated social media attempts to balance the reality of societal collapse."
"Traoré sees himself, or at least portrays himself publicly, as a visionary leader walking in the footsteps of Africa’s post-colonial generation..."
"While the Sahelian country’s neighbors have experienced similar disinformation campaigns and problematic responses to governance failures, Burkina Faso is a particularly problematic case given the scope of violence, loss of state control, and the sheer level of disinformation emanating from state sources.
"Why is Burkina Faso unique?..."
"Burkina Faso offers a terrifying glimpse into a world hurtling into the future while still stuck in the past. The government is struggling to deliver basic services, particularly education. The country’s literacy rate sits at 34.9 percent as of 2022, nearly half the sub-Saharan regional average of 67.7 percent... the quality of education and the number of students enrolled in primary and secondary schools are low. ... combined with the junta government’s approach to propaganda and controlling the flow of information, it is particularly problematic. While echo chambers exist across the world, they are rarely so heavily enforced by a state government and fostered by an education system that does not prioritize critical thinking."
"In Burkina Faso, this has created a laboratory-like setting for testing disinformation techniques."
2. How did Burkina Faso acquire the tech and cultural competencies to create deepfake videos adequate for worldwide audiences? Put another way, who in Burkina Faso is able to step outside and over the top of their own society, and run this lab, from the "hurtled into the future" standpoint? I don't think that's the most likely scenario.
Indeed the article goes on to imply that within Burkina Faso domestically, the government plagiarizes content from other countries' governments to create fake positive domestic news. This is a different caliber of activity from deepfakes.
Crucially, the behavioral tracking and analytics, necessary to create any sort of an impressive "laboratory" for social media content, are extremely advanced and specialized western technology and knowledge. It has been developed over the past quarter century and held close to the vests of American--and Israeli--companies.
Without that data backend, fake content production is only a shot in the dark, and couldn't be anything the west would see as a laboratory.
Any non-Silicon country wanting to do this will have needed to partner, which likely means a private ex-military-run company creating a white label solution for said government.
This relationship would yield influence in the "customer" government's various strategic directions.
~
3. Who is in the habit of setting up "laboratories" operating on real people, for political or arms-dealing goals?
Israel has a habit of popping up and "offering to help" countries or factions around the world, with an outcome of creating "laboratories" that serve their own purposes, of influence peddling, influence hoarding, and arms dealing.
It is a mercantilist-military colonial activity, distributed and specialist not generalist and land-based as we are used to understanding "empire".
This habit of popping up "offering" is one aspect of the "Israel Arrangement Syndrome" as mentioned the other day by substack.com/@nowherenearanywhere: Israel arranges, after which the recipients of those arrangements develop a syndrome. (There's more to say on this).
In 2021, the Israeli team popped up in Burkina Faso, having "urgently" flown to offer information. From Dwoskin's Wapo article:
"Percepto didn’t know the full scope of the operation it had uncovered but it warned Kaboré’s government that it needed to move fast: Launch a counteroffensive online — or risk getting pushed out in a coup."
~
4. I don't think every point in this article needs to be taken as true. For example, the image of Percepto as innocent and rushing to help is likely false; Israel shares its infosec in its public-private partnerships. Points such as that Israel via proxy was attempting to establish itself as advisor to Burkina Faso using services as an inducement, are the real point.
~ ~ ~
D. To loop back up to the point about French-speaking Africa, the fact that Traore took over half a year before agreeing to reaffirm Israel's ambassador is one thing and maybe separate maybe not.
Bigger picture, whatever Israel and this Israeli ambassador does should be read in context of Israel's larger activities in Africa [Congo, Sudan, elsewhere], many of which are pursued through companies and private individuals (such as Dan Gertler in the Congo), while Israel will step in and on their end, these companies and individuals will work to benefit Israel's military.
The way I see it, this credential ceremony should not be interpreted as though Ambassadorship is a spearhead of Israeli activities elsewhere, and so this Ambassadorship's minorness has meaning. Worldwide, Israel begins and continues its activities in a diffuse and superficially sourceless way.
This ceremony should be compared to the ways that Israel conducts itself around the globe: Israel makes Arrangements which end up subordinating the entities they "help", to Israel's aims.
The Wapo article written by Dwoskin, in the height of the post-Oct-7 Zionist fever, was originally entitled "How Israel's Percepto [the private company] fought Russian disinformation in French-speaking Africa". This implies awareness in 2023 of some importance of French-speaking Africa to Israel, in 2021.
The fucking isrealis are worse occupiers than the French when it comes to occupation wtf is Thaore thinking 🤔 Thaore has been resisting against colonization all this time ffs the isrealis are the worst colonizers out there.
Hahahahahaha. I appreciate this Matt 😂
Your welcome Kathy you know its true 😂
Hollow? Perhaps. But as far as optics go it's a win for the terrorist entity and a lose for Traore. This is not the time to be shaking hands with anything israhell. I also wonder if there's any talk of gold for military gear off camera?
Agree with you totally.
You are damn right I would love to know what the hell is going on there, are they planning an attack on the people of that country,If he is an ISNOTREAL I DO NOT TRUST HIM, I don’t give a damn who tells me this or that about him, I don’t want to see him shake their hand or any GOD DAMN THING.ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS THE BROTHER BETTER NOT GO TO SLEEP ANYTIME DAY OR NIGHT IF HE FEELS LIKE he’s going to sleep get some damn sticks or toothpicks and prop his EYES OPEN. I don’t give a damn who he is or why he’s there. If he’s associated with ISNOTREAL IN ANY WAY SHAPE FORM OR WHATEVER DO NOT TRUST HIM.
He didn't have to participate in this nonsense. I'm disappointed.
Africa Israel investments Lev Leviev 🤔 Somaliland recognition so that Israel 🤔 is able to target Yemen 🤔 A pro-israel network emerging -pro-israel efforts to redraw south Africa and Zimbabwe 🤔 in response to their support for Palestine 🤔
I want to mention that there is evidence of Israeli involvement in Burkina Faso.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/10/21/percepto-africa-france-russia-disinformation/ archive: https://archive.ph/AkRQq
"Spy vs. spy: How Israelis tried to stop Russia’s information war in Africa"
originally titled “How Israel's Percepto fought Russian disinformation in French-speaking Africa”
Elizabeth Dwoskin
October 21, 2023
This never-before-told tale reveals how covert online battles in the French-speaking Sahel region helped topple governments."
It is framed as a russiarussia story, with the heroic Israelis battling Russian disinfo. But, there are some interesting points to contemplate.
~ ~ ~
A. Why was Dwoskin drawn to write this hagiography of an Israeli propaganda company urgently flying to Burkina Faso, exactly 2 weeks after Oct 7?
There are a number of possible reasons. Here are just a few I have come up with. They each contain multiple possibilities for other potential scenarios.
- prebunking the future mentions of Israeli propaganda outfits: they might have been expecting news about companies like Percepto. See my old Note here about government-private activities propagandizing worldwide: https://substack.com/profile/12626241-letterwriter/note/c-101058140 .
- tilling the ground for hasbara, by spreading the image of Israel battling vast disinformation networks.
- seeding a mental image of the terrain Israel is entitled to battle within, as larger than the existing borders of the occupation, to get people comfortable with Israel spreading everywhere.
~ ~ ~
B. On the surface, this wasn't related to the events that on the byline date were consuming and obsessing every Jewish writer: October 7. Yet, as we have seen, detached disinterest in Oct 7 is extremely unlikely to have been the case. So, what is under the surface?
~ ~ ~
C. It turns out that Burkina Faso has been characterized as "The World's Disinformation Lab". https://www.fpri.org/article/2025/06/burkina-faso-the-worlds-disinformation-lab-is-an-international-security-disaster/ archive: https://archive.ph/lBg0Z
In what follows I keep in mind that this author, Raphael Parens, *is* an American analyst of the russiarussia type. He therefore *would* be inclined to write against Russia and China, as he does here. He *would not* be inclined to write negatively about America's "special relationship", and I haven't found any examples of him doing so.
Here are some aspects that stand out to me from Parens' article:
~
"Burkina Faso is many things. The country is considered to be the epicenter of global terrorism today. It is ranked number one on the Global Terrorism Index Scale (2024), marking the first time in the thirteen years since the database’s inception that Iraq or Afghanistan have not topped the index."
1. How did this country rise so fast? How did the gods of war bring terror to this location?
~
"...the regime’s propaganda forces paint Burkina Faso in a very different light. All appears well in the digitally-constructed alternate reality of President Ibrahim Traoré. In deepfake videos seen by millions worldwide, the country’s president is beloved by international stars...Traoré’s alternate reality represents an unsettling new world, one in which government-dominated social media attempts to balance the reality of societal collapse."
"Traoré sees himself, or at least portrays himself publicly, as a visionary leader walking in the footsteps of Africa’s post-colonial generation..."
"While the Sahelian country’s neighbors have experienced similar disinformation campaigns and problematic responses to governance failures, Burkina Faso is a particularly problematic case given the scope of violence, loss of state control, and the sheer level of disinformation emanating from state sources.
"Why is Burkina Faso unique?..."
"Burkina Faso offers a terrifying glimpse into a world hurtling into the future while still stuck in the past. The government is struggling to deliver basic services, particularly education. The country’s literacy rate sits at 34.9 percent as of 2022, nearly half the sub-Saharan regional average of 67.7 percent... the quality of education and the number of students enrolled in primary and secondary schools are low. ... combined with the junta government’s approach to propaganda and controlling the flow of information, it is particularly problematic. While echo chambers exist across the world, they are rarely so heavily enforced by a state government and fostered by an education system that does not prioritize critical thinking."
"In Burkina Faso, this has created a laboratory-like setting for testing disinformation techniques."
2. How did Burkina Faso acquire the tech and cultural competencies to create deepfake videos adequate for worldwide audiences? Put another way, who in Burkina Faso is able to step outside and over the top of their own society, and run this lab, from the "hurtled into the future" standpoint? I don't think that's the most likely scenario.
Indeed the article goes on to imply that within Burkina Faso domestically, the government plagiarizes content from other countries' governments to create fake positive domestic news. This is a different caliber of activity from deepfakes.
Crucially, the behavioral tracking and analytics, necessary to create any sort of an impressive "laboratory" for social media content, are extremely advanced and specialized western technology and knowledge. It has been developed over the past quarter century and held close to the vests of American--and Israeli--companies.
Without that data backend, fake content production is only a shot in the dark, and couldn't be anything the west would see as a laboratory.
Any non-Silicon country wanting to do this will have needed to partner, which likely means a private ex-military-run company creating a white label solution for said government.
This relationship would yield influence in the "customer" government's various strategic directions.
~
3. Who is in the habit of setting up "laboratories" operating on real people, for political or arms-dealing goals?
Israel has a habit of popping up and "offering to help" countries or factions around the world, with an outcome of creating "laboratories" that serve their own purposes, of influence peddling, influence hoarding, and arms dealing.
It is a mercantilist-military colonial activity, distributed and specialist not generalist and land-based as we are used to understanding "empire".
In the Americas, beginning in the 1970s (if not earlier) https://teeashby.substack.com/p/the-long-shadow-israels-role-in-guatemalas they colonized Latin America into an "innovation machine" for warfare https://tehrandigest.com/exported-war-how-israel-turned-latin-america-into-a-silent-laboratory/ . They popped up to help post-9/11, and have continued to the present day.
This habit of popping up "offering" is one aspect of the "Israel Arrangement Syndrome" as mentioned the other day by substack.com/@nowherenearanywhere: Israel arranges, after which the recipients of those arrangements develop a syndrome. (There's more to say on this).
In 2021, the Israeli team popped up in Burkina Faso, having "urgently" flown to offer information. From Dwoskin's Wapo article:
"Percepto didn’t know the full scope of the operation it had uncovered but it warned Kaboré’s government that it needed to move fast: Launch a counteroffensive online — or risk getting pushed out in a coup."
~
4. I don't think every point in this article needs to be taken as true. For example, the image of Percepto as innocent and rushing to help is likely false; Israel shares its infosec in its public-private partnerships. Points such as that Israel via proxy was attempting to establish itself as advisor to Burkina Faso using services as an inducement, are the real point.
~ ~ ~
D. To loop back up to the point about French-speaking Africa, the fact that Traore took over half a year before agreeing to reaffirm Israel's ambassador is one thing and maybe separate maybe not.
Bigger picture, whatever Israel and this Israeli ambassador does should be read in context of Israel's larger activities in Africa [Congo, Sudan, elsewhere], many of which are pursued through companies and private individuals (such as Dan Gertler in the Congo), while Israel will step in and on their end, these companies and individuals will work to benefit Israel's military.
The Israeli garrison state is designed https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12108.14?seq=1 to integrate and tightly link leadership of companies with reserve leadership in the military.
The way I see it, this credential ceremony should not be interpreted as though Ambassadorship is a spearhead of Israeli activities elsewhere, and so this Ambassadorship's minorness has meaning. Worldwide, Israel begins and continues its activities in a diffuse and superficially sourceless way.
This ceremony should be compared to the ways that Israel conducts itself around the globe: Israel makes Arrangements which end up subordinating the entities they "help", to Israel's aims.
The Wapo article written by Dwoskin, in the height of the post-Oct-7 Zionist fever, was originally entitled "How Israel's Percepto [the private company] fought Russian disinformation in French-speaking Africa". This implies awareness in 2023 of some importance of French-speaking Africa to Israel, in 2021.
It is possibly germane, as Influence from Confluence points out here https://substack.com/profile/87453488-influence-through-confluence/note/c-285426799 under a Note from Laith that the particular Israeli chosen as Ambassador to this Sahel region has French roots.
The optics sting, but the substance is empty. A traveling ambassador and a credential photo don’t rewrite Burkina Faso’s stance on Palestine.
Please Hero President Traore, I hope you don't give an inch to those zio-epstein genocidal illegal occupiers terrorists.
Do you think it is right to still call him Hero after this disgraceful handshake?
kathy ~ to pivot a bit, if you haven't seen this i thought you would appreciate it. made me think of you: https://substack.com/@leftieprof/note/c-284916090?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=z22ik