Bryan Strawser – Bryan Strawser

MA Dissertation Proposal: Defending the Feed

by Bryan Strawser · Dec 20, 2020

Earlier this month, I submitted my Master of Arts Dissertation Proposal in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London with a working title of “Defending the feed: How states can deter, detect, and counter disinformation campaigns from intelligence agencies and non-state actors seeking to amplify discord and influence elections.”

Here’s the introduction to my proposal as submitted:

Governments have long sought, covertly or overtly, to influence elections and components of democratic society in other countries to achieve specific political objectives. Those strategic political objectives may include regime change, a change in international relationships, or simply to destabilize or distract a perceived near-peer competitor. Historically, these efforts have involved financing an opposition candidate, broadcasting or publishing propaganda, instigating unrest, or other means of covert action.

The rise of the internet and major social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, paired with instant communication tools such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat, have created new opportunities for intelligence agencies and non-nation state actors to engage in disinformation campaigns on a vast scale. Enabled by these new technologies, agencies and actors can create viral stories, videos, and memes that rapidly spread disinformation across social media platforms. The result of these disinformation campaigns could range from a user sharing a meme filled with false information to his/her friends, hundreds of individuals showing up at a protest and creating physical conflict between opposing political groups on a hot-button social/political issue, or directly influencing the outcome of a presidential election in the United States.

Intelligence agencies and aligned non-state groups have been engaging in such disinformation campaigns through online means for some time. As highlighted in Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 elections in the United States, the Internet Research Agency (IRA), an aligned non-state group in Russia, engaged in a sophisticated social media disinformation campaign to intensify political discord and influence the outcome of the Presidential election in favor of Russia’s preferred candidate. Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Army, the GRU, supported these efforts through hack and dump operations aimed at the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and other Democratic Party aligned organizations.

This dissertation will assert that intelligence agencies and non-state actors will continue to engage in disinformation campaigns as they are relatively low-risk and inexpensive operations with the potential for outcomes that favor the aggressor. It will assert that traditional methods of deterring these actions are mostly ineffective and that new approaches will be required. It will also assert that intelligence and counterintelligence agencies are mostly ill-prepared to detect such efforts by other countries.

This dissertation will argue that new strategies for deterrence and detection of these types of information warfare campaigns are required. Stronger intelligence sharing and coordination between public and private sectors will be necessary. Gaps in the skillset of the current and future generations of intelligence analysts must also be acknowledged and addressed.

Memorial Day 2016

by Bryan Strawser · May 30, 2016

Looking for a depression in the ground, an elongated patch of grass that grew taller and greener than the rest, old military equipment, or defense fortifications. Fory and the others continued their search. From after-battle reports they knew that the remains of a soldier were somewhere in the 1,000 meter square grid marked on their map.

Eventually, their search line moved over and down three small knolls and, some hundred or so yards farther, came to the base of a cliff. There, against the cliff face, they saw that someone had built a semi circular rock wall that offered a small area of protection.

They carefully climbed over the makeshift fort wall and found hundreds of machine gun and M1 Garand shell casings, and a score or more of grenade pins and handles scattered about. In the middle of this detritus of war, they also found the bones and gear webbing of a solitary US soldier.

Fory and his men knew that a furious battle had taken place at the rock fortification. In front of the rough-hewn fort and on the facing ground of the knolls lay the remains of more than 300 Chinese soldiers.

What they couldn’t comprehend, at first, was the large number of spent rounds behind the fort wall; one man didn’t carry that much ammunition; and certainly not both a machine gun and a rifle. Adding to the mystery was a weather-beaten rope that hung down from the cliff above and behind the remains.

As they continued to canvass the site, clearing away debris from the American’s remains, carefully checking for live grenades or other explosives, the searchers concluded that there had to have been several men fighting from behind the rock wall. But what had prevented the recovery of the sole US serviceman? Were there possibly other remains?

They continued their investigation and finally were left with a single, inescapable conclusion: one soldier had stayed behind so the rest could scale to safety up the cliff.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the squad by the time we finished recovering his remains, ” Fory told me one night in Louisiana, the story still fresh in his mind and his emotions resonating in his words forty years later.

– Michael Sledge, “Soldier Dead: How We Recover, Identify, Bury, and Honor Our Military Fallen”

Thirteen Years Later: I still Remember

by Bryan Strawser · Sep 11, 2014

Ten years ago this week, I wrote Remember – my seminal post about September 11th, 2001.

Three years ago, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, I added a few other thoughts in Memories of September 11th.

I really have nothing else to say that I haven’t said.

Last year, on September 11th, I was in Anchorage for the National Emergency Management Association annual conference where we kicked off things that morning with a moment of silence in memory of that day.

Thirteen years later, I still remember.

And I’ll always remember FDNY Lt. Ray Murphy.

Two years later, I still miss you old friend

by Bryan Strawser · Mar 6, 2014

It’s funny how quickly you can go from “comfort zone” to “wrestling snakes” in this business.

But even snake wrestling beats life in the cube, for me at least. In measured doses.

Neptunus Lex, Departing (2012)

Remember (2013 Edition)

by Bryan Strawser · Sep 10, 2013

I stand by my stance that I said everything that I wanted to say about September 11th in my post on the 3rd anniversary back in 2004.

Two years ago, on the tenth anniversary, I shared a few other memories.

It’s been twelve years.

Today, in Alaska, amongst those that were there and lived through that day, we’ll honor their memories at the start of the National Emergency Management Association annual leadership & policy forum.

Why Joan Peterson of Protect Minnesota Won’t Publish My Comments (or Yours)…

by Bryan Strawser · Sep 1, 2013

According to Joan Peterson, the Chair of the Board of Protect Minnesota – the local anti-gun group here in Minnesota – and a board member of the Brady Campaign – in her most recent comment – here’s the reason why she won’t publish your comments:

you have no idea what kind of comments I receive because I don’t publish so many of them. It is just too hard to deal with the continued demeaning comments and those that are not relevant and miss the point.

I publish the ones that seem to make a point or don’t ask me questions in a snarky or accusatory fashion. Many times I answer what you guys ask me in another post. But most of the time, I tell you what I am all about and what I want to do about it in my post.

There is no sense in fighting about this stuff. You all resist even the most reasonable of gun laws without cause. You ( not necessarily you personally) don’t seem to care about the victims, and indeed, often deride them or make rude remarks about them.

We all, meaning me, Baldr, Mike, and the many others who blog on my side, just tire of the offensive comments. It leads to nothing but acrimony.

We so obviously disagree on so many levels that it doesn’t seem possible to have a decent “discussion.” Besides, as I have pointed out, you represent a small minority of Americans. The rest agree with me- even gun owners and 75% of NRA members. So the point is to get Congress to do the right thing because you and some of my readers will never agree with me.

In other words, I won’t publish your comments because you disagree with me.

I’m now up to one hundred and thirty-four comments that she has refused to publish.

It is impossible for Joan Peterson of Protect Minnesota to tell the truth on gun control

by Bryan Strawser · Sep 1, 2013

Joan Peterson, the blogger at “Common Gunsense”, who also serves as a member of the Brady Campaign Board of Directors – and the chair of the local anti-gun group Protect Minnesota continues to lie about even the basic facts of the gun control / Second Amendment debate.

In a post that Joan has since removed (as of 10:13am CST on 9/1), she claimed in a comment the following about the Texas Department of Public Safety’s 2011 report on permit holders:

One of my readers thought he was sending me links to research or actual facts about gun violence. Unfortunately he sent mostly hyperbolic articles from far right media source, Breitbart misquoting and misinterpreting results of actual studies. But I do thank him for sending me stats about Texas conceal carry permit holders and crime. You can see it here.

Raise your hand if you think 51 homicides by permit holders is acceptable. Or if 1353 incidents of “deadly conduct” is acceptable. Or if 244 “deadly discharge deadly weapon is OK. Or 112 cases of manslaughter and 461 murders committed by CCW holders. This is great information and very useful as well. Why? Because it shows that permit holders are not the law abiding citizens that the gun lobby promised they would be. As I have said repeatedly, though these account for a small percentage of the total crimes, these are people trusted to carry deadly weapons around in public. There should be no crimes committed by these folks. Would these people have committed crimes anyway? Perhaps. But then we shouldn’t have given them the privilege of carrying deadly weapons around in the first place.

As is typical for Joan, she either cannot read the report itself, or she is deliberately misrepresenting the facts – because she is quoting the total # of crimes committed in Texas rather than crimes committed by permit holders – which we know to be significantly lower than this.

My rebuttal comment, submitted to her site, which is now the one hundred and thirty-first comment of mine that she has refused to post, reads as follows:

Your information is completely incorrect on the texas report. You are entirely misreading the columns on the report.

The 51 incidents of criminally negligent homicide is of all citizens. CHL holders have committed 0.

Of the 1353 incidents of deadly conduct, 9 were committed by CHL holders.

Of the 244 incidents of deadly discharge of a weapon, 2 were committed by CHL holders.

Of the 112 incidents of manslaughter, 3 were committed by CHL holders.

Of the 461 incidents of murder, 3 were committed by CHL holders.

Again, permit holders commit violent crimes at a rate several magnitudes less than the general population.

Even though Joan claims that she wants to have a rational discussion, the truth is that she and the other leaders of the gun control movement don’t want that – because it’s impossible for them to tell the truth – even when the facts are staring them right in the face.

Again, my offer stands. Joan, I’ll debate you anytime in public, with a fair set of rules, and with audio and video recording running. How about it?

More at Shall Not be Questioned – Post 1 and Post 2 and at Weer’d World.

Update: Joan is claiming that she accidentally deleted the post and comments. You decide.

Update #2: Joan has the post back up but conveniently left out her complete fabrication of the Texas data. Typical.

Update #3: Weer’d has more on the “deletion”.