Meet the KGB Spies Who Invented Fake News | NYT Opinion

Summary

This video script explores the origins of 'fake news', tracing it back to a Cold War-era KGB operation known as Operation Infection. The campaign aimed to discredit the U.S. by spreading the false narrative that the HIV virus was a U.S. government creation to target specific populations. Through interviews with former KGB agents and analysis of the disinformation tactics used, the script reveals how such operations can manipulate public perception and erode trust in institutions.

Takeaways

• 📜 The script discusses the concept of 'fake news' and its historical roots, specifically the term 'active measures' used by the KGB during the Cold War.
• 🦠 The story of a fake news campaign, 'Operation Infection', is detailed, which falsely claimed that the HIV virus was created by the U.S. government as a biological weapon against specific populations.
• 🗞️ The narrative began with an article in an Indian newspaper, 'The Patriot', and was later spread internationally, including by East German biologists and the Soviet military.
• 🕵️‍♂️ Ex-KGB agents like Ladislav Bittman, Stanislav Levchenko, and Yuri Bezmenov provided insights into the KGB's disinformation tactics, including the planting of false stories.
• 💡 Disinformation is distinguished from propaganda; while propaganda aims to convince, disinformation aims to deceive and manipulate through the strategic use of lies.
• 🔍 The U.S. government formed the Active Measures Working Group, nicknamed 'Truth Squads', to counter Soviet disinformation, despite limited resources.
• 🌐 The impact of disinformation was significant, affecting international perceptions of the U.S. and complicating foreign policy.
• 🤝 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was eventually pressured to apologize for spreading the fake AIDS story and promised to stop, showing the effectiveness of the U.S. response.
• 📉 Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, concerns remained that remnants of their disinformation apparatus would continue under Russian sponsorship.
• 🔄 The script suggests a continuity in disinformation tactics, hinting at the rise of a former KGB agent who would use similar strategies in the future, possibly alluding to Vladimir Putin.

Q & A

What is the term the guy in the story claims to have invented?

The term he claims to have invented is 'fake'.

How old is the concept of 'fake news' according to the script?

The concept of 'fake news' is actually really old, predating the term itself by many years.

What is the origin of the term 'Operation Infection' mentioned in the script?

Operation Infection is a KGB code name for a disinformation campaign that claimed the U.S. government created the HIV virus.

What was the goal of the KGB's disinformation campaign as described in the script?

The goal was to change the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite their abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country.

How did the KGB agents plant false stories during the Cold War?

KGB agents planted false stories through a process called 'active measures,' which included forgeries, kidnappings, and disinformation.

What is the difference between propaganda and disinformation as explained in the script?

Propaganda tries to convince us to believe something, while disinformation is a highly organized attempt to deceive us into believing it.

What was the role of the Active Measures Working Group in the U.S. government?

The Active Measures Working Group, nicknamed Truth Squads, was a team that tracked and tried to expose Soviet disinformation.

What was the impact of the disinformation campaign on foreign governments' views of the U.S., according to the script?

The disinformation campaign led foreign governments to believe that the U.S. was creating a biological warfare agent, which damaged their view of the United States not only as a culture but also tainted all of its policies.

How did the U.S. government respond to the disinformation campaign about AIDS?

The U.S. government responded by forming the Active Measures Working Group to track and expose the Soviet disinformation, and eventually, the report they produced reached Mikhail Gorbachev, leading to him apologizing and promising to stop spreading the fake AIDS story.

What warning did Todd write in his final report for Congress, and how was it received?

Todd warned that although the Soviet Union's active measures and disinformation apparatus had disintegrated, many fragments continued to exist and function, now under Russian rather than Soviet sponsorship. However, this warning fell on deaf ears.

Who is the young agent from St. Petersburg mentioned in the script, and what is his significance?

The young agent from St. Petersburg is a reference to Vladimir Putin, who enrolled into the KGB in 1975. His significance is that he represents the continuity of disinformation tactics that originated in the KGB and have been used by Russia in more recent times.

Outlines

00:00

📰 The Origins of 'Fake News'

This paragraph introduces the concept of 'fake news' and its historical roots. It discusses how the term was supposedly coined by the main character and how it has become pervasive in recent years. The paragraph then delves into the history of disinformation, suggesting that it is not new but has been rebranded. It uses the example of a disinformation campaign from the 1980s, where a newspaper in New Delhi, India, claimed that HIV was created by the U.S. government to target specific populations. The story's spread is traced from India to Africa and eventually to the Soviet Union, where it was amplified by the KGB as part of their active measures to sow discord. The paragraph concludes with an introduction to former KGB agents who defected to the U.S. and can provide insight into the KGB's disinformation tactics.

05:01

🔎 Unraveling Disinformation

Paragraph 2 explores the concept of disinformation, distinguishing it from propaganda and active measures. It introduces Larry Martin, a former KGB agent, who discusses his past in disinformation campaigns, including establishing a brothel to entrap politicians and planting false documents. The paragraph explains that disinformation was a critical part of the KGB's strategy, with agents dedicating a significant portion of their time to creating and spreading false stories. The narrative then returns to the 1980s AIDS disinformation campaign, detailing how the KGB planted the story in an Indian newspaper and later amplified it through other channels. The paragraph also highlights the role of the U.S. government in debunking such disinformation, including the work of Kathleen Bailey and Todd Leventhal, who were part of the Active Measures Working Group, also known as the Truth Squads.

10:02

🌐 The Global Impact of Operation Infection

Paragraph 3 delves into the specifics of Operation Infection, the KGB's campaign to spread the false narrative that the U.S. created the AIDS virus. It discusses how the KGB used scientists like Dr. Jakob Segal and his wife Lilli to lend credibility to the disinformation. The paragraph outlines the campaign's success, as the story was picked up by media outlets worldwide, including in the UK and the Soviet Union. The U.S. response, led by the Active Measures Working Group, is detailed, showing how they worked to debunk the lies. The paragraph culminates with the impact of their efforts, which reached Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, leading to an apology to President Reagan and a promise to stop spreading the false story.

15:06

🔄 The Persistence of Disinformation

The final paragraph reflects on the enduring nature of disinformation, even after the fall of the Soviet Union. It mentions that despite the collapse of the Soviet regime, the infrastructure for disinformation remained. The paragraph also hints at the future, suggesting that a young KGB agent from St. Petersburg, who would later rise to prominence, was also part of this legacy. This paragraph serves as a cautionary note, indicating that the strategies of disinformation did not disappear with the end of the Cold War but continued to evolve and persist.

Keywords

💡Fake News

Fake News refers to false information or propaganda that is presented as genuine news. In the video, it is discussed as a tool for political manipulation, particularly highlighting the historical use of disinformation by the KGB during the Cold War to create mistrust and confusion. The term is exemplified by the false narrative that the U.S. government created the HIV virus as a weapon, which was planted and spread through various channels to discredit the U.S.

💡Active Measures

Active Measures are covert actions taken by governments to influence political outcomes or public opinion. The video explains that these measures made up 85% of KGB activities, which included everything from forgeries to kidnappings, with disinformation being central. The script mentions 'Operation Infection' as a successful active measure campaign that aimed to discredit the U.S. by linking it to the creation of HIV.

💡Disinformation

Disinformation is the deliberate spreading of false information to deceive and manipulate. It is distinguished from propaganda in that it is not just about promoting a belief but actively creating and spreading false narratives. The video uses the term to describe the KGB's strategic efforts to undermine trust in the U.S., such as by starting the false rumor that AIDS was a U.S.-created biological weapon.

💡KGB

The KGB was the main security agency for the Soviet Union, involved in intelligence and counterintelligence activities. In the context of the video, former KGB agents provide insights into the agency's use of disinformation and active measures. The KGB is central to the narrative as the orchestrator of the disinformation campaign about the HIV virus.

💡Operation Infection

Operation Infection was a KGB disinformation campaign aimed at discrediting the U.S. by linking it to the creation of the HIV virus. The video describes it as one of the most successful fake news stories ever created, illustrating the impact of strategic disinformation on global perception and the difficulty of countering such narratives.

💡Truth Squads

Truth Squads, also known as the Active Measures Working Group in the video, were teams that countered disinformation by tracking and exposing false narratives. The video highlights their efforts to debunk Operation Infection, showing the struggle against a well-funded disinformation apparatus with limited resources.

💡Ideological Subversion

Ideological Subversion refers to the process of undermining a population's trust in their government or institutions through manipulation of information. The video discusses how the KGB aimed to change the perception of reality among Americans through this method, using disinformation as a tool to sow doubt and confusion.

💡AIDS

AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, is mentioned in the video as the subject of a disinformation campaign by the KGB. The campaign falsely claimed that AIDS was created by the U.S. government as a biological weapon, which was used to manipulate global opinion and create fear and mistrust.

💡Fort Detrick

Fort Detrick is a U.S. Army medical research facility that was falsely named in the KGB's disinformation campaign as the place where the HIV virus was supposedly created. The video uses this as an example of how specific details are included in disinformation to make it seem more credible.

💡Discredit

Discredit, in the context of the video, refers to the intentional undermining of an individual or nation's reputation. The KGB's disinformation campaigns aimed to discredit the U.S. by associating it with negative or harmful actions, such as creating a deadly virus.

💡Mikhail Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, is mentioned in relation to the Active Measures Working Group's success in getting their report on Operation Infection to him. His reaction and subsequent apology to President Reagan marked a significant moment in the fight against disinformation, as described in the video.

Highlights

The term 'fake' is considered one of the greatest terms the narrator has come up with.

Fake news is not new; it has been around for decades under different names.

The story is about a political virus created by a government to destroy its enemies.

The origin of the 'AIDS was created by the U.S. government' myth can be traced back to a 1983 newspaper article.

The myth was spread by the KGB as part of their active measures to discredit the U.S.

The KGB's active measures involved a budget of millions and thousands of people.

Disinformation is a form of deception used by the KGB to manipulate public opinion.

The KGB's disinformation campaign was so effective that it influenced foreign governments' views of the U.S.

The U.S. government formed the Active Measures Working Group to counter Soviet disinformation.

The Active Measures Working Group, despite limited resources, managed to expose the AIDS disinformation campaign.

Mikhail Gorbachev was personally confronted with the disinformation campaign and responded by promising to stop spreading the fake AIDS story.

The Soviet Union's collapse led to a belief that disinformation campaigns would end.

A warning was issued that remnants of the Soviet disinformation apparatus continued to function.

A young KGB agent from St. Petersburg, who later rose to prominence, was trained in disinformation during the Cold War.

The narrative highlights the ongoing impact and potential resurgence of disinformation campaigns.

Transcripts

[music]

This is a story about a guy and a term

he likes to think he invented.

“Really, the word — I think one of the greatest of all

terms I’ve come up with is ‘fake.’

I guess other people use it, perhaps, over the years.

But I’ve never noticed it.”

It’s only been around for a few years.

But you’re probably as sick of it as we are.

Well, the thing is, fake news is actually really old.

It’s just that, once, it went by a very different name.

[ding]

[non-English speech]

Because really, this story is about a virus,

a virus created decades ago by a government

to slowly and methodically destroy its enemies —

[water sloshing]

— from the inside.

But it’s not a biological virus.

It’s more like a political one.

And chances are, you’ve already been infected.

[music]

If you don’t know who to trust anymore,

this might be the thing that’s making you feel that way.

If you feel exhausted by the news, this could be why.

And if you’re sick of it all and you just

want to stop caring, then we really need to talk.

Ready?

[music]

O.K., so to start, let’s go back

to July, 1983 and all the way over here: New Delhi, India.

This is when a remarkable story appears in a newspaper

called “The Patriot.”

It claims the H.I.V. virus was secretly created

by U.S. government scientists as a weapon

to kill African-Americans and gay people.

It even names a facility, Fort Detrick in Maryland,

where the virus was supposed to have been concocted.

It’s a crazy allegation printed

in a small newspaper —

no big deal, right?

But fast forward just a couple of years,

and look what’s happening.

The story is spreading all over Africa.

The scientific report’s even published

by two East German biologists who

say they can prove AIDS is made in the U.S.A.

All these articles are from just a few months

at the end of 1986.

And then, somehow, it ends up here.

[drums beating]

“A Soviet military publication claims the virus

that causes AIDS leaked from a U.S. Army laboratory

conducting experiments in biological warfare.”

That’s Dan Rather reading a fake news story

to millions of unwitting Americans on national TV.

But don’t be too hard on Dan.

This was one of the greatest cons ever carried out

on the global scale.

And we’re going to show you how it was pulled off.

[music]

But first, let me introduce you

to a few authentic grifters.

Stashed away on some old videotapes,

we found interviews with a bunch of ex-spies.

This guy, Ladislav Bittman. This guy, Stanislav Levchenko,

and this guy, Yuri Bezmenov.

They all worked for the KGB during the Cold War

before defecting to the U.S.

And it's thanks to them that we know so much

about one of the KGB’s most secretive departments.

“Only about 15% of time, money and manpower

is spent on espionage as such.

The other 85 percent is a slow process,

which we call either ideological subversion

or active measures, [speaking Russian]

in the language of the KGB.”

So “active measures,” it’s a euphemism for, well,

bullshit — but not just any bullshit,

the most strategic, masterful, toxic

bullshit you could possibly imagine, made with one goal.

“To change the perception of reality of every American

to such an extent that, despite of their abundance

of information, no one is able to come

to sensible conclusions in the interests of defending

themselves, their families, their community,

and their country.”

“Within the KGB is a department

that specializes in planting false stories and forged

documents.”

We know it was run from Department A

right at the top of the KGB.

And it had a multimillion-dollar budget.

“At least 15,000 people, who, in the Soviet

Union and outside of the Soviet Union, are

involved in that kind of actions

on a regular, daily basis.”

You heard that right —

15,000 people.

That’s more than the entire staff at the State Department

after 9/11.

Now these days, KGB defectors who are still breathing

are a little hard to come by.

But we tracked down one to a small town in Massachusetts.

“Well, my original name was Ladislav Bittman.”

These days, he goes by Larry Martin.

He’s 87 years old.

“It’s a collage — “

He likes to paint.

“ — with Putin.

And he was boasting about his riches.”

And of course, he has a girlfriend down in Florida.

“Hello!”

“Hello, hello.

I am still busy.”

But back in the day, he was a director

at one of the most legendary active measures outposts

reporting to Moscow.

And when it comes to bullshit, Larry’s done it all.

His first ever con —

“It was an operation to establish

a whorehouse in Germany.”

That was to catch politicians in compromising situations.

And once, he even planted a treasure chest of Nazi papers

at the bottom of a lake.

“Now original Nazi documents.”

That was to stir up anti-German sentiments.

Larry’s expertise, though, was a special kind of bullshit,

something called —

“Disinformation.

Basically, it means deliberately distorted

information that is secretly leaked into the communication

process in order to deceive and manipulate.”

[dinging]

All right.

Just to avoid any confusion, let’s pause here quickly

to unpack all these different flavors of bullshit.

Now at the top, you’ve got your active measures, right?

These are basically any kind of covert operations

against another country short of starting a war.

This includes forgeries and even kidnappings.

But disinformation was the heart and soul of it

for the KGB.

You might be thinking, that’s just

a fancy word for propaganda.

But it’s not.

Propaganda tries to convince us to believe something.

Disinformation is a highly organized attempt

to deceive us into believing it.

Today, everyone calls this fake news.

But that’s become such a loaded term —

no thanks to this guy —

that it’s basically useless.

Anyway, we’ll get on to him later.

All right, [dinging] let’s get back to it.

Disinformation — it was such a big deal

that every KGB agent was required

to spend 25 percent of their time coming up

with ideas for false stories.

And in a year-end review —

yes, KGB agents had year-end reviews, too —

every agent was evaluated on —

“How many proposals for disinformation operations

he submitted.”

“You’ve gotten to be fairly good at this

when you were Czech intelligence, didn’t you?”

“Unfortunately, I have to admit, yes.”

Just how good were these guys?

Well, that rumor that the C.I.A. shot J.F.K., the story about how

the C.I.A. tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II,

and the one about rich Americans

buying poor kids from Latin America to

harvest their organs —

but as the first cases of AIDS spread fear around the world,

the KGB saw an opportunity for their biggest con yet.

[clicking]

All right, so let’s go back to 1983.

And we’re going to show you what really happened here.

So remember this story started with an article

in The Patriot newspaper?

“‘AIDS, the deadly mysterious disease which has caused

havoc in the U.S. is believed to be the result

of the Pentagon’s experiments to develop new and dangerous

biological weapons.’

There’s the crux of the crap.”

It’s time you met Kathleen Bailey and Todd Leventhal.

They were part of a U.S. government team

that first pieced this story together back in the ’80s.

[ding]

“This is just the perfect example of a very effective

disinformation campaign.”

Well, almost perfect.

There are some obvious grammar mistakes here,

which tip off experts like Kathleen.

Like, in English we’d say flu virus, not the virus flu.

“So it’s written by a non-native English speaker.

And it probably was written by a Russian-language speaker.”

“They said, oh, the Indian newspaper,

The Patriot — which we knew the KGB used this

as an English language newspaper as a way to get

stories out.”

This was a classic Soviet tactic.

Oleg Kalugin is another ex-KGB agent we found.

He told us, they’d always try and place the story —

“ — in a third-world country — ”

— somewhere like —

“ — say, in India, Thailand — ”

— where journalists could be easily tricked or bribed.

“So that gave the story acceptability

when nobody was searching about the origin.”

[music]

The KGB let this story go quiet for a couple of years

after India.

But with AIDS still making scary headlines in ’85,

they revived it, this time in a prominent Moscow newspaper.

And the source for this story?

You guessed it.

[ding]

It’s brilliant, really.

They’ve repeated the story but concealed their hand,

distancing themselves from the lie they started.

So we’re now into 1986.

And the KGB want to add gravitas to this lie.

So they look around for a scientist,

a human face, someone who could back up

the lie with data.

And no joke — this is the dude they found.

This is Dr. Jakob Segal.

Remember I said the reports had two authors?

Well, here comes the co-author now.

It’s his wife, Lilli.

Believe it or not, these two wrote that report

that claim to have evidence AIDS was created

in a U.S. government lab.

“This scientific gobbledygook — and you know,

read this stuff, and who can understand it?

But it purports to be proof.”

The thing is, it worked.

The KGB made sure the Segal report

was read by journalists all over Africa.

And they kept on pushing it until it went, well, viral.

[ding]

It’s appeared in 200 reports in 80 countries.

Even The Daily Express in London runs with it.

And finally, on March 30, 1987,

the KGB hits the jackpot.

“A Soviet military publication [echoing]

claims the virus that causes AIDS leaked.”

This campaign had a KGB code name.

They called it, Operation Infection.

“Good afternoon.

I would like to begin the introduction to this report

by stating that the U.S. image abroad is damaged.

And U.S. foreign policy is complicated

by disinformation.

Wow.

Huh.

That’s a half a lifetime ago.

This was handed out at a demonstration.

I was so angry that they accused the United

States of creating the AIDS virus,

because I knew how effective that was going

to be as a tool against us.

And it angered me deeply.

And it empowered me.

It motivated me.

It fired me up.

I was pissed.”

[music]

Operation Infection, one of the most

audacious and successful fake news stories ever created —

and for America, the impact was toxic.

“Foreign governments actually believed

that the U.S. was creating this biological warfare agent.

For them to think that damages their view of the United

States not only as a culture, but it

taints all of our policies.

It’s in the back of their minds

every time they discuss anything with us.”

Now with so much at stake, you might

be wondering what the U.S. response to this was.

Well, you’re watching it.

“The primary origin of disinformation

about the United States abroad is the Soviet Union.”

Kathleen and Todd were both part of something

called the Active Measures Working Group.

Nicknamed Truth Squads, it was a team

that tracked and tried to expose

Soviet disinformation.

“Everybody was working part time on the issue.”

“It was not funded lavishly.”

“We all sat around a table once every week or two.

And those who could volunteer their time to come in did.”

Yup, that’s right.

In the face of thousands of KGB agents

with a multimillion-dollar budget,

we had some part-time workers propping up

poster boards on C-SPAN.

“I see that it wasn’t very well attended.

And I remember that now that I see this.

But it did have an impact.”

They didn’t have the budget or the time.

But they were motivated by truth

and did what they could, responding

to the fire hose of falsehoods,

calling them out, one lie at a time.

“So they were working at this day, after day, after day.

I think we were kept busy just knocking these things down.”

But repeated exposure didn’t just

lead to a couple of article corrections.

Kathleen’s report exposing and debunking Operation Infection

made its way right to the top of the Kremlin

into the hands of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev

himself.

Secretary of State George Shultz was in the room

when Gorby read it.

“And you’re spreading all this bum dope

about AIDS and the United States pushing it.

And I said, come on.

So we had a good, heated exchange.

And there’s nothing wrong with that.”

And days later, Gorbachev did the unthinkable.

He bowed to pressure, apologized

to President Ronald Reagan, and promised

to stop spreading the fake AIDS story.

“When we in the Active Measures Working Group

heard about Gorbachev having read the reports —

that’s cool.

That is really cool.

He couldn’t deny what we put in the report.

And he didn’t deny it.”

“Yet, it was the military who prevented the hard-line coup

from succeeding.”

“And then came the year 1989, 1990,

when the Communist regime collapsed.

Nobody believed that the Russians would continue

using this weapon in future.”

“Our government’s view was, problem solved.”

As the Soviet Union was collapsing,

Todd wrote this final report for Congress, a warning

that would fall on deaf ears.

“The formidable Soviet active measures and disinformation

apparatus, which has manipulated world opinion

for decades, has disintegrated.

But many large fragments of their apparatus continue

to exist and function, for the most part now under Russian,

rather than Soviet sponsorship.”

Don’t forget.

KGB agents spent 25% of their time creating disinformation.

And that was true of the entire agency

during the Cold War, including a young agent

from St. Petersburg who enrolled into the KGB in 1975

and who would one day go on to greater things.

[music]