A fake story about the secretary of defense stole my real byline

WASHINGTON ― It started with an unusual email Friday afternoon: “Is this article true?”

The attached jpeg resembled a Defense News story complete with my byline, but instead of my work, it was a cocktail of lies and paranoia. There was the layout of one of my stories about the new defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, but some of the words matched a Washington Post article ― and it included both a false headline about Austin “defunding and dismantling” the U.S. Army and an equally false quote about America looking to China for its national defense.

……….

Where did this one come from? That’s unclear.

Authorities have warned that Russia, China and others are using cyber-enabled information operations to exacerbate existing tensions within the United States and between it and its allies. Some of the clumsy language in the fake Austin quote — “We are looking at China to rely on regarding our national defense” — suggested to Decker the meme may have been developed overseas. He noted that it had received some “suspicious amplification” from the “Republicans Worldwide” Facebook page, which has carried Russian made memes in the past.

One of the Telegram accounts that posted the piece is attributed to retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, an 83-year-old former Fox News analyst and military adviser for the Trump campaign known for making debunked claims about voter fraud. The account has an incredible reach with more than 80,000 subscribers.

But when I called the real McInerney, he told me it was not him.

“I’m not on any social media, so someone is trying to discredit me,” McInerney said. “I’ve sent at least four emails to Telegram to ask that my name be removed. Others have called me, and it’s obvious Telegram is complicit.”