June 5, 2025
Large covert operations to influence Americans and American lawmakers are a constant in the digital information war tactics of Iran, Russia, and China. A Washington Post article revealed this week that a “top editor at an online news site aimed at Americans who has worked extensively for Russia’s Sputnik also has taken money from Iranian government-owned media, according to newly unearthed documents.”
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The site, as an alleged purveyor of Russian and Iranian propaganda and disinformation, has had some high-level American assistance in disseminating its stories to the public — sometimes by members of the U.S. government. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), for example, is known to have used Grayzone stories as a prompt to question his own government’s activities, evidently goaded into doing this by Putin propagandists and Iranian covert digital operatives working through fringe news blogs.
Above is an example of an anti-Ukraine message Lee passed along, which attempts to implicate the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“Sen. Lee is certainly one of the most influential and impactful elected officials within the Republican Party here in Utah,” current GOP chairman Rob Axson told the Post. Some constituents, as well as Americans outside Utah, want to hear from the Senator on how he chose his sources.
Story Continues
R&I~Smit
Bugs Marlowe