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Indian network lobbying against Pakistan exposed


AARHUS (Denmark): A European group has uncovered an Indian disinformation network operating since 2005 to discredit nations in conflict with Delhi, particularly Pakistan.

Last year, the Brussels-based EU DisinfoLab uncovered a vast network of 265 coordinated fake local media outlets in 65 countries serving Indian interests, as well as multiple dubious think tanks and NGOs. This network was active in Brussels and Geneva in producing and amplifying content designed to, primarily, undermine Pakistan.

In a new investigation, titled Indian Chronicles, the group has exposed another Indian network that aims to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan (and anti-Chinese) feelings in India.

Internationally, the network is working to consolidate the power and improve the image of India and damage reputation of rival countries so that ultimately India may benefit from more support from international institutions such as the European Union and the United Nations.

To do so, the network used fake personas of a dead human rights activist and journalists, and also tried to impersonate regular media and press agencies such as the EU Observer, the Economist and Voice of America.



Indians have made this a state policy and an industry to conspire and propogate against Pakistan
 
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Propaganda is but one component of the hybrid war our nations are fighting and have been fighting since the inceptions of the 2 modern independent nation states.

This is not even tip of the iceberg stuff.

This is probably the whole iceberg.
 
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Indians are masters at impersonating Anglos. LOL From fake profiles on the internet named "Robert Martin" asking for pics of Bobs and Vagene to impersonating Anglo media with names like "Boston Star". LMAO Damn, disinformation is probably the one thing where India far excels above China. LOL
 
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Interesting that the BBC has picked up on this and are reporting it aswell.


Disinfo Page:

Link to full report : https://www.disinfo.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Indian-chronicles_FULLREPORT.pdf
 
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Looks like the only thing they learned from their British master is the art of vulgar slander, deflection and lies
 
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Indians are masters at impersonating Anglos. LOL From fake profiles on the internet named "Robert Martin" asking for pics of Bobs and Vagene to impersonating Anglo media with names like "Boston Star". LMAO Damn, disinformation is probably the one thing where India far excels above China. LOL

I think the H-1B program was originally designed to brain drain India but was hijacked by H-1Bs that made it to management and turned into an internal brain drain on the US where white workers get displaced in favor of Indian ones.
 
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And our bogus or shall i say "hands in gloves with the traitor" news media busy discussing irrelevent local politics and jalsas in prime time when the focus should have been of this big reveal.

Perhaps time again for a joint press conference of DG ISPR, Foreign Minister and perhaps Moeed Yusuf too. This is important, especially when we talk about 5GW. It should not be let go like this at all. Also, local players who were part or beneficiary of this dis-info warfare should be identified and exposed too. The report already mentions beneficiary such as PTM and other separatist support groups etc.
 
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I think the H-1B program was originally designed to brain drain India but was hijacked by H-1Bs that made it to management and turned into an internal brain drain on the US where white workers get displaced in favor of Indian ones.

There aren't enough White engineers to fill those positions. Also, a lot of those H-1B jobs actually go to Indian companies that have relocated part of their operations to Silicon Valley.
 
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Indian Chronicles: deep dive into a 15-year operation targeting the EU and UN to serve Indian interests


Following a preliminary investigation published in 2019, the EU DisinfoLab uncovered a massive operation targeting international institutions and serving Indian interests. “Indian Chronicles” – the name we gave to this operation – resurrected dead media, dead think-tanks and NGOs. It even resurrected dead people. This network is active in Brussels and Geneva in producing and amplifying content to undermine – primarily – Pakistan.

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Key facts
In a nutshell, Indian Chronicles is:

  • a 15 year-long operation running since 2005;

  • 10+ UN Human Rights Council accredited NGOs, mostly resurrected;

  • The resurrection of Prof. Louis B. Sohn, a prominent figure in human rights, deceased in 2006;

  • Several identity thefts, including the name of Martin Schulz, former president of the European Parliament or the photo of James Purnell, a former UK Government minister;

  • 750+ fake media outlets, covering 119 countries;

  • 550+ domain names registered.
Summary of the 15-year influence operation
Our open-source investigation shows that the operation led by the Srivastava Group and amplified by ANI began in 2005 and is still ongoing at this date.

The operation’s mission is to discredit nations in conflict with India in Asia, in particular Pakistan but also China to a lesser extent. Its long-term objective is:

  • In India, to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan (and anti-Chinese) feelings.

  • Internationally, to consolidate the power and improve the perception of India, to damage the reputation of other countries and ultimately benefit from more support from international institutions such as the EU and the UN.
To do so, the operation consists of:
  • The support to minority and human rights NGOs and think-tanks.

  • The use of Members of the European Parliament to create a mirage of institutional support from European institutions to these minority groups, in favour of Indian interests and against Pakistan (and China).

  • An active presence in Geneva and the United Nations’ Human Rights Council through:
    • side-events and demonstrations in support of minority rights;

    • impersonation of extinguished UN-accredited NGOs or use speaking slots reserved to various NGOs whose original missions seem totally unrelated.

  • The creation of fake media in Brussels, Geneva and across the world and/or the repackaging and dissemination via ANI and obscure local media networks – at least in 97 countries – to multiply the repetition of online negative content about countries in conflict with India, in particular Pakistan.
Indian Chronicles: Case reopened
During our previous investigation, we decided to leave some of the websites, domain names and associated email addresses that deserved a closer look for later. Over the last months, we took a deeper dive, with a specific focus on the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (CSOP).

We soon realised that this US-based NGO – accredited to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) – had become inactive in the late 1970s before being resurrected in 2005. Its identity had been hijacked by the same actors depicted in our first investigation. Shockingly, we discovered that the organisation had not only been revived. Its former Chairman and “grandfather of international law in the US”, Louis B. Sohn, who passed away in 2006, seemingly attended a UN Human Rights Council meeting in 2007 and participated in an event organised by “Friends of Gilgit-Baltistan” in Washington D.C. in 2011.


Advocacy in Geneva: outside and inside the United Nations Human Rights Council
From then on, we uncovered an entire network of coordinated UN-accredited NGOs promoting Indian interests and criticizing Pakistan repeatedly. We could tie at least 10 of them directly to the Srivastava family, with several other dubious NGOs pushing the same messages.

These UN-accredited NGOs work in coordination with non-accredited think-tanks and minority-rights NGOs in Brussels and Geneva. Several of them – like the European Organization for Pakistani Minorities (EOPM), Baluchistan House and the South Asia Democratic Forum (SADF) – were directly but opaquely created by the Srivastava group. In Geneva, these think-tanks and NGOs are in charge of lobbying, organising demonstrations and speaking during press conferences and UN side-events. They were repeatedly given the floor at the UN on behalf of the accredited organisations.

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Resurrection of UN-accredited NGOs and the hijacking of causes
Our investigation led to the finding of 10 UN-accredited NGOs directly controlled by the Srivastava Group, which our full report introduces at length. Their common trait? The fact that they all rose from the ashes of real NGOs. Indian Chronicles effectively benefited from the track record of these organisations while pursuing their own agenda: discrediting Pakistan and promoting Indian interests at UN conferences and hearings.

As we looked into the history of these NGOs, it quickly became clear that the topics and issues at their very heart are not much of a concern for Indian Chronicles. The operation takes just about any defunct NGO it can find and revives it to promote Indian interests. Examples include organisations defending peace, protecting the environment or even… promoting canned food.

Before it ceased to exist in 2007, the Canners International Permanent Committee (CIPC) was all about the canning industry. Its reincarnation does not seem so concerned with food anymore: It mostly dispatches Geneva-based students to the UN to talk about Pakistan, and even organised side events on human rights at the UN.

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Lobbying in Brussels: Using Members of the European Parliament through an online EU affairs honeypot
The organisations created by the Srivastava Group in Brussels organised trips for Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to Kashmir, Bangladesh and the Maldives. Some of these trips led to much institutional controversy, as the delegations of MEPs were often presented as official EU delegations when they were in fact not travelling on behalf of the Parliament.

The actors orchestrating Indian Chronicles are directly tied – and again not at all transparently – to the creation of three informal groups in the European Parliament, namely the “South Asia Peace Forum”, the “Baloch Forum” and “Friends of Gilgit-Baltistan”. They have organised press conferences and events within and in front of the European Parliament.

Organisations like WESTT – the Women Economic and Social Think-Tank – have drafted and suggested parliamentary questions to the European Commission, along with articles for fake EU magazines such as EP Today. These served as a honeypot to attract a growing number of MEPs into a pro-India and anti-Pakistan discourse, often using causes such as minorities rights and women’s rights as an entry point.

This is how we uncovered EU Chronicle – the new “EP Today”. A new fake media with fake journalists supposedly covering European affairs, yet essentially providing a platform for MEPs to sign pro-Indian articles. In less than 6 months of existence, already 11 MEPs have written or endorsed op-eds at a remarkably high pace for EU Chronicle.

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The role of ANI: Repackaging and amplifying the content produced in Brussels & Geneva
Back to EU Chronicle. The only valuable coverage these op-eds receive, comes from an immediate repackaging by an Indian press agency named ANI (Asian News International), often quoting these op-eds as genuine articles from “independent media EU Chronicle”. Without Times of Geneva and 4 News Agency which stopped their activities following our previous investigation, ANI – which is considered as one of the biggest news agencies in India and the largest television agency of India – remains the only press agency to extensively cover the activities of dubious NGOs in Geneva.

The coverage – and often distortion – by ANI of the content produced in Brussels and Geneva led us to the Big News Network and the World News Network – an entire network of 500+ fake local media in 95 countries that have helped reproduce negative iterations about Pakistan (or China). We also realised that the content produced was primarily targeted at Indian nationals, with an extensive coverage of these barely known “media”, MEPs and “NGOs” in Europe.

Essentially, our investigation details how the activities of a fake zombie-NGO and that of a fake specialised media can be repackaged, distorted and amplified by malicious actors to influence or disinform globally, using loopholes in international institutions and online search engines.

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Indian Chronicles and EP Today: the same modus operandi
As in our first investigation, we could observe these patterns:

  • Extensive use of student interns, here speaking at the United Nations on behalf of one or more of these NGOs;
  • Resurrection of shuttered organisations (NGOs, media) and deceased persons (Louis B. Sohn);
  • Use of Regus virtual office addresses or simply fake addresses whenever an address was needed;
  • Misleading representation of the views of individual MEPs as general support or official position from the European Union;
  • Maximisation of negative content about Pakistan online, primarily using a network of fake local media across the world.
The actors behind EP Today and EU Chronicle registered 550+ domain names of NGOs, think-tanks, media, European Parliament informal groups, religious and Imam organizations, obscure publishing companies and public personalities. A non-negligeable proportion of domain names were bought in the context of the cyberwarfare with Pakistan, to cybersquat on domains that Pakistan might later wish to use.

Every researcher working on disinformation is confronted by the issue of measuring the impact of a disinformation campaign. Indian Chronicles’ 15-year operation certainly does not disappoint in this regard. It has supported:

  • Several demonstrations in Brussels and Geneva;
  • The display of “free Baluchistan” posters across Geneva;
  • The organisation of several events inside the European Parliament;
  • The creation of support groups within the European Parliament;
  • The influencing of European and International policy making;
  • The convocation of the Swiss ambassador in Pakistan by the Pakistani government;
  • The trips of delegations of Members of the European Parliament to Bangladesh, the Maldives and Kashmir that led to much controversy in Brussels.

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Policy recommendations
We are alarmed to see the continuation of Indian Chronicles which – despite our first report and wide press coverage – has pursued its 15-year long operation and even recently launched EU Chronicle, a fake EU outlet. This should serve as a call to action for decision-makers to put in place a relevant framework to sanction actors abusing our international institutions. It is possible that the absence of messages from the institutions affected by Indian Chronicles provided the space and opportunity for the operation to reinvent itself and to continue doing “more of the same”.

It is also our belief that the possibility for malicious actors to abuse search engines by reproducing the same content hundreds of times should also be challenged.

Our investigation relied heavily on the analysis of websites and domain names, rather than online platforms. Much of what we uncovered could be found thanks to website domain names registration history and because many websites of Indian Chronicles were created at a time when malicious actors were less concerned with privacy. Nowadays, malicious actors register domain names and create websites anonymously, making detection more difficult. The regulatory discussion on data transparency from platforms now taking place should be broadened to include greater scrutiny of domain names. Domain name information is critical for disinformation researchers; we therefore advocate for sufficient transparency for researchers investigating malicious domains. We also urge the domain name industry to seriously reflect on this kind of fraudulent, disinforming behaviour as technical abuse of the domain name system.

Keeping the record straight
We are well aware – as it is the case for every investigation – that our work will be used and recuperated by those who have an interest in seeing it published. In this case, probably Pakistani authorities.

Let us bear in mind that it is not because one side uses dodgy influence campaigns that the other side does not: A simple Google search will lead you to read about inauthentic behaviours supporting Pakistani interests.

More importantly, our investigation is in no way a judgement of the situation of human rights in Pakistan, nor should it serve to undermine the credibility of minority movements in Pakistan. Our report simply shines a light on how Indian stakeholders have used these issues to serve their own interests. We are convinced that “there is no such thing as good disinformation”, and we would agree with a key actor of Indian Chronicles – namely Madi Sharma – who recently tweeted: “Your ethical muscle grows stronger every time you choose right over wrong.”

About our drive
Every investigation sees disinformation researchers faced with similar questions: Why did you work on disinformation from this and not that country? Are you funded by the enemy of my country? Do you realise that when investigating this matter, you are considering only one side of disinformation? Why don’t you study the other side?

The fact is, we never intended to work on South-Asia related matters. It all began when we read a publication by the European External Action Service (EEAS) about EP Today syndicating content from RT. And this led us to publish these two investigations.


Are we really this naive to think that the EU and Western governments don't know what is happening under their noses? Of course they know and they allow this to happen. Why? Let's face it. Both India and Western powers would like to transform Pakistan into an Indian colony. It serves their interest. Right now Pakistan is allied with China and the West absolutely abhors this relationship.

The West will continue to provide India space to malign and hurt Pakistan. These revelations don't mean much to Western powers. They will be ignored. Imagine if such unprecedented revelations were made against any other country the Western media would be up in arms. This would be frontpage news for days.
 
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We could tell you about how several Members of the European Parliament’s genuine positions on human rights were abused by Indian Chronicles – the name we gave to the 15-year operation we exposed yesterday. But here, on this Human Rights Day, we will focus exclusively on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Our investigation was able to show that the Srivastava Group – a New Delhi based conglomerate – controls 10 UN-accredited NGOs, most of them “resurrected”, and currently 9 of whom speak regularly before the UNHRC.

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Prof Louis B. Sohn (1914-2006)
One of these NGOs is the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace (CSOP), the first organization resurrected by the Srivastava-backed network. The CSOP was created “during World War II to promote the formation of a United Nations as successor to the failed League of Nations”. Even beyond hijacking the notion of peace, the network resurrected a man considered as the “Grandfather of International Human Rights Law in the US” and former chairman of the CSOP, Professor Louis B. Sohn. Louis Sohn passed away in 2006. After his death, his name is used to register a web domain, and he is listed as participating at a session of the UNHRC in 2007, and as attending an event organized by the Institute of Gilgit-Baltistan Studies in 2011 in Washington DC.

Another NGO we found appropriating the subject of peace and human rights is the International Club for Peace Research (ICPR). This African organisation was resurrected in 2009 and impersonated by Indian Chronicles until 2012. It was used to speak about Pakistan at the UNHRC and to organize events and demonstrations. On its archived website, created by Indian Chronicles, we can see a total hijacking of the notion of peace once again, including a quote by Mother Teresa used to ultimately slam Pakistan. The name of the founder of the real ICPR, who has worked at the United Nations since 2000, was hijacked to register the domain name.

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Screenshot of ANI article exposing the confusion between the World Sindhi Congress
and the World Environment and Resources Council


The list continues. Next comes the World Environment and Resources Council (WERC), again an extinguished NGO resurrected by the network. Besides “speaking” at the UNHRC, this organisation’s name is now used in the media to oppose the construction of a dam in Pakistan. Here, the name of the organisation offers the mirage of global support from the environmentalist civil society to the World Sindhi Congress, which – in fact – delivers a speech at the UN.

These NGOs are mostly represented by students at the UNHRC. Luis Lema in Le Temps reveals that these students were paid 200 CHF (186 EUR) in cash to speak at the UNHRC, and that they were given the text they had to read only a few minutes before their interventions. In Les Jours, Nicolas Quenel and Antoine Hasday detail how a proxy recruiter was used to hire these students and pay them with cash. In other words, speaking at the UNHRC was just another student job; we do not think it should be.

It is important to keep in mind that our report is not an investigation into human rights or minority rights, whose voices must be heard. It is also crucial to remember that India is not the only country playing this game. Overall, we were astonished by the amount of fakery interfering in the operations and integrity of the UNHRC.

On this Human Rights Day, we believe that the international community has a responsibility to act, before the UNHRC is – unfortunately and with severe consequences for the authentic human rights agenda – considered to be nothing more than a farce. These words will sound strong for some, but we could not find any better to describe the fact that the Canners Permanent International Committee- an organisation specialised in promoting canned foods which ceased to exist in 2007 – is paying students in cash to criticize Pakistan at the United Nations, in 2020.
 
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Indian network lobbying against Pakistan exposed


AARHUS (Denmark): A European group has uncovered an Indian disinformation network operating since 2005 to discredit nations in conflict with Delhi, particularly Pakistan.

Last year, the Brussels-based EU DisinfoLab uncovered a vast network of 265 coordinated fake local media outlets in 65 countries serving Indian interests, as well as multiple dubious think tanks and NGOs. This network was active in Brussels and Geneva in producing and amplifying content designed to, primarily, undermine Pakistan.

In a new investigation, titled Indian Chronicles, the group has exposed another Indian network that aims to reinforce pro-Indian and anti-Pakistan (and anti-Chinese) feelings in India.

Internationally, the network is working to consolidate the power and improve the image of India and damage reputation of rival countries so that ultimately India may benefit from more support from international institutions such as the European Union and the United Nations.

To do so, the network used fake personas of a dead human rights activist and journalists, and also tried to impersonate regular media and press agencies such as the EU Observer, the Economist and Voice of America.



Indians have made this a state policy and an industry to conspire and propogate against Pakistan


Can we please pin this thread? This is a 15 year (known) campaign by India. It will continue to be a foreseeable critical issue for Pakistan's security.

As such, I would recommend a pin.

@Irfan Baloch
 
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