The State Department's Fumbled Fight Against Russian Propoganda

ISSIE LAPOWSKY

11.22.17 06:00 AM

WHEN AHMED YOUNIS first took a job at the State Department in September of 2016, the cross-country commute between his office in Washington, DC and his home in Los Angeles, where his wife and daughter live, seemed worth it. An Islamic scholar and college professor, he had been asked to help lead the State Department’s newly formed Global Engagement Center, whose mission is to fight terrorist propaganda, as well as the state-sponsored variety that Russia proliferated in the run-up to the 2016 election. For Younis, who had studied terrorist organizations and their messaging, the critical need for this kind of work made the weekly bicoastal trek worth it.

But one year later, the GEC's once-promising mission had become paralyzed by what Younis calls “administrative incompetence.” A lack of coherent policy priorities at the State Department and the absence of subject matter expertise among President Trump’s political appointees made it impossible to execute, Younis says. And so, just 11 months into the job, he, along with two other high-level analysts, left.

“Before the inauguration there was a very clear perspective on what the Global Engagement Center was supposed to be,” Younis recalls. “Once it became clear that wasn’t the reality, it made no sense for me to sacrifice that much for this government job.”

The US anti-propaganda effort extends beyond just the GEC; other corridors of the State Department and the Department of Defense monitor Russia's actions closely, as well. But even as Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle interrogate US tech companies about their role in disseminating this disinformation, former State Department staffers say that the government agency specifically tasked with analyzing and combating this issue has effectively been frozen.

“The headline is: There’s nothing that’s being done,” said one former State Department staffer. “On this issue of state aggression, I would say we’re doing almost zilch.”

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https://www.wired.com/story/the-state-departments-fumbled-fight-against-russian-propaganda/