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Biden admin’s would-be “disinfo czar” Nina Jankowicz registers as foreign agent under FARA

  Nina Jankowicz, who was supposed to be the Biden administration’s “disinformation czar,”   has officially registered as a foreign agent   ...

 Nina Jankowicz, who was supposed to be the Biden administration’s “disinformation czar,” has officially registered as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The Department of Justice‘s FARA Unit received Jankowicz’s filing on Nov. 18. According to her filing, she registered as an agent of the London-based Center for Information Resilience (CIR), a group devoted to countering disinformation online. CIR, a relatively young group, was only incorporated in 2020.

In her filing, Jankowicz described her group as “a non-profit social enterprise … financed in part by grants from the [British] government, including the [British] Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).” Adam Rutland and Ross Burley both serve as the CIR’s executive directors, according to Jankowicz’s FARA documents.

“We counter disinformation, expose human rights abuses through open source and combat online harms targeting women and minorities. We have established ourselves as a trusted, innovative NGO among U.K. media and policymakers. We work frequently with U.K. government colleagues to help in the areas above,” Jankowicz stated in her filing.

Jankowicz made waves in late April, when news of the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broke out. The DGB, which Jankowicz was supposed to lead, was denounced as the Biden administration’s so-called Ministry of Truth.

The DHS decided to pause the DGB’s work and subsequently dissolve it on May 16. The board never formally met in the period between its announcement and its dissolution.

 

Jankowicz handed in her resignation the following day, May 17. DHS officials gave her the choice to stay on board, but she declined.

“With the [DGB’s] work paused and its future uncertain, I have decided to leave DHS to return to my work in the public sphere. I maintain my commitment to building awareness of disinformation’s threats and trust the [DHS] will do the same,” she said in a statement. “It is deeply disappointing that mis-characterizations of the [DGB] became a distraction from the department’s vital work. Recent events globally and nationally embody why it is necessary.”

Jankowicz involved in undermining sovereignty of other countries

In spite of her work in “fighting disinformation” while at the DGB, and this time at the CIR, Jankowicz is actually involved in promoting the same disinformation she allegedly counters to subvert the sovereignty of other nations.

A May 16 report by Revolver News, released on the same day as the DGB’s dissolution, revealed that Jankowicz was part of the Integrity Initiative (II) – an endeavor by the Scotland-based think tank Institute for Statecraft founded by Chris Donnelly, a longtime “special adviser” to four secretaries-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The II “defended democracy against disinformation” by engaging what it describes as “Russian disinformation” through secret clusters of operatives in multiple European countries. First set up in 2015, II operatives had their fingers in different European nations, most notably in Spain.  

The Revolver News report revealed that the II meddled in Madrid’s sovereignty by mobilizing against the appointment of Col. Pedro Banos as the head of the Spanish Department of National Security in 2018. Jankowicz’s colleagues moved to sabotage Banos, an allegedly “pro-Kremlin” official, a week before he was set to be appointed by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. The initiative’s efforts prospered, and Brig. Gen. Miguel Angel Ballesteros was appointed to the position instead.

Aside from derailing Banos’ appointment, the II also interfered with the Catalan referendum.

A progress report from the initiative stated that “its main means of influence is through academic papers and especially through articles, written by independent journalists in newspapers like El Pais, based on material provided anonymously by the cluster.

This cluster produced a major study on Russian influence in the Catalan referendum process which was circulated privately to key influencers in Spain, including the [prime minister’s] office, and throughout Europe on the II network.”

 

 

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