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https://www.thedailybeast.com/infamous-pizzagater-jack-posobiec-pushed-hoax-about-pipe-bombs-being-planted-at-korean-war-memorial

 

Quote

It was an image out of a Trump supporter’s fever dream: crates of pipe bombs stashed near the Korean War Veterans Memorial, amid tense protests at the White House and the surrounding streets. The suspects behind the explosives had fled, but federal law enforcement officers were right behind them. 

The pipe bomb story was the brainchild of Jack Posobiec, a right-wing personality who’s regularly retweeted by Donald Trump and who works for fledgling Trump cable network One America News. And it came like a five-alarm fire. “BREAKING: 2 crates filled with pipe bombs discovered near Korean War Memorial in DC after suspects spotted in bushes,” Posobiec tweeted on Tuesday afternoon. “Federal assets in pursuit.” 

 

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As of Wednesday afternoon, Posobiec’s tweet had garnered more than 29,000 retweets and 60,000 favorites. And it seeded the idea that Washington protesters were not just violent but potentially deadly—just as the White House was attempting to justify tear-gassing peaceful protesters for a presidential photo-op a day earlier. The popular pro-Trump hoax blog The Gateway Pundit picked up on it. And so too did the pro-Trump Twitter universe which began to demand why mainstream media outlets weren’t covering the pipe bombs. 

“2 boxes of pipe bombs found near the Korean War memorial,” wrote one Twitter user. “No word from msnbc?”

By Wednesday, Posobiec’s supposed pipe bombs were being cited as fact on a conservative Boston talk radio station.

 

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But the pipe bombs were totally made up. U.S. Park Police spokesman Sgt. Eduardo Delgado told The Daily Beast in an email that the Park Police never discovered any pipe bombs near the memorial. Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department also had no reports of pipe bombs at the memorial, a spokesperson said Tuesday. 

There’s no evidence that the supposed pursuit from “federal assets” ever happened either. 

Instead, it appears Posobiec either concocted the claim entirely or, at best, relied on information from deeply flawed sources. Worse, his tweet appears to have wasted law enforcement resources at a crucial time, as Park Police officers scrambled to find the nonexistent pipe bombs. 

 

Spoiler

Posobiec and OAN president Charles Herring didn’t respond to a request for comment. The episode shows how fast hoaxes continue to spread online and how real world crises remain the perfect breeding ground for disinformation. A simple missive on social media can have dramatic, cascading effects. 

Park Police officers only began looking for the pipe bombs after getting reports about a tweet mentioning them, according to Delgado. Delgado didn’t name the tweet, but Posobiec’s tweet was the first and most widely circulated one about the supposed pipe bombs.

“We were advised that a Tweet said that there were pipe bombs at the Korean Memorial,” Delgado wrote in an email. “The memorial and all adjacent areas were swept by explosion detection K9s with negative results.”

This isn’t the first time Posobiec, a former naval intelligence officer, has played a lead role in promoting hoaxes. He was one of the most prominent promoters of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, that held that the Washington D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong was really a front for a child sex dungeon run by Hillary Clinton. He even went to the restaurant to find out “what’s really going on” there.

That conspiracy theory inspired a North Carolina man to shoot a gun inside of Comet Ping Pong, and prompted an arsonist to try to light the restaurant on fire in 2019 while it was filled with families. 

In 2017, BuzzFeed reported text messages suggesting that Posobiec held a “Rape Melania” sign during an anti-Trump protest in an apparent attempt to discredit the protesters as insidious and deranged.   

Since then, Posobiec has tried to reinvent himself as a kind of hard-edged national security reporter — while also creating a comic book about himself in which a fictionalized Posobiec alter ego named “Agent Poso” pulls off James Bond-style stunts with other conservative media personalities. 

Despite Posobiec’s reputation for hoaxes, Trump frequently retweets his tweets and praises his network, OAN, as a more pro-Trump rival to Fox News. The White House has ensured that Posobiec’s colleague, OAN reporter Chanel Rion, has access to press briefings in violation of the White House press corps coronavirus social-distancing restrictions.

 

 

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7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


Had a friend in law school, drop dead gorgeous black girl from Idaho. It was definitely a running joke dialogue with her a lot about being the only black person in Idaho. Her argument to the contrary was that her parents and brother also lived there.

Something must be wrong with your connection. Pics aren't showing up. Maybe try again?

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31 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:


Had a friend in law school, drop dead gorgeous black girl from Idaho. It was definitely a running joke dialogue with her a lot about being the only black person in Idaho. Her argument to the contrary was that her parents and brother also lived there.

Boo this man!

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2 hours ago, Message Board User said:

Then debate it, discuss it, challenge it, and point out why he's wrong.  Hell, Cotton's view is shared by a goodly number of Americans (I think I saw something like 55% supported using the military to stop the looting) so it's not even that fringy.

Now stop making me defend Cotton - I need a drink and a shower now.  But I loathe safe spaces and rigorous debate is not unhealthy.

I’m sure any day now the Times will publish an op ed by a tankie advocating for the execution of all millionaires and the seizing of their property.

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26 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/infamous-pizzagater-jack-posobiec-pushed-hoax-about-pipe-bombs-being-planted-at-korean-war-memorial

 

 

 

 

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Posobiec and OAN president Charles Herring didn’t respond to a request for comment. The episode shows how fast hoaxes continue to spread online and how real world crises remain the perfect breeding ground for disinformation. A simple missive on social media can have dramatic, cascading effects. 

Park Police officers only began looking for the pipe bombs after getting reports about a tweet mentioning them, according to Delgado. Delgado didn’t name the tweet, but Posobiec’s tweet was the first and most widely circulated one about the supposed pipe bombs.

“We were advised that a Tweet said that there were pipe bombs at the Korean Memorial,” Delgado wrote in an email. “The memorial and all adjacent areas were swept by explosion detection K9s with negative results.”

This isn’t the first time Posobiec, a former naval intelligence officer, has played a lead role in promoting hoaxes. He was one of the most prominent promoters of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, that held that the Washington D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong was really a front for a child sex dungeon run by Hillary Clinton. He even went to the restaurant to find out “what’s really going on” there.

That conspiracy theory inspired a North Carolina man to shoot a gun inside of Comet Ping Pong, and prompted an arsonist to try to light the restaurant on fire in 2019 while it was filled with families. 

In 2017, BuzzFeed reported text messages suggesting that Posobiec held a “Rape Melania” sign during an anti-Trump protest in an apparent attempt to discredit the protesters as insidious and deranged.   

Since then, Posobiec has tried to reinvent himself as a kind of hard-edged national security reporter — while also creating a comic book about himself in which a fictionalized Posobiec alter ego named “Agent Poso” pulls off James Bond-style stunts with other conservative media personalities. 

Despite Posobiec’s reputation for hoaxes, Trump frequently retweets his tweets and praises his network, OAN, as a more pro-Trump rival to Fox News. The White House has ensured that Posobiec’s colleague, OAN reporter Chanel Rion, has access to press briefings in violation of the White House press corps coronavirus social-distancing restrictions.

 

 

Where is this network? Is it on broadcast cable? Or online only? Is it subject to the FCC? 

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15 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

while also creating a comic book about himself in which a fictionalized Posobiec alter ego named “Agent Poso” pulls off James Bond-style stunts with other conservative media personalities. 

what's a word for douchecanoe combined with shitbag? 

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3 hours ago, wildcat09 said:

The New York Times does not need to be lending its credibility to advocacy for a fascist crackdown against peaceful protesters. Cotton’s op ed contains blatant lies and distortions, is legitimately dangerous, and the Times running it gives his words an appearance of legitimacy that they wouldn’t get by being run by Breitbart or Fox News.

Yup.  This is as confounding as the NYT deciding that the run up to the 2016 election was a really kickass time to run infinite long winded thinkpieces about understanding weirdo white supremacists. 

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Had a friend in law school, drop dead gorgeous black girl from Idaho. It was definitely a running joke dialogue with her a lot about being the only black person in Idaho. Her argument to the contrary was that her parents and brother also lived there.

153fcf429f6dea80c6c13003af478050.jpg
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5 minutes ago, Wanker Bob said:

If this movement keeps making things ugly for cops and the white establishment how long until they start sending anyone with a voice campin' like they did my man Fred Hampton?

This is different, extremely different. There are a TON of white people coast to coast doing this. Idaho is showing up. They're coming out every single day in DC. People are unemployed en masse and they ain't got shit else to do but organize, get mad online, and protest. College kids are furious and there ain't any school for them.

If I'm Trump...

1 - Immediate executive orders nullifying all police union contracts with qualified immunity (force renegotiation)
2 - Mandatory community review boards with specific oversight and punishment powers to receive any federal funding
3 - Mandatory demilitarization to receive any federal funding
4 - Cancel all police militarization contracts/initiatives, shift that money to just raising police salaries (no punitive measures against the police as a whole)
5 - Mandatory community policing initiatives to receive any federal funding
6 - Quota system for police living within their own jurisdictions with federal housing assistance
7 - Job transition programs for officers unfit to serve under the new guidelines (start with officers with a problematic history). If they have a dirty record and agree to transition peacefully, they get 3 years salary or early retirement if they're less than 3 years away with free vocational/continuing education to find a new career.
8 - Jobs guarantee tied to a Green New Deal to get people working, even if it's digging holes for pointless wind and solar installation, cleaning up waterways and wildlands, creating large community murals, etc...

Show the people you are taking action to reform police into a net good for the community. Show the police officers you still want them to get paid, but the nature of the job is changing.

Money is fiction, buy your way out of this.

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200.gif
Ha, yeah mum dad and I lived in Belgravia until I was 15 when we moved to Texas for dad's work. Now I'm 33 and a US citizen so I'm more American than Brit these days. Still have far too pasty skin for Texas sun and typical Brit dry humor. 
I think like me most privileged white Americans haven't realised just how institutional the racism is here until recently. When I was riding with my black co-worker last year and he got hassled by a dfw cop who kept asking every accusatory question imaginable while barely paying any attention to me was the first time I saw it for myself. The harassment and degradation even if they don't commit murder or assault is unacceptable. 

BELGRAVIA?????

Now I really do have a crush!

Belgravia is my fantasy destination when I daydream about being able to live wherever I want.

London is my most favorite place on the planet.

(Sorry for the derailment - I’m just now finally sitting down after coordinating screened ICU visits for my friend who is dying from Covid. It’s been a really shitty day.)
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25 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

fucking coward bunker bitch is building his wall except it’s to protect himself from American citizens. 

 

Loved one of the replies 

https://mobile.twitter.com/markmobility/status/1267890952934391809

I tried and failed to embed properly.  It’s a video of Obama walking around the park taking to citizens like a normal person. 

Edited by Homercles
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1 hour ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

fucking coward bunker bitch is building his wall except it’s to protect himself from American citizens. 

 

I'm suspicious of this because I had exactly the same idea, for catching Osama bin Laden. I would simply send him a different piece each day. He would assemble it, to find himself... in jail

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20 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

 

Good

 

101195334_1216632735388177_1578313735825

 

I made some favorites and retweets on Twitter, so I'm good.

In seriousness, this kerfuffle is a reminder we need our Second Amendment rights to protect us from Government tyranny AND regular n'er do goods.  If you would like to discuss further, we can take it to the Gun Control thread.

Edited by Parliament
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42 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

101195334_1216632735388177_1578313735825

Fuck the nra in all things. But there are been lots of instances of business owners protecting their stores from looting with their firearms. Some of them even scary looking ones. 

Edited by Anastasis
Looting.
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7 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Fuck the nra in all things. But there are been lots of instances of business owners protecting their stores from looting with their firearms. Some of them even scary looking ones. 

He wasn’t referencing defending your property.

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2 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

He wasn’t referencing defending your property.

Nope he wasn't, but based on footage of what some police forces have allowed to happen while just standing by, and watching (at times). The right to bear arms is a basic right of self protection needed here in this nation.   You can't say many who oppose the NRA  (I am one who doesn't agree with much of what they state) also oppose any ownership of guns by citizens for any reason.

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2 hours ago, Al Bundy's Napoleon Hand said:

San Antonio GOP Chair who recently claimed coronavirus was a hoax suggests, of course, Floyd murder was some staged event.

 

https://www.statesman.com/news/20200603/bexar-county-gop-chair-spread-conspiracy-theory-that-george-floyd-killing-may-have-been-staged-to-hurt-trump

 

 

And that’s not even the weirdest story about Cynthia Brehm

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The ski town of Breckenridge, Colorado a couple days ago.  People far distal to the problem have taken notice and want to do something about it.
 
There's been quite a pivot the last 2 days towards stuff like this. Perhaps our species isn't doomed?
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11 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

And that’s not even the weirdest story about Cynthia Brehm

I'm sure that the average, boring county chairs get zero attention but when the county chairs have odd stories or background, they seem over the top. 

A heavily populated county political chair downplays her husband molesting her daughter... torbush

 

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