Biden administration reveals overarching ‘Ministry of Truth’

The Biden administration this month revealed the existence of an agency tasked with managing “disinformation” and which oversees similar federal agencies.

Director of National Intelligence (DCI) Avril Haines first mentioned the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC) on May 4th during her testimony before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. While legislation passed last year ordered the FMIC’s creation, it had not been mentioned publicly until Haines’ hearing.

The intelligence chief noted that the FMIC does not just deal with foreign-influenced election disinformation, but all disinformation.

“Congress put into law that we should establish a Foreign Malign Influence Center in the intelligence community; we have stood that up,” Haines told the committee. “It encompasses our election threat work, essentially looking at foreign influence and interference in elections, but it also deals with disinformation more generally.”

Haines was referring to a provision of the law which charges the FMIC with countering foreign influence on “public opinion”. 

But not only should the office be responsible for truth in public opinion, it should also “serve as the primary organization in the United States Government for analyzing and integrating all intelligence possessed or acquired by the United States Government pertaining to foreign malign influence.” 

This means the FMIC oversees other offices which are also “countering disinformation”, such as the Global Engagement Center (GEC). The GEC is an office within the State Department whose mission is described as “countering foreign disinformation by amplifying America’s own propaganda.”

Some of the GEC’s work involves working with groups funded by billionaire George Soros and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to track “disinformation spreaders” on social media. These users include those who question the safety or efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Other agencies have their own “disinformation” offices. In 2017 the FBI created the Foreign Influence Task Force. The next year, the Department of Homeland Security established the Countering Foreign Influence Task Force. 

Last year, the Biden administration attempted to create the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB), an office within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which would manage truth and disinformation for the United States. Nina Jankowicz, a “disinformation expert” who has been known to spread disinformation and "shudder" at the thought of free speech, was tapped to be the board’s executive director. 

Ultimately, the DGB was scuttled after widespread backlash concerning the board being a threat to free speech. Jankowicz went on a media tour blaming her termination on Right-wing disinformation. It was later revealed through internal documents leaked by DHS whistleblowers that the DGB was intended to silence the Biden administration’s political opponents. 

But it appears the federal government has no shortage of truth ministries, prompting Inspector General Joseph Cuffari last year to call for a “unified strategy to counter disinformation campaigns”. Even Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who himself has demanded the censorship of his political opponents, questioned the need for the FMIC.

“We want to be sure that this center enhances those efforts rather than duplicating them or miring them in unnecessary bureaucracy,” said Warner last year, adding that there were “legitimate questions about how large such an organization should be and even about where it would fit.”