Elon Musk uses Twitter to push Pelosi attack conspiracy theory that’s quickly debunked by police

SALON

Elon Musk

BY IGOR DERYSH

N ew Twitter owner Elon Musk shared and later deleted a link to a site notorious for pushing misinformation to suggest there may be "more" to the story of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband being assaulted during a break-in at their home.

Musk, who officially took over the social platform on Friday, tweeted a link to an article claiming that Paul Pelosi was drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute to his 112 million followers. The tweet was deleted hours later and police have said that Pelosi did not know his attacker before he broke into the home.

Paul Pelosi was attacked inside his home with a hammer after the suspect, identified as David DePape, broke in through a backdoor, according to police. Police have said that DePape assaulted Pelosi with a hammer. Pelosi suffered a skull fracture and injuries to his hands and right arm and underwent surgery following the attack, the House speaker's office said.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Twitter criticized Republicans for spreading conspiracy theories, linking to an article describing DePape's writings about QAnon and other far-right and racist conspiracy theories.

"The Republican Party and its mouthpieces now regularly spread hate and deranged conspiracy theories," Clinton wrote. "It is shocking, but not surprising, that violence is the result. As citizens, we must hold them accountable for their words and the actions that follow."

Musk, who has increasingly aligned himself with far-right figures, responded to the tweet by pushing another conspiracy theory.

"There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye," Musk wrote in a reply to Clinton, linking to an article from the Santa Monica Observer that baselessly claimed the suspect was a male prostitute. The link was deleted about six hours later.

NBC News reporter Ben Collins noted that police have said on the record that Pelosi and his attacker did not know each other before the attack, which "directly contradicts conspiracy theories pushed by (and since deleted by) Twitter owner Elon Musk."

Police have said that DePape broke into the home and shouted "Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?"

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told The New York Times that she had seen nothing to support the idea that Pelosi and his attacker knew each other.

The Santa Monica Observer is one of a growing number of websites that "masquerade as legitimate newspapers," The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board warned last year. The website, which is owned by former City Council candidate David Ganezer, is "notorious for publishing false news," the outlet reported, noting that the site once claimed that Hillary Clinton had died in 2016 and a body double was sent to debate Donald Trump. It later reported that Trump had named Kanye West to a senior position in the Interior Department, among other false claims.

Musk, who paid about $44 billion for the social network and immediately fired its top executives, has suggested that the social network would become more "free" and floated the idea of reinstating the account of Trump, who was indefinitely suspended after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Musk sought to reassure nervous advertisers ahead of the purchase, vowing that Twitter "obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences." He later said that a content moderation council would meet to decide any "account reinstatements."

Trolls emboldened by Musk's takeover quickly filled their feeds with racist, antisemitic and conspiratorial tweets. The Network Contagion Research Institute, which analyzes social media messages, found that use of the N-word on the platform spiked nearly 500% in the 12 hours after Musk's purchase was finalized.

"The new standard bearer of the company is setting the tone that Twitter will be a place where misinformation and targeted rumors can circulate with the approval of the man behind the curtain," Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State Bernardino, told the Los Angeles Times after Musk's tweet over the weekend.

Los Angeles Times columnist Anita Chabria called out Musk for pushing a "vicious and false conspiracy theory" and "ugly, anti-LGBTQ garbage" on his own feed, noting that the conspiracy theory quickly spread from his account to other social channels.

"When the rich, powerful and influential become peddlers of antidemocratic ammunition, they become dangerous to democracy," Chabria wrote, warning that if "we don't hold Musk and others like him accountable now, we may not have the chance."

Al Qaeda Rising In Africa

NAIROBI, Kenya — Al Qaeda-inspired militancy is on the rise in Africa as disparate groups with local grievances find common cause in the global terror group’s tactics and ideology and, in turn, offer it new theaters of operation.

Military pressure, drone strikes and the assassination of Osama bin Laden have diminished Al Qaeda globally, leaving it weaker than at any point since its first terrorist spectacular, the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

But while Al Qaeda central wanes, affiliates elsewhere are growing stronger, nowhere more so than in Africa, where groups like Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), Boko Haram and Al Shabaab are finding ways of hitching Al Qaeda’s ideology to their local struggles.

“Africa represents a fertile ground for diminished ‘Al Qaeda-core’ to re-group, re-energize and re-launch its mission of global jihad,” according to a recent report by the Royal United Service Institute, a London-based think tank.

The report pointed to the potential for an “arc of instability encompassing the whole Sahara-Sahel strip and extending through to East Africa.” It warned that Al Qaeda’s new strategy seemed to be “going native,” using local militant groups and their conflicts to gain a foothold in new countries.

But while the report saw the impetus coming from Al Qaeda central, other observers say it is the African affiliates that are in the driving seat.

“Much of this is being driven by the Africans themselves,” Dr. J. Peter Pham, director of the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center at Washington’s Atlantic Council, told GlobalPost.

“They are finding in this ideology, which is not native, a way to transcend the local particularities of their individual fight and invest it with a greater meaning that has purchase beyond their borders,” Pham argued.

Nigeria’s Boko Haram offers a powerful example of a local insurgency adopting the rhetorical and tactical style of Al Qaeda to great effect.

Firmly rooted in the neglect and economic marginalization of Nigeria’s Muslim north, Boko Haram has developed its own signature attacks — the bloody church assault, for instance — but has learned from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Shabaab how to build improvised explosive devices and deploy suicide bombers.

Its leaders have two messages: one tailored for locals that addresses local issues and attracts new recruits and popular support; and another aimed at a broader audience, seeking reputational capital and financial backing.

Al Qaeda also has much to gain from alliances with African groups. Territory controlled by allied organizations offer safe havens for Al Qaeda operatives and fighters.

It also gives Al Qaeda “the ability to project the aura of dynamism at a time when they are increasingly squeezed,” Pham said.

This new dynamic is, however, fraught with difficulties for the local affiliates.

“These groups are often caught in a dilemma over whether to remain a locally-focused insurgency force or to become a truly international terrorist organization with a global ethos,” according to the Royal United Service Institute report.

Al Shabaab in Somalia is an example. Analysts have long pointed to divisions, tensions and sometimes outright hostility between the nationalists in the organization and those interested in taking the group global.

Also problematic is the cross-fertilization taking place between Islamist groups on different sides of the continent that, Pham argues, is driving a kind of self-radicalization, as the organizations share expertise and tactics.

“These Al Qaeda inspired transnational movements are gaining traction in Africa. They are communicating, sharing resources, sharing ideas and copying methods of attack,” Pham said.

The resilience of Al Qaeda ideology was made clear in recent months. Even as Al Shabaab was forced into retreat in Somalia over the last year, a new threat emerged very rapidly in northern Mali, where various Al Qaeda-aligned groups hijacked a local rebellion in March.

The various organizations (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, Ansar Dine and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa) managed, in a matter of weeks, to elevate themselves from a band of drug-smugglers and occasional terrorists with lucrative sidelines in kidnapping into the world’s pre-eminent Al Qaeda alliance.

Together they control half of a huge country and are establishing governments, largely unchallenged.

They are well equipped, raising questions about the origins of outside financial backing, and there have been numerous unconfirmed sightings in northern Mali of foreigners from Pakistan and elsewhere.

The links between Africa’s Al Qaeda groups worry Western security services.

Earlier this year Gen. Carter Ham, the top US military commander for Africa, warned of the triple threat Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Boko Haram and Al Shabaab present.

“What really concerns me is the indications that the three organizations are seeking to coordinate and synchronize their efforts,” he told the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies in June.

.........SALON/GLOBAL POST