Identifying Misinformation - US Department of State

Identifying Misinformation

Museum Exhibit Explores Protocols of the Elders of Zion

In 1920, Americans found a version in the glove box of their new Ford automobiles. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia distributed copies to guests, including U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger. It ignited pogroms in Russia and helped inspire mass murder in Germany. "If ever a piece of writing could produce mass hatred it is this one," Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel has written.

Even so, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion—a notorious forgery debunked repeatedly throughout the West—continues today to nourish anti-Semitism and to poison relations between peoples. (complete text)

Confessions -- or Fantasies -- of an Economic Hit Man?

John Perkins’ popular, but misleading, book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, is being released in paperback. Perkins claims that the U.S. National Security Agency recruited him to be an “economic hit man,” who deliberately entrapped foreign countries in unmanageable amounts of debt so they would be beholden to the United States. This appears to be a total fabrication. To the contrary, the U.S. government has led a recent initiative to cancel the debt of many heavily indebted poor countries. (complete text)

"Plan Balboa" Not a U.S. Plan To Invade Venezuela

Since April 2004, Venezuelan officials, including President Hugo Chavez, have falsely claimed that the United States is planning to invade Venezuela in an operation supposedly entitled “Plan Balboa.” (complete text)

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