DC Freemasons & Russian Psyops

In the conclusion to the Dan Rapoport subplot, we discover how a Russian gossip blogger managed to break the story of his death and why a DC Freemason lodge is affiliated with his alter-ego. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Something strange is going on.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Who is killing Russian billionaires? Another Russian oligarch has been
found dead. Reports suggests that he hanged himself, fell out
of a window.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Slashed his wrists, was poisoned, murdered his whole family. Last year,
more than a dozen Russian oligarchs died in the space
of nine months. Many of the debts are suspicious with
links to the Kremlin. This is sad Oligach, an investigation
into these recently dead Russian billionaires. It's created by me

(00:32):
Jake Hanrahan and my colleague Sergey Slipchenkov. Sad Oligach is
a h eleven production for Kulso Media and iHeartRadio. This
is the final part of the curious case of Dan Rappoport.

(00:55):
He was pretending to be a Pentagon analyst, which worked
for the circles he was trying to infle. But on
the flip side, it allowed Russia to quote a Pentagon
analyst that was borderline threatening them with this rhetoric. The
Russian Ministry of Defense media outlet TV Zavezda published an
article titled Pentagon plans to obliterate Russian Federation in twenty

(01:17):
days and let NATO govern it. To be fair, they
did say that it was unknown whether dubog was legit
or not, but the damage was done. With the headline
another article in Russia's state news service Aria Navosti asked
the question is the US preparing a new Operation Barbarossa
against Russia? Operation Barbarossa being the invasion of the Soviet

(01:41):
Union by Nazi Germany. The article was viewed half a
million times. Duberg's message was spreading across Russia already, though
pro Kremlin journalists were saying that Duwberg was a fake,
there is no doubt that Putin himself would have been
made aware of David Duberg at this time, and therefore

(02:01):
I think Dan Rappaport an old fox emerges. At this point,
various bloggers and rioters across the world began to attack
drew Berg, correctly calling out his fraud. In turn, Drew
Burg slash Rappaport did various corny things to try and
prove his legitimacy. This included posting a photo of his

(02:24):
laptop with the Dwberg Facebook page open on the screen,
with a block four five pistol with two loaded magazines
sat there on the keyboard in front of him. Duburg
also apparently emailed the blogger saying quote, you better be
looking over your shoulder. I will find you now. After

(02:44):
all of this, how do we know David Duberg was
actually done? Rappaport, Well, journalist Alexi Cuzamenko is extremely good
at what he does. He laid it all out perfectly
in his article for Bellingcat with all the receipts to boot.
Dan Rappaport, on his real profile as himself was posting

(03:04):
photos of David Duberg. Remember, the image of dw Berg
was just his Texan mate Steve Ferrow, but publicly Rappaport
claimed it was dw Burg and said that they knew
each other, not him and feroh, him and du Burg.
He was shaking his own hand. Dan Rapperport, whilst in
one of his many Facebook arguments about Russia's technical capabilities,

(03:29):
threaten someone saying that David Duberg would write a letter
from the Pentagon to his employer real bully boy shit,
Rapperport wrote, quote, David Duberg will write a letter from
Pentagon to textra on Monday, America police. Is the world
better worse than trying or Russia? Ends quote Rappaport did

(03:49):
this a lot. To be honest, he seemed like a
bit of a maniac. At times. He text an email
people he didn't agree with, essentially threatening to set Drew
Berg on them. I am David's all lack of self discipline. Eventually,
Rappaport would even place himself as a conduit to Duberg.
A former Russian politician and putin opposition figure named Ilya

(04:11):
Ponomarev said that Rappaport was open about having a work
in relationship with David Duberg and that he put him
in touch with him. Ponomarev also openly endorsed du Burg,
which boosted his profile massively in the Russian dissident scene.
Regularly friends of Rappaport were friends of Duburg. One Russian
expert even confirmed that Duburg was Rappaport Schuzumenko writes quote.

(04:37):
In June twenty seventeen, Dubog posted a link to a
Voice of America Russian Service interview with well known American
Russian expert David Satter, adding a comment that Sata was
his personal friend. Sata was also listed as Dan Rappaport's
friend on Facebook almost a year prior In September twenty sixteen,
du Berg made a Facebook post about a presentation of

(04:59):
SA book at a Washington bookstore, also calling Sata a
personal friend. David Satter himself liked the post on Facebook.
When Satur was asked via email if Rappaport was in
fact David Duberg, Sata confirmed, I am aware that David
Duberg is a non de plume for Dan Rapperport. Dan
is a friend of mine and I have no objections

(05:22):
to him reprinting the article with the va Ends quote.
But it seems Dan Rappaport didn't act alone.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
I didn't create some loser alter. You've got to make
myself feel better.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
The first rule of David Dubog club is that you
don't talk about David Duwburgh club. Problem is they all did.
A pattern clearly emerges when looking at the various social
media interactions between Drew Berg, Rapperport, and the many people
who boosted the jew Burg fraud. These people would also
post on Duwberg's Facebook timeline or to related Facebook groups,

(05:56):
explaining his temporary absences, such as when he was temporarily
banned from the social network, and tracing these individuals. They
all had someone in common. Dan Rappaport, one of these
people in David Duwberg Club is very curious. Active duty
US Navy Lieutenant Commander Ben Anderson. Anderson said he was

(06:21):
a personal friend of Dan Rappaport's. On January twenty fifth,
twenty sixteen, he wrote on the David Duberg profile saying, quote,
Dear David's readers, he asked me to let you know
that he can't post or even answer your messages yet
his email Major dot Buburg at gmail dot com is

(06:42):
fully functional. He'll be back on Facebook on February twenty third,
twenty sixteen. End quote. This exact same message, word for word,
will be posted at a later date by Vlad Blutsky,
a former coordinator of the Free Russia Foundation, Perhaps a
clear case of internal coordination at David Duberg Club. US

(07:05):
Navy later even confirmed that, yes, the Ben Anderson account
who posted the message is indeed the legit US Navy
Lieutenant Commander Ben Anderson. How curious. Now, remember the Freemason
patch I was talking about earlier, the one David Duberg
was seen wearing on his military gear. Well, get this,

(07:26):
The many social gatherings that David Duberg publicly attended were
tied to rappaport, including a local chapter of the Freemason,
the Scottish Rite Freemasonry Chapter in Washington, d C. Of
all places. Now, don't worry, I'm not about to don
at tinfoyl hat and claim Freemasons all the world. But

(07:46):
they are an influential old boys club that's perfect for
organizing amongst the wealthy board men of this world. Despite
what they say, they do have some sway. I'd go
as far as to say that a Freemason meeting in Washington,
DC is perhaps the perfect place for organizing what became
a high tier influence campaign with David Duberg Club. Also,

(08:11):
it seems that the real identity of the public face
of David Duberg, Steve Ferrow, was also part of the Freemasons.
As David Duberg, he was photographed next to active US
Army Colonel Rob Mitchell. Mitchell is also a Freemason. Dubog
posted these photos on his Facebook profile, congratulating Mitchell on

(08:35):
becoming a colonel. As du Berg, he called Mitchell his friend, colleague,
and brother. Other members of David Dubog Club would continue
to out themselves by communicating with du Berg as if
he was a real person, Kuzomenko writes, quote du Berg
attempted to boost his credibility by frequently referring to a

(08:59):
number of rapper sports friends who openly talted their military credentials,
such as dmitriy Mining and Eric Kneilov. These friends would
also post photographs and other content that referred to Duburg
as if he were a real person, such as March
twenty sixteen Facebook posts from Eric Karneilov showing a group

(09:19):
of soldiers with the text remember this beautiful day, David,
We definitely had some fun. Bro. Many of these individuals
were used to prop up Duberg as an actual, well
connected person. Were friends with Rappaport and in his social circles,
including being in this same local Freemason chapter. These contacts

(09:40):
were all living in or around Washington, DC. But another
Rapperport contact was perhaps the most vital in creating false
legitimacy to the Pentagon official, Steve Ferrow, whose face was
used to represent Duberg End's quote feraoh New Rappaport from
Houston University. They were in the same threat together, the

(10:03):
hilariously named Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity Pharaoh denies any knowledge
of the David Duburg account. However, after being questioned about
this by Kusamenko, Pharaoh quickly deleted photos from his own
Facebook profile that linked him to Duburg and Rappaport. It's
clear that Rappaport was not the sole person involved with

(10:25):
David Duberg. I think it's obvious at this stage that
a small collective of Rappaport's friends and associates, several from
his freemasonry lodge, were instrumental in promoting David Duberg as
a means to spread pro American, anti Kremlin Russian information.
Pretty much everything Dan Rappaport was involved and invested in.

(10:48):
Some might ask the question was Dan Rappaport just a
Pentagon fanboy lapping as an insider or was he a
Pentagon insider lapping as a businessman. Well, the Pentagon deniers

(11:18):
ever employing a David Duberg and said it's nothing to
do with them, which they would incus Menko showed his
findings to several people within the intelligence sphere. They had
an unusual response. Glen Carlei, a veteran of the CIA
and former deputy officer on the National Intelligence Council, said

(11:40):
that it was a quote crap initiative, it was created
by a quote fool, and curiously was probably a Russian
disinformation campaign as opposed to an actual anti Russian operation.
Ludmila Subchuk Borisova, a Russian journalist known for investigating government
back internet troll factories, also looked at Kuzmenko's work. She said,

(12:05):
quote Dubog resembles propagandist fake accounts that a troll factory
in Russia would create, a whole group of people would
work on something like this. Still, propagandist efforts, regardless of
who runs them, tend to look alike. Dubug is not
necessarily a Russian project. On the other hand, a recent
report in Russia pointed out that some anti Russian foreign

(12:28):
experts invited onto Russian TV as token representatives of the
West are often actually paid to serve as virtual punching
bags for local anchors to ridicule ends. Quote author Peter Pomorantseev,
a senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics,
also thought the case was strange. He said, quote what

(12:50):
struck me first is that the whole thing could be
a surreal prank. An extravagant individual undertaking. It's not how
you imagine secret services to work. But then again, considering
that it spanned such a long period of time, it
could be a case of freelance work where someone a freelancer,
ventures out on his own kick, starts a certain project,

(13:12):
and later pitches an already running operation to a potential buyer.
Things aren't necessarily always linear, as in there's a side
that orders everything and an executor. I think we are
seeing more and more of that thing and it becomes
increasingly accessible. Again this case, the Jewberg case, appears to

(13:33):
be a weird propaganda campaign meant for Russian state broadcaster
Novosti ends quote. It seems that the David Duberg slash
Dan Rappaport rabbit hole never ends. The du Burg saga is,
in my opinion, a case of a small group of
people creating a smoke screen for their own internal political

(13:56):
influence that snowballed faster and bigger than they intended it to. Remember,
it caught the eye of the Kremlin. They no doubt
worked out who was behind it as well, putting Rappaport
in their sights once again, So you have to ask yourself,
did this contribute to Dan Rappaport's death. Was he pushed

(14:17):
out of his window for building a fake profile that
began to spread news of plans for US domination of
Russia through Putin's backyard. Who knows, at the very least,
I think when you combine the David Duberg situation with
Rappaport's previous problems with the Kremlin, it begins to make
him look like a target not so irrelevant to Putin

(14:38):
as before. That is, if this was a hit. We
don't know now. Remember at the start, when we spoke
about Rappaport's dog, the supposed suicide note and the cash
attached to the collar. This bizarre tale came from a
Russian source. This source is a telegram channel ran by
the former editor of the Russian Tatler magazine, Yanaiya Pugachiva.

(15:02):
She's basically a gossip reporter. This convoluted and according to
Rappaporte's wife, false story about the dog was used to
explain how the Russian telegram channel discover the death of Rappaport.
She broke the story. In the words of vlad Burlatsky,
who commented on the death of Rappaport, how the hell
did she learn about Dan's alleged suicide. Well, there's a theory,

(15:27):
here's sergery.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
The main reason a Fasbar and other similar agencies use
gossip sites or telegram channels or you know, independent creators
is because I think people have a distrust with the
mainstream You see this in the West, mainstream media or whatever.
They don't believe it. They people are drawn to independent creators.
They're drawn to alternative media, whether it be like individual

(15:51):
comment creators, alternative outlets that are kind of new and
like web based. Similar in Russia, you know, telegram is
very popular. Telegram new channels are very often used, and
I think they have sort of like an authenticity and
credibility that people think that like state news outlets don't have.

(16:14):
They see that, you know. I think the skepticism in
Russians is like, if it's being like, if it's reporting
on something, it's probably being controlled in some way. If
it's not straight up controlled by the government, it's probably
being influenced. And this is true for any kind of
information they get, whether it's from the Russian government or
from you know, the West. I mean, especially from the West.

(16:34):
They're skeptical of anything. There's a bunch of different you know,
it's a scale of how skeptical people are. Some people
buy into and some people don't. And I think for
those that are skeptical of the Russian media, they turn
to independent creators and telegram news channels and they use
that as their like credible sorts of information. And I
think agencies can use that and kind of disseminate information

(16:58):
that they need through these sources, and it gives its
kind of its own credibility. I guess. You know, it's like, well,
it's kind of a silly let's say, a gossip side.
It's like, oh, it's a silly website that talks about
drama celebrity like flings or whatever, and then it reports

(17:18):
this serious thing. You may kind of think, well, they're
not political, they don't have any ties to the government,
because they're just like who cares, They're like a gossip site,
you know. But still people read it. They get that
information and they take it at face value. You know.
The thing with the note on reports dog, from what
I could see, there was no dog or note or anything,

(17:41):
but a lot of Russian sites reported it as fact,
and the origin seems to be essentially a blogger. She's
basically like an influencer who kind of reports on gossipy
stories and yeah, and you kind of use that as like, well,
she's independent, she has a reason to be controlled. She's
a little call Simularian. And then yeah, you just kind

(18:04):
of trust that more than something that you would believe
to be controlled by the government.

Speaker 1 (18:10):
So, Russian intelligence services have been known to use gossip
sites as a means to spread information quickly. Kind of smart,
I guess, But why would they want to spread the
news of Dan Rapperport's death and how did they know
about it? So soon? I'll leave that for you to
think about. To tie up this wild story of Dan

(18:31):
Rapperport's death and strange life, let's look at his final
Facebook post. This was posted just two days before he
died after falling out the window. Rapperport put up a
photo of Colonel Kurtz from the film Apocalypse Now. The character,
played by Marlon Brando, is a US military colonel gone rogue.

(18:55):
He slaughters fellow soldiers and basically starts a cult in
the jungle. Kurtz is based on the Ivory Trader character
from Joseph Conrad's eighteen ninety nine novella Heart of Darkness.
Rappaport posted the photo with the caption the Horror, The
horror a quote from Colonel Kurtz that I think sums

(19:17):
up this whole series. Murder, deception, war, a mysterious bloodshed,
the horror.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Said.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Oliger is a H eleven production for Cool Zone Media
and iHeart Radio. Posted, produced, researched and edited by me
Jake Hanrahan and Sergei Slipchenko. Co produced by Sophie Victim.
Music by Sam Black, artwork by Adam mcdoyle, soundmix by

(20:06):
Splicing Block. Go to Jacanrahan dot com for more information