U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor Advanced Fake Gaza ‘Intel’

HNewsWire:

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor has seen his profile rise to stardom over the past couple of years, thanks to his frequent guest appearances on Tucker Carlson’s Fox and Twitter/X shows, during which he has developed into a voice for Western military restraint in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

But like many current and retired U.S. military officers in the 21st century, Macgregor appears to have advanced a plethora of bad intelligence concerning the war between Israel and Hamas, and it might be sourced to shadowy foreign actors.

In the days and weeks following the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel, Macgregor, a longtime critic of the Jewish state, quickly repositioned himself from a self-proclaimed guru on Russia-Ukraine matters to a Middle East expert. The results have been — as one would expect — not good, to put it mildly.

When it came to the Israel-Hamas spat, the military pundit was initially striking similar themes to his non-interventionist portfolio. However, Macgregor took it a step further when it came to Israel, arguing that they should simply not retaliate against the worst attack on Jewish civilians since the Holocaust. He has fervently advocated against the idea that Israel should take the fight to Hamas on their turf in Gaza, arguing that such an operation would enrage Muslims and open up the United States to terrorist attacks, and even World War III. In doing so, however, Macgregor has revealed an extremely limited capacity of knowledge on the Middle East, making very basic (and public) errors on the foundational elements of the region.

Macgregor also claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is setting the path for armageddon.”

In addition to stating his opinion, Macgregor has also claimed to be a man in possession of insider knowledge on the situation in Gaza.

Last week, several days before Israeli ground forces entered the Gaza Strip, Macgregor appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Twitter/X show and told Carlson’s 10.5 million followers that American and Israeli special forces were operating and fighting in Gaza. Not only were they operating in Gaza, they were getting blown to bits by jihadi militants, in a botched attempt to secure the hostages, he told the former Fox News host.

“As we've seen quite recently in the last 24 hours or so, some of our special forces and Israeli special forces went into to Gaza to reconnoiter, to plan for where they might want to go to free hostages and and make an impact. And they were shot to pieces and took heavy losses as I understand,” Macgregor told Carlson. “And once we are a co-belligerent, we enter this thing, it is going to be very difficult for Russia and Turkey not to also come into this fight against us because they will not tolerate the sort of collective punishment that Israel plans for Gaza."

Mr Carlson did not ask Macgregor about his source for this supposed bombshell revelation, which turned out to be entirely baseless.

To this day, there remains no evidence that any of the events Macgregor described happened. Neither the U.S. nor Israel nor Hamas has provided any information to substantiate such an operation. No party relevant to the “intelligence” has corroborated a single piece of it. It simply never happened.

Macgregor has yet to address his false statement on Tucker Carlson’s show, and his warnings of nation-state involvement upon Israel’s entry into Gaza did not come to fruition. Neither Turkey nor Russia has directed any forces to intervene in the Israel-Hamas war.

So where did Mr Macgregor get this “intel"?

In a series of since deleted tweets, the retired colonel appears to have exposed his sources for the information.

In recent days, he has claimed to be receiving “excellent intel” on Gaza from an organization called the New Federal State of China (NFSC), an entity established by a notorious jailed Chinese expat named Miles Guo, who made inroads for his personal and professional causes through his financial support for high profile conservative figures.

Guo, a Chinese national who accumulated a fortune while living in China, now claims to be an anti-Chinese Communist Party crusader (but many of his critics have their doubts about these stated intentions, claiming that he is the opposite, and might be tied to Chinese intelligence), was indicted by the Department of Justice in March and charged with defrauding his followers and investors of more than $1 billion.

The SEC has described Mr Guo as a “serial fraudster” who “raised more than $850 million by promising investors outsized returns on purported crypto, technology and luxury good investment opportunities.”

Guo is currently in federal prison and will remain there until his trial. Nonetheless, several of his properties, like the NFSC, remain very active on social media and elsewhere. Guo has a cult-like following in some segments of the Chinese expat community, with some of his more passionate followers likening him to a deity.

One such example of the NFSC’s faulty “intelligence” comes via their pinned tweet, in which the account claims to have “exclusive intelligence” on the infamous Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion that took place on October 17, 2023.

There’s of course several major problem with this piece of “intelligence.”

First and foremost, we now know that the hospital was never hit by a blast. A misfired Hamas rocket hit the parking lot. And the photo in the caption is a separate building.

The Dossier sent a message to the Twitter/X account for the NFSC to ask what the source was for their “excellent intel.”

They replied: “Hi, This is intel from CCP whistleblowers inside China.”

The Dossier then informed the NFSC that there are several factual errors in the supposed intelligence, which apparently came from China, not Gaza. The NFSC account did not respond to the follow up.

Over the past few weeks, NFSC representatives have been appearing on conservative media channels to advance evidence-free claims that they have “exclusive intelligence” on Hamas and Israeli military operations, which are sourced to anonymous dissident individuals in China. One such report claims there are “super bombs” buried under ground in Gaza, adding that their “intelligence” was the reason why Israel delayed its ground invasion. The NFSC then claimed credit for “saving many innocent lives.”

The Dossier reached out to Col Macgregor about his tweets applauding the Guo-founded New Federal State of China.

But shortly thereafter, the Twitter/X account for Macgregor deleted all of his tweets promoting the NFSC. Macgregor has not posted anything on social media to address the rapid-fire deleted tweets.

Macgregor has a new gig. He is currently listed as the CEO for a new organization called Our Country, Our Choice (OCOC), which he affiliated himself with while on Tucker Carlson’s show last week. Some individuals affiliated with the OCOC — which filed its paperwork in July to register as a Delaware LLC — have also promoted Guo-backed entities.

The OCOC website reads like a combination of someone writing in broken English and using a Chat GPT bot for content, but claims a mission of using “the tools, information and skills to proactively preserve and strengthen the security, prosperity, and moral fabric of our society.”

The Dossier reached out to several individuals affiliated with the organization. None of them would reveal who or what entities were funding their work. The OCOC social page currently has a gold checkmark on X.com, which costs $1,000 per month.

The Dossier exchanged emails with a man named Casey Butner, who is listed as the “Christian Leader” for OCOC. He refused to reveal who is funding the organization. He replied as follows: “a group of hard working American’s who are concerned at our country’s future founded OCOC. It is a movement that is a people of America movement and wishes not to be credited but the people."

Another media partner to OCOC refused to reveal the funding sources for OCOC. He referred The Dossier to Col Macgregor, who did not respond to multiple inquiries.

If we receive any comment from Col Macgregor, this story will be updated to reflect that