TURKMENISTAN: FALSE STORY ON IRC FURTHER REDUCES OPPO

UNCLAS ASHGABAT 000336 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EUR/ACE, SCA/PPD, ECA, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL PROP KPAO TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: FALSE STORY ON IRC FURTHER REDUCES OPPO WEBSITE'S CREDIBILITY REF: ASHGABAT 0279 ¶1. (SBU) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: The Russian-language opposition website that originated the now infamous cockroach-results-in-mass-firings story (reftel),"Kronika Turkmenistana," has now featured the Embassy's Information Resource Center (IRC) in an article that is also inaccurate and potentially harmful to U.S. interests in Turkmenistan. The article claims that the IRC might be monitoring the public's Internet usage on behalf of the Turkmen government. In addition to inaccuracies about the IRC, the opposition website may actually deter visitors from coming to use the IRC - one of the limited options in Turkmenistan for Internet access. END SUMMARY. IRC WORKING FOR THE KGB? ¶3. (SBU) "The Virus of Oppression (Nesvoboda) Even Infects the Americans" appeared on the Kronika Turkmenistana website on March 11 (http://www.chrono-tm.org). The Russian-language article is partly complementary about the value of the IRC, but also has a peculiar emphasis on "social activists" who use the center, rather than focusing on the general public. However, the article complains that the Americans must have succumbed to pressure from Turkmen secret services and is now monitoring visitors' internet use because one must download items from visitor-provided software through an IRC staff member. Among many other inaccuracies, the article mischaracterizes the IRC's anti-virus policy, which requires that visitors wishing to take home downloads on their own media must do so through IRC staff who verify that visitors' flash drives or disks cannot infect the IRC computer network. ¶4. (U) "Kronika Turkmenistana" made no effort to contact the Embassy for comment. The article only refers to IRC staff's explanations to visitors that the process is necessary for preventing computer viruses, but uses this to spin a conspiracy theory of Turkmen government involvement. ¶5. (SBU) COMMENT: Again, post is dismayed by the clear lack of credibility in reporting by "Kronika Turkmenistana." In addition, it is troubling that an opposition website which ostensibly supports access to information would publish information that could possibly deter the public from visiting one of the few islands of free access to information in Turkmenistan. The insidious effect of this web article raises our suspicions further that some supposedly opposition websites are getting "help" from unfriendly outside sources. END COMMENT. HOAGLAND