Geissler Erhard, Sprinkle Robert Hunt
1Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine.
2University of Maryland.
Politics Life Sci. 2019 May 1;38(1):32-61. doi: 10.1017/pls.2018.27.
Disinformation, now best known generically as "fake news," is an old and protean weapon. Prominent in the 1980s was AIDS disinformation, including the HIV-from-Fort-Detrick myth, for whose propagation some figures ultimately admitted blame while others shamelessly claimed credit. In 2013 we reported a comprehensive analysis of this myth, finding leading roles for the Soviet Union's state security service, the KGB, and for biologist and independent conspiracy theorist Jakob Segal but not for East Germany's state security service, the Stasi. We found Stasi involvement had been much less extensive and much less successful than two former Stasi officers had begun claiming following German reunification. In 2014 two historians crediting the two former Stasi officers coauthored a monograph challenging our analysis and portraying the Stasi as having directed Segal, or at least as having used him as a "conscious or unconscious multiplier," and as having successfully assisted a Soviet bloc AIDS-disinformation conspiracy that they soon inherited and thenceforth led. In 2017 a German appellate court found our 2013 analysis persuasive in a defamation suit brought by a filmmaker whose work the 2014 monograph had depicted as co-funded by the Stasi. Question and methods. Were our critics right about the Stasi? We asked and answered ten subsidiary questions bearing upon our critics' arguments, reassessing our own prior work and probing additional sources including archives of East Germany's Partei- und Staatsführung [party-and-state leadership] and the recollections of living witnesses.
Jakob Segal transformed and transmitted the myth without direction from the KGB or the Stasi or any element of East Germany's party-and-state leadership. The Stasi had trouble even tracking Segal's activities, which some officers feared would disadvantage East Germany scientifically, economically, and politically. Three officers in one Stasi section did show interest in myth propagation, but their efforts were late, limited, inept, and inconsequential.
The HIV-from-Fort-Detrick myth, most effectively promoted by Jakob Segal acting independently of any state's security service, was not, contrary to claims, a Stasi success.
虚假信息，如今通常被统称为“假新闻”，是一种古老且多变的武器。20世纪80年代突出的是艾滋病虚假信息，包括“艾滋病病毒源自德特里克堡”这一谣言，一些人最终承认对其传播负有责任，而另一些人则厚颜无耻地邀功。2013年，我们报道了对这一谣言的全面分析，发现苏联国家安全机构克格勃以及生物学家兼独立阴谋论者雅各布·西格尔扮演了主要角色，而东德国家安全机构斯塔西则没有。我们发现，斯塔西的参与程度远不如德国统一后两名前斯塔西官员开始声称的那样广泛，也远没有那么成功。2014年，两名相信这两名前斯塔西官员说法的历史学家合写了一本专著，对我们的分析提出质疑，并将斯塔西描绘成指挥西格尔的一方，或者至少将他用作“有意识或无意识的传播者”，还成功协助了一个苏联集团的艾滋病虚假信息阴谋，他们很快继承并从此主导了这个阴谋。2017年，一家德国上诉法院在一名电影制作人提起的诽谤诉讼中认为我们2013年的分析具有说服力，该电影制作人的作品在2014年的专著中被描述为由斯塔西共同资助。问题与方法。我们的批评者关于斯塔西的说法正确吗？我们提出并回答了十个与批评者论点相关的辅助问题，重新评估了我们自己之前的工作，并挖掘了更多资料来源，包括东德党和国家领导层的档案以及在世证人的回忆。
雅各布·西格尔在没有克格勃、斯塔西或东德党和国家领导层任何一方指示的情况下，改变并传播了这个谣言。斯塔西甚至难以追踪西格尔的活动，一些官员担心这会在科学、经济和政治上给东德带来不利影响。斯塔西一个部门的三名官员确实对谣言传播表现出兴趣，但他们的努力为时已晚、范围有限、不得要领且无关紧要。
“艾滋病病毒源自德特里克堡”这一谣言，最有效的传播者是独立于任何国家安全机构行事的雅各布·西格尔，与声称的情况相反，这并非斯塔西的成功之举。
