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The Star
08-08-2025
- Politics
- The Star
A war beyond the bombs
IN the hours before Israeli forces bombed Iran's Evin prison on June 23, social media posts in Persian foreshadowed the strike and urged Iranians to free the inmates. Moments after the bombs fell, a video surfaced on X and Telegram, appearing to show a blast at the notorious facility, long known for holding political prisoners. One post included the hashtag, in Persian: '#freeevin'. The attack was real – but the posts and video were not. According to researchers, they were part of an Israeli deception campaign. It was just one instance in a broader information war. Over 12 days of missile strikes between Israel and Iran, social media became a digital battleground, with both sides deploying fakes, fabrications and psychological operations (psyops) in an effort to control public perception – even as hundreds died and tensions escalated across the Middle East. While psyops are as old as warfare itself, experts say this conflict saw an unprecedented level of sophistication and scale, supercharged by artificial intelligence (AI) tools and ubiquitous mobile connectivity. 'The ability to go to scale with this kind of propaganda – there's never really been a previous corollary in history,' said James Forest, a security studies professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Today's technology enables governments to directly reach domestic and foreign audiences in real time – often with messages that seem far more credible than before. Iran, for example, reportedly sent alerts in Hebrew to thousands of Israeli phones, warning people to avoid bomb shelters because fighters planned to attack them. On X, a network of accounts attributed to Israel spread messages in Persian, some voiced by AI-generated narrators, aimed at undermining public faith in Iran's government. The propaganda barrage offers a glimpse into what future conflicts might look like. When US President Donald Trump ordered strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, false images of destroyed American bombers appeared online. 'I think what most people would say is that we are not prepared in the military for the kind of information operations or psychological operations that might become mainstream in this century,' said David Millar, a former US intelligence officer and trainer at the State Department's Foreign Service Institute. While the Pentagon has long embraced information warfare – renamed Military Information Support Operations – it is often treated as secondary to conventional tactics. Russia, by contrast, is seen as the most aggressive player in influence campaigns, waging a full-spectrum information war since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Both Israel and Iran have adopted elements of Russia's playbook, now enhanced by widely accessible AI tools. 'If you go back to the early days of Ukraine, we saw disinformation campaigns from Russia, but they were pretty primitive compared to what we saw in the early days of Gaza,' said Hany Farid, a computer science professor at UC Berkeley and co-founder of GetReal Security. His company was the first to flag the fake Evin prison video. In both the Israel-Gaza and Israel-Iran conflicts, online platforms were inundated with doctored or misleading content – from crude edits to subtle fakes that initially fooled journalists. Farid likened it to the leap from World War II-era propaganda, when radio and leaflets were the tools of choice. 'With radio, you had one message and you sent it out,' he said. 'Now you have a million messages that you send out to a million individuals.' Iran's efforts, analysts believe, were aimed as much at regional audiences as Israel itself. According to Ari Ben-Am, co-founder of Israeli analytics firm Telemetry Data Labs, Teheran sought to maintain its image as a regional power. Fabricated footage showed explosions at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. Images claiming to show wrecked Israeli and even US aircraft – traced to Iranian sources – were widely shared. Iran also claimed to have downed three Israeli F-35 jets, a claim Israel denied. One photo showed an implausible afterburner on a destroyed plane. Iranian media went so far as to announce the capture of an Israeli pilot named Sarah Ahronot. But the photo was traced by NewsGuard – a disinformation watchdog – to a 2011 image of a Chilean navy officer. NewsGuard documented at least 28 false claims from Iran, disseminated through a mix of state media, anonymous websites and proxy influencers on platforms including YouTube, Facebook, X, Telegram and TikTok. Israel's campaign, meanwhile, appeared focused not just on battlefield results but on amplifying political dissent inside Iran. Horizon Intelligence, a Brussels-based threat analysis firm, cited social media accounts that resurfaced old protest footage and generated AI videos of Iranians chanting 'We love Israel'. Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub, described the Evin prison video as a textbook case of 'coordination between kinetic and psychological warfare' – a fake video pushed out moments after a real-world airstrike, then amplified by a network of inauthentic anti-Iran accounts. The digital battle didn't end with the ceasefire on June 24. The next day, a new account appeared on X, claiming to be the Persian-language spokesman for Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence agency. Posts offered financial and medical support to Iranians willing to revolt. Videos on the account featured Menashe Amir, an elderly Iranian-Israeli journalist and broadcaster. Amir confirmed strangers came to his house with cameras and scripts in Hebrew, asking him to record messages in Persian. He suspected they were Mossad operatives. Mossad declined to comment. Iran took the account seriously. Its Health Ministry issued a public warning urging Iranians to ignore Mossad's offers, according to state media. — ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times
Boston Globe
11-03-2025
- Boston Globe
‘We dearly miss him': Arrest in 2023 Dorchester killing of pastor brings solace but not closure for family
'We're a family of faith, so we give thanks to God for getting to this point in that case,' she said. 'We're excited to get one step closer to justice.' The Mayers family thanked the Boston Police Department's homicide unit in a statement released Sunday , describing Mayers as a 'beloved son, brother, uncle, pastor, and community leader.' Advertisement 'While this is a step forward, our hearts remain heavy with grief,' the family said. 'We thank everyone who has supported us during this difficult time and ask for continued prayers as we seek justice.' Amari Williams of Georgia turned himself in Thursday on a warrant for Mayers' murder. Suffolk prosecutors allege that Williams killed Mayers, who ran a side business repairing and selling used cell phones, after he and an accomplice claimed they wanted to sell him an iPhone and lured him to an address near Columbia Road in Dorchester. That alleged accomplice, Elijah Clunie, was also the victim of Boston's street crimes. He was killed in September, at age 20, in an execution-style shooting at a Dorchester barber shop. Mayers and Clunie represent two of Boston's 66 killings since the beginning of 2023, horrific flashes of violence at a time that the city is seeing relative peace. Police do not believe the two killings are related. The Boston Police Department had a homicide clearance rate of 92 percent in 2023 and 58 percent in 2024, spokesperson John Boyle wrote in an email. Police have made arrests in three of the five homicides in the city this year. For the Mayers family, the nearly two years since has been daunting. Mayers and his siblings grew up half a mile from where he was shot, living in the rectory behind St. Mark's Episcopal Church, where their father Thomas W.O. Mayers was the reverend for nearly 20 years. Advertisement On Sunday morning, half an hour before services started, a few early congregants settled into pews at St. Mark's in front of lecterns decked out in purple for the start of Lent. Arleen Green, a 69-year-old parishioner walking up to the church in her Sunday best, recalled seeing Daniel Mayers and his siblings grow up around her as their father led St. Marks. 'The whole congregation loved the family,' Green said. 'We always thought, 'why? Why had someone shot him, and they didn't catch him yet'?' Dennise Mayers said her family moved from Dorchester to Haverhill in the late 2000s, where her father pastored for a few churches before becoming a reverend for the Anglican Church in Grenada. Daniel Mayers attended the University of Massachusetts Lowell, majoring in business, accounting and finance. He worked for a decade in multiple roles with Boston Public Schools and started a personal training business, working with clients throughout New England, according to his family. Daniel Mayers possessed a quiet, warm charisma and was a natural leader, Denisse said. 'Even though he was younger than me by a year and some change, everyone thought he was older because of his presence,' she said. Daniel Mayers was elected pastor of Family of God Church in Haverhill roughly six years ago, after its previous leader stepped down. Theresa Mathias, a member of Family of God, told the Globe in 2023 that Mayers gave her vital support when she was struggling as a single mother while working at a gas station to provide for her two young sons. Advertisement 'He did a lot for this community outside these church walls,' she said. 'He helped a lot of single moms.' That's just the kind of person Daniel was, his sister said. 'Everyone always said that kind of stuff — he's the guy who'd give you the shirt off his back. But he was really like that," she said. 'We dearly miss him.' The shooting occured on May 22, 2023. Boston police officers responded to a Shotspotter activation on the 200 block of Columbia Road. There, they found Mayers, fatally wounded by a gunshot to the torso, according to prosecutors' statement of the case. Detectives learned that Mayers made extra cash buying broken cell phones, repairing them and reselling them on Offer Up, an online classifieds platform. On that day, Mayers drove to meet Clunie, who was offering to sell an iPhone. At 4:55 p.m., Clunie messaged Mayers, 'Dats you in the gray car?' according to prosecutors. 'Two minutes later, Mayers was shot and killed,' prosecutors wrote. Surveillance video allegedly showed Clunie approaching Mayers' car seconds before Williams allegedly walked up to the driver's side window, drew a gun and fired. Williams and Clunie allegedly fled to a home where police later found the murder weapon. A Suffolk grand jury indicted Williams for murder and carrying a firearm without a license on Feb. 26 and a judge issued an arrest warrant. Williams turned himself in on March 6, according to District Attorney Kevin Hayden. Williams pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Friday to both charges. He was held without bail and is expected back in court on April 29 for a pre-trial hearing. The congregation at Family of God in Haverhill did not survive Mayers' passing, his sister said. Advertisement 'After he left this world, the church soon after dissolved,' Denisse said. 'It was really tough on the whole community going there.' Denisse expressed gratitude to the Boston Police Department, and said they had done an 'incredible job' keeping the family updated throughout the investigation. The arrest of a suspect is an important step, she said, but far from the last. 'I think closure is going to really come when we have the final verdict,' she said. Dan Glaun can be reached at
