Forged-ascription propaganda predates modern disinformation and the Soviet term for it

Evidence

In the simpler kind of falsehood, the writer simply tells lies in his own name. In a more complex and insidious kind of falsehood, he fabricates written state­ ments and attributes them to others in order to give them greater credibility and impact. The same technique may be used without written texts, simply by starting a rumor. Flusterpropaganda, that is, whisper propaganda, was extensively used by the Third Reich during World War II and then by others. In the Soviet Union, the manufacture and dissemination of false news was entrusted to a de­ partment of the KGB and was given a new name—disinformation. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 490

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘flusterpropaganda’ (whisper propaganda) and traces ‘disinformation’ to its Soviet coinage as a KGB department’s specialty, useful for situating the terms in genealogy of deception.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Islam-West representation cluster: the strategy of fabricating texts and attributing them to others for credibility is exactly what Orientalist forgery and polemic accusations (e.g., forged ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ pseudo-authentic oriental texts) rely on.