John J. Stanton is an independent journalist, author and teacher in the Washington, DC Metro region who focuses largely on national security topics. He designed and led a seminar titled National Security in the 21st Century at a private school in Northern Virginia.
In April 2018, Stanton, who had been Sputnik News Agency's Pentagon Correspondent for roughly two years, published a report highly critical of Sputnik News, Sputnik Radio, and RIA Novosti, declaring that the organizations were part of a larger Russian Information Warfare Operation. His public findings were part of an insider research effort while at Sputnik on behalf of the US government. In May 2018 PBS NewsHour published an article in which Stanton said that Sputnik mixes "real with unreal" and uses "dubious sources." He also said that to pin down what he really found problematic was difficult because proving disinformation can be impossibly slippery.
Cyberwarfare and technology commentary
Stanton wrote on cyberwarfare/information warfare in the 1994–2000 timeframe when the Bill Clinton Administration was pushing cyber defense initiatives. Other articles discussed technical matters such as electromagnetic pulse affects, urban warfare, orphan nukes and intelligence after 9/11. He presented papers on Asynchronous Transfer Mode, Strategic Cultural Analysis and Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience. He is the author of "Broadband Communications Networks and Multimedia: Public and Private Sector Initiatives", a paper for the 19th Annual Meeting of the Technology Transfer Society in 1994.
Stanton has authored over 100 articles over a five-year period on the US Army's Human Terrain System. He also appeared on Russia Today to comment on HTS. His coverage on the Human Terrain System was cited in the American Anthropological Association's Commission on the Engagement of Anthropology with the US Security and Intelligence Communities, Final Report. His last work on the US Army Human Terrain System was titled Last Waltz in Saga of US Army Intelligence Program published by the Sri Lanka Guardian, Pravda, Dissident Voice and Scoop-NZ in December 2013.
Commentaries in 2020 include the short story published by Counterpunch How the World Ends and Trump to Direct Workers to Die: By the Way, Wall Street to Gain from COVID-19 Deaths Through Dead Peasant Insurance published by Dissident Voice Counterpunch also published in 2020 John's piece US National Security is Meant to Protect Wall Street, Congress, the White House and the Pentagon, from COVID-19 His work The Price of Participating in Society is the Sacrifice of Privacy and Self was published by Counterpunch in 2019, Works published in 2017 include United States Drowning in an Ocean of Subjectivism and Trump's Psychopathy Threatens the Internal Stability of the United States and the World The Sri Lanka Guardian and Pravda first carried Stanton's 2010 piece titled "USA Undermines Democracy in Turkey: It's Turkey Stupid, Not Israel". That piece discusses the internal dynamics of Turkey's efforts to maintain democratic reforms, a free press and an open culture which; since that writing, has encountered stiff resistance from the government of Turkey. He has written articles for online publications such as Pravda.ru, Sri Lanka Guardian, CounterPunch, Cryptome, The Intelligence Daily, Journal of Technology Transfer, Seoul Times, and TRDEFENCE. He has also written for National Defense Magazine, Defense Daily, American Behavioral Scientist and Convergence Magazine''. His work has been cited by information security researchers. Stanton's analysis on homeland security issues, following the events of September 11, 2001, was carried by Investors Business Daily, CBS Evening News, ABC and CNN.
Publications
Books
Cyber Noodles, Orphan Nukes and the Failure of the US National Security State. 2013. Amazon's Create Space..