Pollster for Niger coup support is a surveillance platform for U.S. Special Operations Forces
Prominent poll on Niger published in The Economist on Thursday was conducted by Premise Data, whose own leaked slide deck pitched company to U.S. Special Forces as a surveillance platform.
A poll published in The Economist on Thursday — entitled “Cock-a-doodle-coup” — claims that the recent coup in Niger is overwhelmingly supported by the neighboring country of Mali, as well as majority supported by the nearby countries of Ghana, Nigeria, and the Ivory Coast. Reporting from earlier this month in The Intercept revealed that at least five members of the Niger junta were trained by the United States.
Unmentioned by The Economist, pollster Premise Data was exposed in 2021 by The Wall Street Journal as a covert surveillance platform for U.S. Special Operations Forces specializing in the usage of its gig-work platform for the collection of human and signals intelligence, as well as in conducting information operations. The company’s own leaked pitch to Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A) summarized Premise’s capabilities as such:
“Managed through Premise Data Corp.’s smartphone app and digital task marketplace, Afghan contributors shall identity and assess messages, take photos, find locations, travel identified routes, ask questions, and map wireless networks to augment all-source reporting, including information operations (IO), human intelligence (HUMINT) and signals intelligence (SIGINT).”
As of the company’s May 31, 2019 pitch deck, two of the four polled nations — Nigeria and Ghana — were listed as having surveillance capabilities taskable by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) through Premise’s network. Records published by the U.S. government also show that Premise was paid $498,701 on March 31, 2020 on a subcontract under the Nigeria branch of the U.S. Agency for International Development for “Venezuela Basic Service Common Operating Picture, data collection in Venezuela to improve basic service delivery and information within Venezuela.”
Venezuela is also clearly visible as a member of Premise’s contributor network taskable by U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM). In fact, just over a month after Premise’s contract to collect data in Venezuela, three American ex-Special Forces attempted to overthrow the Venezuelan government in what is now known as Operation Gideon.
Premise Data is far from the only U.S. intelligence contractor using polling as at least a partial cover for its covert operations. Two Six Technologies — which hired the former head of all covert operations in the Central Intelligence Agency, Elizabeth Kimber, in May 2022 — has active contracts with U.S. Special Operations Forces around the world conducting “tactical information warfare” in the name of counter-disinformation, including through the usage of commercial cellphone location-tracking data. And, like Premise, Two Six Technologies predecessor IST Research has been fond of repurposing their human intelligence networks for public surveys.
In addition to a previously published ongoing contract between Two Six and U.S. Special Forces — including Green Berets, Civil Affairs, and Psychological Operations groups — we are newly publishing here ongoing information operations contracts between Two Six and:
The elite U.S. counter-terrorism force known as Joint Special Operations Command,
The U.S. Army’s primary force for influence operations, 1st Information Operations Command,
The branch of U.S. Special Operations Command responsible for South and Central America, Special Operations Command South,
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Delta 6.
Despite overwhelming primary source evidence, there appears to be little appetite in the U.S. media to interrogate the roles of Premise Data and Two Six Technologies in ongoing U.S. information operations.