JADE Helm was a US military exercise. Just like many others.

All that was different about this 2015 manoeuvre was that it involved Special Operations Command, it involved practising rapid deployment, and its mock ‘target’ was near the Texas town of Bastrop.

The usual official warnings were issued. Preparations were made. Barricades went up.

Texas convinced itself this was all for real.

This was President Barack Obama coming to seize their guns.

Rumours spread like wildfire.

Martial law would be declared. Dissenters were going to be rounded up. Secret tunnels had been built under Walmart shopping centres as detention centres.

The Feds were coming.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott swallowed the story.

He mobilised his State Guard — just to be safe. They were deployed to keep an eye on any foreign and federal troops on Texas soil ...

Their role was to ensure “safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed.”

When the big day came, US forces rolled in — as detailed.

They went to their training grounds — as detailed.

They rehearsed establishing a foothold in hostile territory — as detailed.

But no secret Wallmart tunnels were found.

No locals were detained.

So what happened?

PAPER HAT, DUNCE CORNER
A former director of the CIA and NSA has told MSNBC that the whole story had been whipped into a frenzy by “Russian bots”.

Michael Hayden said it was the result of Russia practising techniques to dominate “the information space”.

The former US Air Force General was speaking during a tour to promote a book.

“There was an exercise in Texas called Jade Helm 15 that Russian bots and the American all-right media convinced most — many — Texans was an Obama plan to round up political dissidents,” Hayden said. “It got so much traction that the governor of Texas had to call out the National Guard to observe the federal exercise to keep the population calm.”

Governor Albbott’s act taught Russia the full power of such organised misinformation attacks, he said.

“At that point, I’m figuring the Russians are saying, ‘We can go big time,’” Hayden said.

“At that point, I think they made the decision, ‘We’re going to play in the electoral process.’”

The Texas governor’s response was not without controversy at the time.

Republican Todd Smith said Abbott had been “pandering to idiots”.

The Dallas News reports the revelation has been seized upon by Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez who will run against Abbott in elections in November has seized on the revelation.

“Greg Abbott was duped by Russian bots. He indulged in awful conspiracy theories against our own men and women in uniform,” Valdez said in a prepared statement. “He was a puppet in a Russian infowar that sowed distrust among Americans and paved the way for foreign intervention in our elections. This is who is lecturing us on being smart on security and integrity in our electoral process?”