The Seattle Times prints 'suspicious' letter to the editor

A cybersecurity firm says The Seattle Times published a letter to the editor that was part of an pro-Iranian propaganda campaign.

The company FireEye can't say for certain the January letter is a fake, but they have their reasons for being suspicious.

FireEye says it’s found social media accounts that pose as Americans and spread pro-Iranian messages with inauthentic news stories.

The campaign includes letters to the editor at various newspapers around the country.

"We saw the same letters being submitted to different outlets under different names," said Lee Foster, FireEye's senior manager for information operations analysis. "We saw some of these personas use the same headshots for their profiles on social media."

The name on The Seattle Times letter is Jeremy Watte, which FireEye says is the same name on a letter to a newspaper in Texas.

"There’s all these inconsistencies and overlaps between these personas that suggested to us that perhaps they weren’t what they appeared to be at face value," Foster said.

The Seattle Times website says writers of letters to the editor are verified before being published.

Lindsay Taylor at the Times said in an email they are reviewing a copy of FireEye's report.

"While we have a process for vetting Letters to the Editor," Taylor wrote, "we will use this as an opportunity to review those practices and make adjustments if needed."