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A spin doctor who suppressed America’s use of controversial weapons in Iraq is the latest figure revealed as a key player in a Government-funded infowars unit exposed by the Sunday Mail.

We told how the Integrity Initiative had used its official Twitter page to criticise Jeremy Corbyn and Labour despite receiving £2million from the Foreign Office to counter Russian disinformation.

It has now emerged the “charity” – which is registered at a run-down mill in Fife and staffed by military intelligence operatives – hired Todd Leventhal on £60,000 a year.

Until his 2018 retirement, Leventhal headed the US State Department’s Counter-Misinformation Team – set up to fight “conspiracy theories and urban legends” during the War on Terror.

But he was actively involved in spreading one major piece of allied disinformation in Iraq. In 2004, US and British forces launched the Second Battle of Fallujah – to try to break the ongoing insurgency against the allied occupation after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Iraqis said US troops used white phosphorus shells – an incendiary weapon that can burn victims and choke them with thick white smoke.

This was controversial because the US government had previously condemned Hussein for using similar weapons against Kurds.

Leventhal and his US team argued for a year that claims the US used white phosphorus in Fallujah were “misinformation”. They said the US army only fired white phosphorus “very sparingly” and added: “They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night.”

But the Pentagon’s Barry Venables later admitted white phosphorus was used to “fire at the enemy”.

David Miller, professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol, said: “The Integrity Initiative appears to work behind the scenes. The secrecy, the involvement of foreign nationals with professional experience of misinforming the public, does not seem to fit within the stated ‘charitable objectives’ of the Institute for Statecraft.

“It will be important for the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator to consider these new revelations in their ongoing inquiry.”

The Labour Party called for an independent investigation.

We contacted the Institute for Statecraft and left messages for Leventhal but they did not respond.