AFP:US propaganda aimed at foreigners reaches US public: Pentagon document

[Up2Late]

(How much you want to bet that most of this is posted in U.A.E Newspapers, that's my bet.)

US propaganda aimed at foreigners reaches US public: Pentagon document

27/01/2006 05h39

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon acknowledged in a newly declassified document that the US public is increasingly exposed to propaganda disseminated overseas in psychological operations. But the document suggests that the Pentagon believes that US law that prohibits exposing the US public to propaganda does not apply to the unintended blowback from such operations....

(clip)

...Called the "Information Operations Roadmap," the document was approved by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003. It was made public by the National Security Archives, a private non-profit research group which obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The document said that psychological operations, or "psyops," are restricted by Pentagon policy and executive order from targeting US audiences, US military personnel and news agencies and outlets. "However, information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa."

In a press release, the National Security Archives said the document "calls for 'boundaries' between information operations abroad and the news media at home, but provides for no such limits and claims that as long as the American public is not 'targeted,' any leakage of PSYOP to the American public does not matter." Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita vehemently denied that the Pentagon was unconcerned about possible blowback. "I reject the premise of this release which is, 'Hey if it bleeds back we're okay with it.' We're not okay with it," he said.

(more at link below)

<http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/060127051408.xz5wrxke.html>

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. We blow that shit right back and call it out every time on DU

However, the shit brain freeps, and so on, buy it 100%

[Cocoa]

2. Jessica Lynch?

remember how nothing in the original story turned out to be remotely true?

Where did that come from? Honest error?

Pat Tillman?

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Rebuilding schools, friendly locals, benevolent generals

taking and interest in civic affairs, giving a helping hand, 1000/1 kill ratio, local police backing the troops.....

[SoCalDem]

11. Afghan girls and their bright yellow pencils

only problem..their teachers get beheaded in front of them ..and their schools get demolished..

[EST]

13. What's really funny, in a rogueish fashion,

is the amazing number of idiots who still believe and insist that, despite ample debunking, the Jessica Lynch fable is true and that Sadaam really was found hiding in a "spider hole." The ability of the human mind to suck in absolute crap and thrive on it is beyond understanding.

[rodeodance]

4. bleeding blowback--now that is concept to wrap your head around.

[stillcool]

5. Leakage of PSYOP....?

so that's what we're calling televised news these days. "PSYOP Leakage"

[AuntiBush]

6. Amazing, huh.

Un-believeable.

[Up2Late]

7. So, when does Rummy hold his next "news" briefing? I want to see this one.

Here's the link to the National Security Archive briefing on this: <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/index.htm>

<http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/info_ops_roadmap.pdf>

And a bit of what's there:



"The likelihood that PSYOP messages will be replayed to a much broader audience, including the American public, requires that specific boundaries be established for PSYOP. In particular:



The discussion of the relationship between public diplomacy and IO neither cites the applicable legal restrictions nor institutes specific guidelines, but references only the "intent" of the U.S. government in "targeting" either foreign or domestic audiences:



(much more at the links below)

<http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/index.htm>

<http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/info_ops_roadmap.pdf>

[CornField]

8. Rummy did say he was only giving the name back, not the program

Guess he was serious.

[applegrove]

9. I've the vapours! Get me the salts!

[Dover]

10. That means that foreigners are receiving OUR propaganda as well!

It's a Pandora's Box.

Information...information everywhere, but n'er a drop of truth to drink.

[wookie294]

12. Screw the military

I never trust anything from the military, especially anything relating to the almighty "Zarqawi." LOL.

[maddezmom]

14. and it's the Lincoln Group propaganda

WASHINGTON - A secret military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish information favorable to the U.S. mission appears to violate a 2003 Pentagon directive, according to a newly declassified document released Thursday.

The information campaign run by U.S. troops in Baghdad and a private contractor called Lincoln Group is currently the subject of a high-level military investigation. Last month, the top U.S. general in Iraq said that a preliminary investigation into the program found that it does not violate U.S. law or Pentagon regulations.

"We concluded that we were operating within our authorities and the appropriate legal procedures. And so we have not suspended any of the processes up to now," Army Gen. George Casey told reporters then.

A secret directive on the Pentagon's information operations policy released Thursday, however, appears to prohibit U.S. troops from conducting psychological operations (PSYOPs) targeting the news media.

more:http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/world/13725426.htm?source=rss&channel=cctimes_world

[Up2Late]

15. kick n/t

:kick:

[Up2Late]

31. kick n/t

:kick:

[tanyev]

16. Here's a radical concept:

TELL THE TRUTH! Overseas, here at home, everywhere. The rest of the world doesn't believe the propaganda anyway.

[pushycat]

17. The propaganda serves to obfuscate. That is a favorite word

in this Admin. The TRUTH will never be told, ever.

[donkeyotay]

18. We have a new catagory of propaganda called the psyoops

Oops. Did we brainwash America. We didn't mean to. That's a psyoops.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. I thought we agreed at the beginning of the Bush Administration

that we weren't going to go through with the Ministry of Disinformation for this very reason?

[Up2Late]

21. But, did you really believe these"though criminals" when they said...

...they would close the Pentagon's office of Dis-info? I didn't.

Best to just remember these two rules:

1) Everything (fill in a current member of the Bush Cabal's name here) says is a lie.

2) And when that "person" tells you that they are lying, that to is a lie. :crazy:

If you ever saw the "I Mudd" episode from the original "Star Trek," you'll know what I'm saying.

[lostexpectation]

20. Why is proganda ok overseas?

proganda implies bias and lies of omission if not outright lies

why is it ok to do that in a war situation or not?

well perhaps cos general media doesn't seemed to concerned with the truth either?

[Miss Chybil]

22. Can't these people just NOT lie? Don't they know how precious

credibility is?

[Up2Late]

23. Nope. I think most of them in our current Government are Pathological

liars. I truly think this government would collapse if they ever tried to come clean with us.

It's sort of like trying to stop and turn around an Aircraft Carrier.

[Syrinx]

US plans to 'fight the net' revealed

A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.

*snip*

From influencing public opinion through new media to designing "computer network attack" weapons, the US military is learning to fight an electronic war.

*snip*

The "roadmap" calls for a far-reaching overhaul of the military's ability to conduct information operations and electronic warfare. And, in some detail, it makes recommendations for how the US armed forces should think about this new, virtual warfare.

*snip*

Perhaps the most startling aspect of the roadmap is its acknowledgement that information put out as part of the military's psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans.

*snip*

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm

[libodem]

24. Why does this NOT make me feel safer?

[EVDebs]

25. Google up 'cnn and psyops' while you can

You'll find CNN and PsyOps article by counterpunch magazine telling just what you've described.

[spun_in_montana]

26. Hmm, I thought this might be

old hat, "that information put out as part of the military's psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary Americans."
I mean, how long has FauxSpews and LGF been around?:shrug:
:sarcasm:

[dusmcj]

27. ok, all you psyops worriers on DU, reveal yourslaves. nt

[Trillo]

28. Presuming that the Internet aspect is the new twist, and

that non-computer based information management has probably been practiced by rulers of various hierarchies for thousands of years, whatever they could do at the time, it causes one pause regarding assumptions of knowledge and facts, given that what has come before is always a consideration, especially in issues where absolute establishment of facts is difficult, such as in social issues.

[Tempest]

29. There's a big problem with this

Foreign hackers and computer scientists are much more adaptive than the U.S. military.

They would easily counter any attempts by the U.S.

[Up2Late]

30. Dupe!

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2068666>