[1467] in peace2
Pentagon Readies Efforts to Sway Sentiment Abroad (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mohammad Mahdian)
Tue Feb 19 15:24:25 2002
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 15:23:40 -0500 (EST)
From: Mohammad Mahdian <mahdian@theory.lcs.mit.edu>
To: peace-list@mit.edu
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<h5>
February 19, 2002</h5>
<NYT_HEADLINE version=3D"1.0" type=3D" ">
<h2>
Pentagon Readies Efforts to Sway Sentiment Abroad</h2>
</NYT_HEADLINE><NYT_BYLINE version=3D"1.0" type=3D" ">
<h5>
By JAMES DAO and ERIC SCHMITT</h5>
</NYT_BYLINE><NYT_TEXT>
<p><img SRC=3D"http://graphics4.nytimes.com/images/dropcap/w.gif" ALT=3D"=
W" align=3DLEFT>ASHINGTON,
Feb. 18 =97 The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possi=
bly
even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort
to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfr=
iendly
countries, military officials said.
<p>The plans, which have not received final approval from the Bush admini=
stration,
have stirred opposition among some Pentagon officials who say they might
undermine the credibility of information that is openly distributed by
the Defense Department's public affairs officers.
<p>The military has long engaged in information warfare against hostile
nations =97 for instance, by dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages
into Afghanistan when it was still under Taliban rule.
<p>But it recently created the Office of Strategic Influence, which is
proposing to broaden that mission into allied nations in the Middle East,=
Asia and even Western Europe. The office would assume a role traditionall=
y
led by civilian agencies, mainly the State Department.
<p>The small but well-financed Pentagon office, which was established sho=
rtly
after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was a response to concerns in the
administration that the United States was losing public support overseas
for its war on terrorism, particularly in Islamic countries.
<p>As part of the effort to counter the pronouncements of the Taliban,
Osama bin Laden and their supporters, the State Department has already
hired a former advertising executive to run its public diplomacy office,
and the White House has created a public information "war room" to coordi=
nate
the administration's daily message domestically and abroad.
<p>Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, while broadly supportive of
the new office, has not approved its specific proposals and has asked the=
Pentagon's top lawyer, William J. Haynes, to review them, senior Pentagon=
officials said.
<p>Little information is available about the Office of Strategic Influenc=
e,
and even many senior Pentagon officials and Congressional military aides
say they know almost nothing about its purpose and plans. Its multimillio=
n
dollar budget, drawn from a $10 billion emergency supplement to the Penta=
gon
budget authorized by Congress in October, has not been disclosed.
<p>Headed by Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden of the Air Force, the new office
has begun circulating classified proposals calling for aggressive campaig=
ns
that use not only the foreign media and the Internet, but also covert ope=
rations.
<p>The new office "rolls up all the instruments within D.O.D. to influenc=
e
foreign audiences," its assistant for operations, Thomas A. Timmes, a for=
mer
Army colonel and psychological operations officer, said at a recent confe=
rence,
referring to the Department of Defense. "D.O.D. has not traditionally don=
e
these things."
<p>One of the office's proposals calls for planting news items with forei=
gn
media organizations through outside concerns that might not have obvious
ties to the Pentagon, officials familiar with the proposal said.
<p>General Worden envisions a broad mission ranging from "black" campaign=
s
that use disinformation and other covert activities to "white" public aff=
airs
that rely on truthful news releases, Pentagon officials said.
<p>"It goes from the blackest of black programs to the whitest of white,"=
a senior Pentagon official said.
<p>Another proposal involves sending journalists, civic leaders and forei=
gn
leaders e-mail messages that promote American views or attack unfriendly
governments, officials said.
<p>Asked if such e-mail would be identified as coming from the American
military, a senior Pentagon official said that "the return address will
probably be a dot-com, not a dot- mil," a reference to the military's Int=
ernet
designation.
<p>To help the new office, the Pentagon has hired the Rendon Group, a Was=
hington-based
international consulting firm run by John W. Rendon Jr., a former campaig=
n
aide to President Jimmy Carter. The firm, which is being paid about $100,=
000
a month, has done extensive work for the Central Intelligence Agency, the=
Kuwaiti royal family and the Iraqi National Congress, the opposition grou=
p
seeking to oust President Saddam Hussein.
<p>Officials at the Rendon Group say terms of their contract forbid them
to talk about their Pentagon work. But the firm is well known for running=
propaganda campaigns in Arab countries, including one denouncing atrociti=
es
by Iraq during its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
<p>The firm has been hired as the Bush administration appears to have uni=
ted
around the goal of ousting Mr. Hussein. "Saddam Hussein has a charm offen=
sive
going on, and we haven't done anything to counteract it," a senior milita=
ry
official said.
<p>Proponents say the new Pentagon office will bring much-needed coordina=
tion
to the military's efforts to influence views of the United States oversea=
s,
particularly as Washington broadens the war on terrorism beyond Afghanist=
an.
<p>But the new office has also stirred a sharp debate in the Pentagon,
where several senior officials have questioned whether its mission is too=
broad and possibly even illegal.
<p>Those critics say they are disturbed that a single office might be aut=
horized
to use not only covert operations like computer network attacks, psycholo=
gical
activities and deception, but also the instruments and staff of the milit=
ary's
globe- spanning public affairs apparatus.
<p>Mingling the more surreptitious activities with the work of traditiona=
l
public affairs would undermine the Pentagon's credibility with the media,=
the public and governments around the world, critics argue.
<p>"This breaks down the boundaries almost completely," a senior Pentagon=
official said.
<p>Moreover, critics say, disinformation planted in foreign media organiz=
ations,
like Reuters or Agence France-Presse, could end up being published or bro=
adcast
by American news organizations.
<p>The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency are barred by law fro=
m
propaganda activities in the United States. In the mid-1970's, it was dis=
closed
that some C.I.A. programs to plant false information in the foreign press=
had resulted in articles published by American news organizations.
<p>Critics of the new Pentagon office also argue that governments allied
with the United States are likely to object strongly to any attempts by
the American military to influence media within their borders.
<p>"Everybody understands using information operations to go after nonfri=
endlies,"
another senior Pentagon official said. "When people get uncomfortable is
when people use the same tools and tactics on friendlies."
<p>Victoria Clarke, the assistant secretary of defense for public informa=
tion,
declined to discuss details of the new office. But she acknowledged that
its mission was being carefully reviewed by the Pentagon.
<p>"Clearly the U.S. needs to be as effective as possible in all our comm=
unications,"
she said. "What we're trying to do now is make clear the distinction and
appropriateness of who does what."
<p>General Worden, an astrophysicist who has specialized in space operati=
ons
in his 27-year Air Force career, did not respond to several requests for
an interview.
<p>General Worden has close ties to his new boss, Douglas J. Feith, the
under secretary of defense for policy, that date back to the Reagan admin=
istration,
military officials said. The general's staff of about 15 people reports
to the office of the assistant secretary of defense for special operation=
s
and low-intensity conflict, which is under Mr. Feith.
<p>The Office for Strategic Influence also coordinates its work with the
White House's new counterterrorism office, run by Wayne A. Downing, a ret=
ired
general who was head of the Special Operations command, which oversees
the military's covert information operations.
<p>Many administration officials worried that the United States was losin=
g
support in the Islamic world after American warplanes began bombing Afgha=
nistan
in October. Those concerns spurred the creation of the Office of Strategi=
c
Influence.
<p>In an interview in November, Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, explained the Pentagon's desire to broaden its eff=
orts
to influence foreign audiences, saying:
<p>"Perhaps the most challenging piece of this is putting together what
we call a strategic influence campaign quickly and with the right emphasi=
s.
That's everything from psychological operations to the public affairs pie=
ce
to coordinating partners in this effort with us."
<p>One of the military units assigned to carry out the policies of the
Office of Strategic Influence is the Army's Psychological Operations Comm=
and.
The command was involved in dropping millions of fliers and broadcasting
scores of radio programs into Afghanistan encouraging Taliban and Al Qaed=
a
soldiers to surrender.
<p>In the 1980's, Army "psyop" units, as they are known, broadcast radio
and television programs into Nicaragua intended to undermine the Sandinis=
ta
government. In the 1990's, they tried to encourage public support for Ame=
rican
peacekeeping missions in the Balkans.
<p>The Office of Strategic Influence will also oversee private companies
that will be hired to help develop information programs and evaluate thei=
r
effectiveness using the same techniques as American political campaigns,
including scientific polling and focus groups, officials said.
<p>"O.S.I. still thinks the way to go is start a Defense Department Voice=
of America," a senior military official said. "When I get their briefings=
,
it's scary."
<br></NYT_TEXT>
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