US Military to make stuff up.

Hobbes

Story here

Personally I don't see why they would need to post fake news to get thier point across.

Jaden

Link looks buggered.

JustHalf

Hobbes you muppet.

Hobbes

It's a problem with the boards. I go into edit mode and it's the correct URL.

scipio_major

Right I've read the link posted by JustHalf (I hope it's the same article Hobbes meant to post).

First off it doesn''t actually seem all that bad, considering the amount of crap companies publish. Everyone seems to be trying to influence the media, in this day and age where an entire military campaign can be discontinued on the basis of a single broadcast (Eg The CNN live feed of American troops being kill in Mogudishu, that place in Somalia you know how it's spelt). It is not surprising the the Pentagon feels the need to campaign on the media front as though it were a tobacco company.

Second misinformation is a long standing tactic. There is nothing new about that. A particully famous example is the lies created by the Allies in WW2 to keep Rommel's army away from Normandy. Why anyone should be surprised that US Millitary would want to re-introduce it is in itself surprising.

Have we all forgotten about "Radio Free Europe" already? That was owned and run largely by the CIA and only shut down with the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Finally I think it's funny that the Pentagon have decided to start spamming. Besides I don't read the spam I get, why should any world leader read it? We wanted a war on spam, looks like we're going to get it!!!

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Scipio_major

JustHalf

Hobbes had a space in his link that shouldn't have been there. I just deleted it.

Hobbes

I think the main issue with it is that they plan to use disinformation on people they consider thier allies (eg. Europe) in order to sway them to US foreign policy.

They have been in business since shortly after sept 11, although thier suggestion to issue BS stories hasn't been approved yet.

Could just be another stick in items that no one would agree to so they can get other items passed.

Typedef

Strange that people believe the US (in a wider sense most/all) countries have not been using disinformation for their own purposes since before the very concept of the nation state.

I believe (the decision to make it know that disinformation will be fed to allies, instead of simply continuing with normal disinformations) it is a tactic to serve some ulterior purpose that is probably not glaringly obvious.

/ "Input translation"

scipio_major

I think the main issue with it is that they plan to use disinformation on people they consider thier allies (eg. Europe) in order to sway them to US foreign policy.

What is the difference between disinformation and spin doctoring? In both cases they play with the truth to create a more favorable lie. Disinformation has been a fact of life since one caveman learned to talk to the other. The media has to be careful that's all. So long as they actually check their facts and don't take everything at face value then there'll be no difference. Which is waht they are suposed to be doing now.

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Scipio_major

Clintons Cat

Hobbes>
Here is a link to a story on CNNs coverage of afganistan and the sacking of "unhelpful" journalists including producers April Oliver and Jack Smith, accept the resignation of senior producer Pam Hill, and publicly reprimand putzer prize winning reporter Peter Arnett,who left cnn within the year,over an expose of pentagon use of WMD in laos in the 70s
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/nov2001/cnn-n06.shtml

Richard Reeves, a veteran liberal journalist, described the informal wartime muzzling of the press in a recent column titled, "The Truth In The Packaging Of War News" He cited a 1982 Naval War College advisory on press treatment, which prescribed the following rules: “Sanitize the visual images of war, control media access to theaters, censor information that could upset readers and viewers, exclude journalists who would not write favorable stories.”

This was predictable for the military, Reeves wrote, but his main criticism was of the submissive response of the media. “My gripe is with my own business,” he explained. “The press, in general, prefers appearing authoritative in war coverage to admitting that we are being manipulated and lied to—and that we do not actually know what is going on, particularly in the early combat of any war.”

Clintons Cat

As a footnote to my last post i would like to post a reminder of the dangers faced by journalists going outside official military/government channels.10 journalists have now died covering the war in afganistan,the latest Daniel Pearl was attempting to verify the truth of a story that Richard Ried had links to terrorist groups operating semi openly in the state of behawalpur one of his last published articles was according toRediff.com (indian source)

On January 1, 2002, a story filed by Pearl from Bahawalpur featured prominently on the front page of the Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal. The headline summed it up: 'Militant Groups in Pakistan Thrive Despite Crackdown'. The sub-head read: 'Jaish-e-Mohammed Says It Is Still Operating After Police Detained Some Staff'.

The Wall Street journal article would have been highly embarrassing to Pakistans ISI,implicated by many sources for its links to the taliban and kashmiri sepratists.President Mussareffs attempts to curb terrorist activity within his country and Americas war on Terrorism.Not to mention inconvienent to jaish-e-mohammed's efforts to continue its activities further unhindered.

Victor

Originally posted by scipio_major
Have we all forgotten about "Radio Free Europe" already? That was owned and run largely by the CIA and only shut down with the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

I'm not sure, but I suspect it (or similar) stills.

Originally posted by scipio_major
Finally I think it's funny that the Pentagon have decided to start spamming. Besides I don't read the spam I get, why should any world leader read it? We wanted a war on spam, looks like we're going to get it!!!major

There is a difference between Spam (generally obvious) and more subtle 'spinning' (like lets issue bad news about train services on the day of a plane crash). The risk is 'spinning' will get out of hand (and get people killed).

Spinning rarely lies per se. It skirts the issue, focusing on non issues, it uses weasle words and double-talk to divert attention. It is appearing authoritive when you are not. It is appearing uninformed when you are (are what though?). Lying would defeat the objective.

scipio_major

I think you got the wrong end of the stick there Victor. The bit you quoted (yes I did say it don't try to spin it) refered to the part in the article where it announced that the US military would send unsolicited e-mail to politicans and journalists from various addresses (most of which would not have .mil suffixes). THAT is spam. It is not spinning.

Proproganda is diverting strong emotions into your own channels while spinning seeks to make unsavoury truths seems more platable to people who aren't interested. You can't spin someone who is informed and actually cares about the subject.

- Paraphrased from "Nazis: A Warning From History". I would dig it out and type the paragraph in question out myself but it's a great book and I'd prefer you bought it and read it firsthand

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Scipio_major

Victor

New Defense Office Won't Mislead, Officials Say
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42427-2002Feb20.html

How do we know the Officials aren't lying?

also: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2002/02/index.html

Clintons Cat

More on the dangers of reporting from pakistan
From the Commitee to Protect journalists.(source/trade)

Clintons Cat

Radio Marti is back in the news.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-000015520mar01.story?coll=la-headlines-world

Twenty-one Cubans remained holed up in the Mexican Embassy on Thursday after plowing through the gates with a stolen bus. Cuba's government blamed an exile-run U.S. government radio station for repeatedly quoting a Mexican official as saying the embassy's doors ``are open.''

...Mexican Foreign Secretary Jorge Castaneda said Thursday that standoff began after his words were taken out of context by ``radicals'' in Miami who ``no doubt wanted to use, to distort, my declarations.''

Castaneda told Radio Red that reports in Miami had confused two separate statements he made there while opening a Mexican Cultural Center. He said he declared the center's ``doors are open to the entire Latino community in Miami'' while also saying that Mexico itself was open to Cuban dissidents.

President Fidel Castro's government called the reports from Radio Marti a "gross provocation" that led listeners to believe that Mexico would grant refuge to any Cuban who showed up.

Kind of fits the profile of "planting false information in foriegn media outlets"

BTW the Office of Strategic Information has now officially been shelved http://www.dallasnews.com/waronterrorism/stories/office_27int.ART.Zone1.Edition1.23647.html