While freelance political agitators offer their services and provide made up stories to intelligence agencies most of the most notorious fiction floating around the newswires comes the Pentagon its “information operations.” Since October 2006, Davies writes: “…every brigade, division and corps in the US military has had its own ‘PYSOPS’ [Psychological Operations] element producing output for local media. This military activity is linked to the State Department’s campaign of ‘public diplomacy’ which includes funding radio stations and news websites. In Britain, the Directorate of Targeting and Information Operations in the Ministry of Defence works with specialists from 15 UK PSYOPS * based at the Defence Intelligence and Security School at Chicksands in Bedfordshire.” [1] The Bush administration perhaps represented the most blatant use of PSYOPS. Many journalists have been found to have accepted cash payments for the spreading of disinformation or the spreading of government policy. One example was Armstrong Williams, a commentator and talk-show host who received $240,000 to promote its education initiatives. The Bush Administration’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting also paid 10 journalists to provide anti-Castro commentary on Radio and TV Martí, which transmit to Cuba government broadcasts critical of Fidel Castro. [2] If that wasn’t enough the final nail in the coffin of a free and independent press arrived after the Reaganomics era of deregulation which allowed banking elites and the rise of corporatism to buy not only every aspect of commercial life but governments themselves. (The Obama administration is similarly full of ex-corporate CEOs and Goldman Sacs executives) It was inevitable that media would become a casualty of the lowest common denominator of cartel capitalism: finding a way to ensure maximum amounts of money kept flowing into the coffers. This sorry state of affairs has resulted in a rapid consolidation of companies which exert a powerful monopoly on what the public is allowed to digest as “news.” These corporations are: GE / Comcast – Jeffrey R. Immelt / Brian Roberts: NBC Universal, E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, G4, The Golf Channel and NBC Sports Network. CBS Corporation – Leslie Moonves: CBS News, CNET. NewsCorp – Rupert Murdoch: Fox News, Wall St. Journal, Twentieth Century Fox. Disney - Robert Iger: Disney Channel, ABC News, ESPN, A+E Networks. Time Warner – Jeffrey L. Bewkes: New Line Cinema, Time Inc., HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, Castle Rock Entertainment. Viacom – Sumner M. Redstone: BET Networks, MTV Networks, and Paramount Pictures The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is a US political think tank with an Elite cast which has had an unhealthy influence over US media for many decades. It straddles all of the media outlets and indirectly creates policy by saturating US society with its Elitist propaganda.In October 30, 1993 Washington Post ombudsman Richard Harwood wrote an op-ed piece about the role of the CFR’s media members: “Their membership is an acknowledgment of their ascension into the American ruling class [where] they do not merely analyse and interpret foreign policy for the United States; they help make it.” [3] To make a foreign policy consistent and effective control over the US media is a vital part of this process. Right up to 2011, the American media was pimping itself out to foreign despots eager to cultivate a marketable image in the West. Until she blew the whistle on her bosses, Amber Lyon was a respected, Emmy award winning CNN reporter. She was fired from her job for reporting the truth which didn’t go down too well with her superiors who had been paid by the government of Bahrain to paint them all in a favourable light. Systematic torture of peaceful protesters wasn’t meant to be part of the deal: Lyon’s special report on Bahrain was scheduled to run on both CNN’s U.S. and international networks, but was pulled after only a limited showing due to pressure from the Bahrainis and their lobbyists. At the same time that Lyon was risking her life to do on-the-ground reporting in Bahrain; another CNN journalist was filming a paid propaganda piece on how the Bahraini leaders are a bunch of friendly pro-democracy reformers. That’s right … the Bahraini government paid CNN to do what was literally an infomercial for that brutal regime and pretend it was real journalism. Lyon says that China and many other foreign, authoritarian regimes also pay CNN and other mainstream networks to run flattering propaganda pieces. [4] Public Relations is now a huge part of outsourcing for the perception management people within the US and European military-intelligence apparatus. Information dominance has never been more important for moulding the minds of the latest culture in the line of fire. SOS International, MPRI, L-3 Communications, CentenaGroup, CorpComm Group, MyMic, Polestar Applied Technology and ICOR Partners are just some of the many firms bidding for contracts from the Pentagon and NATO forces. The Lincoln Group has excelled as one of the most highly charged propaganda outfits of our times, with “Insight and Influence anywhere, anytime,” as one of its slogans and the lucrative propaganda bonanza of “War on Terror” under its purview. The precocious and mysterious Mr. Christian Bailey is its chief executive director. As a dynamic 30-year-old Oxford graduate with no public relations experience he coincidentally became the lucky recipient of a $100m (£56m) contract from Donald Rumsfeld’s Department of Defence. One of his first tasks was to buy space in Iraqi newspapers and deliberately place biased stories in favour of US interests. [5] In effect, Christian Bailey, (real name: Christian Martin Jozefowicz) is one of the top Psychological Warfare companies operating on behalf of the Pentagon: “In early 2003, just before the invasion, Mr. Bailey formed a Lincoln subsidiary, the Lincoln Alliance Corp, offering ‘tailored intelligence services [for] government clients faced with intelligence challenges.’ He also formed another subsidiary, Iraqex, which won a $6 million Pentagon contract to launch ‘an aggressive advertising and PR campaign that will accurately inform the Iraqi people of the coalition’s goals and gain their support.” [6] The Lincoln Group website, at lincolngroup paints a romantic picture of boundless innovation and cheery confidence as it strives to keep the wheels of propaganda spinning. Far more invasive black operations are taking place beyond its slick and clinical sounding PR pitch. Christian Bailey will no doubt be happy with the website blurb presently doing stirling stuff for freedom. In fact, in the initial stages of the Iraq invasion and much later they were: “…working with US and overseas corporations and organizations to develop an in-country capability in Baghdad and Basra. Located both at the center of power and the commercial gateway of the country, Lincoln will act as a central clearinghouse for businesses seeking to do business in Iraq. Lincoln will provide the information, research, and contacts necessary to develop and grow business within the country. Lincoln will also provide a threat and risk assessment service through its ASP service, allowing clients to understand and mitigate the perceived security risk and dangers present in country.” [7] It all sounds as sharp and incisive as a surgeon’s scalpel, this “in country capability” – No mess, no bodies or blood – just the freshly plucked American patriotism and some substantial pay packets. This changed to a more coy description in August 2007 depicting the Lincoln Group as a “strategic communications firm that provides our clients with access to cultures which have historically been difficult to reach through traditional Western communications.” Which means very non-traditional methods are used to gain access and extract resources. One medal that Lincoln can pin on their staff suit and ties includes a significant amount of spin over the mass slaughter of civilians in the attacks on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. An ABC report confirmed Lincoln’s involvement through a strategy document entitled: ‘The Making of Heroes: Lincoln Group and the Fight for Fallujah’ — part of the Pentagon’s multi-million dollar public relations campaign to sell the American war effort to the Iraqis.” This revealed its attempts to promote ‘the strength, integrity and reliability of Iraqi Forces during the fight for Fallujah.’ In fact, it was to promote lies in favour of genocide that city came to represent. Almost 70 per cent of the city was destroyed by US forces, from civilian houses to medical centres and general services facilities. Thousands of innocent men, women and children were killed and almost half million refugee produced in the aftermath. [8] Let’s also not forget that Fallujah may have been used as a large-scale testing ground for experimental weaponry including chemical, laser, fission and microwave. Many witness reports from both Iraqi civilians and US military speak of injuries consistent with such warfare where persons were bleeding from their eyes and ears or simply melted where they stood. This is the kind of PR which enabled secrecy and media blackouts about such crimes to remain concealed. [9] The report went on to say: “Under the heading ‘Rumor Control,’ according to the document, the Lincoln Group strives to dispel the notion that the war is ‘America’s fight’ or that Iraqi forces were defecting…‘It’s a little strange to see because even the Pentagon’s own estimates and the administration’s own estimates of the state of the Iraqi forces in 2004 when these fights for Fallujah occurred were never very glowing,’ said Michael O’Hanlon, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution.” [10] The firm was also responsible for covertly planting wholly fabricated stories in Iraqi news outlets throughout 2005 “…designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military”. The stories were written by U.S. military “information operations” troop with “… the Lincoln Group’s Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes [posing] as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.” [11] The Los Angeles Times reported that PSYOPS campaigns were being directed by “‘Information Operations Task Force’ in Baghdad, part of the multinational corps headquarters commanded by Army Lt. Gen. John R. Vines. … As part of a psychological operations campaign that has intensified over the last year, the task force also had purchased an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station, and was using them to channel pro-American messages to the Iraqi public. Neither is identified as a military mouthpiece.” [12] Astonishingly, far from the practice being condemned it was summarily encouraged an internal review having “concluded that the US military was not violating U.S. law or Pentagon guidelines.” [13] The US military are thus continuing to pay Iraqi newspapers and other Middle Eastern countries to publish articles favourable to the United States commensurate with the required geo-political expansion within those regions. As we have seen, the practice isn’t restricted to foreign countries – they’ve been doing it in the Establishment media for years. As all these undemocratic strategies are combined with the new global private armies masquerading as security firms and you have the emergence of a new kind of warfare characterized by PSYOPS and mercenary outsourcing. This was clearly part of Donald Rumsfeld’s new espionage baby the “Strategic Support Branch,” which “deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces.” Not only was formed from “reprogrammed” funds but it operated “without explicit congressional authority or appropriation.” It was a far more secretive unit that rivalled the CIA and directly answerable to Donald Rumsfeld which some have said allowed the Defence Secretary far too much power. The Lincoln Group fits comfortably into Rumsfeld’s strategy “…to find new tools to penetrate and destroy the shadowy organizations, such as al Qaeda, that pose global threats to U.S. interests in conflicts with little resemblance to conventional war.” [14] By 2006 the firm had entered into more than 20 Defence Department contracts one of which amounted to almost $100 million and a variety of commercial and non-military government deals. Iraq remained a major source of capital where research, communications and even direct investing in the newly acquired was carried out. [15] By September, the Lincoln Group was the beneficiary of another two-year contract “to handle PR and strategic communications” for the U.S. military in Iraq worth $6 million per year, with increases available for $20 million if necessary. This time the PR strategies wasn’t restricted to Iraq but were part of a strategy to manipulate perception and media throughout the Middle East. [16] In the same year the company was heavily involved on various PR fronts inside Pakistan, having established its office in Islamabad in November of 2005. Under cover of humanitarian research and coordination, market research and demography for companies intending to invest in Pakistan, the Lincoln Group is still a primary PR tool for the Pentagon and its long-term strategy of pre-emptive warfare and colonisation. 2008, proved to be another busy and lucrative year. A $14.3 million contract from the U.S. Army to promote the Army’s “Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization campaign” which got under way in July. [17] By September, the Lincoln Group had won a three-year, $300 million contract for “information operations” in Iraq and Afghanistan.[18] Since there are presently more than three times as many PR people in America as there are journalists, it seems the company’s expertise and many others like it, will be used by the Pentagon for many years to come. [19] *** Perhaps the most searing indictment on the nature of the modern media was delivered by the 1976 film Network, a biting satire on the nature of broadcasting and media. Written with disturbing clarity and prophetic vision by Paddy Chayefsky, it tells the story of Howard Beale, a newscaster and media celebrity who teeters on the edge of a breakdown while exploring the dynamics of a popular news network that surrounds him. Peter Finch earned a posthumous for his portrayal of Beale second only to a star performance by Ned Beatty who plays the role of a corporate sponsor. An extract from his speech follows in which he berates the newscaster for attempting to wake up the people with his new one-man show. He is biting the hand that feeds him and more importantly, showing the true nature of television and the business world: You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU… WILL… ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that… perfect world… in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel. [20] The above extract is drawn directly from Chayefsky’s own experience in media. As we shall see in the coming chapters, it is a perception of life which exists across all domains of society. Increasing commercialisation, consolidation and monopolisation of media and entertainment networks has produced a dizzying array of “info-tainment” channels where quality is sacrificed for quantity permitting greater conformity to governmental and corporate influence which entice journalists to value their careers and kudos over truth. The information revolution and alternative media found on the internet is already chipping away at this Establishment edifice and it remains to be seen how long the internet can remain a source of genuine free speech. The Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham epitomised why distrust of the MSM is at record levels. Terry Hansen quotes her astonishing offering in his Missing Times (p.83) where in 1988, she told a meeting of CIA officials: “… there are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn’t. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows.” * Largely because of political sensitivities, psychological warfare has had several names during the 20th century, including propaganda, political warfare, and psychological operations (PSYOPS). It encompasses activities to weaken the enemy’s will, reinforce loyalty, and gain the military or moral support of the uncommitted, usually through the control and management of news and information. Its rise in importance is directly related to the development of print and other media, particularly in the last 100 years. Put simply, it is perception management. The aggressive needs of psychological warfare in a world war have since given way to the different aims of psychological operations in times of peace. Although the distinction between it and propaganda is often indistinct, the former is based on presenting a version of the truth (or perceived truth) to an enemy, whilst propaganda has come to mean peddling a lie, often to one’s own side. […] (Oxford Companion to British Military history) | As of 2010, the US Army has dropped the Vietnam-era name “psychological operations” in favour of a more neutral moniker of “Military Information Support Operations,” or MISO. Notes
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 02:24:33 +0000