Psy-Op: Military Uses Networks to Spread Misinformation

The U.S. military is reportedly distributing misinformation to the media as part

of a campaign of psychological operations. The Los Angeles Times uncovered how

the military sent spokespersons to major news networks to deliberately lie

about military operations in Iraq in an effort to deceive the Iraqi resistance.

We speak with retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner. [includes rush transcript]



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The U.S. military is reportedly distributing misinformation to the media as part

of a campaign of psychological operations. This according to a report in the Los

Angeles Times. The paper has uncovered incidents where the military has sent

spokespersons to major news networks to deliberately lie about military

operations in Iraq in an effort to deceive the Iraqi resistance.



In one case, on Oct. 14, a Marine spokesperson appeared on CNN from Fallujah and

said "Troops crossed the line of departure." CNN was soon reporting the battle

for Fallujah had begun. In fact it wouldn't begin for another three weeks.



A senior Pentagon official told CNN that Gilbert's remarks were "technically

true but misleading." It was an attempt to get CNN "to report something not

true," the official said. The military claimed it wanted to see how Iraqi

fighters responded to the so-called news report.



Several top officials told the LA Times that they see a danger of blurring what

are supposed to be well-defined lines between the stated mission of military

public affairs and psychological and information operations. One senior defense

official told the paper "The movement of information has gone from the public

affairs world to the psychological operations world. What's at stake is the

credibility of people in uniform."



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Col. Sam Gardiner, retired Air Force Colonel. He has taught strategy and

military operations at the National War College, AirWar College and Naval War

College.





RUSH TRANSCRIPT





AMY GOODMAN: We are joined on the phone by Colonel Sam Gardiner. He's a retired

Air Force colonel. He's taught strategy and military operations at National Air

War College and Naval War College. We welcome you to Democracy Now!



SAM GARDINER: Good morning, Amy.



AMY GOODMAN: Your response to this latest report?



SAM GARDINER: Well it's actually more of the same. Interesting to me that people

would pick up on this right now because it was so pervasive before and during

Gulf 2. This is just a small incident compared to what we have seen before. The

real distinction, however, is in the past, most of these falsehoods,

psychological operations, strategic communications, themes came from civilians.

This is one of the first times when a military officer has actually and visibly

crossed the line. And that's a big deal because the military is the only

profession I know where lying is a criminal offense. In the uniform code of

military justice, it is a court martial offense for an officer to tell a lie.

And frankly, this lieutenant who talked to CNN is subjected himself to

potential court martial.



AMY GOODMAN: Last night, watching FOX, the former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

basically said whatever it takes to protect our troops.



SAM GARDINER: But Amy, we are supposed to be protecting democracy. The troops

have taken an oath to protect democracy. And if we destroy democracy to protect

the troops, something's gone terribly wrong. I think--I couldn't disagree more

with Newt Gingrich. The other part of that, Amy, is as a former officer, this

just is sort of goes to my essence. And that's the notion that an officer's

word is his bond. Whether he is speaking to the troops, to other officers, or

in public. When we cross the line, when you begin to not be able to trust the

word of an officer, we have begun to destroy the military from within.



AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain this idea of psy-ops, psychological operations, how

it's used abroad and what's happening now at home?



SAM GARDINER: Well, Amy, this has a very long tradition in the U.S. Military and

in militaries in the world which is the notion that you use bad information or

distorted information to target the enemy. Up until probably about 15 years

ago, that notion was meant that it would be done on the battlefield. It became

a growing idea within the military of a thing called information warfare which

was sort of the concept that you would bring it outside the battlefield. And

what's happened, and this is what's so serious, is that it has now been taken

into the public airways and we can't tell whether or not we are getting the

truth from the military or psychological operations. And I have to say frankly,

I think, and again I would very strongly disagree with Newt Gingrich, because

you don't have to--let's say that this is a valid notion, we wanted the bad

guys in Fallujah to think we were coming early. That doesn't have to permeate

and distort the worldwide media for that message to get across. That's the kind

of thing that you deliver locally. They aren't communicating with the world. If

you want to do it by attacks, if you want to do it, by leaflets, that's fine.

But don't put it on CNN for all of us to hear.



AMY GOODMAN: What do you think should happen right now about this information? I

mean, the military at least in this report, being quite clear about what they

are doing. That psychological operations is their new approach here at home and

abroad. Or not their new approach, as you have pointed out in your own report on

the analysis of stories that came out of Iraq from the military that were simply

psy-ops, not true, going right to Jessica Lynch.



SAM GARDINER: I think the U.S. military ought not to be allowed to tell other

than the truth to the media. The military has no business being in the

strategic communications deception business. Let me just give you an example of

what ought not to happen. There is, from the special operations command in

Florida, an ad on the web right now for P.R. Firms to come and bid a proposal,

do government work, so that they can do media operations that have a

psychological dimension that, and I will quote the document, to be broadcast

worldwide. Amy, the military ought not to do that. You know, this is the kind

of thing that politicians do and in fact that was the way the administration

controlled the message in the war was to send politicians down to do it. But

when the guys in uniform begin to tell untruths, we have problems.



AMY GOODMAN: Colonel Sam Gardiner, I want to thank you for being with us.

Colonel Sam Gardiner is a retired Air Force colonel. Thank you very much.





Source: Democracy Now





Also see:



PR Meets Psy-Ops in War on Terror

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1201-01.htm