PR Meets Psy-Ops in War on Terror

Forget what you thought you knew/read/saw

from an article in the LA Times
Linky here: PR Meets Psy-Ops in War on Terror
Wed Dec 1, 7:55 AM ET
By Mark Mazzetti Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — On the evening of Oct. 14, a young Marine spokesman near Fallouja appeared on CNN and made a dramatic announcement.
"Troops crossed the line of departure," 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert declared, using a common military expression signaling the start of a major campaign. "It's going to be a long night." CNN, which had been alerted to expect a major news development, reported that the long-awaited offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Fallouja had begun.
In fact, the Fallouja offensive would not kick off for another three weeks. Gilbert's carefully worded announcement was an elaborate psychological operation — or "psy-op" — intended to dupe insurgents in Fallouja and allow U.S. commanders to see how guerrillas would react if they believed U.S. troops were entering the city, according to several Pentagon officials.
In the hours after the initial report, CNN's Pentagon reporters were able to determine that the Fallouja operation had not, in fact, begun.
"As the story developed, we quickly made it clear to our viewers exactly what was going on in and around Fallouja," CNN spokesman Matthew Furman said.
Officials at the Pentagon and other U.S. national security agencies said the CNN incident was not an isolated feint — the type used throughout history by armies to deceive their enemies — but part of a broad effort underway within the Bush administration to use information to its advantage in the war on terrorism.
The Pentagon in 2002 was forced to shutter its controversial Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), which was opened shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, after reports that the office intended to plant false news stories in the international media. But officials say that much of OSI's mission — using information as a tool of war — has been assumed by other offices throughout the U.S. government.
Although most of the work remains classified, officials say that some of the ongoing efforts include having U.S. military spokesmen play a greater role in psychological operations in Iraq, as well as planting information with sources used by Arabic TV channels such as Al Jazeera to help influence the portrayal of the United States.
Other specific examples were not known, although U.S. national security officials said an emphasis had been placed on influencing how foreign media depict the United States.

... more at linked article

I absolutely love that our military is making monkeys out of the news media and the lemmings that hang on every word they hear out of talking heads on the TVs or what they read in print media (or hear on radio).

Time and again, our Brass has made fools out of people that start to tell us how badly they are performing, what a quagmire we're embroiled in, and how things are getting worse by the minute. Then *boom* we get a story telling us that we've actually nailed a bunch of insurgents that we let re-assemble as if we didn't care.

It happened in Afghanistan, where we started hearing about our lax security allowing former members of the Taliban, and the insurgents there to get back together. Yes, our military did lighten up and let them reassemble, but it was part of a bigger plan to let the fish round themselves up so we could pick them off in one nice convenient spot.

I'm glad that these folks are on our side, and that they're putting together the most effective plans they can for combatting this enemy.

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Psy-ops is fun. A friend of mine was Psy-ops going for Rotary Wing Aviation in the Army and he told me about how his little outfit planned an entire Psy-op hypothetical campaign for South Korea that involved fliers dropped from the sky, a Korean Holiday, and TV newscasts.

- Grim

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