Looks like all my rants against Spirit Of America, Iraq The Model, Chrenkoff and others are finally becoming topical. This article is worth reading in full: U.S. military pays Iraqis for positive news stories on war:
Under military rules, information operations are restricted to influencing the attitudes and behavior of foreign governments and people. One form of information operations -- psychological warfare -- can use doctored or false information to deceive or damage the enemy or to bolster support for American efforts.That blow-back issue is all about US voters being mis-informed via Iraqi sources, as the planted news stories filter back to the USA:
Many military officials, however, said they were concerned that the payments to Iraqi journalists and other covert information operations in Iraq had become so extensive that they were corroding the effort to build democracy and undermining U.S. credibility in Iraq. They also worry that information in the Iraqi press that's been planted or paid for by the U.S. military could 'blow back' to the American public.
the U.S. public is at risk of being influenced by the information operations because what's planted in the Iraqi media can be picked up by international news organizations and Internet bloggers.As if such blow-bakc were an unintended consequence!!! This has always been a Media War, a War of Propaganda and a War of Spin - the PNAC members knew that's how it would be from the day they first planned it! All these people can do is Spin!
And the real targets of the propaganda were always the US voters, not the miserable Iraqis in the front line of the disinformation assault, whose wretched lives the neocons could care less about!
UPDATE: Everybody blames everybody else. Everybody is "demanding answers" except General Casey, who feebly protests that this stuff should not be discussed publicly because it's classified.
And hey! Look! He-e-e-ere's Scotty!
At a briefing with reporters, the White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, responded to a barrage of questions about the program, which military contractors and officials said also pays friendly Iraqi journalists with monthly stipends.
"We're very concerned about the reports," the White House spokesman said. "We have asked the Department of Defense for more information."
1 comment:
"As if such blow-back were an unintended consequence!!!"
Exactly right. And as if the Iraqi people are going to ignore what's going on around them because of something they read or hear on the radio.
I see this propaganda effort as an attempt to drown out all the real news that's trickling in from the Middle East, an attempt to defuse bloggers and such ... because they surely don't need any new efforts to propagandize the major media. That's clearly in the pentagon's pocket and has been for a long time.
Please keep up the good work, Gandhi. Your blog is an invaluable resource! ;-)
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