bald McCarthy2 in USA? - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[WISCH_und_WEG]

In diesen Tagen kann sich Bush nahezu alles leisten.

Da sich die USA offiziel im Krieg gegen den Terror befinden und sie weiterhin internationale Koalitionen zur Beseitigung des Terrors benötigen, kann man davon ausgehen, dass strategische Falschinformationen (wie sie während des 2. Golfkrieges gang und gäbe waren) nun auch eingesetzt werden.

Wie lange wird es noch dauern bis Bush in einem Atemzug mit McCarthy genannt werden wird? Der Unterschied zu damals wäre dann, dass der Schaden "globalized" ist...


und_WEG


Pentagon weighs disinformation campaign proposal
Wed Feb 20, 2:12 AM ET
By SALLY BUZBEE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A developing Pentagon (news - web sites) campaign to influence public opinion in both hostile and friendly countries could include planting false information and result in those lies getting back to Americans, critics worry.


"Anything they spread overseas will come back here, because information travels so quickly," said Shibley Telhami, a Middle East specialist at the Brookings Institution. "Our own population will then hear it and believe it. It will affect our decisions."

The proposal by the Pentagon`s Office of Strategic Influence, part of efforts to promote the war against terrorism, reflects a Bush administration worry that the United States lacks strong public support overseas, especially among Muslims who believe the United States is hostile toward Islam.

The office, set up after the Sept. 11 attacks, has come up with proposals including the placing of news items — false if necessary — with foreign news organizations, a defense official said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.

The office also is considering having an outside organization distribute the information so it would not be apparent it came from the Defense Department, the official said.

"This is a battle for minds," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Tuesday in a speech to defense contractors. "Our victory on the ground in Afghanistan (news - web sites) has already changed substantially how this conflict is perceived, even in the Muslim world."

At the same time, President Bush (news - web sites) has decided to turn the administration`s temporary wartime communications office into a permanent office to convey the nation`s diplomacy efforts around the globe. The new office would not be connected to the Strategic Influence office and would coordinate the public statements of the State and Defense Departments.

Wolfowitz did not comment specifically on the proposed new campaign, and top U.S. officials have not yet approved it.

Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded U.S. troops during the Persian Gulf war (news - web sites), said he doesn`t believe the reports.

"We don`t deliberately lie to other people. ... That`s not America. That`s not what we do," he said during a speech in Daytona Beach, Fla.

The United States considered spreading false propaganda in the early stages of the Gulf War but quickly dismissed the idea, he said.

"At that time, we said `No,`" Schwarzkopf said. "Not that much has changed from then until now."

At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher said the department was aware of the Pentagon office but declined to discuss its functions.

"We provide accurate and truthful information," Boucher said when asked about State Department policy.

The government has used covert tactics — including disinformation — to undermine foreign governments in the past, but mostly in super-secret CIA (news - web sites) operations against enemies such as Iraq and Cuba.

Such covert action requires presidential authority and cannot be conducted against Americans.

The military also has long conducted wartime "psychological operations" such as dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages, as it did when fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But the Pentagon proposal, if approved, would significantly broaden such information efforts.

Critics warned that any campaign including deliberate lies also could undermine U.S. credibility overseas.

While the Bush administration has a legitimate desire to confuse enemies with disinformation, "lies have a nasty way of being found out," said Ted Galen Carpenter, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

"We`re already viewed with a certain amount of suspicion," Carpenter said. "If we`re caught in blatant lies, that hostility will increase."

Some Pentagon officials also say privately that any such campaign could hurt the credibility of military offices that provide information to reporters. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters last fall that he would never lie to them.

Since Sept. 11, the State Department has begun an aggressive effort to promote American viewpoints and policies overseas. And the White House has set up a "war room" to quickly respond to allegations overseas.

But Rumsfeld said in mid-December that efforts to combat anti-Americanism were one aspect of the war that lagged at first. He said U.S. officials needed to think about how to more effectively promote America`s position.

The Office of Strategic Influence is headed by an Air Force brigadier general, Simon Worden. It coordinates with a new White House counterterrorism office run by a retired general, Wayne Downing, who once headed the military`s Special Operations command.

In the late 1980s, former newsman Bernard Kalb quit as the State Department spokesman after reports that the Reagan administration devised a misinformation policy. That policy included leaking false information to reporters in an effort to convince Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi that the United States was about to attack. Kalb said he never knowingly gave out false information.

[walwal]

Das gibt es auch in deutsch (aus der Süddeutschen Z.)

Neue Pentagon-Abteilung setzt angeblich auf gezielte Desinformation



Kriege legen im Menschen oft Fähigkeiten frei, die unentdeckt in ihm geschlummert haben. In Amerika widerfuhr dies Verteidigungsminister Donald Rumsfeld, seitdem er damit anfing, persönlich die Pressebriefings zu geben. Der Minister, der früher eher die Ausstrahlung eines Stockfisches hatte, entpuppte sich als derart populäre Medienpersönlichkeit, dass ihm Präsident George Bush den größten Sexappeal aller Kabinettskollegen bescheinigte.

Mittlerweile hat das Pentagon offenkundig Appetit auf noch mehr PR bekommen; oder man hat einfach erkannt, dass die Öffentlichkeit – vor allem im Ausland – viel zu wenig über die segensreiche Tätigkeit des amerikanischen Militärs weiß. Deshalb wurde, wie die New York Times berichtete, nach den Terroranschlägen vom 11. September ein „Amt für strategische Einflussnahme“ (Office of Strategic Influence) ins Leben gerufen, das bei Freund und Feind für Amerika werben soll – allerdings mit fragwürdigen Methoden. Die neue Behörde, die ein Budget in Höhe von mehreren Millionen Dollar hat, soll auch gezielt falsche Informationen verbreiten. Diese dereinst vom sowjetischen Geheimdienst KGB perfektionierte Methode der Desinformation war von den Amerikanern stets beklagt worden; inzwischen scheint man sich – nach dem Motto: „Von der Sowjetunion lernen, heißt siegen lernen“ – von ihrer Wirksamkeit überzeugt zu haben.

Einzelheiten sind bisher kaum bekannt, außer, dass die Propaganda- Maschine von dem Brigadegeneral Simon Worden geleitet wird, der studierter Astrophysiker ist. Der Ex-Oberst Thomas Timmes, ein Experte für psychologische Kriegsführung, vermutet, dass das neue Amt „alle Register innerhalb des Verteidigungsministeriums ziehen wird, um ausländisches Publikum zu beeinflussen“. Ein Pentagon-Mitarbeiter vertraute der New York Times an: „Es rangiert von den schwärzesten der schwarzen Programme bis zu den weißesten der weißen“ – wobei schwarz für die versteckte Verbreitung von Lügen, weiß für unschuldige und wahrhaftige Public-Relations-Kampagnen steht.

Denkbar ist unter anderem, dass das Pentagon – unter Benutzung eines falschen Absenders – E-Mails an ausländische Journalisten, einflussreiche Persönlichkeiten oder Politiker schickt, in denen die amerikanische Haltung dargelegt wird. Doch gerade daran entzündet sich Kritik, weil es denkbar ist, dass in die Auslandspresse eingeschmuggelte Fehlinformationen ihren Weg zurück in amerikanische Medien finden. Generell befürchten die Kritiker des neuen Propaganda-Amtes, dass die Glaubwürdigkeit des Pentagon im Speziellen und der amerikanischen Regierung im Allgemeinen beschädigt werden könnte. Weder Präsident Bush noch Minister Rumsfeld haben bisher endgültig ihre Zustimmung zu dem Unternehmen gegeben.

Das Pentagon hat freilich schon Experten angeworben. Zu ihnen zählt das Consulting-Unternehmen Rendon in Washington, zu dessen Kunden der Geheimdienst CIA, das kuwaitische Königshaus und die irakische Opposition gehören. Mit Lug und Trug kennt sich die Rendon Group aus. Nach dem Einmarsch irakischer Truppen in Kuwait im Jahr 1990 verbreitete die Agentur Berichte, dass irakische Soldaten Neugeborene aus den Brutkästen gerissen hätten. Die Geschichte ließ höchstens Rückschlüsse auf die Fantasie ihrer Urheber zu. Denn sie war von Anfang bis Ende erlogen.

[WISCH_und_WEG]

Diese Reuters-Meldung ist auch sehr aussagekräftig.

und_WEG

US sets up misinformation office

The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news, possibly
even false information, to foreign media organizations as
part of a new effort to sway public sentiment and
policymakers in other countries, the New York Times reported
on Tuesday. The military`s recently created Office of
Strategic Influence is proposing to expand on the common
practice of distributing information in hostile nations. It
is suggesting information also be delivered to allied
nations in the Middle East, Asia and even Western Europe,
the Times said. Proposed activities include "aggressive
campaigns that use not only the foreign media and the
internet but also covert operations". The Office of
Strategic Influence`s head, Brigadier General Simon Worden,
reportedly believes the department should consider running
so-called "black" information campaigns that use
misinformation and covert activities. A senior Pentagon
official is quoted as saying: "It goes from the blackest of
black programmes to the whitest of the white" - an allusion
to the possibility of mixing black propaganda with truthful
press releases. The office, established shortly after the 11
September attacks, was a response to concerns in the
administration that the US was losing public support
overseas for its war on terrorism, particularly in Islamic
countries, the paper said. The plans have not received final
approval from the White House. Some critics say they might
undermine the credibility of information that is openly
distributed by the Defense Department`s public affairs
officers, according to the Times. (Reuters, 20/02/2002)

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