[R-G] US Military Psychological Operations and You

[Anthony Fenton]

Welcome to the Jungle: US Military Psychological Operations and You

by Heather Wokusch / August 13th, 2007

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/08/welcome-to-the-jungle-us- 
military-psychological-operations-and-you/

     …the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic  
Government, being incapable of any other.
     – Benjamin Franklin, 1787

They say that if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water it will  
immediately jump out, but that if you raise the pot’s heat gradually,  
the frog won’t react.

The US public has been on a slow boil since 2001. This  
administration’s rollbacks have been so consistent and so egregious  
that it’s no surprise many Americans feel apathetic.

And that begs the question: What exactly would it take to get the US  
public spurred into action?

Sentient World Simulation (SWS) may have an answer. It’s a computer- 
based project designed to “generate alternative futures” and no  
surprise, the US Defense Department is actively involved.

According to one of the project’s developers, Purdue University  
professor Alok Chaturvedi, “SWS will consist of a synthetic  
environment that mirrors the real world in all it key aspects —  
Political, Military, Economic, Social, Information, and  
Infrastructure.” The goal is to copy each person on earth into the  
SWS parallel universe, and then see how they respond to external  
events such as natural disasters or political upheavals.

The concept paper Chaturvedi co-authored additionally notes, “SWS  
provides an environment for testing Psychological Operations  
(PSYOP),” to help the military “develop and test multiple courses of  
action to anticipate and shape behaviors of adversaries, neutrals,  
and partners.”

To anticipate and shape behaviors of adversaries, neutrals, and  
partners.

Blurring the lines between military and civilian Psychological  
Operations is nothing new. In 1989, US forces in Panama blasted Guns  
N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle” into the Vatican Embassy during  
negotiations for the handover of General Manuel Noriega, and from  
1998-1999, US military PSYOP personnel interned at both CNN and NPR.

More recently, a 2003 Pentagon document called Information Operations  
Roadmap detailed the US military’s approach to exploiting information  
in order to “keep pace with warfighter needs and support defense  
transformation.” Personally approved by former Defense Secretary  
Rumsfeld, the document was declassified in 2006 and covers everything  
from the Pentagon’s plans for Computer Network Attack (”We Must Fight  
the Net”) to beefing up the use of Psychological Operations (”We Must  
Improve PSYOP”) to manipulating information through means including:  
“Radio/ TV/Print/ Web media designed to directly modify behavior and  
distributed in theater supporting military endeavors in semi or non- 
permissive environment.”

While The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 forbids US propaganda intended for  
foreign audiences from being used domestically, Information  
Operations Roadmap acknowledges that “information intended for  
foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly  
is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa.”

The 2003 Pentagon document adds, “the distinction between foreign and  
domestic audiences becomes more a question of USG [U.S. government]  
intent rather than information dissemination practices.”

Perhaps that’s why a top US general ordered public affairs to be  
joined with combat PSYOP into one “strategic communications office”  
in Iraq in the summer of 2004.

Domestically, it doesn’t help that SWS and other developments in  
military Psychological Operations are accompanied by rollbacks in the  
right to dissent and bipartisan support of government surveillance of  
American citizens.

Makes you wish our cyberspace clones could tell us how best to fight  
the Matrix.

At the very least, we must become more vigilant about the ongoing use  
of military PSYOP and misinformation; the Pat Tillman case is a  
perfect example. Holding the Defense Department and media accountable  
for every mislead regarding the Bush administration’s military  
adventurism is more important than ever.

Action Ideas:

1. For a great database on the Bush Administration’s misleads about  
Iraq, see Rep. Henry A. Waxman’s, “Iraq on the Record.”

2. One Defense Department group particularly especially interested in  
these topics is The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency  
(DARPA). Its Information Exploitation Office, for example, is focused  
on “shaping the battlespace before conflict” and its site is filled  
with snappy computer graphics reminiscent of militaristic video  
games. Taxpayer dollars hard at work.

3. For media watchdog groups, check out Fairness & Accuracy in  
Reporting and Media Matters for America.

4. Had enough? E-mail, call or write the White House, Congress or  
state and local government here.

Watch Heather talk about “The Bush Years: Lessons Learned and Damage  
Done” on Fora.tv. She is the author of The Progressives’ Handbook  
series and can be reached via www.heatherwokush.com. Read other  
articles by Heather, or visit Heather's website.