ZGram - 2/20/2002 - "Pentagon 'ready to lie' to win War on Terror"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2002 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

February 20, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

The news article below is only legitimizing and admitting publicly what has
pretty well been standard procedure in East and West since the outbreak of
World War I.  What is surprising is the ***public acknowledgment*** that
America has now officially created and is paying for an office where paid
liars work.  In the past they left this job to politician and media
prostitutes, hundreds of whom have been subsidized by the CIA.

Claus von Buelow, former watch dog of Germany's intelligence services,
claims in his best-selling book, "Im Namen des Staates" (In the Name of the
State) that, by far, the greatest amount of time by modern intelligence
agencies is spent on launching stories with a desired spin to influence the
media and, ultimately, law makers to create certain laws and policies.  I
remember Buelow's quote of time spent by intelligence agencies on
spin-doctoring as 95%.

The effect has been the complete corruption of the democratic process where
non-elected, hidden, shadowy forces in effect shape the very laws and
policies they wish to have passed by parliament.

What we have increasingly are governments who are so infiltrated and
manipulated by their own intelligence services that they, in fact - even if
it's not acknowledged - run most modern states like Intelligence Juntas.

Especially after 9/11 this is what's happening.  What we see more openly
every day in government is a kind of musical chairs scenario by the same
worn-out clique of old oligarchs who move from intelligence portfolios to
bank directorships to publicly funded outfits like the World Bank and the
IMF to the Council on Foreign Relations - back and forth, like chess
figures on a chess board.

There are many who believe the New World Order has arrived - in all but
name.  When you read the article below, you can't help thinking that
tomorrow there will be ads in the New York Times and Washington Post,
headlined, "Liars wanted!  Apply at the Pentagon!"

[START'

 February 20, 2002

 Pentagon 'ready to lie' to win War on Terror

 From Damian Whitworth in Washington

  THE Pentagon has set up a covert unit to wage an information war that
could include feeding false stories to foreign media, according to a report
yesterday.

 A senior Pentagon official was quoted as saying that the information
battle "goes from the blackest of black programmes to the whitest of
white".

 The proposals appeared to have been leaked by Pentagon officials who
fiercely oppose them and hope to ensure widespread outrage at home and
abroad and increased scepticism about US statements on the War on Terror,
especially in countries where they are expected to have an impact.

 As the Bush Administration attempts to build support for expanding the War
on Terror, officials at the new Office of Strategic Influence are aiming to
form opinion in friendly and unfriendly countries with carefully placed
information that supports their case.

 Under plans that have yet to be approved by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence
Secretary, disinformation, or "black programmes", could be one of the
weapons in the new campaign, The New York Times reported.

 It was unclear under what circumstances false news items would be relayed,
but the plan is to influence public opinion and policymakers in the Middle
East, Asia and even Western Europe. A White House official said that the UK
media were not likely to be a target. "They are not exactly thinking about
Britain," he said.

 Among the suggestions are that the job of disseminating disinformation be
undertaken by outside groups that reporters would not immediately realise
were linked to the Pentagon. E-mail, which would not carry a Pentagon
address, would also be employed to spread the US message to foreign
journalists.

 American agencies have long engaged in information warfare, including
radio broadcasts and leaflet drops seen in Afghanistan, but the new office,
with a multimilliondollar budget, was set up after September 11 to take the
message to a wider audience.

 One complication could be US laws that ban the Pentagon and CIA from
undertaking propaganda activities in America. The Defence Department could
fall foul of the law if stories placed by the unit are picked up by the
American media and later found to have been false. In the 1970s CIA
disinformation was picked up from the foreign media by American news
organisations.

 In September Mr Rumsfeld was asked if there would be any occasion when
defence officials would be authorised to lie to the media. He recalled Sir
Winston Churchill's line: "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should
always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

 Then he said: "No, I cannot imagine a situation. I don't recall that I've
ever lied to the press; I don't intend to, and it seems to me that there
will not be a reason for it. There are dozens of ways to avoid having to
put yourself in a position where you're lying. And I don't do it."

 Victoria Clarke, the Pentagon spokeswoman, would not discuss the Office of
Strategic Influence. "Clearly the US needs to be as effective as possible
in all our communications. What we're trying to do now is make clear the
distinction and appropriateness of who does what."

(Source:  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,13-213439,00.html )

=====

Thought for the Day:

"Veracity is the heart of morality."

(Thomas Henry Huxley)