Thomas c --

"The Illegality Issue

As I understand it, the propaganda operation must be "covert" to be illegal. According to Barstow's article, the Pentagon took affirmative steps to assure that the fundamental nature of the relationship with the analysts would not be disclosed.

Participants were instructed not to quote their briefers directly or otherwise describe their contacts with the Pentagon.

In addition, the Pentagon's briefings of the Generals were kept separate from the Pentagon's press briefings. This is obviously evidence that the operation was intended to be covert.

Propaganda in at least this context is intended to "persuade" by means of deceit. It is, therfore, by definition "covert". The "complications" simply don't exist.

1. The media is not reponsible for the Pentagon's decision to use propaganda, or for the Pentagon's setting up the propaganda operation, or for the actions of the propgandists, including the fake "analysts" who knew they were participating in a propaganda operation.

2. The media is responsible for ITS actions -- whether willful or failure due to incompetence, though it appears the media couldn't have cared less that they were spreading lies, even when they knew they were -- and still are -- doing that.

"Ultimately the legal issue is likely to come down to whether the Pentagon merely asked the Generals not to volunteer the nature of their Pentagon contacts or whether the Pentagon and the Generals took affirmative actions to conceal them."

1. Ignorance of the law is no exuse.

2. The fake "analysts" KNEW what they were doing was propaganda: we aren't talking about an optionless enlistee: we are talking about career military BRASS, up to and including GENERALS.

I didn't guess it was you until I scroll down to the bottom of it.

This is from my local paper today. The university is only thrree miles from my home.

To thank the U.S. military, Benedictine University is offering Illinois veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan a free education through its First Responder program, the school announced Friday. The university is the first in the country to offer this program.

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama secured a $750,000 federal grant for the first year of the program, which is in the final stages of paperwork in Washington, D.C. Starting this fall, that money will go toward the extension of the program.

University President William Carroll said that even if the university does not receive federal grants after this year, the program will continue long-term.

"We will keep this program going no matter what because it is the right thing to do," Carroll said during a May 9 press conference.

The more things change, the more they stay the same:

"The [US] media's feat in transforming the Salvadoran "security forces," aptly described as "a deranged killing machine," into "protectors of an incipient democracy" is, I believe, a propaganda achievement that totalitarian states might conceivably approach, but never surpass."

Edward S. Herman, Professor of Finance, Wharton School,

University of Pennsylvania, in Covert Action Bulletin, Number 21 (Spring 1984) page 7, regarding the Salvadoran elections of 1984.

"Respect" for the military is expected, most often as a means to silence or overawe critics --

"My respect for military personnel is almost always in inverse proportion to their rank.

"-- Aycharaych Saturday, May 10, 2008 12:54 PM"

Sounds good. Nicely worded. But bunk.

1. I don't respect those -- in or out of the military -- who don't think for themselves. It is they, after all, who are relied upon to "patriotically" defend and advance the "mission" even when the "mission" is unjustified and worse.

2. I don't respect those -- in or out of the military -- who take advantage of those who don't think for themselves.

No. It is not.

Black, White and Grey.

White propaganda is definitely not covert. It may be called Public Diplomacy by some. Some call all propaganda "the truth".

I won't mention any names but you'll find it all over their websites and they have big L's before or after their names and I don't mean liberals, but I suppose a few of them are guilty, too.

Public Diplomacy and Covert Propaganda

The Declassified Record of Ambassador Otto Juan Reich

A National Security Archive

Electronic Briefing Book

Edited by

Thomas Blanton

March 2, 2001

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB40/

But the (most) common usage of it as a term to somehow demean men is, I think, insulting to those of us who are rather fond of ourselves and our natural accoutrements. . . .

-- Pedinska [Read Pedinska's other letters]Permalink Saturday, May 10, 2008 01:27 PM

You neglect to mention that it is also inslting to men.

Not that that should matter, of course. Only men are draft-eligible, and only women are oppressed.

* The final document included here is an April 15, 1984 memo drafted by Mr. Reich for Secretary of State George Shultz to send to President Reagan, describing a specific intervention by Mr. Reich with CBS News as an example of the day-to-day work of the public diplomacy office.

The Propaganda of the Word

by Patrick Lang

Thu Dec 1st, 2005 at 09:39:19 PM EST

by Patrick Lang (bio below)

There are Public Information Officers (PIOs) and then there are propagandists. The two are not the same.

PIOs have the job of releasing what is thought to be the truth to media outlets. The information is often laden with the values, point of view and hopes of the releasing headquarters but it is, nevertheless, not a deliberate attempt to deceive. Those who have seen Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece "Full Metal Jacket" have seen this in action. (Yes. Yes. I know. This is not really the Marine Corps) In the film the "Joker's" boss, a bureau chief for "Stars and Stripes" tells Joker to write more positive stories because the troops "need it." This is stupid but not propaganda. (In fact, the troops don't need or believe any of that crap)

Propaganda is different. It involves the dissemination of information not intended to inform, but rather to influence. It comes in three varieties:

White. This is propaganda which is clearly identified as to source. The Voice of America, Sawa Radio, Al-Hurra TV. These are White propaganda outlets. Harmless, if often inept.

Grey. Propaganda not clearly identified as to source. A wire service, TV station or publishing house which does not identify its ownership.

Black. Propaganda which seeks to deceive as to source, In "normal" (non-wartime) times this is by law the domain of the CIA. In wartime it is equally the realm of the military (to the chagrin of the CIA). Propaganda directed against foreign audiences has not been thought "out of bounds" in the USA since the end of WW2. It is a fundamental principal of such action under American law that it should not be directed at the American electorate.

We must ask if this principle has been adhered to, not by the CIA, but rather by political enthusiasts and "cultists" within the "information operations" and "psychological warfare" area of military activities.

Beginning with the trauma that followed our defeat in Vietnam, there arose in the US Army a "movement" which sought an answer for the question of why our long and painful struggle had led to nothing but masses of refugees seeking refuge from the prospect of communist government. Various strange studies were funded for several years seeking answers which would not be too personally painful.

Telepathy, telekinesis, firewalking, spoonbending, distant viewing, political warfare and propaganda against both hostile and friendly targets were all studied and experimented in by men who under normal circumstances were more stable and certainly less imaginative. ... continued below ...

(See the interesting work, "The Men Who Stare at Goats")

In the end the Army rejected all this and returned to its usual preoccupation, but the tendency survived in the persons of several officers who have risen to high rank. Some have been high officials in the counter-terrorism and homeland defense fields. Some are now major media figures and others officials of the Department of Defense, but outside the "mainstream" of the Army. None are in the intelligence business.

As a result of the continued existence of this"tendency," the Bush Administration has been influenced in the direction of manipulation of public opinion here and abroad as an instrument of warfare.

We are now beginning to witness the results of such foolishness.

http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=2053&paper=2550

He's not kidding.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

http://www.jonronson.com/goats_04.html

And my personal favorite:

The First Earth Battalion

http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_channon_0200.htm