The bogus "surrender" of Iraq's 51st division raised a "profound
question" for Gardiner: "If we would manipulate truth, would we also manipulate evidence? That would be very serious. Is that
what the Secretary of Defense meant when he said he was going to be doing strategic influence?"
Milt Bearden, a former CIA manager for clandestine operations has a related question: "It will be important to learn who
was behind the fake Niger document [alleging Iraq's attempt to obtain uranium ore] and why and what other information driving
American policies might carry their fingerprints."
The falsehoods about Iraq's alleged attempt to purchase African
uranium turned out to be based on a forged document. Gardiner wonders why no one in the administration is asking who forged
the document? Who stood to gain from this unconscionable act of "creating evidence"? Gardiner believes that the American people
have "a need to know."
Another probable "black program" identified by Gardiner involved the planting of a false story
that Saddam Hussein had taken refuge in the Russian Embassy in Baghdad. The story served to slime the Russians, who had refused
to back Bush's pre-emptive invasion.
In the oddest example of perception management, Pentagon media masters actually
created a website to promote world peace. The "EmpowerPeace" website appeared to represent a citizen's anti-war movement.
The goal seemed to be to foster the impression that the US people (and especially US children) were essentially peace-loving.
"It looked like a grassroots effort," Gardiner recalls. "It seems to have been aimed at the Arab audience set."
The
EmpowerPeace website didn't last long. The reason, Gardiner suspects, is that its creation probably violated the Smith-Mundt
Act of 1948, which bans the domestic dissemination of government propaganda.
Gardiner found another "strange website"
called "The Iraq Crisis Bulletin," which offered daily updates and reports from around the world. The site was recommended
by the American Press Institute but there was "absolutely no indication of the sponsor of the site." With a little research,
Gardiner discovered that "the articles were [written] by Voice of America correspondents."
The problem with this, Gardiner
notes, is that "the Voice of America is prohibited from doing communications for the American press. But, during Gulf II,
it was getting the message to them." The VOA refused to respond to Gardiner's requests for information on "The Iraq Crisis
Bulletin."
Collateral Damage [includes chart, "Players in USC Stratetic Communication"]
Gardiner wraps up his 56-page investigation with a series of charts that assess several Defense Department press briefings
to determine the role played by PSYOPS, false or engineered information, and non-informative responses. His conclusion: "Even
if you give them slack for not giving any information, it turns out that more than half the answers were not truth... Maybe
a better way to say it would be that if an American (or Brit) were diligent about wanting to understand the war, he could
not rely on the statements made by the US Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff." ...
Other sections in this article--
The
Future: The OGC, the Roadmap and 'Strategic Fusion'
Solutions Are Needed to Control Information
Warfare
Gar Smith is Editor Emeritus of Earth Island Journal, Roving Editor at The-Edge (www.the-edge.org) and co-founder of Environmentalists Against War (www.envirosagainstwar.org).
For more information on the Bush administration's use of propaganda to misinform the public and promote wars of
domination, see Weapons of Mass Deception, by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton and visit the website of PRWatch:www.prwatch.org/books/wmd.html.
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