[NYTr] "Welcome to the Jungle" - US Military Psy-Ops and You

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by rick kissell

CommonDreams.org - Aug 12, 2007


Welcome to the Jungle:

US Military Psychological Operations and You

by Heather Wokusch

"...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.


[Heather Wokusch is the author of "The Progressives' Handbook: Get the 
Facts and Make a Difference Now" series. For a video of this article or 
to contact Heather, visit www.heatherwokusch.com ]