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Welcome to the Jungle: US Military Psychological Operations and You
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.
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
21 Comments so far
Show AllRead Jack London's "IRON HEEL" to get an idea about what our future will be like.
Hoa binh
thanks namvet67 - didn't know this one
this web site promises 'The Iron Heel' for free (no US copyright)
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1164
For a detailed article about Pat Tillman's death see Stan Goff's 3-part investigation & elucidation at CounterPunch.org:
Pt1- http://www.counterpunch.org/goff08092007.html
Pt2- http://www.counterpunch.org/goff08102007.html
Pt3- http://www.counterpunch.org/goff08112007.html
Nice. But the story acts like this started in 2001.
During Clinton's bombing of Yugoslavia, it was revealed that a group of 'interns' at CNN were really US Army Psychological warfare officers.
That was what, 1997. Its been going on for awhile. Probably in one form or another since WWII at least. That's the real beginning of "the national security state" in the US.
But the last line, write or email or phone your congress critter? HA, that's a good one. You might provide some slight amusement to some staffer that takes your call, but do you really think they don't know what's going on? Wake up. Your congress critter of today has no intention whatsoever of listening to you. Since you ain't giving them a $100,000 to get them re-elected, they don't give squat what you think.
Better think of a next action item after "call your congress critter". At the very least you'd better be thinking of a way to replace them with someone who would really listen when you call, and to do that you probably need to change the political system to something where the opinions of citizens are more important than the amount of money a politician can amass.
Ummn, the thing about the frog staying in the water until it cooks is an urban legend.
The fact is, the frog will jump out of the pot.
I only mention this because it proves frogs are smarter than people.
By the way, I recommend highly that you read old Ben's speech to which Heather has a link at the beginning of her troubling article.
"While The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 forbids US propaganda intended for foreign audiences from being used domestically . . ."
"Mundt" as in House Un-American Activities Committee Karl Mundt, and "Smith" as in "Smith Act" Smith.
COMarc -
"it was revealed that a group of 'interns' at CNN were really US Army Psychological warfare officers."
I missed this one somehow.
"Ummn, the thing about the frog staying in the water until it cooks is an urban legend.
The fact is, the frog will jump out of the pot."
I recommend Gavin deBecker's "The Gift of Fear" on the mechanisms & strategies people are trained to use on themelves that circumvent their recognizing & acting on a real threat.
nice update on a very old problem. psychological operations against the american people, to dumb them down, were a concerted focus of operations like mockingbird of the cia since the late 1940s when the third reich began to regroup with their many allies here. actually Timothy Leary-- in his pre-psychedelic days-- was one of many experts in predicting and changing human behavior who was recruited by the CIA to work for them. Leary refused and was on to their plan, thus his life long call to the youth to question authority, to turn on tune in and drop out of that false social reality that was being foisted on them in sophisticated psychological operations... see Timothy Leary, Outside Looking In, edited by Robert Forte, Park Street Press, 1999..
And turn off the phone line, tune off the net and drop back into snail mail and disposable cell phones to thwart Big Brother Bush and the Vichycrats.
There is one reason and one reason only for the existence of the U.S. Military, and that is to protect the interests of the nation's civilian population. Instead, it has sucked the life blood from the society. By Rumsfeld's own admission it has "lost" 2.3 Trillion dollars. Because of the U.S. Military, our health and education systems flounder.
Military personnel take an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution, and they trash it on a regular basis.
With all the damage that has been caused by industrialists and bankers in the USA and throughout the world, it is a wonder to me that we still have not found a way to mitigate the damage while we seek to regain our inalienable rights.
1)
... And here was me thinking that the military was focussed on DEFENCE.
2)
Who benefits from this sort of research on how to manipulate the US population?
3)
Damn this military is so smart. Thats how they knew Iraq would be a cakewalk. And how they magically knew how to treat the Iraqis in such a way as to avoid making them hate us.
"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"
If my simulated self commits a crime in one of their senarios...will I be arrested?
Bush's real base has always been the mainstream media. Does the point of this article shock you? Did you think it is all coincidence that while 70% of americans are opposed to the war, 90% of 'our' media doesn't reflect this?
This article describes the only conspiracy ...that I actually believe is true.
America is a fraud.
Sounds like the Star Wars Defense System.
Crazy.
down south in Mexico, the system manipulates the populace while it keeps it poor. Norte Americanos have long blamed the victims themselves. Now we know what Bush and Co. learned from the crooks that ran that country and have been employing the same tactics. The junk on tv that gives little indication that humans have any dignity; the hype about big and bigger trucks to buy; the sports mania. It's traveled here, but not by way of the immigrants, it's by way of the media people being given a free hand in how they use our airwaves.
Sorry, for the rant. It's just that psy ops has a lot of catching up to do to render the populace powerless.
Free Texas! Please!
We are becoming a Stalinist state. We are neither the first now will we be the last to do so. Those who survive with their minds intact learn three things:
1. Never believe anything officially stated by the government as true--unless it is a denial.
2. Seek communication with others of like mind--which is why these discussions ar more important than the articles that precedethem--in order to clarify your own suspicions, wonderings, and concerns.
3. Realize that all writers have an agenda and factor this into your response to them.
I personally give very little credence to much of anything said by the likes of Wesley Clark, Ray McGovern, or even Scott Ritter. They are (in the case of Clark and Ritter) career military men and indoctrinated in that system.
McGovern is retired CIA (as if anybody ever really retires from the CIA!)and likewise he along with his VIP's are engaged in "company politics" more than any search for decency or the truth on things.
In a similar vein the DLC and all its darlings are so many Republican neocon wannabees--kind of like a multi-national corporate psy-ops for the Demnocratic party.
And now let the fur fly!
I did the frog experiment - it did die!!!!!!!!!!!!! You merely start with cold water!
I just heard from a soldier leaving for Iraq fot the second time that they will not be allowed to bring thier cameras or cell phones with them on this deployment....It seems that soon all we should be able to get is the "Good News" we aren't getting now.
Perhaps this article is a US military PSYOP?
Lets see how they respond to the truth.:)
Its interesting that people would be shocked by this news when MKULTRA experimented with psychological warfare since the 1970's. I must agree that these discussions are even more important then the article itself. Hopefully like minded "folks" could begin a dialogue and evetually take action.
Corpswave66
On course it died you sadistic pig.