Transfer of Files on Psychological Operations

[Ed Jewett]

Why Facts No Longer Matter
Submitted by Anne Landman on April 28, 2010 - 1:04pm.

* cause-related marketing
* corporate campaigns
* politics

nothinkingA recent PRWatch blog discussed how corporations are increasingly turning to cause marketing to get around people's ability to tune out their daily deluge of advertising. Cause marketing, or "affinity marketing," is a sophisticated public relations strategy in which a corporation allies itself with a cause that evokes strong emotions in targeted consumers, like curing cancer, alleviating poverty, feeding the hungry, helping the environment or saving helpless animals. The relationship avails the company of a more effective way to grab the attention of their audience, by telling them compelling stories linked to the cause, for example tales of survival, loss, strength, good works, etc. Once the company gets your attention, it links its name and brands to the positive emotions generates by the cause. The company then leverages that emotion to get you to buy the stuff they've linked to the cause -- and improve its corporate image.

Cause marketing works, which is why its use is spreading like wildfire. The operative word that the whole idea turns on is "emotion," because the ability to manipulate people depends completely on generating an emotional connection that the company can exploit.
Emotional Exploitation and Public Policy

Entire industries exploit emotions not just to sell goods, but also to influence public policy. Tobacco industry documents provide an excellent example:

In 1998, California's Proposition 10, a measure to raise cigarette taxes, made it onto the ballot was headed for a statewide vote. Naturally, the tobacco industry opposed it.

To influence the election, Tobacco Institute consultants did careful studies using focus groups to find specific themes that resonated with specific blocks of voters. In an internal strategy memo, an Institute consultant discusses how to influence gay and lesbian voters in California to oppose Proposition 10. The consultants knew this would be difficult because leaders of gay and lesbian groups often opposed the tobacco industry. Nevertheless the memo indicates strategists planned to do an "end-run" around the gay/lesbian leadership:


...Since it is apparent that we are not going to have the endorsement of most Gay and Lesbian leadership, it is important to use these campaign tools to bypass that and go directly to the Gay and Lesbian voter with a message that will resonate...


marionette"Messages that resonate" means finding themes that have strong emotional pull among the targeted groups, in this case gays and lesbians. Weaving anti-tax messages in with these themes would enable the tobacco industry to push people's emotional buttons and persuade them vote against the tax. The memo singled out several themes of importance to the gay and lesbian community that were ripe for exploitation:


"There are several areas that would have special interest to this community. That would include lifestyle regulation, government intrusion into private lives, and removing choice as an option for one's life decisions. These themes need to be developed carefully by focus groups and polling." [Italicized emphasis in original.]

Accordingly, industry consultants crafted messages designed to manipulate the emotions of gay and lesbian voters to convince them to oppose the cigarette tax. One of the themes they developed was the following:

"Wrapped in a cloak labeled 'health,' this initiative tries to legislate a change in behavior by encroaching on an individual's freedom of choice. This argument will appeal to ... gay/lesbian groups concerned about politicians trying to achieve 'social engineering' through a tax."

America's Epidemic of Wacky Public Discourse

guvmintCorporations, PR people and political strategists have found that influencing emotions allows them to exert control over an audience. The stronger the emotions they can generate the bigger the clout they can wield.

The technique, now in widespread use, explains a lot of the crazy public discourse of late:

The financial industry front group "Stop Too Big to Fail" (STBTF) assumed a name designed to tap into tremendous popular anger against big banks, while its real purpose is getting people to oppose measures that would rein in big banks. STBTF seeks to do the opposite of what its name indicates, but that doesn't matter. Whoever created the group is counting on people to react only to the name, and in turn trust its message, and look no further than that.

The wacky claims spread by Betsy McCaughey, Sarah Palin, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and others that health care reform legislation would lead to government "death panels" is a good example of a highly emotional message dominating over sane and logical discourse, no matter how bizarre the claim.

Recently, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) claimed that financial reform legislation would "institutionalize" taxpayer-funded bailouts for Wall Street banks -- exactly the opposite of what the bill would really do. But the strong emotions McConnell could generate by using phrases like "perpetual bailouts" gives him manipulative power. People respond to such words from their gut, not from their heads, and again, the ability to manipulate people depends on them not using their heads or checking facts.

Messages that President Obama is a "socialist" and a "Marxist" influence people to believe the President is inherently evil. It doesn't matter that card-carrying socialists have completely dismissed the proposal that Obama is a socialist. It doesn't matter whether he is or not. The mere words "Obama" and "socialist" together stimulate strong negative feelings, and thus generate strong general opposition to the President -- a goal of those spreading the message.
Industrial-Strength Emotional Exploitation Rules the Day, Unless You Think

Emotional manipulation works. That is why so many entities are using it against us at every turn. Pinkwashing, greenwashing, cause-related marketing, industry-funded front groups with deceptive names that spew extreme political claims, politicians making weird, baseless statements about proposed legislation -- they all get the desired results. Some legislators still try to use facts, reason and truth in public discourse, but there are now so many paid corporate and political messaging efforts going on that encourge people to react from their gut and not think, that reason, truth and facts are now weak public voices by comparison.
How to Defeat Manipulation

Emotional manipulation cannot exist in a culture where people ask questions and delve beyond the superficial. We at PRWatch urge you to be wary and observant of attempts to emotionally manipulate audiences. Be skeptical of messages and marketing techniques that try to get you to feel and not think. Insist on investigating any entity delivering an emotionally-loaded message before you buy into it. Ask questions about cause marketing campaigns, too, since they are designed to manipulate as well.

Democracy depends on an inquisitive and informed public that resists being hoodwinked.

http://www.prwatch.org/node/9030

[Ed Jewett]

The Military Occupation of Our Minds


by Tom Hayden

Former state senator and leader of Sixties peace, justice and environmental movements

Posted: April 27, 2010 04:25 PM


As Congress weighs Afghanistan funding, the military is escalating what it calls the "war of perceptions" at home and abroad. The question is whether the American media and Congress will collaborate in the Pentagon's press strategy or retain a critical edge.

It is no accident that the Pentagon is shaping the "information battlespace" by welcoming friendly reporters and think tank hacks to beam back commentaries about the Kandahar offensive to the American people.

Nor is it accidental that the US is soft-pedaling any public criticism of its crooked crony in Kabul, Hamid Karzhai, as thousands of American soldiers are being dispatched to face bullets in his defense.

Nor is there any question that Afghan civilian casualties are being downplayed or covered-up. The agency in charge of counting the bodies, the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, published a footnote last year admitting "there is a significant possibility that UNAMA is under-reporting civilian casualties."

Paranoia? Do we live under Orwellian thought control? Of course not. But we the people, the media and the Congress, routinely accept taxpayer-funded Pentagon and White House public relations narratives. These often take disgusting forms, such as the false claims and cover-up that soldier Pat Tillman died under enemy fire, or the recent Special Forces' killing of three pregnant women which was followed by digging of bullets out of their bodies to cover up the crime.

The current cycle of military media manipulation began with the Iraq war, when the Pentagon enticed generals, intelligence officers, and defense contractors to become "message force multipliers" for the Bush administration's version of the war, "sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated." It took a New York Times' lawsuit to uncover 8,000 pages of documents showing that the chosen surrogates could be counted on to deliver propaganda messages "in the form of their own opinions."

The strategy goes far deeper than the sleaze of everyday public relations. This is about the Pentagon's turning of computer science into a weapon in the emerging field of information warfare, in which the deaths of men, women and children are less important than the perception of those deaths, or whether they are perceived by anyone at all. As Gen. McChrystal, whose entire career in Iraq remains a classified secret, said during a February briefing:


"This is not a physical war of how many people you kill or how much ground you capture, how many bridges you blow up. This is all in the minds of the participants."



McChrystal also has said, in a recent London speech, that Afghanistan is not like a football game but more "like a political debate after which both sides announce they have won."

McChrystal went on a public relations offensive to promote his request for a troop escalation earlier this year, giving interviews to the New York Times, Le Figaro, Newsweek, and to the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

He was featured as a modern god delivering us from the impersonal forces of fate, in a worshipful piece by Robert Kaplan in The Atlantic in February. (In a 2003 Atlantic piece by Kaplan, titled "Supremacy by Stealth," he advised that America's wars best be fought "off camera, so to speak.")

Prior to the current media offensive someone leaked (or was it a pre-emptive launch?) McChrystal's August 30, 2009 confidential assessment of Afghanistan, which includes a length section on "Strategic Communication", where McChrystal declares that "the information domain is a battlespace" in the war over perceptions.

The irony is that the Taliban insurgents, with little if any information technology, "have undermined the credibility of the ISAF, the international community [IC], and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan [GIRoA]", according to McChrystal's own analysis. (It is noteworthy that the Afghan government is never referred to in the American media as an "Islamic Republic," because the frame is communicated to Afghans only.)

Shortening the term Strategic Communications to StratCom, McChrystal goes on for five single-spaced pages with directives for dominating the information battlespace. Of particular interest might be his plan for Offensive Information Operations [IO], which consists of "a robust and proactive capability to counter hostile information activities and propaganda", with every soldier "empowered to be a StratCom messenger for ISAF." A key strategic goal is to win over European and Canadian public opinion, or "the strategic center of gravity which is the maintenance of [NATO] Alliance cohesion." Afghanistan, in other words, is the glue which holds NATO together, as other official strategists have written.

The general does acknowledge, in one sentence, that the battle of perceptions does require a change of behavior on the ground. But the overwhelming emphasis on perception requires that the negatives always be minimized or covered-up, as in any aggressive public relations campaign.

Already, Special Operations forces account for half or more of the American military missions in Afghanistan, and all the operations in Pakistan. Clandestine raids against the Taliban -- not al Qaeda -- more than quadrupled recently, with 90 raids in November 2009. The Red Cross now reports that, as the Kandahar offensive begins, the number of civilian deaths attributed to NATO has doubled, despite McChrystal's orders to avoid such casualties.

From 2004-2009, the Pentagon's PR budget increased by 63 percent to at least $4.7 billion in 2009. The entire video budget for Brave New Foundation's "Rethink Afghanistan" campaign was approximately $350,000 in 2009.

This brings us to the US offensive in Kandahar, which might be called the mother of all media battles. The deadly hubris underlying the US information battleplan was recently exposed in a poll showing that Kandahar residents support negotiations with the Taliban instead of a military offensive by a 19:1 margin, and that five of six see the Taliban as "our Afghan brothers." [NYT, April 21, 2010]. As often happens, the poll was uncovered and released by the Wired magazine blog, not by the Congress or the mass media.

Given Afghan public opinion, the challenge for the Pentagon in shaping the information battlefield in Kandahar, therefore, is overwhelming, even impossible. That means the war of perceptions is going to be directed largely at American and congressional opinion as the heralded offensive gets underway.

A few American journalists, like Doyle McManus of the LA Times, have noted that the warm-up offensive in tiny Marja, back in February, has not met the military's expectations. That it was hardly an "offensive" at all is proven by the handful of US/NATO casualties, estimated in the range of thirteen by late February. The fatal premise of the Marja plan was that the Marines could bring in "a government in a box" after driving out the Taliban. That's a form of immaculate conception that will not happen.

In Kandahar, as in Marja before, the local insurgents probably will fight defensively, and probably launch spectacular bombing operations in other parts of Afghanistan, before gradually disappearing as the Americans advance, bringing their "government in a box". It's confusing, because that same "government" is actually there already, in the form of Karzhai's brother who is widely seen as a corrupt drug-dealing warlord with existing ties to the Taliban. So the US may gain a public relations victory which will mean deepening of the quagmire. Kandahar is not going to be Iwo Jima, forever frozen in a photograph as the turning point of World War 2.

Someday soon the White House and Pentagon will announce on camera that they have captured the Taliban's "spiritual homeland" of Kandahar. While the offensive goes on, few in Congress will be tough enough to take a hard look at the reality behind the war of perceptions. And when the "victory" is announced, Congress will pass another year's appropriation for the war.

This will go on, with American troops dying in vain, unless enough members of the American public, the mainstream media and the Congress finally wake up to the reality that we are no longer citizens but targets in a deliberate war for our minds.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/t...o_b_553709.html

[Ed Jewett]

Brainwashing the Hero-Worshipping Society
Written by Peter Chamberlin
Tuesday, 14 August 2007 22:22

According to the US State Department, anyone who believes that “vast, powerful, evil forces are secretly manipulating events,” is a conspiracy theorist. [1] Belief that our government answers to a secret higher authority is an “extremist belief system,” according to the authors of the “Prevention of Homegrown Terrorism Act – H.R. 1955.” [2] Spreading these beliefs to “advance political, religious, or social change” is defined as “radicalization.” If you believe that the creators and dispensers of fiat money and their corporations control our democratic Republic and manipulate events to outcomes favorable to their control, then you are an extremist. If you are trying to educate your fellow countrymen, to democratically change this equation, then you may find yourself accused of “facilitating ideologically-based violence.”

If you seek to break the back of the debt-based financial system, you will find yourself up against seemingly insurmountable odds, trying to awaken a demoralized society, that has been broken over many generations by the psychological warfare tactic of “learned helplessness.” [3] Total economic control over people provides the controllers of the essential borrowed money with the means to indoctrinate with the psychology of hopelessness. Fear of further economic losses is a powerful motivating tool. After nearly one-hundred years of this domination and control, Americans have been robbed of hope. Today’s sleepwalking zombie population of “sheeple” is a product of the world’s longest running psychological warfare operation.

The brainwashing by the secret rulers of America extends into every conceivable area of possible indoctrination or control. Learned hopelessness is taught through every communications medium. In a world of mass-hypnosis and mass-seduction, entertainment has proven to be the most effective psychological weapon. Television serves that purpose twenty-four hours a day, by providing both negative reinforcement of the idea of the fragility of the human condition (through the “news”), coupled with positive subliminal suggestions of hope in the idea of intervening heroes.

Organized religion is probably the most entertaining and the most debilitating form of mass entertainment, because along with the show comes a false sense of hope, that can only be obtained by surrendering the free will to a “higher power.” This is the comforting element of the conflicting teachings (knowing that you will be saved by some superior force), providing a counterbalance to the rest of the teachings of personal inferiority, unworthiness and helplessness, which are designed to make you know that you are incapable of saving yourself.

“Christianity” was the official Roman state religion created by order of Caesar. It was an amalgam of all the popular “pagan” religions within the empire. [4] It was designed by “priests,” to make the subject peoples easier to control. The beauty of this religion’s craftsmanship is that people seduced by this man-made religion, want to be misled. They are enslaved by its teachings of their own inferiority and “unworthiness,” in relation to the only worthy “One” (who will save their wretched hides). The dual message of helplessness and hope makes believers susceptible to this form of spiritual/psychological dictatorship, masquerading as the One True Religion.

The best that the faithful can hope for is to accept the teachings about their innate helplessness, to get access to the accompanying “out” clause. By signing on to the contract, they give up their free will to a more evolved superior, in exchange for promises of eternal rewards. For Catholics, the pope is the most superior human being; they believe in his claims of infallibility. For American Protestants, faith in the magical one, who “will come with the clouds,” is a more intangible belief and a more illogical one. This belief, that blind faith in an invisible superior brings fantastic magical rewards, makes Protestants even easier to manipulate. A populace that is conditioned to look for salvation to come down from the sky (whether it comes in the form of a god or an alien), will believe in anything that is done in their hero’s name.

A nation of demoralized lost sheeple is easy to lead further astray by the introduction of false heroes through the twenty-four hour indoctrination box. Television brings the time-tested formula of learned helplessness and false hope into the lives of everyone, even the non-religious. It is here where the perfected art of mass brainwashing reaches the peak of perfection.

Escapist entertainment conveys the suggestive brain-numbing message of hope from hopelessness to the hollowed-out minds of the American people. Here our elitist masters entertain us with pretend heroes, while we “suspend disbelief” and become desensitized to the violence that is necessary to extend the empire beyond America’s shores. Using imaginary heroes, like Jack Bauer of “24,” illegal acts (ranging from illegal wiretapping, to torture and even cold-blooded murder) are made acceptable and justified as necessary for “national security.” [5]

To reach even bigger audiences, a larger indoctrination screen is required. The big screen brings us heroic figures of messianic proportions. Comic book super-heroes come to life and save everybody from certain utter doom. Even more heroic than these “super” types are the heart-wrenching exploits of seemingly ordinary people, who rise above their own hopeless circumstances, to lead other ordinary citizens in mass uprisings against tyranny. These are the most loaded of all the contrived plots, intended to mislead the real heroic types among the disillusioned masses to believe that violence against corrupted authority is humanity’s only hope. This is where movies like the “Matrix” series and “V is for Vendetta” become integral parts of the conspiracy to eliminate the last barrier to total permanent dictatorship.

In both of these heroic films, we find elements of the actual conspiracy on display for all to see, leading to a climactic finish where horrendous acts of violence are justified in the end. “Neo” rages against the system of enforced hopelessness, where society is docilely anesthetized by an unreal “Matrix” of an illusory world, and humans are reduced to a mere commodity (“copper top” batteries), to power the corrupt system. “Zionism” is equated with the superior humans, who are bold enough to take up arms and have faith to the bitter end, in the process humanizing the inhumane ideology of God’s “chosen people.” In the movie “V is for Vendetta” (by the same Jewish film-makers, the Wachowski brothers), “V” uses multiple acts of horrific terrorism, in a decimated post-Bush apocalyptic world (including blowing-up the British Parliament), to spark the non-violent revolution that allegedly will free mankind.

This theme, that violent acts of terrorism are justifiable in defense of freedom, is the final piece of the conspiracy puzzle. We have been bombarded with this message through the hypnotic mediums for many years, for a reason. Our corporate masters want us to provide the spark of antiwar violence that will justify the final crackdown on American democracy. Everything that has been done by the current administration to finish building the framework for an American police state has been done in preparation for the anticipated spark of violent resistance.

The American antiwar movement is deeply concerned about the conspiracy’s henchmen the Bush Administration and their next move, intended to complete the transition from democracy to dictatorship. Many of us are most worried about another “false flag” terror attack initiating the end of freedom, even though the end is more likely to come in response to homegrown terrorism from the disillusioned masses.

Everyday on the Internet we see proof of this growing tendency to answer violent repression with acts of counter-violence, committed in the name of “pacifism.” Accompanying the many excellent articles and blogs seeking to advance political, religious, or social change by educating the American people about our Constitutional power to change our government, we read commentary that promotes violent revolution. Whether these comments are made by provocateurs or those lost souls who are simply misled is irrelevant. What is important is that these ridiculous comments do not go unanswered. If we want to deter those who urge violence in this manner, we have to refute every comment urging violence and destruction. We cannot provide the secret government with the justification that they seek.

Effective opposition to the coming police state requires that we become self-policing in our efforts to “radicalize” by spreading the truth. To become the acceptable source of credible news we must dedicate ourselves to finding the hidden truth, wherever that search takes us. If we find the hidden truth about government complicity in the many cover-ups, then we must boldly proclaim it to the world as clearly as possible, in truths that are simple to understand. If that simple truth is that our government promotes a bi-partisan campaign of terrorism and planned genocide in the name of freedom, then we must clearly say just that – no matter the personal cost of that ugly expression of truth.

[1] http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005.../27-595713.html

[2] http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext...=h110-1955

[3] http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?cat=143

[4] http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=...2995115331

[5] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...ml?hpid=topnews



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[Ed Jewett]

Canadian Government Pays Organization To Troll Political Chat Forums

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, May 24, 2010

The next time you struggle to comprehend how someone could spend their time trolling the Internet in order to defend and downplay whatever government cover-up or abuse is in the news this week, consider the fact that they may be on a government payroll.

The Canadian government has been caught paying a media group to monitor online political discussion and respond to “misinformation,” in order words to spread state-sanctioned propaganda, in the latest scandal to hit the Harper administration.

“Under the pilot program the Harper government paid a media company $75,000 to monitor and respond to online postings about the east coast seal hunt,” reports News1130.

“The government has a lot of power, that it feels the need to monitor public bulletin boards, or places where people express views and then to respond to that, seems to me going beyond a reasonable action the government should be taking,” said UBC Computer Science professor and President of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, Richard Rosenberg.

A poll carried on the News1130 website shows that the majority of respondents, 77 per cent, are not intimidated by the fact that the government is monitoring their online conversations, and would not regulate the information they post on the Internet.

Accusations that people who defend the seemingly indefensible in the aftermath of government atrocities, wars and scandals are in the pay of unscrupulous authorities, circulate on a regular basis. But the fact is that governments and transnational corporations have made a habit of using the Internet to spread propaganda by using individuals who pose as neutral observers.

The innovator of these “black propaganda” techniques was undoubtedly Monsanto, who as far back the late 90’s were creating “fake citizens” via their PR front company Bivings to post messages on Internet bulletin boards lauding the virtues and scoffing at the dangers of genetically modified food.

In the 21st century, governments try to harness the power of manufacturing fake consensus in order to dictate reality and justify their actions.

Last year, the Israeli government announced that it would be setting up a network of bloggers to combat websites deemed “problematic” by the Zionist state following a massive online backlash to Israel’s brutal bombing of Gaza.

Israel’s goal was to flood Internet message boards in English, French, Spanish and German with their own PR agents who would attempt to manufacture a contrived consensus that the IDF’s actions were justified.

Like Israel, the U.S. military industrial complex hires armies of trolls to spew propaganda in defense of the war on terror and in support of bombing whatever broken-backed third world country is being targeted next.

CENTCOM has programs underway to infiltrate blogs and message boards to ensure people, “have the opportunity to read positive stories,”presumably about how Iraq is a wonderful liberated democracy and the war on terror really is about protecting Americans from Al-CIAda.

In May 2008, it was revealed that the Pentagon was expanding “Information Operations” on the Internet with purposefully set up foreign news websites, designed to look like independent media sources but in reality carrying direct military propaganda.

More recently the New York Times published an exposé on how privately hired operatives were appearing on major US news networks promoting the interests and operations of the Pentagon and generating favorable news coverage of the so-called war on terror while posing as independent military analysts.

This operation was formally announced In 2006 when the Pentagon set up a unit to “better promote its message across 24-hour rolling news outlets, and particularly on the internet”.
Again, the Pentagon said the move would boost its ability to counter “inaccurate” news stories and exploit new media.

Last year, the US Air Force announced a “counter-blog” response plan aimed at fielding and reacting to material from bloggers who have “negative opinions about the US government and the Air Force.”

The plan, created by the public affairs arm of the Air Force, includes a detailed twelve-point “counter blogging” flow-chart that dictates how officers should tackle what are described as “trolls,” “ragers,” and “misguided” online writers.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/canadian-gover...hat-forums.html

[Ed Jewett]

It's a multi-media link...

First, we had product placement...

Now we have propaganda placement ....

http://www.prisonplanet.com/cbs-propaganda...terrorists.html

and

Tip of the cap to Magda for this...

"the hasbara handbook"

or

"The Israel Project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary"

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/8303274/The-Is...uage-Dictionary

[Ed Jewett]

Cointelpro, Provacateurs, Disinfo Agents

* 9/11 truth
* 911
* Bloggers
* COINTELPRO
* Disinfo Agents
* Provocateurs

A brief history and some examples of how this has and is affecting the United States and people exercising their 1st amendment.(9/11 material towards end).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC_7YD2vmbA...layer_embedded#!

http://911blogger.com/news/2010-07-08/coin...sdisinfo-agents

[Ed Jewett]

"...The Washington Post reports on how the US Military's PSYOPS is awash with soft money that gets spent on contractors...."

Link to the WaPo article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0062804830.html

Link to this post: http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2010/07/2010..._spike_act.html

An extract from the WaPo article ( to Jan Klimkoswki): http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/sh...60&postcount=98

[Ed Jewett]

Pyops Contractors Listed Via Washinton Post (sic)
Posted on July 20, 2010 by willyloman

Traditional psychological operations, including the creation and delivery of messages via leaflet, loudspeaker, radio or television; the newer “influence operations” associated with the creation of Web sites and the use of social media to extend U.S. influence, both overtly and covertly; and the separate clandestine and covert activities associated with influence, deception and perception management.

Psychological operations listing Via Washington Post article
Company Name HQ Location Year Est. Employees Revenue Locations Govt. Clients

General Dynamics Falls Church, Virginia 1952 10,000+ $10 billion to $50 billion 100 32

L-3 Communications N.Y., New York 1997 10,000+ $10 billion to $50 billion 96 29

(many right here in my own backyard….)
Advanced C4 Solutions, Inc. Tampa, Florida 2002 101-500 Under $100 million 12 5

Archimedes Global Tampa, Florida 2005 Unknown Unknown 1 5
Calhoun International Tampa, Florida 2005 <25 Under $100 million 6 6

Celestar Corporation Tampa, Florida 2001 26-100 Under $100 million 4 4

Cybrix Group, Inc., The Tampa, Florida 2002 <25 Under $100 million 1 2

Espial Services, Inc. Pinellas Park, Florida 2003 26-100 Under $100 million 4 7

Vykin Corporation Tampa, Florida 2006 26-100 Under $100 million 7 8


[W]e suggest a distinctive tactic for breaking up the hard core of extremists who supply conspiracy theories: cognitive infiltration of extremist groups, whereby government agents or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously) will undermine the crippled epistemology of believers by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity. (Page 219.) Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Cass Sunstein

Filed under: Uncategorized


http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/07/20...washinton-post/

2 Responses

1.
Johnny de Vulcan, on July 20, 2010 at 1:28 pm Said:

And that is by far not all:US.patent :5,159,703 by Dr.:Oliwer Lowrey is a: “Silent subliminal presentation system” or “Silent sound spread system” (they also like many SS-s) is transmitting,through all loudspeakers on or not, ) frequenies that can manipulate the audiences feelings and perceptions. Subliminal commands as well as “remote-controlling feelings” are possible .Any feeling ,like solemnity,hopefulness, ready to cange, and quasi-religious sentiments and “Fuhrer-adoration” . Charging bulls have been stopped in an instant. Was probably used at Obama Bin Lyins rallies in Berlin and pre-election-rallies, could explain the ir-rational “Obama (Bin Lyin) -fewer”. Is rumored to be installed , covertly , with the HD-system (are they really SO interested in giving us a better TV-picture? It is not so bad actualy as it is) or do they want to spy some MORE on us???

2.
G Street, on July 20, 2010 at 5:17 pm Said:

James Crown of General Dynamics should be asked under oath if any of those 10K+ employees or $10-50 billion were used to help get Obama elected.

[Ed Jewett]

Blogs and Military Information Strategy

James Kinninburgh & Dorothy Denning

Joint Special Operations University
JSOU Report 06-5
2006

http://cryptome.org/dodi/jsou-06-5.pdf (50 pages)

###

Joint Special Operations University: Blogs and Military Information Strategy
July 21st, 2010

Via: U.S. Special Operations Command / Hosted at Cryptome (PDF):

In this regard, information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence already within the target nation, group, or community to pass the U.S. message. In this way, the U.S. can overleap the entrenched inequalities and make use of preexisting intellectual and social capital. Sometimes numbers can be effective; hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering. On the other hand, such operations can have a blowback effect, as witnessed by the public reaction following revelations that the U.S. military had paid journalists to publish stories in the Iraqi press under their own names. People do not like to be deceived, and the price of being exposed is lost credibility and trust.

An alternative strategy is to “make” a blog and blogger. The process of boosting the blog to a position of influence could take some time, however, and depending on the person running the blog, may impose a significant educational burden, in terms of cultural and linguistic training before the blog could be put online to any useful effect. Still, there are people in the military today who like to blog. In some cases, their talents might be redirected toward operating blogs as part of an information campaign. If a military blog offers valuable information that is not available from other sources, it could rise in rank fairly rapidly.

Any blogs and bloggers serving an IO mission must be coordinated and synchronized with the overall influence effort in time and message. However, they must be prepared to argue and debate with their audience successfully and independently on behalf of the U.S. policy stance. In this sense, bloggers must be able to “circumvent the hierarchy” as blogger George Dafermos put it. This means that they must be trusted implicitly to handle the arguments without forcing them to communicate “solely by means of marketing pitches and press releases.”

There are certain to be cases where some blog, outside the control of the U.S. government, promotes a message that is antithetical to U.S. interests, or actively supports the informational, recruiting and logistical activities of our enemies. The initial reaction may be to take down the site, but this is problematic in that doing so does not guarantee that the site will remain down. As has been the case with many such sites, the offending site will likely move to a different host server, often in a third country. Moreover, such action will likely produce even more interest in the site and its contents. Also, taking down a site that is known to pass enemy EEIs (essential elements of information) and that gives us their key messages denies us a valuable information source. This is not to say that once the information passed becomes redundant or is superseded by a better source that the site should be taken down. At that point the enemy blog might be used covertly as a vehicle for friendly information operations. Hacking the site and subtly changing the messages and data—merely a few words or phrases—may be sufficient to begin destroying the blogger’s credibility with the audience. Better yet, if the blogger happens to be passing enemy communications and logistics data, the information content could be corrupted. If the messages are subtly tweaked and the data corrupted in the right way, the enemy may reason that the blogger in question has betrayed them and either take down the site (and the blogger) themselves, or by threatening such action, give the U.S. an opportunity to offer the individual amnesty in exchange for information.

There will also be times when it is thought to be necessary, in the context of an integrated information campaign, to pass false or erroneous information through the media, on all three layers, in support of military deception activities. Given the watchdog functions that many in the blogging community have assumed—not just in the U.S., but also around the world—doing so jeopardizes the entire U.S. information effort. Credibility is the heart and soul of influence operations. In these cases, extra care must be taken to ensure plausible deniability and nonattribution, as well as employing a well-thought-out deception operation that minimizes the risks of exposure. Because of the potential blowback effect, information strategy should avoid planting false information as much as possible.

…

To function most effectively, units conducting blog-based operations must be staffed appropriately. Ideally, such units would be drawn from the special operations and intelligence communities, because of their historical experience in and ability to conduct (when tasked) sensitive operations. Linguists and intelligence analysts (preferably analysts who are also linguists), who are commanded or advised by qualified PSYOP or IO officer should form the core of such a unit. These capabilities must be augmented through liaison relationships with the other influence organizations, those responsible for planning and conducting PSYOP, PA, PD, CA/CMO and MILDEC. Because of the unique nature of blog-related intelligence, comprising both open and highly classified sources and producing an output intended for open distribution, a blog operations unit should have solid information, operations, and network security programs in place. It also needs oversight.

In order to act and react efficiently in managing bloggers and blogs, the intelligence specialists and planners who have the knowledge should be the ones running the actual blog. Or, in cases where indigenous bloggers and their blogs have been identified and recruited, the blog operations cell should also house the case officer managing the asset, having done the work to cultivate and recruit him or her. The same metrics used to select a blog can also serve as indirect measures of effectiveness; for example:

Once blog operations have begun, does the blog attract new inbound links?

Is there an increase over time in the blog’s ranking via various metrics?

Through polling and media analysis, can a change in public opinion be correlated with growth in the blog’s indicators?

What does content analysis of the interaction that occurs with the blogger on the site reveal (change in opinions posted by readers? positive or negative?)

Do the comments on the blog correlate with public opinion results obtained by polling and/or portrayed in the mainstream media?

Does the blog get referenced by the mainstream media in the target country, and with what degree of frequency?

Do other sources of intelligence confirm these indicators?

Like any other influence operation, blog operations must be given time to work. There are no magic bullets. We would suggest quarterly reviews of the blog’s effectiveness along these lines and then adjusting fire to reverse any negative trends and accelerate positive trends.

http://cryptogon.com/?p=16555

[Ed Jewett]

The programs to reshape the American mind, run by the left and right
2 August 2010
tags: propaganda, conservative ideology, right-wing, left-wing
by Fabius Maximus

Summary: Our leaders run bold programs to reform American society, building on work done by the Nazi’s and Soviet Union. All of this was described by George Orwell in his magnum opus 1984 (published in 1949). His forecast was a little early, but eerily accurate. This is a follow-up to Successful propaganda as a characteristic of 21st century America.

Both factions of our ruling elites exploit the increasing silly and ignorant American people through propaganda. It’s the peaceful way to lead serfs. Here’s a look at the methods preferred by each side.

Full evaluation of both these projects might improve our self-awareness. Perhaps even changing the course of our nation. But now we follow our leaders down the easy road …

the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
— the demon Screwtape describing one road to Hell, from chapter VII of The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

Contents

1. The left molds our values and thoughts
2. The right molds our history and knowledge
3. Make it simple, but not more simple than necessary
4. About the futility of lies about the past
5. Afterword and contact info

(1) The left molds our values and thoughts

The left sought to mold our young though education in new value, often based on a complex foundation of lies.

* Some were simple expansions of traditional values, such as environmentalism (expanding the traditional concept of stewardship of the land) and tolerance ( expanding the definition of the American community).
* Some were radical, such as the redefinition of gender roles called feminism.
* Some were profound, such as the emphasis on cooperation (aka followership).
* Some were deceptive, such as the doctrine of civic passivity (we are consumers, not citizens).
* Some were the misleading, such the absolutists doctrine called “multiculturalism”. Our values are not the best, our values are the only proper values. Differing values are treasured only when trivial (e.g., food, dress); values contradicting ours are illegitimate or even evil (e.g, about the role of women).

The result is akin to that which George Orwell ascribes to Newspeak: ”to narrow the range of thought so that thoughtcrime becomes impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it” (slightly paraphrased). It works like this:

The first and simplest stage in the discipline, which can be taught even to young children, is called, in Newspeak, CRIMESTOP. CRIMESTOP means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction.

… What was required in a Party member wa an outlook similar to that of the ancient Hebrew who knew, without knowing much else, that all nations other than his worshipped “false gods”.

This does not mean that we live in a dystopian nightmare or have become believers in Ingsoc (English Socialism). Rather it shows that our thinking has been put on rails — becoming fast but channeled — and our critical thinking machinery has atrophied. For more on this, with comparisons to our past, see A report card for the Republic: are we still capable of self-government?

This project succeeded on a scale never before seen since Moses created the twelve tribes of Israel by forging a common history and religion. But its momentum appears spent.

(2) The right molds our history and knowledge

The right responded slowly, but eventually focused on efforts to propagate lies which support their values and policies.

* Something old: faux economics, aka Austerian or liquidationist economics. Fiscal stimulus programs don’t work; monetary stimulus is destructive; a strong stable currency is best no matter how conditions change; that recessions “purge the rottenness out of the system“; and “a depression is for capitalism like a good, cold douche“.
* Something new: revisionist history. Such as Reagan’s deficits resulted from too much spending by a Democratic Congress, not too small revenues from his tax cuts (more on this tomorrow). Or history down the memory hole, such as conservative opposition to Reagan’s arms control treaties and the faux history of foreign armies defeating insurgencies.
* Something borrowed, such as the Dolchstosslegende, the stab in the back legend that we could have won in Vietnam if only the left had not sabotaged the war (Jane Fonda, the news media, Congressional Democrats).
* Something blue: America’s values and even existence is threatened by Islamic fundamentalists, our freedoms by Obama’s socialism (examples here), and our prosperity by the rising power of China.

Plus a full measure of outright misrepresentation, as seen in the health care debate (an example here).

Orwell’s Ministry of Truth foreshadows this great program, the work to create a false reality in people’s minds. Facts about the present and past give way to this instant’s political needs, with the sheep passively accepting each revision (like sheep, Americans no long recall the past; for a fine example see this).

(3) Make it simple, but not more simple than necessary

These are oversimplifications. Nor is the division that clear, as I suspect each side uses the other’s methods. Although the obvious examples are the left using the same techniques as the right.

* For the left revising history see the eco-fable of Easter Island and the facts about the 1970′s Global Cooling scare.
* For the left misrepresenting facts see Lies told under the influence of the Green religion to save the world.

(4) About the futility of lies about the past

“You know you never defeated us on the battlefield”
”That may be so,” he replied, “but it is also irrelevant.”
— Conversation on 25 April 1975 in Hanoi between Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr. (Chief of the U.S. Delegation, Four Party Joint Military Team) and Colonel Nguyen Don Tu (Chief, North Vietnamese Delegation), from Introduction to On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War by Harry G. Summers Jr. (1982)

http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/2010/...more-19966