Ministry Of Propaganda established in US

[Agent Uprise]

What the fuck, my watch says 1984?!?!

February 20, 2002

 

taken from indymedia.org

 

HEARTS AND MINDS

 

Bush Will Keep Wartime Office Promoting U.S.

 

By ELIZABETH BECKER and JAMES DAO

 

ASHINGTON, Feb. 19 — President Bush has decided to transform the administration's temporary wartime communications effort into a permanent office of global diplomacy to spread a positive image of the United States around the world and combat anti-Americanism, senior administration officials said today.

 

"The president believes it is a critical part of national security to communicate U.S. foreign policy to a global audience in times of peace as well as war," said Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director.

 

While discussions are at a preliminary stage, officials said there was general agreement in the administration that the intense shaping of information and coordination of messages that occurred during the fighting in Afghanistan should become a permanent feature of national security policy.

 

The White House office to be created to carry out the policy will coordinate the public statements of State, Defense and the other departments like the Voice of America to ensure that foreign correspondents in Washington as well as foreign leaders and opinion-makers overseas understand Mr. Bush's policies.

 

"What is important is we want to do a better job of using the government seamlessly to give direction to the president's global diplomacy," a senior administration official said.

 

Officials said the new office would be entirely separate from a proposed Office of Strategic Influence at the Pentagon, which would use the media, the Internet and a range of covert operations to try to influence public opinion and government policy abroad, including in friendly nations.

 

That office is contemplating plans, which are being reviewed by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, to disseminate information, and possibly even disinformation, in foreign media as part of an aggressive campaign by the military to promote American policies overseas.

 

Today, the president of the Radio- Television News Directors Association, Barbara Cochran, wrote a letter to Mr. Rumsfeld objecting to any plans involving the spread of false or misleading information by the Pentagon.

 

Like the office of Homeland Security, the efforts to centralize public diplomacy following the Sept. 11 attacks have grown in importance and urgency in the last six months.

 

So far, the new White House office has no name, no director and no budget, though officials say Mr. Bush has said money will be no obstacle in pursuing the effort. The earlier White House push to create a more positive image of the United States after Sept. 11 was led by Karen P. Hughes, senior adviser to the president and is known as the Coalition Information Center.

 

The major goal, officials said, is to stem what the White House sees as a rising tide of anti-Americanism.

 

"A lot of the world does not like America, and it's going to take years to change their hearts and minds," said a senior official involved in the discussions.

 

The president broached the possibility of a permanent mission in a meeting with the top people who speak for the administration in September. "He told us that we were going to be at this for a long, long time," one participant said, "that we were setting a template for future presidents, that we had to think big, strategic, historic thoughts."

 

Global diplomacy as envisioned in the new office will inject patriotism into the punishing 24-hour, seven-day news cycle, officials said. It will include information campaigns about Mr. Bush's domestic policy — like education bills — as well as traditional information about the military, diplomatic and economic sides of national security policy, officials said.

 

Rather than create agencies, the new office would take advantage of the huge communications network of American embassies, their media offices and the broadcast network already in place under the State Department.

 

Charlotte Beers, a former advertising executive now in charge of public diplomacy at the State Department, has used her marketing skills in an attempt to make American policies as familiar as American culture.

 

Officials involved in the global communications effort said it required clear direction from the White House to break down the bureaucratic walls built up around the government after the cold war ended and the focus on defeating a clear-cut enemy disappeared.

 

Foreign journalists say they have given up getting meaningful interviews from American officials here. Only the most senior ambassadors from allied countries meet regularly with government policy makers.

 

"There was often the feeling that we were either taken for granted or considered irrelevant," said Patrice de Beer, the former Washington correspondent for Le Monde, the French daily. "We don't expect anyone to deliver state secrets to us but to be accessible to explain what the policy was. That's all."

 

In the earlier White House effort, Ms. Hughes joined forces with her British counterpart to put together the Coalition Information Center, known as the war room.

 

When Washington decided to highlight the Taliban's policy against women's rights, officials enlisted not only First Lady Laura Bush but Cherie Blair, the wife of the British prime minister.

 

"The Afghanistan women's campaign was the best thing we've done — giving insight into their vision of the future," said Jim Wilkinson, the head of the Coalition Information Center.

[otto dix]

or we can bury people who break minor laws up to their head in sand. then have a bulldozer knock a cinderblock wall onto them. its really not so bad.

[Rhubarb]

if your so into things like this you should have figured it was going on anyway. no matter what they say about it or what articles are written, this will always be happening.

[seeking]

welcome to america, we fix bullet wounds with mickey mouse band aids.

[Agent Uprise]

if your so into things like this you should have figured it was going on anyway. no matter what they say about it or what articles are written, this will always be happening.

 

Yes of course its been going on and will continue to go on for as long as governments exist. What makes this issue important is the fact that the gov. is stepping out of the shadows and not even trying to APPEAR democratic anymore.

You know the saying "if they come for me in the day they'll come for you in the night"

Well, its very clearly daytime (so to speak) and I think I hear a knocking on my door. What are you doing tonight?

[alkaline]

Originally posted by seeking innocence

welcome to america, we fix bullet wounds with mickey mouse band aids.

Hahaha. For some reason, I find that statement very funny.

[Guest imported_Tesseract]

Agent, thats correct...

And its global(UN/NATO/EC) attitude,

Imagine that as we speak, The former president of yugoslavia(Milochevic) is being judged in Brussels for war crimes and Clinton/blur where nominated for the Peace nobel prise...

And all that for the same fucking war

[Guest BROWNer]

i think milosevic is trying to get both those guys

to testify, he's summoned them or something.

i honestly don't think this out in the open propaganda

will fly with too many folks outside the US, especially

with young people.

[seeking]

Originally posted by BROWNer

i honestly don't think this out in the open propaganda

will fly with too many folks outside the US, especially

with young people.

 

it doesnt have to fly with people outside of the u.s. all it has to do is make us feel like we are right, then we can be completely confident in fucking over the rest of the world because its in their best interest. this isnt about quelching anti-american sentiments in other countries as much as it is stopping anti-american sentiments here. its an attempt at making US citizens into one big, blind, patriotic army that will support anything our leaders put in front of our faces. our government is realizing that if they dont feed us their propagnada, that we'll start listening to someone elses, because all people, by nature, are sheep. the government knows that as long as it has the spending dollar of the american public, it will have the spending dollar of the world. everyone follows what we do here. if we revolt, they will too. if they revolt, we'll buy chicken mcnuggets and who our government will kill them.

 

its all simple.

[Guest BROWNer]

thats fine, dandy, and apparent.

i'm still referring to the stuff beamed at

people/countries outside the US. we both

know its not 'just about quelching anti-american

sentiments'. we both know its not just about

the american people either.

not that simple.

[Smart]

Seems like the focus of this whole office is outside of the U.S... It has less to do with promoting jingoism and more with decieving the rest of the world. Which we've done for over 100 years at different times... The thing that really gets me is that the thrust is to invent false news. Total fabrications to bolster the US position. This is a recipe for a backfire, as more of the false stories are proven false, more of the legitimate stories will be cast into doubt. I also think that, historically, propaganda works better when it demoralizes people on a personal basis... something like a picture of Usama fucking a goat, or a pic of 5 'average' American guys who all have gigantic dicks... Or, something that appeals to them on a personal level... actually, one of the most successful propaganda leaflets from Desert Storm was a picture of 3 or 4 Iraqis sitting around and talking with a bowl of fruit in the foreground. Prominently featured in the fruit bowl was a bunch of bananas, a delicacy in Iraq. More surrendering Iraqis had that leaflet in their possesion when they gave up than any other.

 

Basically, I think that if you lie to people as a group and are exposed, you are immediately turned on by the group, however, if you lie to people on an indiviual basis, even if they spot the lies, they still have to organize their opposition...

[Guest im not witty]

Originally posted by Smart

Seems like the focus of this whole office is outside of the U.S... It has less to do with promoting jingoism and more with decieving the rest of the world. Which we've done for over 100 years at different times... The thing that really gets me is that the thrust is to invent false news. Total fabrications to bolster the US position. This is a recipe for a backfire, as more of the false stories are proven false, more of the legitimate stories will be cast into doubt. I also think that, historically, propaganda works better when it demoralizes people on a personal basis... something like a picture of Usama fucking a goat, or a pic of 5 'average' American guys who all have gigantic dicks... Or, something that appeals to them on a personal level... actually, one of the most successful propaganda leaflets from Desert Storm was a picture of 3 or 4 Iraqis sitting around and talking with a bowl of fruit in the foreground. Prominently featured in the fruit bowl was a bunch of bananas, a delicacy in Iraq. More surrendering Iraqis had that leaflet in their possesion when they gave up than any other.

 

Basically, I think that if you lie to people as a group and are exposed, you are immediately turned on by the group, however, if you lie to people on an indiviual basis, even if they spot the lies, they still have to organize their opposition...

 

 

listen to this guy.

[Guest imported_Tesseract]

Originally posted by seeking innocence

...this isnt about quelching anti-american sentiments in other countries as much as it is stopping anti-american sentiments here. its an attempt at making US citizens into one big, blind, patriotic army that will support anything our leaders put in front of our faces.

 

I agree with seeking on this one, The thing that makes americans so vulnerable towards propaganda is the fact that they have the luxury not to care about other countries. And before this gets misunderstood, I aint saying that americans are stupid, i'm just saying that the luxury of ignorance goes well with misleading information.

 

 

Originaly posted by BROWNer we both know its not just about

the american people either.

not that simple.

And of course its not about americans only, however i think its more aimed towards big institutions than regular people when it comes to the rest of the world.

 

As far as Smarts opinion, i also agree. However war-propaganda is always judged by the result. Propaganda may be better when aimed at a personal level but i really dont know the affect it has without fear getting in the way.

US aircrafts where throwing gigantic condoms with the word 'medium' printed on the package all over vietnam, i seems that it didnt had much success as a propaganda tool though

[seeking]

see, on the surface i know its obviously about promoting the good deeds of the US to other countries, im just not so sure that they will buy into it, thats all. and the foreign people that will buy into it, time and time again, are dealt with so simply and effictivly that we never even catch wind of it. a starving revolutionary is still just a starving man, no matter how strongly he believs in his cause. it seems to me, that all our government is really doing, is turning up the stereo, so its mom cant hear it fucking its girlfriend in the next room. we tell the world how great we are and weither they believe it or not, we do, and then we in turn support our government in anything they see fit to do.

 

even more frightening than the idea of our government openly spreading propoganda, is their reasoning behind it. if they've done this much fucked up stuff without ever kicking the media machine into high gear, what then, are they about to do, that would require such pre-emptive damage control?

iraq anyone?

the impending and complete fall out between isreal and palestine?

[fiberoptical]

One of the keys to dis-information is present the truth as a lie, and vice versa.Until the whole thing gets jumbled, and researchers are sent off onto dead end sidetracks. The creation of an office, is merely a dog and pony show for us...the propaganda machine has been in full effect for years. All US media must go through censors before it is released on the public, and madison avenue falls under this umbrella also.

If you look at the way news is dissiminated, it is done so in a very precise fashion.A breif snippet is told to us, a summary, and it must contain some kind of bodycount or legal type scandal.Then, it disappears never to surface again.There are new stories everyday, but none of the real issues at hand are dealt with and the core of the story never comes up again.The real issues are buried...it is fully cyclical.Ever notice when something big has happened, there convenienlty seems to be some "random" act of violence happening to distract the masses? Watch how precise it happens. The fact we are now openly told of the office, is merely a mindfuck to trick us into submission to the overall plan.

The shadow is now showing itself in the light.

newspeak...1984.. winston smith is proud.

[patrickjilbert]

very interesting topic

[Agent Uprise]

washington-hollywood connection

 

Hollywood has always been in the pocket of the government (black hawk down). One of the more interesting side-stories of post 9-11 amerika was a meeting intelligence officials had with hollywood writers/execs to dream up wild new terrorist scenereos and how to prevent them.

[Guest TEARZ]

i was going to post on this yesterday... read it on bbc news. scary shit keeps getting worse.

[Fuxus]

I saw this story broadcasted to the public on primetime ABC. It is incredible that the public can be so unaffected by this. If in truth we acted in the best interests of the world then lies would need to be told. As well, by doing things such as this we are being exactly what the Taliban and may others believe that we are.

 

If you haven't read 1984, it's about time to pick it up. Mark Mothersbaugh had some interesting words on this topic in WYWS.

[Guest KING BLING]

Pentagon Propaganda Plan is Undemocratic, Possibly Illegal (english)

by FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting 5:16pm Wed Feb 20 '02 (Modified on 5:34pm Wed Feb 20 '02)

 

 

The New York Times reported today that the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic

Influence is “developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false

ones, to foreign media organizations” in an effort “to influence public

sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries.”

If this has been posted before, I apologize. It's urgent, not surprising for the PentaGoon, and I hope all of the PentaGoon's "target" audience reads it.

 

FAIR-L

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting

Media analysis, critiques and activism

 

MEDIA ADVISORY:

 

 

@ - http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?articl...1&group=webcast

Pentagon Propaganda Plan Is Undemocratic, Possibly Illegal

 

February 19, 2002

 

The New York Times reported today that the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic

Influence is “developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false

ones, to foreign media organizations” in an effort “to influence public

sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries.”

 

The OSI was created shortly after September 11 to publicize the U.S.

government’s perspective in Islamic countries and to generate support for

the U.S.’s “war on terror.” This latest announcement raises grave concerns

that far from being an honest effort to explain U.S. policy, the OSI may

be a profoundly undemocratic program devoted to spreading disinformation

and misleading the public, both at home and abroad. At the same time,

involving reporters in disinformation campaigns puts the lives of working

journalists at risk.

 

Despite the OSI’s multi-million-dollar budget and its mandate to

propagandize throughout the Middle East, Asia and Western Europe, “even

many senior Pentagon officials and Congressional military aides say they

know almost nothing about its purpose and plans,” according to the Times.

The Times reported that the OSI’s latest announcement has generated

opposition within the Pentagon among those who fear that it will undermine

the Defense Department’s credibility.

 

Tarnished credibility may be the least of the problems created by the

OSI’s new plan to manipulate media-- the plan may compromise the free flow

of information that democracy relies on. The government is barred by law

from propagandizing within the U.S., but the OSI’s new plan will likely

lead to disinformation planted in a foreign news report being picked up by

U.S. news outlets. The war in Afghanistan has shown that the 24-hour news

cycle, combined with cuts in the foreign news budgets across the U.S.,

make overseas outlets like Al-Jazeera and Reuters key resources for U.S.

reporters.

 

Any “accidental” propaganda fallout from the OSI’s efforts is troubling

enough, but given the U.S. government’s track record on domestic

propaganda, U.S. media should be pushing especially hard for more

information about the operation’s other, intentional policies.

 

According to the New York Times, “one of the military units assigned to

carry out the policies of the Office of Strategic Influence” is the U.S.

Army’s Psychological Operations Command (PSYOPS). The Times doesn’t

mention, however, that PSYOPS has been accused of operating domestically

as recently as the Kosovo war.

 

In February 2000, reports in Dutch and French newspapers revealed that

several officers from the 4th PSYOPS Group had worked in the news division

at CNN's Atlanta headquarters as part of an “internship” program starting

in the final days of the Kosovo War. Coverage of this disturbing story was

scarce (see http://www.fair.org/activism/cnn-psyops.html), but after FAIR

issued an Action Alert on the story, CNN stated that it had already

terminated the program and acknowledged that it was “inappropriate.”

 

Even if the PSYOPS officers working in the newsroom did not directly

influence news reporting, the question remains of whether CNN may have

allowed the military to conduct an intelligence-gathering mission against

the network itself. The idea isn’t far-fetched-- according to Intelligence

Newsletter (2/17/00), a rear admiral from the Special Operations Command

told a PSYOPS conference that the military needed to find ways to "gain

control" over commercial news satellites to help bring down an

"informational cone of silence" over regions where special operations were

taking place. One of CNN’s PSYOPS “interns” worked in the network’s

satellite division. (During the Afghanistan war the Pentagon found a very

direct way to “gain control”—it simply bought up all commercial satellite

images of Afghanistan, in order to prevent media from accessing them.)

 

It’s worth noting that the 4th PSYOPS group is the same group that staffed

the National Security Council's now notorious Office of Public Diplomacy

(OPD), which planted stories in the U.S. media supporting the Reagan

Administration's Central America policies during the 1980s. Described by a

senior U.S. official as a "vast psychological warfare operation of the

kind the military conducts to influence a population in enemy territory"

(Miami Herald, 7/19/87), the OPD was shut down after the Iran-Contra

investigations, but not before influencing coverage in major outlets

including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post

(Extra!, 9-10/01).

 

The OPD may be gone, but the Bush administration’s recent recess

appointment of former OPD head Otto Reich as assistant secretary of state

for Western Hemisphere affairs is not reassuring. It suggests, at best, a

troubling indifference to Reich’s role in orchestrating the OPD’s

deception of the American people.

 

Indeed, as the Federation of American Scientists points out, “the Bush

Administration’s insistent efforts to expand the scope of official secrecy

have now been widely noted as a defining characteristic of the Bush

presidency” (Secrecy News, 2/18/02). The administration’s refusal to

disclose Enron-related information to the General Accounting Office is

perhaps the most publicized of these efforts; another is Attorney General

John Ashcroft’s October 12 memo urging federal agencies to resist Freedom

Of Information Act requests.

 

In addition, the Pentagon’s restrictive press policies throughout the war

in Afghanistan have been an ongoing problem. Most recently, Washington

Post reporter Doug Struck claims that U.S. soldiers threatened to shoot

him if he proceeded with an attempt to investigate a site where civilians

had been killed; Struck has stated that for him, the central question

raised by the incident is whether the Pentagon is trying to “cover up” its

actions and why it won’t “allow access by reporters to determine what

they're doing here in Afghanistan” (CBS, “The Early Show,” 2/13/02).

 

Taken together, these incidents and policies should raise alarm bells for

media throughout the country. Democracy doesn’t work if the public does

not have access to full and accurate information about its government.

[Guest BROWNer]

good read.

^^^^^^^

[bodice_ripper]

I saw the topic name and I thought Seeking, Tesseract, BROWNer and patrickjilbert.

[T.T Boy]

damn i wish i joined this conversation earlier. all of my views would be rendered useless if i joined now.

[boxcarwilly]

bodicewhat about me... usually istickmy head out on these... ijust havent really anything to say i said it was coming and it is coming...

 

now the major point id like to bring up is... how are you going tomake a statement like "we the US are going to start misinformingthe world"

 

hmmmmm... wait..... is that misinformation? how are yougoing to release a statement like that... theusmedia is constantly under international scrutiny... ummmmmmm... raising my hand *** teacher why arent people scared of the government???

[dukeofyork]

Originally posted by KING BLING

, “The Early Show,” 2/13/02).

 

Taken together, these incidents and policies should raise alarm bells for

media throughout the country. Democracy doesn’t work if the public does

not have access to full and accurate information about its government.

 

 

sounds like bush needs to take some notes from clinton on how to conceal things right.

[Agent Uprise]

raising my hand *** teacher why arent people scared of the government???

 

Teacher: "Thats a very good question Willy?" **repeatidly pushing 'potential student/terrorist' slient alarm**

"Some nice people with sticks will be here shortly to take you to a 'patriot' camp where all your questions will be answered in excruciating detail."

[dukeofyork]

i REALLY hope it doesnt get that bad...

[Vanity]

it's not unexpected.. every global conglomerate holds many outlets int the media.. what do you think the government is?

[Agent Uprise]

The Ministry Hard at Work Already!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

LOS ANGELES, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. war on terrorism will soon come to prime-time television as a new ABC "reality" show called "Profiles From the Front Line," with the help of the Pentagon and Hollywood action king Jerry Bruckheimer, the Disney-owned network said on Wednesday.

 

The program, which will focus on the stories of ordinary men and women in uniform, is being produced with the "unparalleled support and cooperation of the Defense Department," the network said in announcing the show slated for summer airing.

 

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "signed off" on the project without reservation, said Bertram van Munster, who will serve as an executive producer of the series with Bruckheimer.

 

But some critics immediately questioned whether the 13-part weekly series blurred the line between entertainment and news and whether it would become a U.S. military "infomercial."

 

While ABC said the program will "transport viewers to actual battlefields around the globe," van Munster told Reuters it remains to be seen just how close to combat the hour-long show will get. "I'm discussing all these issues with the Pentagon," van Munster said.

 

The program promises to take the genre of non-scripted TV to a new level, combining the talents of one of Hollywood's biggest producers with a pioneer of the "reality" genre. Bruckheimer produced such military movie hits as "Top Gun," "Pearl Harbor" and "Black Hawk Down." Van Munster was a producer and cameraman for eight years on the Fox series "Cops."

 

HOLLYWOOD AT WAR

 

Announcement of the show comes amid a new spirit of partnership between Hollywood and Washington after the Sept. 11 attacks by suicide hijackers and the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan.

 

Studio and network executives have met with White House officials and formed a special panel to plan ways of improving America's image abroad and help the government craft its message about its war on terrorism.

 

Bruckheimer, however, said he was not part of that movement and said development of "Profiles From the Front Line" predates the so-called Hollywood 9/11 committee.

 

Nevertheless, the program will be "patriotic in nature," van Munster acknowledged. "The men and women who are fighting in this conflict, they deserve their moment," he said.

 

"While we're sitting in the comfort of our home, we want to see how these guys are taking care of business."

 

Some critics said they were troubled by the prospect of an entertainment program crossing into a realm long reserved for coverage by network news divisions.

 

TV news analyst Andrew Tyndall, publisher of the Tyndall Report, said if the Pentagon exercises control over the program, "then to me it becomes an infomercial for the Pentagon's recruiting, and it should come out of the U.S. Army's budget, not out of ABC's pocket."

 

Robert Thompson of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television, said a military conflict "needs to be covered by journalists, not by entertainers."

 

"You have a bunch of journalists who should be covering this kind of material who are being denied access to it," he said. "Then you've got this entertainment operation who as part of the new alliance between Hollywood and the government are presumably being given access because the nature of their portrayal of the front line has already been ... approved by those granting the access."

 

ABC executives said the program makes no attempt to pass as news and that the network would have the final say over what makes it onto the airwaves, except for footage deemed a security breach by military officials.

 

In addition, Bruckheimer did not rule out showing viewers something the military might view as a blemish. "We're all human, we all make mistakes," he said. "We're not going to shy away form something if it's dramatic and interesting."

 

Said van Munster, "I'm not in the business of making infomercials. ... What I'm known for is in-your face, good, tough documentary cinema verite work."

[Agent Uprise]

Keep in Mind....

 

This article is by the mainstream press. If they're telling us all this imagine whats REALLY goin on.