IP: Pentagon Readies Efforts to Sway Sentiment Abroad

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/19/international/19PENT.html


By JAMES DAO and ERIC SCHMITT

The Pentagon is planning to provide news items, possibly even false ones, 
to foreign media in order to influence public opinion in both friendly and 
unfriendly countries.
The plans, which have not received final approval from the Bush 
administration, have stirred opposition among some Pentagon officials who 
say they might undermine the credibility of information that is openly 
distributed by the Defense Department's public affairs officers.

The military has long engaged in information warfare against hostile 
nations — for instance, by dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages into 
Afghanistan when it was still under Taliban rule.

But it recently created the Office of Strategic Influence, which is 
proposing to broaden that mission into allied nations in the Middle East, 
Asia and even Western Europe. The office would assume a role traditionally 
led by civilian agencies, mainly the State Department.

<snip>

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