So, Rumsfeld makes a rule against military 'news' in 2003 then breaks it

[bigtree]

Military ‘News' Campaign Is Seemingly In Conflict With Pentagon Directive

Secret U.S. program focus of investigation

1/29/2006

Washington — A secret military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish information favorable to the U.S. mission appears to violate a 2003 Pentagon directive, according to a newly declassified document released this week.

“We concluded that we were operating within our authorities and the appropriate legal procedures. And so we have not suspended any of the processes up to now,” Army Gen. George W. Casey told reporters then.

A secret directive on the Pentagon's information operations policy released Thursday, however, appears to prohibit U.S. troops from conducting psychological operations (PSYOPs) targeting the news media.

“PSYOP is restricted by both DoD (Defense Department) policy and executive order from targeting American audiences, our military personnel, and news agencies or outlets,” states the directive, dated Oct. 30, 2003, and signed by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The directive, titled “Information Operations Roadmap,” , was released Thursday by the National Security Archive, a research institution based at George Washington University that obtained the document under the Freedom of Information Act.

full story: http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=157E9638-F988-4C71-8324-874109852666



Check out this info ops page from IWS - The Information Warfare Site. More about justifying a disinformation campaign and stifling differing views to enhance the operation and maintain the 'morale of the troops' in the DOD documents provided.


from the site:

Definition of Information Operations:

'The integrated employment of the core capabilities of electronic warfare , computer network operations , psychological operations , military deception, and operations security , with specified supporting and related capabilities to influence, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp adversarial human and automated decisionmaking while protecting our own.'

DOD Information Operations Roadmap, 30. October 2003


from the Field Manual (FM) 3-13: Information Operations: Doctrine, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, <7 MB> Headquarters, Department of the Army, 28 November 2003:


1-76. During peace, commanders conduct IO to shape the strategic environ-ment
or to prepare for operations during crisis and war. Normally IO are part
of a combatant commander’s theater engagement plan. The majority of
peacetime preparation is done at home station or during training
exercises. Using contingency plans to focus their efforts, commanders
prepare databases for each IO element. These databases contain infor-mation
on possible adversaries and other significant actors. At the stra-tegic
and operational levels, databases focus on one or more of the following
target sets:

•Political leadership.
•Information capabilities and vulnerabilities, including military and
civilian communication networks, and domestic and foreign media.
•Military operations, leadership, and infrastructure, and their
vulnerabilities at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels.
•Economic factors that affect an actor’s ability to mount and sustain
military operations, and those that affect the morale of the population
and its leadership. This set includes the infrastructure that supports
economic activity.
•Social effects of ethnic, racial, and historical animosities and alliances.
1-77. The first four of these target sets coincide with the instruments of na-tional
power. The last target set addresses aspects of the information envi-ronment
that commanders consider when conducting IO. Examples of infor-mation
that databases may include are—
•People and groups who wield influence, both within states and non-state
actors.
•Decisionmakers, both within states and nonstate actors.
•People and groups sympathetic to US interests.
•People and groups hostile to US interests.
•People and groups vulnerable to US influence.
•Themes that appeal to specific audiences.
•Attributes of states that make them stable or unstable.
•States and nonstate actors that either accept or reject US economic or
military support.
•Religious, ethnic, and cultural customs, norms, and values.


most important:


Considerations during PSYOP planning include 

•Legal constraints.
PSYOP is prohibited from targeting audiences within the United
States, its territories, or its possessions.
PSYOP must follow international law, treaties, and US law, especially
when conducted offensively.

[bananas]

1. Is Iraq one of our "territories, or its possessions"?

•Legal constraints.
PSYOP is prohibited from targeting audiences within the United
States, its territories, or its possessions.
PSYOP must follow international law, treaties, and US law, especially
when conducted offensively.

[bigtree]

2. I rushed

the passage in the article is more directed to Iraq than the one I dug out of the document. I didn't look long enough to find the referenced quote.

[bananas]

4. I was just making a wise-crack nt

[bigtree]

5. here's a more relevant passage

2-8. Strategic-level PSYOP are synchronized with International Public
Information Program (IPIP). The IPIP coordinates dissemination of informa-tion
about US foreign policy outside the United States, its territories, and its
possessions through by various government agencies. Presidential Decision
Directive 68 requires that information distributed through the IPIP not be
designed “to mislead foreign audiences,” and that information programs
“must be truthful.”

[bigtree]

6. Here's where they authorized the strikes on Al-Jazerra and other media

PHYSICAL DESTRUCTION
2-46. Physical destruction is the application of combat power to de-stroy
or degrade adversary forces, sources of information, command and control systems, and installations. It includes direct and indirect fires from ground, sea, and air forces. Also included are direct actions by special operations forces. The G-7 synchronizes execution of IO-related
physical destruction with other IO elements and the fire support co-ordinator.

Physical destruction is tied to critical events and decision points in
the adversary decisionmaking processes or their underlying infrastructures. Artillery is a major, but not the only, contributor to this IO element. The targeting team assigns IO targets to the air and ground systems best able to attack them (see appendix E).

2-47. When used as an IO element, physical destruction is normally offensive

IO. Often destroying a target contributes to achieving both IO and conventional objectives. However, commanders use physical destruction as an IO element to disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy the information, INFOSYS, the decisionmaking process, or the decisionmaker.
2-48. Traditional, attrition-based capabilities for physical destruction that can support IO include 


•Field artillery.
•Close air support.
•Army aviation.
•Special operations forces.
•Air defense artillery.
•EA (electromagnetic pulse, directed energy).
•Selected joint/national resources.
•Naval or strategic air assets.
Staff Coordination


edit: mixed up posts

[Toots]

3. Kind of like Bush*

"Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution." G.W. Bush*

I am not sure yet whether it is compulsive on Republican's part or an intregal part of the plan..

[bigtree]

7. Sounds like Rumsfeld too. It's all related to the way they sell the war

from the White House. Disinformation is used to sell the plan and discredit the dissenters.

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8. Information is just as critical as firepower in the long war, general says

The will of the American people and people around the world to confront the terrorists and defeat them is the center of gravity in what Pentagon officials are calling "the long war," Odierno, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.

Information is just as critical as firepower in the long war, Odierno said, and this, too, the enemy understands.

http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,85678,00.html?ESRC=navynews.RSS