Samantha Power, Cass Sunstein and cognitive infiltration or...Who's behind that tweet?

Gravel Democrat

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Sat Mar-26-11 04:45 PM
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Samantha Power, Cass Sunstein and cognitive infiltration or...Who's behind that tweet?

Some say the true authors of the Libya war are "the three Amazons" of the State Department: Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power.

Here's Samantha Power:

Samantha Power is currently a Special Assistant to President Barack Obama and runs the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights as Senior Director of Multilateral Affairs on the Staff of the National Security Council.

Samantha Power is married to a one Cass R. Sunstein

Cass Sunstein is currently the Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration

On Jan. 15, 2010 Glenn Greenwald had this to say about Cass Sunstein:

"...Sunstein is currently Obama's head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs where, among other things, he is responsible for "overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs."

In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-"independent" advocates to "cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites -- as well as other activist groups -- which advocate views that Sunstein deems "false conspiracy theories" about the Government. This would be designed to increase citizens' faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists. The paper's abstract can be read, and the full paper downloaded, here. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084585

Sunstein advocates that the Government's stealth infiltration should be accomplished by sending covert agents into "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups." He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called "independent" credible voices to bolster the Government's messaging (on the ground that those who don't believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the Government).

This program would target those advocating false "conspiracy theories," which they define to mean: "an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role." Sunstein's 2008 paper was flagged by this blogger, and then amplified in an excellent report by Raw Story's Daniel Tencer..."

"...Initially, note how similar Sunstein's proposal is to multiple, controversial stealth efforts by the Bush administration to secretly influence and shape our political debates. The Bush Pentagon employed teams of former Generals to pose as "independent analysts" in the media while secretly coordinating their talking points and messaging about wars and detention policies with the Pentagon..."

Much more here:
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/15/sunstein

This reminds those of us paying close attention of the Amanpour-Rubin appearance of impropriety that could have made the overseers of Pravda blush. Amanpour, one will recall, was responsible for much or most of the "reporting" from Kosovo during the US/NATO 78 day UN (UN)approved bombing.

James Rubin was Chief Spokesman for the State Department from 1997 to May 2000. In the Clinton administration, he was considered Secretary Madeleine Albright's right-hand man. Rubin and Amanpour were married in 1998.

So who's really behind that forum posting? Who's the real author of that anonymous tweet?

And how much did it cost?

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http://costofwar.com