[Media-watch] US use of media in war [for propaganda] sparks debate - Financial Times/LA Times - 1/12/2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d75d5010-4360-11d9-af06-00000e2511c8.html

US use of media in war sparks debate
By Mark Mazzetti
Published: December 1 2004 07:55 | Last updated: December 1 2004 07:55

On the evening of Oct. 14, a young Marine spokesman near Fallujah appeared 
on CNN and made a dramatic announcement.


"Troops crossed the line of departure," 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert declared, using 
a common military expression signaling the start of a major campaign. "It's 
going to be a long night."

CNN, which had been alerted to expect a major news development, reported 
that the long-awaited offensive to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah had 
begun.

In fact, the Fallujah offensive would not kick off for another three weeks. 
Gilbert's carefully worded announcement was an elaborate psychological 
operation -- or "psy-op" -- intended to dupe insurgents in Fallujah and 
allow U.S. commanders to see how guerrillas would react when they believed 
U.S. troops were entering the city, according to several Pentagon officials.

In the hours after the initial report, CNN's Pentagon reporters were able to 
determine that the Fallujah operation had not, in fact, begun.

"As the story developed, we quickly made it clear to our viewers exactly 
what was going on in and around Fallujah," CNN spokesman Matthew Furman 
said.

Officials at the Pentagon and other U.S. national security agencies said the 
CNN incident was not just an isolated feint -- the type used throughout 
history by armies to deceive their enemies -- but part of a broad effort 
under way within the Bush administration to use information to its advantage 
in the war on terrorism.

The Pentagon in 2002 was forced to shutter its controversial Office of 
Strategic Influence (OSI), which was opened shortly after the Sept. 11 
attacks, after reports that the office intended to plant false news stories 
in the international media. But officials say that much of OSI's mission --  
using information as a tool of war -- has been assumed by other offices 
throughout the U.S. government.

Although most of the work remains classified, officials say that some of the 
ongoing efforts include having U.S. military spokesmen play a greater role 
in psychological operations in Iraq, as well as planting information with 
sources used by Arabic TV channels such as Al-Jazeera to help influence the 
portrayal of the United States.

Other specific examples were not known, although U.S. national security 
officials said an emphasis had been on influencing how foreign media depict 
the United States.

These efforts have set off a fight inside the Pentagon over the proper use 
of information in wartime. Several top officials see a danger of blurring 
what are supposed to be well-defined lines between the stated mission of 
military public affairs -- disseminating truthful, accurate information to 
the media and the American public -- and psychological and information 
operations, the use of often misleading information and propaganda to 
influence the outcome of a campaign or battle.

Several of those officials who oppose the use of misleading information 
spoke out against the practice on the condition of anonymity.

"The movement of information has gone from the public affairs world to the 
psychological operations world," said one senior defense official. "What's 
at stake is the credibility of people in uniform."

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said he recognized the concern of many 
inside the Defense Department, but that "everybody understands that there's 
a very important distinction between information operations and public 
affairs. Nobody has offered serious proposals that would blur the 
distinction between these two functions."

Di Rita said he had asked his staff for more information about how the Oct. 
14 incident on CNN came about.

One recent development critics point to is the decision by commanders in 
Iraq in mid-September to combine public affairs, psychological operations 
and information operations into a "strategic communications" office. An 
organizational chart of the newly created office was obtained by The Times. 
The strategic communications office, which began operations Sept. 15, is run 
by Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, who answers directly to Gen. George W. 
Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

In part out of concerns about this new office, Gen. Richard B. Myers, 
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, distributed a letter Sept. 27 to the 
Joint Chiefs and U.S. combatant commanders in the field warning of the 
dangers of having military public affairs (PA) too closely aligned with 
information operations (IO).

"Although both PA and IO conduct planning, message development and media 
analysis, the efforts differ with respect to audience, scope and intent, and 
must remain separate," according to a copy of the letter obtained by the Los 
Angeles Times.

Pentagon officials say Myers is worried that U.S. efforts in Iraq and in the 
broader campaign against terrorism could suffer if world audiences begin to 
question the honesty of statements from U.S. commanders and spokespeople.

"While organizations may be inclined to create physically integrated PA/IO 
offices, such organizational constructs have the potential to compromise the 
commander's credibility with the media and the public," Myers wrote.

Myers' letter is not being heeded in Iraq, officials said, in part because 
many top civilians at the Pentagon and National Security Council support an 
effort that blends public affairs with psy-ops to win Iraqi support -- and 
Arab support in general -- for the U.S. fight against the insurgency.

Advocates of these programs said that the advent of a 24-hour news cycle and 
the powerful influence of Arabic satellite television made it essential that 
U.S. military commanders and civilian officials made the control of 
information a key part of their battle plans.

"Information is part of the battlefield in a way that it's never been 
before," one senior Bush administration official said. "We'd be foolish not 
to try to use it to our advantage."

"The worst outcome would be to lose this war by default. If the smart folks 
in the psy-op and civil affairs tents can cast a truthful, persuasive 
message that resonates with the average Iraqi, why not use the public 
affairs vehicles to transmit it?" asked Charles A. Krohn, a professor at the 
University of Michigan and former deputy chief of public affairs for the 
Army. "What harm is done, compared to what is gained? For the first year of 
the war, we did virtually nothing to tell the Iraqis why we invaded their 
country and ejected their government. It's about time we got our act 
together."

Advocates also cite a September report by the Defense Science Board, an 
outside panel that advises Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, which 
concluded that a "crisis" in U.S. "strategic communications" has undermined 
American efforts to fight Islamic extremism worldwide.

The study cited polling in the Arab world that revealed widespread hatred of 
the United States throughout the Middle East. A poll taken in June by Zogby 
International revealed that 94 percent of Saudi Arabians have an 
"unfavorable" view of the United States, compared with 87 percent in April 
2002. In Egypt, the second largest recipient of U.S. aid, 98 percent of 
respondents held an unfavorable view of the United States.

The Defense Science Board recommended a presidential directive to 
"coordinate all components of strategic communication including public 
diplomacy, public affairs, international broadcasting, and military 
information operations."

Di Rita said there is general agreement inside the Bush administration that 
the U.S. government is ill equipped to communicate its policies and messages 
abroad in the current media climate.

"As a government, we're not very well organized to do that," he said.

Yet some in the military argue that the efforts at better "strategic 
communication" sometimes cross the line into propaganda, citing some recent 
media briefings held in Iraq. During one Nov. 10 briefing by Marine Lt. Gen. 
John Sattler, reporters were shown a video of Iraqi troops saluting their 
flag and singing the Iraqi national anthem.

"Pretty soon, we're going to have the 5 o'clock follies all over again and 
it will take us another 30 years to restore our credibility," said a second 
senior defense official, referring to the much-ridiculed daily media 
briefings in Saigon during the Vietnam War.

This article appears by courtesy of the Los Angeles Times
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