“The strategic target remains our population”

Reality Check: Got Psyops?

The (almost) untold story of the Pentagon's domestic propaganda campaign

by Terry Stulce

May 07, 2008

The propaganda campaign waged by the Bush administration to sell the Iraq war to the American people was addressed in this column four weeks ago.

 

This campaign was launched long before the invasion and continues unabated today.

 

Most are aware of the lies about W.M.D. and Saddam's connection to Al Quaeda.  We are also aware of the completely bogus stories of heroism by Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, propaganda lies that besmirched the honorable service of both.

 

Then on April 20, David Barstow broke a gigantic story of how the U.S. government has been targeting the American public in a very sophisticated psyops (psychological operations) campaign.  The Pentagon plot involved using high-ranking former military officers to deliver propaganda in the form of "objective analysis."  These generals and colonels appeared repeatedly through many years, on every major network—ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Fox, delivering the government disinformation.

 

General Barry McCafferty, General Ken Allard, General Montgomery Meigs, and General Wayne Downing were a few of the familiar faces in the mainstream media that carried the Pentagon message.  There were at least 75 of these "sock puppets" (Gareth Porter's terminology for Pentagon lackeys).

 

Byran Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said that it was "a bit incredible" to think retired military officers could be "wound up" and turned into "puppets of the Defense Department."  Don Rumsfeld did not think this so "incredible," referring to his toadies as "talking heads" while other Defense Department memos referred to these sycophants as "message multipliers" and "surrogates." 

 

It would appear "incredible" that these supposedly intelligent and honorable men could be so co-opted and persuaded to be willing participants in this disgraceful propaganda campaign against the American people—except for one detail. Almost every one of these "talking heads" is dependent on the defense industry for their livelihood.  They represent defense contractors and defense industry lobbyists, and they are in the business of currying favor with the Pentagon.  Case solved.

 

The Pentagon instructed their surrogates not to quote their Pentagon briefers as sources for their "independent analysis."  Torie Clarke, the Pentagon flunky who oversaw this program, marveled at how "analysts seamlessly incorporated material from talking points and briefings as if it was their own."  One of her staff said, "You could see that they were messaging.  You could see they were taking verbatim what the secretary was saying or what technical specialists were saying.  And they were saying it over and over and over.  We were able to check on every single station and every one of our folks were up there delivering our message."

 

General James T. Conway, Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs, presided over a meeting with the "sock puppets" and told them "The strategic target remains our population."

 

It appears that most of our so-called leaders in the Defense Department and the military don't know that psyops and propaganda directed at the American people are illegal. The actions of the Pentagon and their toadies have been despicable, but that's only half the story. There has not been a rush in the mainstream media to cover this story.  The most straightforward reason is that it proves them to be: 1) Corrupt, 2) Stupid, 3) Lazy or 4) All three. 

 

To allow your network to be used as a propaganda tool is disgraceful and un-American.  The American people deserve a media that is not a tool, shill or "message multiplier" for government propaganda.

 

However, kudos to the American people.  In spite of this massive psyop operation with the complicity of the mainstream media, 64 percent of us believe this war was not worth fighting, and 57 percent of us think there is no significant progress even though we have been bombarded with the propaganda of the "effectiveness" of the surge.  (Angus Reid Poll, April 2008.)

 

Terry Stulce is a local community and peace activist and a decorated Vietnam war veteran. He ran for the Democratic nomination for Congress in 2006.