Truth, honor, and integrity have always been the cornerstone of the
United States armed force's core values. The Pentagon did the best
it could have done to salvage any remaining credibility in the
world community by disbanding the newly formed Office of Strategic
Influence (OSI).
OSI has been getting a lot of attention lately. It was reported
that one of the many tasks of this controversial office would be
releasing news items, including false ones, to foreign media. The
Pentagon's intention was to influence the small, but growing,
opposition to U.S. activities in the war against terrorism. The
problem is this disinformation could undermine U.S. credibility
abroad and could even make its way back to U.S. shores.
Under scrutiny, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld recently announced the
campaign to influence world opinion will not include lies to the
public, but might employ "tactical" deception to confuse an enemy
for battlefield advantage. A later announcement by Secretary
Rumsfeld was the nail in the coffin, closing the doors of
OSI.
Information warfare has been used by Army psychological operations
for years. "Psyops" units fought battles in Vietnam in the 60's and
70's, Nicaragua in the 80's, the Balkans in the 90's and most
recently Afghanistan. The difference is, this was the first time
the Department of Defense made it clear that one of its intentions
was to mislead foreign media through a variety of methods, some
very questionable.
Countries including Afghanistan, North Korea, and Iraq, part of
President Bush's Axis of Evil, as well as their allies are talented
propagandists who have spread misinformation throughout the world.
The administration, as well as the Pentagon, would like to repair
these falsehoods and get their own message out to foreign audiences
quickly and efficiently. But this must be done in a sound,
sophisticated and credible way rather than the unscrupulous guise
the Pentagon had in mind.
The office was set up after Sept. 11th by the Bush administration
as an effort to better reach Islamic populations around the world.
The past few months many formerly conventional ways of operating
have changed. When I was in the Navy, we had a saying, "rules are
written in blood." Meaning, when something tragic happens, change
the rules so that it doesn't happen again. But purposely giving
false information through Defense Department media outlets to our
allies is not the way to approach this.
Radio broadcast and leaflets dropped in foreign ground have always
been accepted. But what about possibly using news services such as
Reuters and Agence France-Presse to spread their information. What
if the information's false? These same stories could end up running
in U.S. print and broadcast mediums. Under law, the Pentagon
operation can only work outside the United States. Targeting
international media is possible, but not U.S. media outlets.
According to a
New York Times article, several senior
Pentagon officials had questioned whether the mission of the Office
of Strategic Influence was too broad or possibly illegal. "This
breaks down the boundaries almost completely," a Pentagon official
said.
Most agree that the dissemination of "psyop" materials through
media outlets is a good way to help sway anti U.S. sentiment. It is
a necessity. This is especially true when influencing hostile
governments and their people. Although that's still part of the
Pentagon's multi pronged plan, don't confuse it with the potential
for flat out lying to foreign media and our allies using the
military's globe spanning public affairs capabilities.
One way the Pentagon could have avoided this controversial issue
altogether would have been to keep the plan confidential. Isn't
that what military intelligence and national security officials are
supposed to be good at? Announcing it ahead of time does nothing
but tell foreign governments and their media to be even more wary
of what we say. Rumsfeld's announcement is damage control. But that
implies damage was done… it was. Defense Department
credibility is damaged in the eyes of the world media at
least.
Mixing the clandestine world of espionage and warfare with the work
of traditional public affairs undermines the Pentagon's credibility
with the media, the public and governments around the world. Yes,
the rules have changed, but let's not use that as an excuse to
sacrifice our own honor and integrity. If anything, this is a time
to strengthen ties throughout the world, not endanger them.
-- Dexter Ingram, a database editor in The Heritage Foundation's
Center for Media and Public Policy, served as a naval flight
officer.
Originally appeared in Townhall.com