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You Can't Handle the Truth: Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream.

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<darlene_579

Wed Sep 28, 2005 12:38 pm

Slate Article: You Can't Handle the Truth

 

 

 

 

You Can't Handle the Truth

Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream.

By Sharon Weinberger

Posted Monday, Sept. 19, 2005, at 3:31 AM PT

 

 

 

LONDON†" Over the past 24 hours, seven people have checked into

hospitals here with telltale symptoms. Rashes, vomiting, high

temperature, and cramps: the classic signs of smallpox. Once thought

wiped out, the disease is back and threatening a pandemic of epic

proportions.

 

The government faces a dilemma: It needs people to stay home, but if

the news breaks, mass panic might ensue as people flee the city,

carrying the virus with them.

 

A shadowy media firm steps in to help orchestrate a sophisticated

campaign of mass deception. Rather than alert the public to the

smallpox threat, the company sets up a high-tech " ops center " to

convince the public that an accident at a chemical plant threatens

London. As the fictitious toxic cloud approaches the city, TV news

outlets are provided graphic visuals charting the path of the

invisible toxins. Londoners stay indoors, glued to the telly,

convinced that even a short walk into the streets could be fatal.

 

This scenario may sound like a rejected plot twist from a mediocre

Bond flick, but one company is dead set on making this fantasy come to

life.

 

Strategic Communication Laboratories, a small U.K. firm specializing

in " influence operations " made a very public debut this week with a

glitzy exhibit occupying prime real estate at Defense Systems &

Equipment International, or DSEi, the United Kingdom's largest

showcase for military technology. The main attraction was a full-scale

mock-up of its ops center, running simulations ranging from natural

disasters to political coups.

 

Just to the right of the ops center, a dark-suited man with a wireless

microphone paces like a carnival barker, narrating the scenarios.

Above him a screen flashes among scenes of disaster, while to his

right, behind thick glass, workers sit attentively before banks of

computer screens, busily scrolling through data. The play actors pause

only to look up at a big board that flashes ominously between " hot

spots " like North Korea and Congo.

 

While Londoners fret over fictitious toxins, the government works to

contain the smallpox outbreak. The final result, according to SCL's

calculations, is that only thousands perish, rather than the 10

million originally projected. Another success.

 

Of course, the idea of deluding an entire city seems, well, a bit like

propaganda.

 

" If your definition of propaganda is framing communications to do

something that's going to save lives, that's fine, " says Mark

Broughton, SCL's public affairs director. " That's not a word I would

use for that. "

 

Then again, it's hard to know exactly what else to call it. (Company

literature describes SCL's niche specialties as " psychological

warfare, " " public diplomacy, " and " influence operations. " ) The

smallpox scenario plays out in excruciating detail how reporters would

be tapped to receive disinformation, with TV and radio stations

dedicated to around-the-clock coverage. Even the eventual disclosure

is carefully scripted.

 

In another doomsday scenario, the company assists a newly democratic

country in South Asia as it struggles with corrupt politicians and a

rising insurgency that threatens to bubble over into bloody

revolution. SCL steps in to assist the benevolent king of " Manpurea "

to temporarily seize power.

 

Oh, wait, that sounds a lot like Nepal, where the monarchy earlier

this year ousted a corrupt government to stave off a rising Maoist

movement. The problem is, the SCL scenario also sounds a lot like

using a private company to help overthrow a democratically elected

government. Another problem, at least in Nepal, is that the king now

shows few signs of returning to democracy.

 

The company, which describes itself as the first private-sector

provider of psychological operations, has been around since 1993. But

its previous work was limited to civil operations, and it now wants to

expand to military customers.

 

If SCL weren't so earnest, it might actually seem to be mocking

itself, or perhaps George Orwell. As the end of the smallpox scenario,

dramatic music fades out to a taped message urging people to " embrace "

strategic communications, which it describes as " the most powerful

weapon in the world. " And the company Web page offers some decidedly

creepy asides. " The [ops center] can override all national radio and

TV broadcasts in time of crisis, " it says, alluding to work the

company has done in an unspecified Asian country.

 

The government's use of deception in the service of national security

is not new. During World War II, for example, Allied forces conducted

a massive misinformation campaign, called Operation Fortitude,

designed to hide plans for the Normandy invasion. More recent efforts

have met with controversy, however. In 2002, the Pentagon shuttered

its brand new Office of Strategic Influence after public outcry over

its purported plans to spread deceptive information to the foreign press.

 

Government deception may even be justified in some cases, according to

Michael Schrage, a senior adviser to the security-studies program at

the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. " If you tell the population

that there's been a bio-warfare attack, hospital emergency rooms will

be overwhelmed with people who sincerely believe they have all the

symptoms and require immediate attention, " Schrage says.

 

The problem, he adds, is that in a democracy, a large-scale ruse would

work just once.

 

The U.S. government has generally sought to limit disinformation; some

agencies†" such as the CIA†" are explicitly prohibited by law from

misleading domestic press. And while the CIA is fond of concealment,

it takes pride in the belief that truth is necessary for an open

government, a sentiment chiseled into the agency's lobby.

 

What makes SCL's strategy so unusual is that it proposes to propagate

its campaign domestically, at least some of the time, and rather than

influence just opinion, it wants people to take a particular course of

action. Is SCL simply hawking a flashier version of propaganda?

 

The spokesman's answer: " We save lives. "

 

Yes, Broughton acknowledges, the ops center is not exactly giving the

truth, but he adds, " Is it not worth giving an untruth for 48 hours to

save x million people's lives? Sometimes the means to an end has to be

recognized. "

 

Who buys this stuff? Broughton declined to mention many specific

clients, noting that disclosing SCL's involvement†" particularly in

countries with a free and open media†" could make its campaigns less

effective. However, he says that post-apartheid South Africa has

employed SCL. So has the United Nations, he says.

 

The company's Web site is even vaguer, mentioning international

organizations and foreign governments. A Google search produces only a

handful of hits, mostly linked to the company's Web site. The

company's work is based on something that even the spokesman admits

you " won't find on the Web " : the Behavioral Dynamics Institute, a

virtual lab led by Professor Phil Taylor of Leeds University.

 

But the company, which is funded by private investors, is now taking

on a higher profile, and visitors flocked to the flashy setup here at

the show. " Basically, we're launching ourselves this week on the

defense market and homeland security market at the same time, "

Broughton explained.

 

If SCL has its way, its vision of strategic communications†" which

involves complex psychological and scientific data†" could be used to

shape public response to tsunamis, epidemics, or even the next

Hurricane Katrina.

 

Well aware that the company may face controversy, particularly with

its push into the defense market, Broughton emphasizes the company's

role in saving lives.

 

" It sounds altruistic, " he said. " There is some altruism in it, but we

also want to earn money. "

Sharon Weinberger, a writer based in Washington, is working on a book

about the Pentagon and fringe science.

 

Article URL: http://slate.msn.com/id/2126479/

How are we ever going to know what to catapult, now? Darlene

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