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Office of Research

Issue Focus

Foreign Media Reaction

February 22, 2002

PENTAGON'S OSI PLANS UNLEASH INDIGNATION IN OVERSEAS MEDIA

KEY FINDINGS

 

Overseas media lost no time in registering their indignation over planned operations by the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), as reported by the New York Times earlier this week.  Negative headlines abounded, most particularly in European papers, bannering the Pentagon's "New, Black Propaganda Unit" designed to disseminate "covert news and disinformation."  Most galling to editorialists in all regions was the notion that the U.S. would contemplate providing false stories to "friends" as well as foes, and that it would attempt to "use" reputable international news agencies to spread disinformation worldwide.  Writers also stressed emphatically that any such attempts would only serve to undercut the USG's credibility as it attempts to win the "battle for hearts and minds" in the next phases of the campaign against terrorism. 

 

MAJOR THEMES

 

--  Many writers contended that the establishment of an "official lies bureau" within the Pentagon was tantamount to the unsavory propaganda activities of the former Soviet Union and those of other totalitarian states. 

 

--  Commentators held that allowing a "Bureau of False Information" to function would seriously harm the U.S.' image as a nation that upholds freedom of the press and adheres to the rule of law. 

 

--  While many held that the publication of the NYT report had already damaged the Pentagon's--and to some extent the Bush administration's--credibility, still others urged the president to deep six the proposal "before it was too late."       

 

COMMENTARY HIGHLIGHTS

 

USG credibility:  'Five O'Clock Follies' Redux?   Dailies across geographic regions warned that the OSI's reported plans, if implemented, would undermine the credibility of the Pentagon spokesperson, and by extension, that of other administration officials.  DOD press conferences, some contended, would become nothing more than a new version of the press briefings derided as "five-o'clock follies" during the Vietnam War.  Still others pointed to the futility of "official deception" in a country where press coverage of Watergate was credited with bringing down an administration.  A strong undercurrent in commentary was that the "truth" should be strong enough to combat "evil," and efforts to disseminate falsehoods would only alienate and insult America's allies. 

EDITOR:  Kathleen J. Brahney

 

EDITOR'S NOTE:  This report is based on 23 reports from 15 countries, February 20-22.  Editorial excerpts from each country are listed from the most recent date.

 

EUROPE

 

BRITAIN:  Media Treatment

 

UK press carried a number of articles today (2/20) following up on NYTimes/Washington Post stories about possible Pentagon Office of Strategic Influence.  Below are sample headlines and lead graphs.  The conservative Times:  "Pentagon 'Ready to Lie' to Win War On Terror: "The Pentagon has set up a covert unit to wage an information war that could include feeding false stories to foreign media, according to a report yesterday."   The centrist Independent:  "Revealed: Pentagon's New Black Propaganda Unit: The Pentagon is developing a major covert news and disinformation campaign to help Washington win the propaganda war against terrorism in the Islamic world."   The conservative Daily Telegraph: "Pentagon Chiefs Condemned for Launching Propaganda War: America's Western Allies reacted with concern yesterday to the creation of a Pentagon department of propaganda aimed at planting disinformation in the media of America's friends as well as its enemies."  The liberal Guardian:  "Lies, Damned Lies, and Pentagon Briefings: Fresh from dropping anti-Taliban leaflets on Afghanistan, the secretive propaganda arm of the American military is planning to fight for hearts and minds closer to home by planting fake news stories in the media of U.S. allies, it was reported yesterday."  BBC News: "Pentagon Plans Propaganda War: United States defense officials are examining the possibility of planting propaganda and even misleading stories in international media as part of George Bush's war on terrorism."

 

"U.S. May Fight Dirty In Battle For Hearts And Minds"

 

Washington Correspondent Rupert Cornwell wrote in the centrist Independent (2/20): "America's new covert effort to win hearts and minds in the 'war against terrorism' has been spurred by one gnawing fear, that for all its military successes--or perhaps because of them--Washington may be losing the deeper struggle for public opinion around the world....  Soon after the military strikes began in Afghanistan, President Bush and Tony Blair set up special war rooms in Washington, London and Islamabad....  With the war winding down, the rooms may be closed.  But the new Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) at the Pentagon looks as though it is there for the long haul....  But will the strategy work?  The answer based on previous experience, is probably yes, up to a point.  For many years, propaganda and disinformation were vital tools for the Soviet Union, to persuade the gullible in Third World countries of the merits of a largely meritless cause.  In the end Moscow could not make its subject peoples disbelieve the evidence of their eyes.  The Pentagon's new efforts may have more merit.  But the strategy carries other risks.  Donald Rumsfeld...loves to cite the celebrated dictum of Churchill that 'in wartime, truth is so precious she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.'  But the Pentagon, however imperfectly, does run a straight news operation.  The credibility of this, such as it is, might be fatally corroded by the new department.  Mr. Rumsfeld faces an additional danger.  The American press is free, powerful and takes itself immensely seriously....  Today, it would have little hesitation in turning on the Pentagon, should the military make a fool of journalists by allowing them to fall for one of the new bodyguard of lies."

 

FRANCE:  "Bureau Of False Information Open At The Pentagon"

 

In communist L'Humanite, Jacques Coubard contended (2/22):  "This affair has sparked heated reactions in the press and even within the Pentagon.  It has also prompted a certain amount of irritation at the State Department,  which up until now had been solely responsible for publicizing the government's positions....  Everything is in place for the Defense Department to begin a vast information manipulation campaign...[maintaining] that all means are acceptable to mislead the media and public opinion in the countries targeted....  This is certainly not the first time that an American agency has used disinformation and lies to force Washington's point of view and destabilize public opinion...but the fact that it has been announced officially is telling of the scorn that the American administration has for its own public's opinion and that of the rest of the world."

 

"Pentagon Warns That it May Lie"

 

Veziane de Vezins wrote in right-of-center Le Figaro (2/21):  "The Pentagon has admitted to being tortured by a terrible dilemma, to lie or not to lie....  (The OSI) is prepared to flood the international media with false information in order to improve America's public image.  This recipe, after all, has made famous other no less saleable products than McDonalds and Coke.  Yes, but when the Pentagon says that it is thinking of lying, is it telling the truth?  If the Pentagon lies by saying it will lie, it remains sincere.  If it does not lie, it appears amazingly honest.  Almost as much as a certain Mikhail in the USSR during glasnost.  But where the bear swayed awkwardly in a porcelain shop, the Eagle plays with brio on its crystal harp....  The game, for the media of the world, will consist of being able to distinguish the truth from the lies. Those who bluff best will win the most. The Iranian, Iraqi and North Korean players will find this game much more exciting than being flatly referred to as an 'Axis of Evil'.  And the winners will be rewarded with a cruise to Guantanamo."

 

"Bush:  Between Rambo And Big Brother"

 

The establishment of an Office of Strategic Influence was reported in a number of articles. Under the above headline, right-of-center France Soir claimed (2/20):  "The United States has decided, through its defense secretary, to disseminate its own information and even to spread false information to the foreign press."  Left-of-center Liberation stated:  "Once denounced as the prerogative of totalitarian governments, propaganda will soon have its own administration in the United States."

 

ITALY:  "Pentagon Plans To Open 'Lies Bureau'"

 

Marco Valsania filed from New York in leading business Il Sole-24 Ore (2/20):  "The Pentagon goes to the information war: top U.S. military officials have defined a new communication strategy aimed at influencing public opinion in allied nations...as well as that of enemy nations.  This is a strategy that, in order to achieve its goals, will not exclude the release of false information or resorting to 'top secret' operations."

 

"Pentagon Opens 'Lies Bureau'"

 

A brief, unsigned report from Washington in centrist, top-circulation Corriere della Sera read (2/20):  "The Pentagon has devised a new weapon: a 'lies office' to secretly disseminate false information, favorable to the United States, through the international press.  U.S. military leaders, after winning the war against al-Qaida in Afghanistan, are now afraid of losing peace.  Usama bin Laden has proven very able in the propaganda war so far--the same field where the Pentagon feels, instead, disarmed."

 

RUSSIA:  "Pentagon Out To Brainwash The World"

 

Under the above headline, Andrei Baranov filed from New York for reformist, youth-oriented Komsomolskaya Pravda (2/22):  "Worried that Washington's plans to strike Iraq and other rogue states may have no support abroad, the Pentagon has decided to launch a campaign to brainwash the world."

 

BELGIUM:  "United States Is Going To Influence Foreign Media"

 

Foreign editor Carl Pansaerts asserted in financial De Financieel-Economische Tijd (2/20):  "The Pentagon is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policymakers all over the world....  The Office will provide news items, possibly even false ones, Pentagon officials said.  The Office will concentrate on the information war against hostile nations, but it will also focus on allied countries in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.  In that manner, the Pentagon will take over part of the tasks of the State Department.  The plans, which have not been approved yet by President Bush, met opposition from high officials in the Pentagon.  They fear that the use of false information will undermine the worldwide credibility of correct information that is provided by the Pentagon press service."

 

DENMARK:  "Fortunately, Proposal Has Not Been Approved"

 

Center-right Berlingske Tidende opined (2/21):  "The Pentagon proposal to spread false information has fortunately not yet been approved by the U.S. government.  President Bush still has time to prevent a plan that...will damage our perception of the United States as a democratic country with basic rights of freedom and a long tradition for an open exchange of ideas and opinions."

 

FINLAND:  "The Office Of Strategic Mendacity"

 

Leading, independent Helsingin Sanomat offered this view (2/22):  "The Pentagon is, according to The New York Times, establishing an Office of Strategic Influence, which is supposed to place both correct as well as false and deceptive information in the foreign press and media in the name of the U.S. national interest.  The exact authorities of the office have not been approved at the highest level as yet, but its budget is supposedly considerable.  The initiative can be regarded as interesting; it is hard to conceive of any other project that would have such poor chances to achieve true advantage and such great chances to cause irreparable damage--both to the Pentagon and all of the United States.  In conditions of war, secrecy, misleading and disinformation are of course nothing new, and Washington keeps repeating that it is at war....  [But] the combination of normal information services with so-called disinformation--i.e., lying--is strange.  Information is based on trust, which is achieved only by a long-term consistent effort.  Lying is lying.  If an al-Qaida terrorist is tricked into the wrong valley and ambushed, it is a victory in the information war.  But if the BBC and Reuters cease to take the Pentagon announcements seriously, it is a defeat and one that is very hard to correct.  Drawing a line between information and disinformation is at times difficult and sensitive.  One would imagine that the Pentagon would well remember the press conference form the days of the Vietnam War, called 'five-o'clock follies,' which used to amuse both the United States and the international press."

 

GREECE:  "The 'Correct' Truth Of Americans; Open Societies Pursue Own Defense"

 

The lead editorial in influential, pro-government To Vima held (2/21):  "Even the most cynical must feel uncomfortable with the debate triggered in the United States about the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence.  The fact that American TV stations have warned Secretary Rumsfeld not to dare circulate false or misleading information has its importance.  The realization alone that a mechanism of truth, a mechanism of  'correct' truth that America will transmit to the world is extremely alarming.  It concerns us all.  It concerns the reliability of the U.S. press, which achieved a Watergate and has now publicized the logic of the Office of Strategic Influence.  It concerns not how wars, but how human souls are won--as the Americans proved they knew how to after WWII and the Cold War.  Has the time of hubris come for the superpower?"

 

LITHUANIA:  "The Empire Strikes Back"

 

Commentator Ricardas Gavelis wrote in second-largest Respublika (2/21):  "Perhaps the best title for this article would be 'Welcome to the Fourth World War!'  The world war concept has already been well broken in by the 'Bush Doctrine,' even though there is no serious political doctrine here.  Knocking the Taliban out of power in Afghanistan put such a spin on the heads of American officials that they have come to feeling absolutely almighty.  America has experienced a pretty strong attack of superiority complex.  In truth, not all American's minds are so clouded.  More than 60 renowed academics wrote to the president to say that a permanent doctrine of war has nothing in common with justice.  U.S. officials answered these clear academic voices with the idea that the CIA and the Pentagon should execute a military propaganda campaign.  Of course, this would contradict U.S. law, but the administration has long since heeded neither those laws nor the U.S. Constitution."

 

NORWAY:  "Lies With And Without The Videotape And Sex"

 

Foreign affairs commentator Kjell Dragnes held in newspaper-of-record, conservative Aftenposten (2/21):  "Brigadier General Simon P. Worden in the Pentagon's little, but resource-strong 'Office of Strategic Influence' cannot be accused of holding back information.  To the contrary, the office was established to spread as much information as possible.  The only problem is that it includes false information, planted among friends and enemies.  This is disinformation and propaganda of the classic kind....  Worden is an astrophysicist by education....  The plans for active disinformation indicate that both [Worden] and the Pentagon have lost ground contact.  If Worden doesn't worry about reading the stars, at least history should have told him--and his superiors--that it is the truth that wins in the end.  A lie has short legs, as a Russian saying goes....  In the war against terrorism, shouldn't one be able to depend more on 'information' from the United States than 'information' from rogue states in the 'Axis of Evil'?"

 

"Be Wary"

 

Independent, Christian Vaart Land stressed in its lead editorial (2/21):  "People probably have a healthy skepticism about what they are served of news and information, especially know that there is reason for care ahead of an election, during war and after a hunt--that warning comes from Otto von Bismarck.... Still, there is something sad and unnecessary about the Pentagon's new efforts in disinformation.  The Department in the five-sided building in Arlington--which is probably the world's biggest house--has established its own office that will play a little with the truth, if the truth doesn't look pretty.  'When the weapons speak, the laws are silent,' said Cicero, and in addition, the truth takes a break during war.  But there is no war now, and the United States is so strong...it doesn't need sneaky tricks...  In Afghanistan,  there have been tendencies for the American Defense [Department] to deny that rockets have hit civilians, and at the same time the United States' critics have always been willing to exaggerate such incidents.  But when one goes out to fight the world's evil, it can be both wise and right to have the truth as an active ally.  It is the truth which usually emerges from conflicts victorious."

 

"Rift Between Allies"

 

In Social Democratic Dagsavisen, foreign affairs editor Erik Sagflaat commented (2/20):  "The possibility of a military attack on Iraq is being met with great uneasiness and well-grounded fear of the consequences.  Bush does not particularly like this.  Within his close circles, it is said that he does not hide his displeasure.  There, the allies in Europe are characterized both as 'cowards' and 'weak in the knees.'...  The dissatisfaction with the United States is already increasing in the Arab world....  The fact that some in the Pentagon believe that this can be fixed by planting false news stories in Arab and European news media, says a lot about how little some of the leaders in Washington today understand the world around them."

 

SOUTH ASIA

 

INDIA:  "All The News That's Fit To Print"

 

The nationalist Hindustan Times asked (2/21):  "Why does one suspect that the Pentagon's reported plans to provide 'precision-guided misinformation' to news organizations will now have to be rethought?  To put it simply, it makes little sense to disseminate falsities after having already announced that they are likely to be false.  American propaganda has been such a well oiled machin that, unlike its erstwhile Soviet counterpart, no one hears it creak.  This is partly because most Americans find it difficult to concentrate on--and therefore question--matters beyond their backyard.  But more importantly, it is because the powerful American media do a far better job than taking recourse to scattering pamphlets or using Big Brother tactics.  A few examples will suffice.  In reporting the Middle East conflict, 'occupied territory' effortlessly becomes 'Israeli security zones'. Then there is the nugget about how it is the combo of 'American freedom and democracy' that the enemies of the United States get all worked up about--not Washington's foreign policy and hauteur.  The Pentagon's plans to bombard the world with 'precision-guided disinformation' are, therefore, quite unnecessary.  CNN need not worry about competition."

 

PAKISTAN:  "Pentagon's Games"

 

The centrist News asserted (2/21):  "Officials say a Pentagon office has proposed a broad campaign to influence international opinion on the war on terrorism, possibly including false stories in foreign media....  This appears to be for the first time that such an officially sponsored disinformation campaign is being publicly discussed in the media and internally debated within official circles of the Pentagon and possibly the U.S. national security establishment.  It, nevertheless, carries a much larger and sinister meaning for the rest of the world as it throws into doubt the credibility of whatever is officially and unofficially said in Washington's main news disseminating centers--the Pentagon, White House and the State Department....  Washington and the Pentagon should reassure the world that no such proposal is being considered or given serious thought and anyone who tries to plant a false story in the foreign media will be taken to task under criminal laws.  It is hard to believe that proposals to mislead the world are being publicly discussed. Where have the ethical and moral standards of U.S. democracy gone?"

 

AFRICA

 

SOUTH AFRICA:  "Truths And Lies"

 

Afrikaans-language, centrist Die Burger pointed out (2/21):  "As the old saying goes, in war the first casualty is truth....  The Pentagon, in its new battle against terror, has created a new division....  Its aim...is  to purposefully disseminate false information worldwide....  This, however, is the most incorrect action for America to embark upon.  By doing this, [the United States] is breaking down every grain of credibility it has in the world, since people will, from now on, distrust official spokespersons, even when  they speak the truth....  President George Bush should not agree to the new approach."

 

WESTERN HEMISPHERE

 

CANADA:  "Temptation To Disinform Grabs U.S. Government"

 

Martin ValliFres, Washington correspondent for Montreal's centrist, French-language La Presse emphasized (2/21):  "We learned yesterday that the White House itself was thinking of granting permanent status to the special war communication office it had set up for the intervention in Afghanistan.  The first target of this bureau: foreign correspondents in Washington, and opinion shapers abroad....  Those embarrassing revelations for the credibility of government spokespersons have happened just when the Bush administration seems increasingly preoccupied by America's image.  'The draconian reductions made to U.S. information activities after the end of the Cold War now prove to have been ill-advised' hinted a member of the U.S. Information Service at the Department of State.  'The U.S. government used to support an international network of information centers and libraries in developing countries where people could learn about U.S. values and the U.S. way of life.  Those centers helped counterbalance the stereotypes our movies and television shows perpetuate, especially in developing countries.  But there is nothing left of this public information network, only the Hollywood message remains'".

 

"The Harm Has Been Done"

 

According to editorialist Serge Truffaut in Montreal's liberal, French-language Le Devoir (2/21):  "Even if Defense Secretary Rumsfeld denies that planting lies in the foreign press was ever part of the strategy, the harm has been done.  His credibility and that of his government have been seriously eroded since the New York Times  revealed that, in the wake of September 11, the Office of Strategic Influence...had been set up....  At first, the plan was to do what everybody does, classic propaganda.  But as the Office was being set up, some techno wizards decided to design information protocols to spread lies on a wide scale....  The idea was to spread these fiction through Reuters and Agence France-Presse, as well as through the Internet, at the risk of contaminating U.S. dailies."

 

"The Pentagon Wants To Earn Your Mistrust"

 

The leading Globe and Mail opined (2/20):  "That gurgling sound you hear from the Pentagon is the sinking of its credibility.  After Sept. 11, in a bid to shore up international support for its war on terrorism, the U.S. military created the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI)....  Forget ethics; even assessed solely on tactical grounds, the plan is stupid. It may also run afoul of the law, which bars the Pentagon from spreading disinformation within the United States....   The OSI began life last fall with the goal of persuading Islamic countries that the war against terrorism was not a war against Islam. The new plan has a different goal: to influence the United States' friends by stealth.  Washington's talk of going to war with Iraq has spooked countries that signed on for a necessary battle--against al-Qaida and its protectors--but aren't keen to enlist for an invasion whose need is less obvious. The Pentagon, it seems, hopes to lower their guard not by persuading them but by conning them. The plan needs the approval of President George W. Bush. He should do the Pentagon a favour by rejecting it."

 

ARGENTINA:  "U.S. Creates Office To Provide False Information"

 

Ana Baron, leading Clarin's Washington-based correspondent, pointed out (2/20):  "To counteract the increasing criticism of the U.S. was against terrorism declared by US President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, the US. Pentagon has decided that telling lies is valid.  According to a New York Times front-page article, the brand-new Office of Strategic Influence is planning to spread information ('even false information)...among international media and news agencies as part of an effort aimed at influencing public opinion not only in enemy countries but also in friendly countries.  The main target would be moderate Arab Islamic countries, where discontent and malaise sparked by the U.S. antiterrorist war is increasing and, according to the Pentagon, jeopardizes the stability of the whole region.  But information, or rather misinformation, would also be addressed to European, Asian and Latin American allied countries....  Critics of the (new) office, whether Democrats or conservatives, say its lies will damage the U.S. Pentagon's credibility."

 

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