BBC Monitoring International Reports December 04, 2002
US LEAFLET DROPS OVER IRAQ STEP UP THE PROPAGANDA WAR
by Peter Feuilherade
Aircraft of the US-UK coalition on 2 December carried out their sixth leaflet drop in two months over the no-fly zone in southern Iraq, warning Iraqi soldiers not to fire on patrolling allied aircraft. The leaflet drops have led to growing speculation that the US will soon step up its psychological operations, or psy-ops, campaign in the region by starting clandestine radio broadcasts targeted at the Iraqi people.
In the latest leaflet drop, 240,000 leaflets written in Arabic were dropped over communications facilities located between Kut and Nasiriyah, south-east of Baghdad. These sites had been damaged or destroyed by coalition strikes the previous day. Three separate leaflets were used: two urged the Iraqi military not to repair the communication equipment and facilities that help to track and engage coalition aircraft, while the third said that threatening coalition aircraft may result in more air strikes. Propaganda broadcasts likely next step
According to the December 2002 issue of the US publication Monitoring Times, high technology will play a large part in bombarding Baghdad, and not just with sophisticated weaponry. After Iraqi communications are disabled through a mixture of traditional bombs and new technical efforts to neutralise communications, the empty Iraqi airwaves would then be bombarded with messages sent from specialized airborne broadcasting stations or well-situated terrestrial stations.
The broadcasts would reinforce the messages contained in leaflet drops urging Iraqi military leaders to defect or rise up against President Saddam Husayn, said the New York Times in mid-October, citing Pentagon officials. "The idea is... to isolate the Iraqi leadership who are hiding in bunkers," John Pike of the think tank Globalsecurity.org told the Washington Post newspaper.
The broadcasts would come from specially equipped Commando Solo aircraft operated by a specialist US psy-ops unit.
The EC-130E Commando Solo is a modified four-engine Hercules transport aircraft equipped to broadcast simultaneous high-power mediumwave, shortwave, FM and TV signals. The planes can also jam or override local transmissions, in an effort to persuade listeners to tune to the propaganda frequencies.
The 193rd Special Operations Wing, part of the USAF Special Operations Command, operates six of these aircraft from its base in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
Over the years, the unit has carried out missions in Vietnam, South Korea, Panama, Puerto Rico, Haiti, the Persian Gulf and Serbia. Most recently, it was in action over Afghanistan, broadcasting propaganda messages to the local population and Taleban fighters.
As well as the airborne broadcasts, the US will use ground transmitters in Kuwait and elsewhere in the Gulf to beam anti-Saddam programming to the Iraqi people.
Other voices Iraqis can hear
But the message from Washington will not be the only outside voice addressing Iraqi hearts and minds.
Although the domestic media in Iraq are state-controlled and satellite TV is unavailable to the vast majority, Iraqi listeners can still tune their radios to many stations from abroad offering them news and analysis from a wide range of political viewpoints. As well as established and trusted broadcasts in Arabic including the BBC and French-run Radio Monte Carlo, the US-funded Radio Sawa is reportedly attracting younger listeners across much of the Middle East with a mixture of Western and Arabic pop music interspersed with short bursts of news. The service, which replaced the Voice of America's Arabic service in spring 2002, has a special programme stream targeted at listeners in Iraq.
There are also several radio stations operated by Kurdish factions in northern Iraq, and by Iraqi opposition groups transmitting into Iraq from transmitters in Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
But not all American military analysts are convinced that psychological warfare will succeed. William Arkin, a former army intelligence officer and now a military analyst, said in remarks published in the Baltimore Sun in November that if the United States invades Iraq, "bombs are going to do the talking," rather than any psychological operation that attempts to influence the entire country.
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