[iwar] [fc:Military.Won't.Lie,.To.Use.'Tactical.Deception']

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2002-02-23 22:55:35


Return-Path: <sentto-279987-4513-1014533853-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com>
Delivered-To: fc@all.net
Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Sat, 23 Feb 2002 22:57:09 -0800 (PST)
Received: (qmail 19859 invoked by uid 510); 24 Feb 2002 06:57:32 -0000
Received: from n1.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.51) by all.net with SMTP; 24 Feb 2002 06:57:32 -0000
X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-4513-1014533853-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com
Received: from [216.115.97.187] by n1.groups.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 24 Feb 2002 06:57:33 -0000
X-Sender: fc@red.all.net
X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com
Received: (EGP: unknown); 24 Feb 2002 06:57:32 -0000
Received: (qmail 69876 invoked from network); 24 Feb 2002 06:57:32 -0000
Received: from unknown (216.115.97.171) by m6.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 24 Feb 2002 06:57:32 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (12.232.72.152) by mta3.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 24 Feb 2002 06:57:32 -0000
Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id g1O6tZH13991 for iwar@onelist.com; Sat, 23 Feb 2002 22:55:35 -0800
Message-Id: <200202240655.g1O6tZH13991@red.all.net>
To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List)
Organization: I'm not allowed to say
X-Mailer: don't even ask
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3]
From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet
Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com
Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2002 22:55:35 -0800 (PST)
Subject: [iwar] [fc:Military.Won't.Lie,.To.Use.'Tactical.Deception']
Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Washington Times
February 21, 2002
Military Won't Lie, To Use 'Tactical Deception'
By Associated Press
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that a Pentagon campaign
to influence global opinion will not include lies to the public, but might
employ "tactical" deception to confuse an enemy for battlefield advantage.
"Government officials, the Department of Defense, this secretary and the
people that work with me tell the American people and the people of the
world the truth," Mr. Rumsfeld said while meeting with troops providing
security at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
Responding to reports that the new Office of Strategic Influence has
proposed placing news items - false if necessary - with foreign news
organizations, Mr. Rumsfeld said the office will instead mostly oversee
longtime Pentagon activities like dropping leaflets and broadcasting
messages during wartime.
Mr. Rumsfeld said the Pentagon also might engage in strategic or tactical
deception, as it has in the past. For example, if U.S. troops were about to
launch an attack from the west, they might "very well do things" that would
make the enemy believe an attack was instead coming from the north, Mr.
Rumsfeld said.
"That would be characterized as tactical deception," the secretary said.
However, the defense secretary also made clear the new office's mandate is
still under discussion. Asked if the office would do anything the Pentagon
has not done in previous wars, Mr. Rumsfeld said: "We do have to think of it
in a different way" because of the unique nature of the war on terrorism.
"How it will play out over time, I don't know," Mr. Rumsfeld said.
Earlier yesterday, the senior Pentagon official who oversees the new office
also ruled out using the news media for deception efforts.
"Despite some of the reports about the Office of Strategic Influence that
I've read over the last day or two, Defense Department officials don't lie
to the public," said Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for
policy.
"We are confident that the truth serves our interests in the broader sense
of our national security and specifically in this war" against terrorism, he
said in a breakfast interview with a group of Pentagon reporters.
"We have an enormous stake in our credibility, and we're going to preserve
it," he said.
Mr. Feith said the main reason for creating the new office was to provide
civilian oversight of information policy in military operations. He cited as
examples a need to oversee the use of leaflets dropped in Afghanistan by Air
Force planes and the use of airborne broadcasts in Afghanistan that
encourage people to work with anti-Taliban elements and alert them to U.S.
reward money.
Critics worry that any planting of false information abroad could result in
those lies getting back to Americans.
"Anything they spread overseas will come back here, because information
travels so quickly," said Shibley Telhami, a Middle East specialist at the
Brookings Institution. "Our own population will then hear it and believe it.
It will affect our decisions."
The new office also is considering having an outside organization distribute
any information so it would not be apparent it came from the Defense
Department, one defense official said, speaking on the condition of
anonymity.
At the same time, President Bush has decided to turn the administration's
temporary wartime communications office into a permanent office to convey
the nation's diplomacy efforts around the globe. That office would not be
connected to the Strategic Influence Office.

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Sponsored by VeriSign - The Value of Trust
Do you need to encrypt all your online transactions? Find
the perfect solution in this FREE Guide from VeriSign.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/jWSNbC/UdiDAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

------------------
http://all.net/ 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2002-12-31 02:15:03 PST