Return-Path: <sentto-279987-4534-1014906985-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); Thu, 28 Feb 2002 06:38:08 -0800 (PST) Received: (qmail 14409 invoked by uid 510); 28 Feb 2002 14:36:18 -0000 Received: from n4.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.54) by all.net with SMTP; 28 Feb 2002 14:36:18 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-4534-1014906985-fc=all.net@returns.groups.yahoo.com Received: from [216.115.97.190] by n4.groups.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 28 Feb 2002 14:36:25 -0000 X-Sender: fc@red.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: unknown); 28 Feb 2002 14:36:24 -0000 Received: (qmail 71396 invoked from network); 28 Feb 2002 14:36:24 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.172) by m4.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 28 Feb 2002 14:36:24 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (12.232.72.152) by mta2.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 28 Feb 2002 14:36:24 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id g1SEagj15832 for iwar@onelist.com; Thu, 28 Feb 2002 06:36:42 -0800 Message-Id: <200202281436.g1SEagj15832@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: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 06:36:41 -0800 (PST) Subject: [iwar] [fc:A.'Damaged'.Information.Office.Is.Declared.Closed.By.Rumsfeld] Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit New York Times February 27, 2002 A 'Damaged' Information Office Is Declared Closed By Rumsfeld By Eric Schmitt and James Dao WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld disbanded the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Influence today, ending a short- lived plan to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to unwitting foreign journalists to influence public sentiment abroad. Mr. Rumsfeld denied that the new office would have spread misinformation, but he said commentaries and editorial cartoons about the office's proposed activities made it impossible for it to do its job. "The office has clearly been so damaged that it is pretty clear to me that it could not function effectively," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters. "So it is being closed down." Mr. Rumsfeld moved swiftly to quell a controversy that threatened to undermine the entire Defense Department's public credibility. Asked today if the Pentagon's integrity had been compromised, Mr. Rumsfeld said: "I doubt it. I hope not. If it has, we'll rebuild it." The office's demise came just a day after President Bush expressed alarm at some of its proposed activities. On Monday, when asked whether he had told Mr. Rumsfeld to close the office, Mr. Bush said: "I didn't even need to tell him this. He knows how I feel about this." The small but well-financed office was created shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, in response to concerns in the administration that the United States was losing public support overseas for its war on terrorism, particularly in Islamic nations. The office's director, Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden, circulated classified proposals that called for the military to not only drop leaflets and broadcast messages into hostile countries, but to expand that mission into allied nations in the Middle East, Asia and even Western Europe. The proposals included aggressive campaigns that used the foreign news media and Internet, plus covert operations, military officials said. Though Mr. Rumsfeld said the office did not yet have a charter, classified briefings circulating in the Pentagon said the office should find ways to "coerce" foreign journalists and opinion makers and "punish" those who convey the wrong message. Since the office's proposed activities were made public last week, Mr. Rumsfeld repeatedly said that the Pentagon had not spread lies and that it would not do so in the future. Mr. Rumsfeld supported the office's broad mandate to integrate the Pentagon's information warfare machinery with other federal agencies. But top aides said he never approved any of the specific proposals that raised opposition. "What it was to do was an open question, even today as it ends its very short, prominent life," Mr. Rumsfeld said. Until the disclosures, little was known about the office. Its multimillion-dollar budget, from a $10 billion emergency supplement to the Pentagon's budget authorized by Congress in October, has not been disclosed. Congressional aides said the office had discussed financing perhaps as much as $100 million in activities, many through other agencies, like the State Department, that have limited budgets for information warfare. Pentagon officials said Mr. Rumsfeld was upset that the internal debate over the new office had become public. Today, even military officials who said they were happy to see the office closed said they were afraid the damage had already been done. "It makes us all look bad," said one public affairs official. "Every day now reporters ask me if I've lied to them." Other senior officials said they had barely been aware of the new office and had not realized the implications of its activities until the debate broke into public view last week. "If I had known about this earlier, I would have gone to him and recommended he kill it," one adviser to Mr. Rumsfeld said. "You don't want things like O.S.I. in the Pentagon. It elevates that kind of work to a level you don't want." A Pentagon spokesman said General Worden, an astrophysicist who has specialized in space operations in his 27-year Air Force career, would be reassigned, but it was not immediately clear when or where. The Defense Department will continue trying to get its message across overseas, Mr. Rumsfeld said. The Pentagon had hired the Rendon Group, an international communications firm, to help the new office. Pentagon officials said that the firm, headed by John W. Rendon Jr., a former campaign aide to President Jimmy Carter, would continue to be paid about $100,000 a month to do work for other Pentagon offices. The Joint Chiefs of Staff, for instance, has long had a task force responsible for "developing, coordinating, deconflicting and monitoring the delivery of timely, relevant and effective messages to targeted international audiences," Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee on Feb. 6. But Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, decided after Sept. 11 that the military office needed civilian oversight. So the Office of Strategic Influence was born. Today, Mr. Feith, fresh off a plane from Moscow, met with Mr. Rumsfeld to close the office. "The office is done," Mr. Rumsfeld told reporters. "What do you want, blood?" ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Tiny Wireless Camera under $80! Order Now! FREE VCR Commander! Click Here - Only 1 Day Left! http://us.click.yahoo.com/nuyOHD/7.PDAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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