The New York Times exposes manipulative DoD propaganda racket
By SilentPatriot Saturday Apr 19, 2008 8:30am
Through newly obtained internal documents, The New York Times has uncovered an elaborate PR campaign run by the Pentagon that coached former military officials -- or as they're known on television, Serious Independent Military Experts -- on how best to shill for Donald Rumsfeld during the fallout from the "General's Revolt," when numerous high-ranking retired Generals broke long standing tradition and began speaking out harshly against the former Secretary and his prosecution of the War in Iraq.
The full article is lengthy at 11 pages, but it's a stellar exposé of how politicized, coordinated and deceitful the media campaign is under Bush. With the assistance of Peter Pace, Rumsfeld would literally convene meetings with former military brass -- who, according to the article, consisted of "more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants" -- and conspire on how best to manage the press. Worse still, these compromised soldiers would then manipulatively go on television as Serious Independent Experts to parrot administration talking points and secure lucrative defense contracts. The Military-Industrial Complex is not alive and well, but thriving under the auspices of the Bush administration.
Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. "This was a coherent, active policy," he said. [...] It was, he said, "psyops on steroids"
And it wasn't limited to the mainstream media alone. Bloggers were also hired and paid to shape opinions at home. But don't be surprised Sunday when this story is neglected in favor of endless discussions about bowling scores and various other "distractions."
After all, the media would much rather focus on what makes a candidate an elitist than note that the Bush administration, -- with their complicity -- enthusiastically engaged in a psyops campaign against the American people.
And this excerpt about Bill O'Reilly that really caught my eye:
It's official. Bill O'Reilly is a tool.
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It isn't a Department of Defense that invades a defenseless, starving Third World country like Iraq. Frist for the win!
I am SHOCKED that this administration and the Pentagon would pull such a stunt and con job on the American people! We all know the deep and abiding respect that they have for the intelligence and good sense of the American people. Surely, they would never do this, knowing that the American people could not be so easily duped by Pentagon puppets. That would be like trying to convince them that invading another country would be a cakewalk.
Say it ain't so.
The acronym for Seriously Loony Independent Military Experts would better apply.
ho hum, another Friday news dump, where practically no one is paying attention. story will completely gone by Tuesday, when we learn if getting shot at by snipers or not wearing a flag lapel pin is more important
Bill O'Reilly has officially been a tool for years.
And you're right: the fact that Barack Obama prefers orange juice over coffee will be FAR, FAR more important to the media pinheads.
Do you mean our Main Stream Media networks, CBS, ABC, NBC and out Pravda follies (cnn and Fixed news) would actually LIE??? Tell me it ain't so!!!
If you expected to get anything BUT A LIE out of anyone on Cheeeeney's payroll you've been DELUSIONAL!! LOL!!!
This shouldn't surprise anybody with half a brain. The msm has been bought and paid for by the bush warmongers long ago. We have no press anymore, just look at the last debate. Money and power will always trump the weak minds that has become the msm in America.
"Cheney would bring Don Rumsfeld back to the Pentagon, a Pentagon dominated by the uniformed military. His primary goal was to reassert civilian control over this billion-dollar-a-day enterprise."
Taken from FRONTLINE "Rumsfeld's War" 2004.
Republicans are liars and cannot be trusted.
Some people are kinda slow at realizing this.
They are referred to as the thirty percenters.
Masn o Man ya just cant trust those rich white boys. They out to get all the American wealth and put the working class into slavery.
ssssssshhhhhhhiiiiittttttzzzzzttttoooooyyyyyooooouuuuu
disgusting..
this will never be a topic of exposition on and of the networks or cables. not only because of their complicity, but g.e./disney/newscorp/viacom all depend heavily on those advertising dollars provided by those war-profiteering corporations. not to mention the defense contracts those parent corporations themselves hold.
we're talking zimbabwe levels of corruption here.
The 'war' in Iraq is the greatest swindle in human history.
I have been saying this for some time.
I'm shocked and awed by this revelation! Wow the media manipulated, say it's not so! That there are paid shrills on TV? Wow I always thought TV was honest and truthful, "Yes you can be a millionaire with no money down" and you're next going to tell me I can't be a real estate tycoon just like Mr Trump making $50,000 yr and having ten "investment properties, no you lie! I saw the Apprentice! People in the media are always looking out for the little guy, it's only the "elitist" on blogs who are "bitter". Generals who wear American flag pins cannot be defense contract whores. They have too much "respect"! Why would defense contractors need war? for money?
One of the things that I took away from the NYT article (over 7,000 words) is that the White House is pretty free with information when giving it to friendly contractors (although they lie to them too when it suits them)
And still they're laughing, yukking it up with their friends in the media.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 14:
Here Glenn Greenwald takes the NYT to task.
This cronyism and corruption should be the first on any list of questions for candidates of the looming election.
We have been fleeced.
One thing that I think this shows is that "in your face," strong, convinced, experienced former officers and enlisted men - like Jon Soltz, the VoteVets generals, and many of the brave, tough former enlisted Iraq vets they feature - are making a BIG impact. Go to votevets online or check out some of their commercials and tv appearances on youtube.
GO VOTEVETS!
Check 'em out! Though some of them lean Republican (but Richard Lugar Republican, not extra chromosome Vulcan Republican), they're with us on a LOT of issues.
Hell, billions of American tax dollars have gone missing (i.e. stolen) in Iraq and that story gets a yawn. Although this report is disturbing in terms of the threat it poses to the need to have an informed public in a democracy, Americans will not show interest in it, and that's why it won't make headlines or be widely discussed.
Yeah, Fox, CNN,etc ..they have no idea what's going. Right. It's a mutual agreement.
Rico @ 20:
The "stimulus package" is really the "pacifier package" for American's to suck on while we're swindled into the second Great Depression.
Nothing will come of this, per usual. In the old days I would be excited about such an expose. Not anymore.
StirFry @ 22:
I disagree Stirfry, more like: final collapse into third world ruin.
Yep, pretty soon we'll be the illegals sneaking into Canada and Mexico. heckuva of a job!!
WHERES THE FUCKIN OUTRAGE!!??!!
Rumsfeld meets with some retired generals to discuss a strategy for addressing criticism on Iraq and this is a story? The CNN clip with Blitzer even points out that he had met with them-
"Rumsfeld...has just wrapped up his meeting with retired U.S. generals who now serve as analysts for the news media."
He even pointed out that CNN's own analyst had attended the meeting. Not exactly hush hush.
Regardless of your take on Rumsfeld or Iraq, there doesn't seem to be too much of a scandal here. Former military guys start attacking Rumsfeld on Iraq. Rumsfeld enlists other former military guys to defend him. Is that really so surprising to everyone?
Were they forced to do so? Duped?
I just don't see the big controversy here.
Rico @ 20:
They don't show interest because the money is being BORROWED. They hear the numbers, maybe, but they don't seek the holes in their paychecks.
YET
At some point, the bills will come due. Then, taxes for everyone will go up.
Unless the uber wealthy can weasel out.
That is when the general population will take serious notice, when the financial pain really starts to set in.
This will be unfortunate for whoever is in the White House at the time, they will take the heat.
This has been a colossal swindle, the people that have been swindled are in the future.
Taxation without representation.
The pushback against that is what got this country started.
I don't know exactly how this will play in the future but I have a strong suspicion it will not be pretty.
Yep, pretty soon we’ll be the illegals sneaking into Canada
That might depend on how many Euros you're carrying.
;)
Signs of a Neo-Con warmonger... touts self as "civilian military" and a high forehead...
TURN OFF YOUR TV'S.
andy @ 31:
"LOOK WITHIN"
I find this anti pro-war propaganda unAmerican.
If we question the sincerity of the TV generals who have a financial stake in a prolonged, hundred year war then the terrorist win.
Makes you wonder about all supposed "experts" that media and govt send forth to do their bidding.
New York Times is part of the MIC don't be fooled.
aangus @ 29:
Ya need ta catch up on your Alex Jones, they gotta break us soes they can create the American Union, NAFTA was just the beginning. You'll need Ameros. (being semi-facetious) ;)
L.A. Confidential @ 32:
THE COMPUTER LOVES YOU.
EliteLemming @ 36:
The Machine your speaking of has no soul.
L.A. Confidential @ 35:
What is the 'MIC' lest I be fooled.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 38:
I'm only visiting this "planet" temporarily.
and once upon a time something relatively minor compared to the Bushco crime spree brought down Nixon. If Nixon were alive today he'd be livid that he had to resign in disgrace while Bush and his cronies continue to raid the Treasury of every last penny, nickel, and dime.
People throw the term "unbelieveable" around quite easily but in the case of what BushCo has gotten away with the word certainly applies. What's worse is while so much has been exposed you have to know there is a lot still buried. Things that we'll either never find out about or will be so far down the road that a significant number of us will no longer be on this planet.
All of this and they'll all walk out the door in January as free and very rich men (and they all started out rich to begin with so now they're even richer). You can also bet that the younger Bush cronies will turn up again if a Republican ever wins the White House again. Like the Nixon and Reagan underlings they will have spent the years learning what they did wrong and will correct it as well. They will have also studied diligently and learned new tricks that they can bury the country with and get even richer. History will repeat itself though this time it might take a little longer for the thugs to recover than it did after Nixon. But they eventually will come back to power because it seems our citizens have a short memory when it comes to criminal acts by their politicians (i.e. McCain and the Keating 5).
L.A. Confidential @ 39:
Nothing on this 'planet' is permanent.
What is the 'MIC'.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 41:
Media in control?
Media in charge?
"watching TV is like taking black spray paint to your 3rd eye"-Hicks
Jesus wept, imagine how bad the stuff is that we don;t know about these bastards and what they really get up to ? the shit thats out already is enough to put some of these people away for a long time, imagine the stuff thats hidden ? heaven knows what type of shit they've been up to the past 7 years, hell maybe the 9/11 kooks are right ? (ok maybe going to far there)
milquetoast @ 42:
MisInformed Community?
"Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend."
Mentally Incompetent Corps ?
milquetoast @ 42:
Thank you!
Corporate Media = Mind Control.
Not to coin a new acronym.
Pursang @ 40:
I wonder if the Dems-Indy's-Progs-Etc- - - - and everyone else will ever learn?
Doesn't look promising.
Why does the Bush admin hate America so much ?
Everybody calm down! Propaganda against the American people is explicitly illegal, now that this has been brought to light, the authorities will arrest those responsible.
And all the Cable/satellite news groups are talking about is the Pope (colonel Klink) and his funny outfits. It's disgusting how the media refuses to report the real news and just gives us emotional fluff pieces.
This country is truly fucked.
Filthy Harry @ 49:
Don't hold your breath unless you have some secret stash of oxygen.
Rumsfeld's TV News military analysts which consisted of “more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants”
This is Operation Mockingbird meets the Military Industrial Complex
Filthy Harry @ 49:
LOL right.
The sad thing is the number of conservatives who will hear about this and see it as the NYTimes AGAIN hurting the country by revealing things like this, are also the same people who's heads would explode in rage if they even caught wind of a RUMOR that Dems in power were doing something similar even if was about something completely innocuous as opposed to covering up the incompetence of out civilian military leadership.
DoD has it's own "Ministry of Truth".
That's got to be "doubble plus good"
O'Reilley eats out or their hands and sticks his nose deep into theirs asses because he's so dumb he is easily manipulated and is a lonely, pitiful shell of a human being. The others are elitist/monsters and must be stopped.
I thought the whole idea of writers like Orwell was to give us the opportunity to see the dreadful future and alter it while we still have a chance. The people have to overcome the sheeples acts against their self interests.
Invest a little at a time, each month to Obama. $25.00. It's a demonsration of the ecomomic power of the masses against the economic power of the true elite/ who resist losing any of their gains and eventually cannot keep up with the masses pooling some of there pitiful incomes for the benefit of the the whole (yes, even the sheeple, they can be molded!)
The next step after Obama is President is to keep him honest relative to the people that hold him up. If you can afford it, some donations to progessive candidates will help in that regard. I send what I can afford and strategically will base my "economic support" upon the exigencies of the moment. This is one of them!
CruzBustamove @ 51:
I suppose we can always drag people away from their boob tubes and pc's and out of their coops and force them to demand and end to this war mongering right?
This media manipulation was covered long ago by Danny Schecter in "Weapons of Mass Deception".
Military-industrial complex
Pursang @ 40:
chicano2nd @ 57:
Why should I send money to a Multi-Millionaire?
andy @ 48:
Because we are the last country with a constitution.
America is in the way of the globalists.
Haw haw, stooped leftys. Making a fuss over nothing. Rumsfeld was fired remembery? Problem solved. Nothing to see hear. [sic] [or maybe [sick] would be better...]
Still as noted above, when there are billions of tax dollars to be looted, there's nothing I wouldn't put passed these criminals.
For the love of Dog, IMPEACH this scum - if only for the public investigation. Nothing cockroaches hate more than a little light on their scurrying.
“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.” -Joseph Goebbels.
Well, we got some world class pianists in the White House Administration right now!
Filthy Harry @ 49:
I have a bridge in Brooklyn I might like to sell.
Americans are Not Fooled By the Disinformation
Media Circus or the Smear Campaigns
Or by sick insane war criminals elitists who joke about torture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHkOFlbvStw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlQfwUuTXrM
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070328-6.html
or British reporters who have infiltrated CNN
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Ive_got_some_meth_in_my_0419.html
Is it too much to ask that the media get it right the first time? This years-later "expozay" is itself a psy-ops tactic to make us think "OK, the problem is exposed, so it wont happen again."
But it will happen again, unless we the people prevent it.
This ain't the booming 90's no more folks.
milquetoast @ 62:
America is one of the few countries with a constitution.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 69:
We're becoming a Military Dictatorship. Damn close if not already.
America is one of the few countries with a constitution.
Alice (formerly Hussein)
.
.
Thank you for beating me to the correction.
L.A. Confidential @ 68:
Remember the Dot Com bust?
No more network news.
No more network web sites.
I haven't turned my TV on in two weeks, you shouldn't either.
Try foreign journalism sources if you want to be informed.
L.A. Confidential @ 61:
Multi-millionaire. Where do you get your facts from. And, by the way its to the campaign, not him personally!
Multi-millionairs are what Hillary and Bill are, or McCain's wife, or Cheney and Bush, you get the picture don't you.
We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us.
When the planet is uninhabitable, everyone will stop pretending.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 72:
I would hope so. I was a 90's Tech Professional who roamed the country nationally. I also saw tech morphing into it's own form of insanity and what was coming and got out before the crash.
chicano2nd @ 74:
Obama raked in over $4.2 million in income in 2007 thats multi millionaire status kid no matter what you want to believe kid.
Okay. I've blabbed enough for this morning.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 75:
No, it'll be ok. We'll pretend its inhabitable.
L.A. Confidential @ 76:
Whats coming down the pike now is going to make the Dot Com bust look like Sesame Street.
America does propaganda as good as its ever been done.
Best documentary about American Military Empire....
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/
Watch the clip!
L.A. Confidential @ 77:
Most of it was from book royalties and hard work. I have nothing against that. I would love to see a constitutional lawyer in the white house. It's the future... and the Supreme Court! That's kid with a J.D. to you!
justabill @ 53:
Thank you for those links. This should be required reading for the entire nation.
L.A. Confidential @ 77:
L.A. Confidential @ 76:
Good for you if you got out unscathed.
Human nature is the culprit.
Everything morphs.
Political systems, bureaucracies, economies, philosophies, all of these morph.
The price of liberty is constance vigilance.
We are loosing our liberty.
Barry McCaffrey – Paid CIA Propaganda Asset:
The Purchase Of The Mainstream Media By The US Government
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=324
Barry McCaffrey Should Resign
January 20, 2000
Alexander Tabarrok
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The office of drug czar Barry McCaffrey secretly paid the television networks to propagandize its anti-drug message. According to a special report from Salon magazine, the scripts of popular television shows like “ER,” “Chicago Hope,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and many others were doctored to fit the requirements of McCaffrey’s White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). In return for altering scripts, the networks were allowed to sell advertising time that had been promised to the government to other more high paying advertisers.
_______________
When Veritas bought MZM and renamed it Athena Solutions, James C. King, now Athena CEO, commented enthusiastically about the involvement of the Veritas Capital Defense and Aerospace Advisory Council in the sale. The Advisory Council includes the Honorable Richard Armitage, General Richard Hawley, General Barry McCaffrey, Admiral Jospeh Prueher, Admiral Leighton Smith and General Anthony Zinni.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/pns/report.aspx?aid=425
http://houseoflabor.tpmcafe.com/blog/mrs_panstreppon/2006/jun/14/more_on...
So now the media is shifting the blame for all the propaganda they have been feeding us to the Pentagon. What has happened to investigative reporting. This is 7 years too late.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 85:
To keep ones liberty one has to work 20 times harder then those who are trying to take it away from you.
The Military Industrial Complex link @84 to youtube is a clip from the movie Why We Fight @82.
A movie every American should see.
andy @ 43:
On Sunday mornings, I usually don't "squeegee my third eye."
I hope that stuff that's hidden is exposed in the next administration. And I hope those responsible will be held accountable and incarcerated. ....you can laugh now.
it is a sad thing that i have zero level of surprise when reading this article. it is even sader that this will lead to nothing.
Patriot Actor @ 89:
Yup, that movie has a nice warning about the military industrial complex, from Eisenhower.
and so here is another warning, from another president!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1710662559138481080
StirFry @ 90:
Amen, Brother!
Who didn't see that one coming?
Sad thing is, I think a lot of us buy into the fake parameters of what is acceptable to cover or talk about in the news.
milquetoast @ 93:
F'n brilliant...thanks for that.
We knew the Bushies were doing this. We just didn't have all the names and addresses.
StirFry @ 91:
why wait?
Orwell Rolls in His Grave
WE get the media we deserve.
Orangutan. @ 100:
A must watch. I own a copy of the video.
Patriot Actor @ 97:
No prob. ...both warnings are totally on topic too...
I've taken marketing courses in the past, and the approach by this administration in communicating with the public is consistent with an advertising campaign. The talking points are carefully crafted, with each word carefully chosen, and then distributed. All the talking heads, from Condi to Rush, chime in unison. This is not confined to the war. Inheritance tax become "death tax". Mass murder using weapons of mass destruction becomes "shock n' awe". Initiatives to weaken environmental protections are dubbed "Clear Skies Initiative". They're using terms to frame the issues. Seems to me the loyal opposition needs to do the same, fight fire with fire.
These corporate owned generals are going to do their master's bidding. We have a government controlled by corporate lobbyists with its FCC, regulating the broadcast media, with the specific intent of reducing diversity of ideas. They know that a fundamental tenet of the 1st amendment is "an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will prevail" - a marketplace where there is a "wide diversity of viewpoints from a multiplicity of sources." That is exactly what our government of the corporation, by the corporation, and for the corporation doesn't want. So, among other things, Al-Jazeera is banned from cable, not explicitly, of course, but any company showing the channel can expect a slew of unfavorable FCC rulings in unrelated areas.
Let's see how the media is framing the issues now. There is this guy in Iraq, Muqtada al-Sadr, who is portrayed by the media as a madman. Sadr's father and brother were murdered, probably by Saddam Hussein, so he certainly has his perspective on things. From what I understand, his position on the issues is that the US should end its occupation of Iraq, and that he doesn't want foreigners running Iraq's oil operation. So, it would come as no surprise that the Bush administration is working with the lame duck Maliki government to work out an oil deal and an arrangement for a long term occupation before the summer elections, where al-Sadr supporters are expected to do well. And, of course, the Bush administration is supporting shiite on shiite civil war to reduce al-Sadr's influence, while it is Iran that negotiates for a cease fire.
So, thanks to the internet, issues can be framed by anyone. Maybe the questions American's need to be asking is "Should the U.S. have murdered thousands of Iraqis using weapons of mass destruction, in order to terrorize them into submitting to occupation and having their oil stolen, using the war on terror and fabricated intelligence as a pretext? Do these policies reduce or increase the motivation for terrorism?". I don't think that if the issues was framed in this way back in 2003, that the war would have been started. Instead, the media switched from reporting the news to marketing the war, ignoring the obvious, namely, if there was all this proof of WMD, why is it that the U.S. was unable to point Hans Blix and the weapons inspectors to the location? And France is so bad, what, because they weren't complete morons like the Bush supporters are?
So, now, we're left with a media who wants to keep the focus on elitism, inflammatory preachers, and off the real issues such as the war, corporate control of our politicians, erosion of the constitution, the economy, health care, and so forth. The corporate media proclaims that free trading is working even as, year after year, huge trade deficits tells us otherwise. Torture is now a good thing, marketing says to call it "enhanced interrogation". And, we're supposed to decide our politics through this media lens? And we want to spread this version of "democracy" throughout the world, and believe we have the moral compass to do so, murdering civilians along the way?
Maybe Americans do need to focus on elitism, because the reality of what this nation is becoming is not a pleasant reality. It's a nation that has committed war crimes and mass murder. Its a nation that has legitimized the terrorist's agenda through the PNAC hegemony policy, specifically in Iraq. I don't see peace coming any time soon.
Nobody @104
Good Post.
What I'd like to know is what took the NYT so long to write this story? Other than some new detailed information about who was involved and how, the meetings that took place and what was said, this isn't news.
One of the saddest things about this article is that the military analysts didn't do this for money or overtly to win big contracts, they just did it for an "attaboy" from Rumsfeld and a pat on the head -- just for the Defense Department's approval. This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as analysts and talking heads of any type being on TV.
What is the light post to BushCo shill ratio in DC any way? And, are we going to have to hire Extreme Home Makeover to put an addition on The Hague to create The Special War Criminals Unit.
WTF @ 85:
Agreed.
Capt. Bat Hussein Guano @ 108:
The Hague may require an entire Bushie wing.
Biggus Diggus @ 107:
No, no, no...Right at the top of the article some of these guys are talking about how they feared that if they didn't cooperate, they'd lose access to the DoD. These are guys who sit who sit on the boards of defense contractors, Biggus Diggus. Access = Influence = Contracts = Profits = Bonuses in that world. This was not merely a case of retired high-level officers who shared the same perspective as the administration and the DoD- at least a few of these guys felt pressured to parrot the talking points, personal perspective be damned!
Oh NO!!!! Say it ain't so!!!!! This is all fine and well. The White House and the Pentagon have been manipulating the press and everyone else from day one of the insertion of Cheney and Bush. I know this, everyone who comes here knows this and a rapidly growing number of The People are starting to come around to it. Over fifty percent. The question is does it really do any good? The Government along with Congress doesn't give a rats ass what anybody thinks. I sometimes wonder why they even go to such lengths to continue the deceptions. The bottom line is the Government is going to anything they damn well please no matter what The People think or want. For the most part, The Constitution is pretty just an antique document in the National Archives and nothing more. There is more corruption and deception going on in the hallowed halls of our Government then anyone could possibly know. I believe a time will come when the bomb will literally and figuratively be dropped. Then the true evil that has been running our country will be known. Of course by that time it will be too late. The United States of America will become the United State of AmeriKa or the North American Union The installation of the Cheney/Bush Regime, I believe, was merely to serve as the catalyst to this change that has been groomed and readied for actual implementation since at least the days of the Reagan Administration.
Look, enough of this crapola about the Pentagon running a sophisticated propaganda program which used paid shills as "independent military analysts" to prop up support for the war. I don't care about that!!! As an American, I need to know if Reverend Wright is a patriotic as Barack Obama!!! I need to know if Hillary believes that Obama can beat John McCain. And lastly I'd like to know why Obama is drinking orange juice instead of coffee like real 'mericans. Hell, the guy doesn't even have the courtesy to wear a flag pin! Bet he sucks at bowling as well! THESE are the real issues!!! /snark
So WHAT is it that you never understood?
The definition of PSYOPS?
This government has been using PSYOPS on the American People since the 1970s.
It is NOT our government, by the people, and for the people. It was overthrown by a coup many decades ago.
We need to take it back. In order to do that, we need to WAKE UP the American People. Maybe a Depression will do that.
It is sad to say that is how lazy and stupid many people are.
Do NOT miss the Looter Capitalist "Powell Memo" from back in Nixon's days. It outlines this COUP:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=5749
It's at the link.
JerryO @ 112:
If the media isn't going to ask the questions. the analysts aren't going to give us the answers we are entitled to. The talking heads are not journalists, they are stenographers.
23,000 Iraq vets have been denied VA bennefits ,NO matter what happened to them.....
lot's where discharged because of there problems
they are simply classified as having mental problems and denied care..
They are quite simply the next homeless vets , ala Vietnam vets
they should have reupped , taken the bribe ...
you see once they get you , you're screwed
you know the repo party that loves the vets,
been cutting VA money for the last 7 years
If you can find a copy read Paul E. Linebarger's Psychological Warfare. It's a classic. You can read about it here, here, and here.
The more you know about psyops the more you can inoculate yourself and others against it.
Linebarger spent many years in China and knew Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek. He was also better known by his pseudonym Cordwainer Smith.
geneHUSSEIN214 @ 113:
Why use the past tense? The NYT and all the media outlets are still using the same military analysts.
Can we impeach him now?
Andy K Jong Il @ 111:
Some snippets from the NYTimes article:
...members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.
---
...Mr. Garrett said there was an inevitable overlap between his dual roles. He said he had gotten “information you just otherwise would not get,” from the briefings and three Pentagon-sponsored trips to Iraq. He also acknowledged using this access and information to identify opportunities for clients.
---
...the administration has demonstrated that there is a price for sustained criticism, many analysts said. “You’ll lose all access,” Dr. McCausland said.
---
Another was Joseph W. Ralston, a retired Air Force general. Soon after signing on with CBS, General Ralston was named vice chairman of the Cohen Group, a consulting firm headed by a former defense secretary, William Cohen, himself now a “world affairs” analyst for CNN. “The Cohen Group knows that getting to ‘yes’ in the aerospace and defense market — whether in the United States or abroad — requires that companies have a thorough, up-to-date understanding of the thinking of government decision makers,” the company tells prospective clients on its Web site.
---
The access came with a condition. Participants were instructed not to quote their briefers directly or otherwise describe their contacts with the Pentagon.
That's just through the middle of page 5 of this 11 page article. Need I copy and paste more?
Rico @ 20:
On 9-10-2001, then sec of def d. dumsfeld had a short newsbriefing with a few pentagon generals , and simply stated the pentagon had lost 2.1 trillion dollars of goods...
the next day you know what happened and this theft was promptly forgotten
if you think this was accidental , I have a bridge to sell you
milquetoast @ 63:
Constitution ? hhahahahahah
Leslie [Bitter Elitist Hussein] @ 117:
I do find it ironic tha this article is found in the same paper that published Judith Miller's sock-puppeted articles in the run up to the invasion of Iraq.
Maybe this article is meant as a sort of journalistic penance.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 66:
bushisaliar @ 120:
Do we have the the same bridge?
Propaganda by fascists for the benefit of war profiteers. This is solid evidence of illegality. Come on, Pelosi. Do something.
andy @ 121:
All one needs to do to get a perspective on freedom and liberty is to walk the streets of old town Philadelphia, visit some of the old cemeteries, stare down at Ben Franklin's grave and think how brave these founders must have been. And what must they think of the mess we made of it all?
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 123:
could be!!!!
andy @ 43:
no not far enough!
andy @ 121:
OK, funny I agree but...
you must admit that (what's left of America) is the main obstacle that globalists face. ...no?
One thing that's missing from the article is a connection to the story (was it during the 06 election cycle?) where they showed that the bushies were making pr clips to look like news reports and passing them around to various news outlets. So this really isn't that surprising.
Ah I still remember when I was living in Mexico and all the scandals and thievery that the Carlos Salinas de Gortari committed and how the US was wagging their finger at Mexico. Now the US has an even bigger slimeball. At least Mexico has an arrest warrant for that douche bag from the last I heard (don't know if they dropped it or not).
Please, once again... as a followup to this story:
Do NOT miss the Looter Capitalist “Powell Memo” from back in Nixon’s days. It outlines this COUP:
http://www.opednews.com/maxwri.....p?did=5749
It’s at the link.
bushisaliar @ 126:
whats that? ...the progressive bridge to nowhere?
I refer you to my comment at 61.
The millionaires in Congress are intertwined with the rest of the millionaires.
Fascism = Corporatism
Corporate Media = Mind Control
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 14:
So, documents revealing conspiracies between current and former government officials and plans for "PsyOps" against US Citizens.
I hope people can get over their reluctance to acknowledge conspiracy theories now with the players we got in government.
nine11/WOT =PsyOp
.
.
.
The corporate networks are using pentagon shills to spread propaganda?
I'M SHOCKED!!!
.
.
.
milquetoast @ 131:
Mine is in between Manhattan and Brooklyn, if it hasn't fallen down. I haven't looked today.
Our infrastructure is in dire need of serious financial attention, I have heard the number $ one trillion in need, but we're busy funding an unnecessary though extremely profitable military occupation of opportunity.
An enterprise propped up by an extremely corrupted system, which was the beginning of this thread.
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 132:
Sorry Alice...
yes, that flaming comment was directed @ anyone who thinks that electing Obama or Hillary (or Pelosi) will change the fact that our Media is owned...
...and that is obviously not you...or bushisaliar...or rico...
...but enough @ 124: ...is spinning his wheels...
STOP George @ 135:
surely it isn't because of the military-prison-industrial-congressional-meadea-entertainment-complex, their contributions, alliances, board-membership, cross-ownership, and inherant biases and conflict-of-interests, is it ??
nah, we're just wrong to worry about it and point it out
move along, nothing to see, go shopping, and what's on teevee ??
milquetoast @ 137:
...our media...! (cant belive I wrote that)...i'm embarrassed
Alice (formerly Hussein) @ 136:
are you trying to tell me that the federal govt is redirecting the 18 cents per gallon tax on gas (reserved for the interstate highways)...
...into the military budget?...
I am shocked... (not)
if they had just used half the time spent on the actual war rather than the
pr it might not have turned out so bad. seems like rumsfeld put as much effort
into looking like he was doing a good job instead of actually doing it.
This whole business perfectly fits the definition of "war profiteering," which Harry S Truman once equated with treason.
It conforms exactly to the dangers Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about in 1961 ("beware of the military/industrial complex").
But, as un-American liberal pinko wimp defeatists, Truman and Eisenhower don't matter.
Andy K Jong Il @ 124:
Penance?! The NYT continues to use the same military analysts without pointing out that they're not objective. Even in this NYT article itself, the NYT doesn't explain what they knew about this or what their procedures are for preventing it.
The best propaganda our tax dollars can buy.
And Democrats are wasteful?
It's ironic that the party formerly of Goldwater, which used to rail against encroachments on the people by "big government," now not only tries to solve every problem with big government, but even goes so far as these kinds of unethical attempts at shaping public opinion and preempting dissent in the defense of their leviathan. We should be wary of using this solely as another strike against the GOP, though. Instead, we should take it as a warning of the kinds of Orwellian tactics all those in power use to keep it.
James Madison:"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
Leslie [Bitter Elitist Hussein] @ 119:
Yeah! I love that about them. They also still have brooks, nagourney, dowd and a few (too many) other asswipes.
bushisaliar @ 122:
throw in a short highway and we've got a deal.
Who DIDN'T know this was going on?
ROTFLMBBAO
My question is do we have a working list of blogger plants? I want to know which ones are answering to this administration.
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