Pentagon to Engage in Psych Warfare Domestically

The full article is in Harper's."

Meet the Pentagon’s New Spin Unit: Bush Administration hacks court bloggers, talk radio

Ken Silverstein
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The rapid-response team has been shut down but several sources tell me that another of Smith’s spin projects is ongoing. This project seeks to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers, mostly those with a heavily conservative tilt. The unit, which one source says was originally called “Surrogates Operation” but was later rechristened “Communications Outreach,” also reportedly provides talking points and briefings to retired military officials who now support the administration in appearances as media pundits. (I haven’t been able to learn which blogs and individuals the unit has been working with, but urge anyone with such information to contact me via email.)

It should be noted that this effort appears to violate the law which forbids domestic Pentagon propaganda operations.

The article, while informative, buries one of the important points in the last graph:

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The irony here is that Gates has a far better relationship with the media than Rumsfeld, who treated journalists as the enemy. But with Smith running amok, Gates’s honeymoon with the media and with the military may be coming to an end.