Truth From These Podia
Truth from These Podia
Summary of a Study of Strategic Influence, Perception Management,
Strategic Information Warfare and Strategic Psychological Operations
in Gulf II
Sam Gardiner1
Colonel, USAF (Retired)
October 8, 2003
1 The author has taught strategy and military operations at the National War College, Air
War College and Naval War College. He was recently a visiting scholar at the Swedish
Defence College. During Gulf II he was a regular on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as
well as on BBC radio and television, and National Public Radio.
The study was not funded by any organization, and the author’s arguments are not meant
to represent those of any organization.
He can be reached at SamGard@aol.com
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Preface
My intent was not to do this myself. The work had to be a combination of the
kind of research I was doing and investigative journalism. I could do the outside part.
Someone had to talk to those inside. After my return from an information warfare
conference in London in July, I began looking for interest in one of the major
newspapers. I found that interest in Mark Fineman at the LA Times.
Mark had covered the war and previously had been bureau chief for the paper in
Philippines, India, Cyprus and Mexico City. Although he had covered some of the
stories I examined in my research, he saw very early the point I was making about the
implication of their being seen as a whole, the strategic picture. We continued to
exchange e-mails, talk by phone and met four times after our initial session. He shared
information he was uncovering. I shared my developing research.
Mark Fineman died of an apparent heart attack while on assignment in Baghdad
on September 23, 2003.
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It was not bad intelligence. It was much more. It was an orchestrated effort. It
began before the war, was a major effort during the war and continues as post-conflict
distortions.
The title of this study was difficult for me. When I began I thought it was going
to be an analysis of Pentagon spin. I was going to call it, “Truth from this Podium.” That
was to be a play on promises we were given before the war. The more I did, the more it
became clear that it was not just the Pentagon. It was the White House, and it was
Number 10 Downing Street. It was more than spin.
I though about calling it “Apparatus of Lies,” connecting to a title the White
House gave a paper on Iraq’s decade of fabrication, mostly about weapons of destruction.
Although lies were part of the effort, that title would have been off the mark because the
story is more about aversion to truth rather than the open lie.
I also missed on the subject. I thought it was going to be about spinning the
stories of the conflict. I was wrong. The real essence of what I found was a much
broader problem. It is a problem about the future as much as the past. This problem
became the story of the study.
This is one way of summarizing the study:
The United States (and UK) conducted a strategic
influence campaign that:
• …distorted perceptions of the situation both
before and during the conflict.
• …caused misdirection of portions of the military
operation.
• …was irresponsible in parts.
• …might have been illegal in some ways.
• …cost big bucks.
• …will be even more serious in the future.
I know what I am suggesting is serious. I did not come to these conclusions
lightly. Because my plea is for truth in war, I have tried to be very careful not to fall into
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a trap of describing exaggerations with exaggeration. I hope I’ve done that. I expect
some will believe I have been guilty of the same sins. As long as we can have some
discussion about truth in war, I accept the criticism.
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You will see in my analysis and comments that I do not accept the notion that the
first casualty of war is truth. I think we have to have a higher standard.
In the most basic sense, Washington and London did not trust the peoples of their
democracies to come to right decisions. Truth became a casualty. When truth is a
casualty, democracy receives collateral damage.
My plea is for truth. I believe we have to find ways to restore truth as currency of
government in matters as serious as war. My story would be important if it were the last
chapter of the book. It’s not. There is more to come. As the United States struggles with
a post-conflict Iraq, distortions continue. Probably of more concern, major players in the
game are working on ways to do it “better” in future conflicts.
In other words, it appears as if the issues of this war will become even more
important for future wars. We have reason to be concerned.
Another way to summarize the study:
Summary
• Clearly, the assumption of some in the government is the people
of the United States and the United Kingdom will come to a
wrong decision if they are the given truth.
• We probably have taken “Information Warfare” too far.
• We allowed strategic psychological operations to.
become part of public affairs.
• We failed to make adequate distinction between strategic
influence stuff and intelligence.
• Message became more important than performance.
The concepts of warfare got all mixed up in this war. I’ll come back to this
subject later, but what has happened is that information warfare, strategic influence,
strategic psychological operations pushed their way into the important process of
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informing the peoples of our two democracies. The United States and the UK got too
good at the concepts they had been developing for future warfare.
The best way to describe my methodology is to use words that came from
Admiral Poindexter’s unfunded project, Total Information Awareness, later known as
Terrorism Information Awareness. What I have done is look for “inconsistencies in open
source data with regard to known facts…and goals.”
Again to use the words from the Terrorism Information Awareness Program, by
discovering linkages, it was possible to identify intent, methods of operations and
organizational dynamics.
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Through this methodology, it was possible to do what the Pentagon wanted to do,
“to reduce vulnerability to open source information operations.”
Methodology
•
“The purpose…is to reduce vulnerability to open source
information operations by developing the ability to detect
inconsistencies in open source data with regard to known facts
and…goals.”
•
“One of the characteristics…is that their organizational structures
are not well understood and are purposefully designed to conceal
their connections and relationships. DARPA’s premise is that by
discovering linkages among people, places, things and events…to
recognize patterns of relationships that are representative…, it
can help identify…intent, methods of operation, and
organizational dynamics.”
Report to Congress Regarding the Terrorism Information
Awareness Program, May 20, 2003
My definitions are sloppy in this paper. Some would say I don’t know the
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definition of information warfare. It’s not because I don’t appreciate the clarity that
comes from precise meaning. It’s because almost all of the pre-war definitions were
violated in implementation. I was left with a couple questions, “What was true and who
was affected by the non-truth?
They told us what they were going to do. The Department of Defense created a
rather significant press storm early in 2002 when it was revealed that there were plans to
create an office to do strategic influence. Efforts to create the office were brought to a
halt with White House agreement. In November, the Secretary of Defense announced in
a press conference on board an aircraft on the way to South America that he was just
kidding when he said he would not do strategic influence.
The White House gave a similar warning. Andrew Card, the President’s Chief of
Staff told us they would do a major campaign to sell the war. Alastair Campbell, Tony
Blair’s just-resigned Strategy (and communications) Director, was orchestrating the same
on the other side of the Atlantic.
The research then was to discover what they did and how they did what they said
they were going to do.
I’m not going to address why they did it. That’s something I don’t understand
even after all the research. I would like to ask them, “Why do it?” “Didn’t you know
there would be consequences?’ It was not necessary. You could have told the truth.
You don’t defend democracy by making light of its most basic elements. The American
people would have supported the war. Why do it?
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Announcing the Effort
•
“And then there was the Office of Strategic Influence. You may recall that.
And ‘oh my goodness gracious isn't that terrible, Henny Penny the sky is
going to fall.’ I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to
savage this thing fine I'll give you the corpse. There's the name. You can
have the name, but I'm gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to
be done and I have.” Rumsfeld, November 18, 2002
•
From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in
August," White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. told the New York
Times in September. Card was explaining what the Times characterized as
a "meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress,
and the allies of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein."
•
It would cost over $200 million. Times of London, 9/17/02
These two chart are the results of my investigation:
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The Stories of Strategic Influence (1)
•
Terrorism and 9/11
•
Nuclear materials from Niger
•
Lt. Commander Speicher
•
Aluminum tubes
•
Drones
•
Mohammad Atta meeting with Iraqi
•
Nuclear weapons development
•
Ansar al-Salm
•
Dirty bombs
•
Chemical and biological weapons
•
Humanitarian operations
– Quantities
•
Attacking the power grid
– Location
– Delivery readiness
•
Russian punishment
•
Weapons labs
– Signing long term oil
•
WMD cluster bombs
contracts
•
Scuds
– Night-vision goggles
•
Cutting off ears
– GPS Jamming equipment
•
Cyber war capability
– Saddam in embassy
•
German punishment
•
Surrender of the 507th
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The Stories of Strategic Influence (2)
•
Civilian casualties
•
Red Zone
•
51st Iraqi Mechanized Division &
•
Woman hung for waving
commander
•
French punishment
•
Uprising in Basrah
– High precision switches
•
Liberations of Umm Qasr and Basrah
•
Iraqi white flag incidents
– Smallpox strains
•
US and UK uniforms to commit
– Signing long term oil contracts
atrocities
– Spare parts for aircraft
•
Execution of prisoners
•
Salman Pak training facility
– Roland missiles
•
Private Lynch rescue
– Passport for Iraqi leaders
– Language
•
British Parliamentarian punishment
– Holding the story
•
WMD location
•
Children soldiers
•
1000 Vehicle attack from Baghdad
– Moved to Syria
– Hidden
– Just-in-time program
•
The post-conflict enemy
•
Status of infrastructure repairs
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`
From my research, the most profound thread is that WMD was only a very small
part of the strategic influence, information operations and marketing campaign conducted
on both sides of the Atlantic.
These are the stories on which I ended up doing detailed research. In each case, I
attempted to find when and where the story originated, which officials made statements
related to the story and then look at how it came out. Obviously, I am reporting on those
where the outcome differed from the story.
My research suggests there were over 50 stories manufactured or at least
engineered that distorted the picture of Gulf II for the American and British people. I’ll
cover most in this report. At the end, I will also describe some stories that seem as if they
were part of the strategic influence campaign although the evidence is only
circumstantial.
What becomes important is not each story taken individually. If that were the
case, it would probably seem only more of the same. If you were to look at them one at a
time, you could conclude, “Okay we sort of knew that was happening.” It is the pattern
that becomes important. It’s the summary of everything. To use a phrase often heard
during the war, it’s the mosaic.
Recognizing I said I wouldn’t exaggerate, it would not be an exaggeration to say
the people of the United States and UK can find out more about the contents of a can of
soup they buy than the contents of the can of worms they bought with the 2003 war in the
Gulf.
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The Theory
In Strauss’ view, liberal democracies such as the Weimar
Republic are not viable in the long term, since they do not
offer their citizens any religious and moral footings. The
practical consequence of this philosophy is fatal. According
to its tenets, the elites have the right and even the obligation
to manipulate the truth. Just as Plato recommends, they can
take refuge in "pious lies" and in selective use of the truth.
Der Spiegel
I’m not writing about a conspiracy. It is about a well run and networked
organization. My basic argument is that very bright and even well intentioned officials
found how to control the process of governance in ways never before possible.
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I have no way of knowing intent. Those who believe the Administration
influenced by a small group could point out that manipulating the truth is an important
and even necessary dimension of governance.
Standing back from the details of the stories, the strategy of strategic influence
and marketing emerges.
Gulf II Influence Strategy
• This is a struggle between good and evil.
– Major theme of the war on terrorism as well as Gulf II.
– The mirror of this is in the Muslim world is when the U.S.
is often called the “Great Satan.”
• Iraq was behind the attack on the World Trade
center.
– The subtle theme throughout Gulf II.
– The mirror of this is the rumor that Israel was behind the
World Trade Center bombing to embarrass the Arabs.
The major thrust was to make a conflict with Iraq seem part of a struggle between
good and evil. Terrorism is evil. We are good. The axis is evil, and we are the good
guys.
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The second thrust is what propaganda theorists would call the “big lie.” The plan
was to connect Iraq with the 9/11 attacks. Make the American people believe that
Saddam Hussein was behind those attacks. The effort followed the basic framework of
effective propaganda.
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Gulf II Influence Strategy
• 24/7 News require different techniques
– Saturate the media time and space.
– Stay on message and stay ahead of the news cycle.
– Manage expectations.
– No matter how bad the story, it tends to level; accelerate the
process as much as possible.
• Keep the message consistent daily: Qatar, Pentagon, White
House, London
• Use information to attack and punish critics.
Beyond the themes we can see these strategic techniques. One of the media
organizations hired by the Department of Defense, the Rendon Group, was deeply
involved in selling the first Gulf War as well at this one.2 The first two points on this
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chart came from John Rendon. The last seems to have come from others within the
Administration.
It’s possible to get a sense of how strategic influence and the organization for
combat came together by looking at a pattern from before Gulf II campaign.
In November 2001, the White House Coalition Information Center initiated an
effort to highlight the plight of women in Afghanistan. Jim Wilkinson, who was working
with the Center at the time, called this effort “the best thing we’ve done.”
Earlier Stuff
“The Afghanistan women’s campaign
which was Republican National Committee Web Site
the best thing we’ve done…”
Jim Wilkinson
Laura Bush on Rebuilding the Afghan Family
Source: The White House Coalition Information Center
When he said it was the best thing they’ve done, it was not about something they
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did. It was about a story they created. It was about story. It was story. Story was most
2 Four or five contracted media groups were probably involved in one way or another in
the Gulf II effort. John Rendon call himself an information warrior.
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important.
The White House Coalition Information Center became the Office of Global
Communications officially in January 2003. It was in full operation, however, by the
time the White House began its marketing campaign in September 2002.
What we saw in the Afghanistan effort were patterns that would continue through
Gulf II. It was designed to “build support.” It was not a program with specific steps or
funding to improve the conditions of women.
Earlier Stuff
• “Women’s campaign was designed to build support in
countries in which there is heavy skepticism of the anti-
terrorism coalition.” Washington Post, November 16, 2002
• “Only the terrorist and the Taliban threaten to pull out
women’s fingernails for wearing nail polish.” Laura Bush,
November 17, 2001
• “In Afghanistan if you wear nail polish, you could have your
nails torn out.” Cherie Blair, November 20, 2001
• Human Rights Watch, 2003 report: Situation still bad for
women.
The other pattern in the Afghanistan family campaign that is important is the
close coordination between the White House and Number 10 Downing Street. The
coordination was so close that Laura Bush and Cherie Blair used almost the same phrase
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in speeches only separated by three days. The message was coordinated in the
Afghanistan campaign. It would be coordinated for Gulf II.
Make the humanitarian dimension of the operation part of marketing, another
pattern I’ve done some work with relief organizations. When these professionals talk
about Afghanistan, I very often hear their disdain for the U.S. effort to air drop food
packets into Afghanistan. There was almost no real benefit from that part of the
operation, We would have expect the same in Gulf II.
Another pattern emerged that we would see in the run up to the war. One might
even say they followed the concept that if you don’t know the truth, fill the vacuum with
speculation that would support policy. That certainly was true during the period of
anthrax uncertainty; US and UK “intelligence sources” told the press that everything
pointed to Iraq.
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Anthrax
• From US and UK intelligence sources…“The prima facie
evidence of the involvement of a state intelligence agency.
Maybe Iran has the capability. But it doesn’t look likely
politically. That leaves Iraq.” David Rose, The Observer,
October 14, 2001.
• …it is “increasingly looking like” the anthrax sent through
the mail came from a US source. White House, December
18, 2001
The anthrax story lingered. It wasn’t until the middle of December that the White
House put out a paper (not an announcement) that said it looked as if the source of the
anthrax were domestic. We would have expected in Gulf II to see the same kind of thing.
If a story supports policy, even if incorrect, let it stay around.
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Based upon what went before, as we moved into marketing of the war, we would
have expected to see two things. We would have expected to see the creation stories to
sell the policy; we would have expected to see the same stories used on both sides of the
Atlantic. We saw both.
US/UK Stories
•
Parallel Stoyline
•
Not Parallel Storyline
– Terrorism
– Aluminum tubes
– “Armed conflict and regime”
– Materials from Niger
– Shock and Awe
– 45 Minute release time
– “Paramilitaries” and not
– Surrender of the 51st Division
“terrorist death squads”
– Uprising in Basrah
– Terrorist threat
– US/UK uniforms (picked up from
Wilkinson report)
– Private Lynch
– French & German precision
– Lt Commander Speicher
switches (US in NYT; UK leaked
– Cyber war capability
UN Report)
– Weapons labs
– Dirty bombs
– British Parliamentarian in pay of
– Woman hung for waving
Iraq
– Executing prisoners
– Baghdad neighborhood
bombings
The number of engineered or false stories from US and UK sources is long.
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These are some of them. It’s important, however, to point out that the UK did not always
go along.
I’ll come to the connective network that made possible the parallel effort toward
the end of the report.
Everything was not sinister, but when you begin with the small things, you again
see a pattern that become important in understanding the larger distortions of the truth.
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Characterizing the Action
ARMED CONFLICT WITH IRAQ BEGAN ON MARCH 20, 2003
The Department of State advises American citizens in Austria to take
prudent steps to ensure their personal safety in the coming days. Remain
vigilantly aware of surroundings, avoid crowds and demonstrations, keep
a low profile, vary times and routes for all travel, and ensure travel
documents are current. Listen to news reports and maintain contact with
the U.S. Embassy/Consulate at (01) 31339-7535. The Embassy/Consulate
will also post updated information on our website
• US and UK had agreed it would be called “armed
conflict.”
It was agreed, first of all, that the activity would be called “armed conflict.” State
Department documents used the term. Alastair Campbell, the UK strategic
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communications manager, had a list of guidance items for Tony Blair’s press people.
The armed conflict guidance was part of that list. (Peter Stothard, Tony Blair and the
Test of History: Thirty Days)
“Regime” was also on the list. Call the government the “regime” rather than
the “enemy” as the term of art.
Although a departure of the historical use of code names, it was not new that you
would give the operation a code name that would be part of the marketing. The United
States had used names like Operation PROVIDE COMFORT.
“Operation Iraqi Freedom”
Assessment
• Code name for the operation transformed into a part of the
strategic influence.
– OVERLORD: During World War II, the codes names were for
the purpose of security.
– DESERT STORM, DESERT FOX: Code names continued to be
for the purposes of security. They were made two words so
the first word could designate the commander running the
operation. DESERT = Central Command.
• Because of the repetition and the visual quality added by
the television networks, this became an effective memory
producing technique in Gulf II.
There were some dimensions of the marketing that were a
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little strange.
Eisenhower’s military objective was to “enter the continent of Europe and destroy the
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German Army.”
U.S. Objectives as Strategic
Influence
•
End the regime of Saddam Hussein…
•
Identify, isolate and eventually eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction.
•
Search for, capture, drive out terrorists who have found safe harbor in
Iraq.
•
Collect such intelligence as we can find related to terrorist networks in
Iraq and beyond.
•
Collect such intelligence as we can find related to the global network of
illicit weapons of mass destruction activity…
•
End sanctions and to immediately deliver humanitarian relief, food and
medicine…
•
Secure Iraq's oil fields and resources, which belong to the Iraqi people…
•
Help the Iraqi people create the conditions for a rapid transition to a
representative self-government …
The Secretary of Defense said these were the objectives given to Central
Command. They were obviously meant for the press. As far as I am
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aware, this is the
first time a military commander was given objectives that were about justifying the war.
From the very beginning it was called an “ambush” from the podia. That
lingered even in articles that questioned the official version of the events. “What really
happened in the ambush of the 507th?” If you drive a convoy into enemy lines, turn
around and drive back, it’s not an ambush.
Private Jessica Lynch
• From the beginning, it was called an “ambush.”
• Am·bush (n)
– 1. an unexpected attack from a concealed position
– 2. a concealment before a surprise attack
– 3. one or more people concealed in order to make a surprise
attack
– 4. a hiding place used in an ambush
• Assessment: It’s not an ambush when you drive a convoy
into enemy lies. Terrorists would do something like an
ambush.
Military officers who are very careful about how they talk about operations would
normally not be sloppy about describing this kind of event. This un-military kind of talk
is one of the reasons I began doing this research. They just didn’t cherish the truth.
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In my mind, the most serious transformation of language was the direction from
Washington to call the Iraqi irregular troops “terrorist death squads.” One source told me
this came in a letter from Rumsfeld. I’ve read in another place it was from the White
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House.
Saddam Fedayeen
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
23rd..Irregulars
24th…Fidayeen
Rumsfeld letter: My sources
25th…Terrorist people
3rd..Not mentioned as
terrorists: Powell
dressed in civilian clothes.
26th…Terrorist death squads
.
.
.
Not mentioned as
terrorists: UK Dossier
.
After the 25th of March, the presenters changed the name.
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Saddam Fedayeen : Assessment
• Naming the irregulars seems to have been part of the
strategic influence campaign:
– Calling them terrorists connected them with one of the
major themes of Gulf II.
– Iraq = terrorists = 9/11 = grave threat in the future.
• The structure of the argument and repetition are an
effective implementation of the theory of creating memory
in a population.
• Obviously, this theme was successful by US opinion polls;
majority of citizens believe Iraq was connected to 9/11.
This was part of the “big lie” to tie Iraq to 9/11. As the polls have shown, it has
been very effective. It continues to be effective, but what would be wrong with truth?
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More Terrorist Theme
•
March 22, Franks, CENTCOM Briefing, “I can't really provide you a lot of detail. I can
tell you that from time to time, in Iraq, we will come across what we believe to be
terrorist-associated activity or people, and when we do so, we will strike them, and
then we will exploit the site subsequent to the strike. I can tell you that in fact we did
strike last evening a terrorist complex…
•
March 24 – Wolfowitz, BBC World Service, “We've just taken some very decisive
action against that pocket of al Qaeda terrorists in Kramal.”
•
March 25th – Brooks, CENTCOM Briefing, “The practices that have been conducted by
these paramilitaries and by these others who are out there, sometimes in uniform,
sometimes not in uniform, are more akin to the behaviors of global terrorists than
they are to a nation. And that certainly is in our mind at this time.”
•
Assessment: Obvious why an Associated Press poll conducted shortly after Gulf II
was declared ended, 53 percent of the nation pin the 9/11 attacks on Saddam.
The “terrorist” connection took many other forms, many forms but the truth. I
don’t see evidence they cherished the truth.
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“The first image will define the conflict.” Much of the effort was about image. It
might be called the marketing event that never happened. It was to be a big show when
Basrah fell. Sources in the BBC tell me the reason the US 15th MEU was assigned to
this part of the battlefield was so an American unit could lead the way into the city.
Although the reason for the assignment might not be true, it is almost as important point
that they believed that of the Americans.
Operation TELIC Production Event
• “The first image of the war will define the conflict…” USMC
spokesman.
• 15 Marine Expeditionary Unit given task of attacking Umm
Qasr and Basrah over the objections of the UK because US
wanted to have their forces lead the victory into Basrah.
(My sources in the UK)
• Military officials said:
– Marines were to carry packets of food to pass out to children.
– Medics were to provide care as the forces moved as the
occupation forces rolled in.
– Journalists were to be bused to the city.
– Television crews were to be flown into the city.
• Battle of Basrah took over two weeks, and the media event
did not take place.
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The US and the UK had a difference over the code name to give the conflict. The
Brits chose to call it Operation TELIC, more consistent with the traditional methodology
for naming combat operations.
It was about image, so much effort and money on image.
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When the pattern becomes clear some of the stories have new clarity.
Ansar al-Salam
•
Said to be Al Qaeda terrorists
– Splinter Kurdish group who found bin Laden’s efforts heroic.
– Was formed “shortly after 9/11” although probably December 2001.
•
Said to be controlled by Saddam Hussein because there were
reports of two Republican Guard officers since in the vicinity.
•
Said to be producing ricin.
– Reports after the attack on the facility suggested important
documents.
–
The "poison factory" lacked sophistication and was housed in a
small cinderblock building bearing brown granules and ammonia-
like scents. Tests by U.S. laboratories revealed traces of
chemicals including hydrogen cyanide and potassium cyanide,
substances usually used to kill rodents. Jeffrey Fleishman, LA
Times, September 3, 2003
Secretary of State Powell showed a picture in his presentation to the UN Security
Council. The title was “Terrorist Poison and Explosives Factory.”
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From the beginning, the implication that since the group was formed shortly after
9/11 it was tied to bin Laden. Because a single source reported Republican Guard
officers in the area, it was tied to Saddam Hussein.
They did find rat poison in one of the buildings. Was it bad intelligence, or did
they blur the line between a single source of information and the story they wanted to
tell?
Salman Pak
• “Former Iraqi military officers have described a highly
secret terrorist training facility in Iraq known as Salman Pak,
where both Iraqis and non-Iraqi Arabs receive training on
hijacking planes and trains, planting explosives in cities,
sabotage, and assassinations.” White House White Paper,
Decade of Deception, September 12, 2002
The White House told us there was a terrorist training facility for non-Iraqi Arabs.
This facility became a major part of the strategic influence, market effort. Why didn’t we
find compelling evidence?
Why couldn’t we have been told the truth about the power grid?
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Attacking the Iraqi Power Grid
•
April 3, 2003 - Release Number: 03-04-38
BAGHDAD ELECTRICAL SYSTEM NOT TARGETED BY COALITION - CAMP
AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar--News reports indicate that electrical power is out in
Baghdad. Coalition forces have not targeted Baghdad’s electrical system.
•
“We did not have the power grid as a target. That was not us.” - DOD News
Briefing, April 4, Tori Clarke
•
Facts:
– US targeted portions of the power grid in the North during a special
operations attack on the dam at Hadithah on April 1st or 2nd.
– Power grid was attacked two or three times south of Baghdad along
Highway 6; this included a Tomahawk strike using carbon fibers which
would have required approval in Washington. (Human Rights Watch)
It was announced several times during the war that the United States had not
struck the electrical power grid. This was not true.
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Because one of the strikes was with carbon fiber, the targeting would have been
approved in Washington. Where was truth from this podium?
The dirty bomb question surfaced a number of times during the marketing of the
war. The Iraqi National Congress arranged for an interview of someone who said Iraq
was working on a radiation weapon. In June 2002, Khidhir Hamza, an individual often
quoted by the White House even by the President himself, implied Iraq was going to train
terrorists to use a radiation weapon. In a very subtle technique “officials” did
background interviews in which they said radiation weapons were one of the things that
kept them awake at night. If it were not part of the pattern, you would almost have to
admire this background technique as a way to reinforce a story.
Dirty Bombs
•
Iraqi National Congress arranged interview with a defector.
– “The defector describes a meeting held in Tanzania in 1994, in
which he and other Iraqis met five eastern Europeans…cash was
exchanged for the contents of a heavy trunk.” David Rose, Vanity
Fair, April 2002.
– The implication was that this is material that could be used for a
dirty bomb.
•
“This environment is ideal for countries like Iraq to train and support a
terrorist operation using radiation weapons…” Khidhir Hamza, Wall
Street Journal, June 12. 2002.
•
Program terminated, Iraq Report to the UN, December 9
•
“ A few officials speaking on background, have engaged in what-could-
go-wrong conversations, saying they are kept awake at night by the
prospect of a dirty bomb.” David Sanger, International Herald Tribune,
February 28th.
26
Truth from These Podia
As in this case, some of the most extreme support for the message often came
from individuals and groups with close connections to the White House or the Pentagon.
This is one example.
The case of Commander Speicher is particularly painful when I describe it to
military friends. He was a naval aviators shot down early in the first Gulf War. There
was some question about his status right after that war, but the evidence suggests his case
was used to generate support and to market this war. A reporter told me that Deputy
Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz had a list of 10 reasons for going to war. The Speicher
case was on that list.
It story came to the surface with a single defector report. Then, in a pattern
typical of created stories, the Washington Times reported that US “Intelligence Agencies”
had information that he was being held captive. The story was allowed to develop
because of answers to questions by Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld’s answer was
particularly disturbing. When he was told in a question that Iraq had denied they were
holding Speicher as a prisoner, he responded by saying, “I don’t believe much the regime
puts out.” That answer was too clever not to have been formulated to leave the
impression that he was alive. Why doesn’t he cherish truth? Why didn’t he consider
what he was doing to Speicher’s family?
Lt. Commander Scott Speicher
2002
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
1999 - Defector:
he’s a prisoner
Jan 11, 2001 KIA to MIA
Jan 2002 - Virginia Pilot series
11th US Intelligence Agencies
…Iraq is holding captive - Washington
Times
19th Pretty hard evidence
he survived the crash -
Wolfowitz
23rd Q. Iraq denied holding
Ans. I don’t believe much the
regime puts out - Rumsfeld
27
The President raised the case in his presentation to the UN. Then, early in the
marketing campaign, the Navy changed his status from “missing in action” to “captured.”
ABC News has reported that Navy officials say they were pressured to make this change.
I can’t confirm that.
Truth from These Podia
Lt. Commander Scott Speicher
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
13th - One American pilot
“MSS” on wall
Is among them - Bush to UN
C IA/Military Team
10th - Intelligence officials
…he remains alive and is
13th - Status changed from
being held captive - Reuters
MIA to Captured - Navy
10th - Department of Defense
…is alive and being held -
Washington Times
In January 2003, “intelligence officials” continue to leak information that
Speicher was alive and being held captive. In April, almost as if to keep the story alive, it
was reported that his initials had been found on the wall of a cell. This was a very
28
strange leak. Military POW recovery personnel are very careful about releasing
information that would cause false hope in families.
Lt. Commander Scott Speicher
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
June 24th - “…nothing turned up thus far that I could
elaborate on that would be appropriate.
Investigators…”are on the issue, attentive to it,
addressing it directly when human intelligence offers
suggestions as to how leads might be addressed
directly.” Rumsfeld, Press Brief
July 16th - No evidence…casts doubt on the credibility
of the defector.” Bill Scarborough, Washington Times
29
The facts are that no trace has been found of him. DNA of hair fibers in the cell
where the initials were found did not match.
Again, what becomes important is the pattern. It does not seem as if we were
getting truth from the podia.
There were the chemical cluster bombs:
Truth from These Podia
Chemical Cluster Bombs
Quick Response
March 7th
March 10th
March 11th
Releases and Statements
UNMOVIV Report
Major Coverage
(Not Made Public)
The chemical cluster bomb story certainly didn’t linger. It was around only a
couple days. It was part of the attack on the second report from Hans Blix. On March
10, there were releases and statements by Administration officials that the UNMOVIC
report did not cover the Iraqi chemical cluster bomb program.
30
Chemical Cluster Bombs
Complex Way of Delivering Chemicals
• There is no evidence to conclude that Iraq has a
warhead with chemical submunitions. No information
on testing has been obtained, and experimentation
with bursts at relatively high release points has not
been seen. OSD, Post 1991 Report on Patriot Use During Gulf I
• Assessment: This is a technologically very difficult to
achieve; much better ways of delivering chemical or
biological weapons.
OSD had discounted Iraq developing what would be a very complex weapons
system during the first Gulf War.
31
Truth from These Podia
Chemical Cluster Bombs
Discrediting UNMOVIC
•
UN weapons inspectors in Iraq recently discovered a new variety of rocket seemingly
configured to strew bomblets filled with chemical or biological agents over large
areas, U.S. officials say. - New York Times News Service, March 10, 2003
•
Inspectors discovered cluster bombs and sub munitions that appeared designed to
deliver chemical or biological agents. Contrary to initial Iraqi statements, a number of
bombs and over 100 sub munitions were found. State Department, March 10, 2003
•
Another is a videotape showing Iraq testing a cluster bomb that could disperse
chemical weapons over a wide area. - CNN, March 10, 2003
•
Administration spokesmen said that chief inspector Hans Blix did not give details…of
the possible existence of a cluster bomb that could deliver deadly poisons. - Boston
Globe, March 11, 2003
•
The U.S. is also aware of UNMOVIC's discovery of Iraqi production of munitions
capable of dispensing both chemical and biological weapons… - Ari Fleischer, March
11, 2003
Certainly, the information operation or strategic influence effort included
attacking and discrediting. Attack or discredit those who did not support the story.
32
Chemical Cluster Bombs:
Assessment
• Quick turn response to Blix report that got carried widely by
print and broadcast media.
• Good example of the concept of responding within the
news cycle although it lacked consistency.
• The cluster bomb story did not have legs because it was
rather weak, but it still served its purpose at the time.
• Probably worth the minor negative impact of the Blix
statement in June that it was part of a campaign to discredit
him.
Again, the cluster bomb story fits the pattern and methods.
We were told Iraq had a major program for computer network attack in a White
House paper. Wolfowitz gave the warning in a presentation to the Council on Foreign
33
Relations.
Truth from These Podia
Intended to Mislead False Engineered
Yes X (No Attacks)
Information Warfare
…also Wolfowitz to the Council on Foreign Relations
34
The Deputy Director of Information Operations on the Joint Staff announced at a
conference in London in early July that the United States experienced no major attempts
to penetrate its systems during the war. What happened to the “highly compartmented
unit” of the Babylon Software Company?
There was the story about the bad guys using US uniforms:
Iraqi in US Uniforms
•
March 7th. Iraq is acquiring military uniforms "identical down to the last
detail" to those worn by American and British forces and plans to use
them to shift blame for atrocities, a senior U.S. official said Thursday.
Jim Wilkinson, Tampa Florida.
•
March 26th. Soldiers in the U.S. 3rd Infantry moving north toward
Baghdad say they believe they have been attacked by Iraqis wearing
American uniforms. And they say they’re worried that some of the
uniforms were stolen several weeks ago while the U.S. troops were in
Kuwait. David Bloom, NBC.
We were told Iraq had acquired US and UK uniforms. There was one report from
an embedded reporter that a unit “thought” they had seen American uniforms; their fear
was partly driven because some of their laundry had been stolen while they were in
Kuwait.
35
There was also an item from an embedded reporter that his unit had found and
Truth from These Podia
Iraqi “soldier” who had been blown up by his own explosives.
We have no reports of Iraq trying to shift the blame for atrocities. The way it was
put by Jim Wilkinson, a name that keeps appearing in these questionable stories, it seems
to fit a pattern of pre-blaming Iraq. It has the feel of being a created story.
Iraqi in US Uniforms
•
March 26th Clarke: Well, I remember several weeks ago out here talking
about we knew they were acquiring uniforms that looked like U.S. and U.K.
uniforms. And the reporting was that they planned to use them, give them
to the thugs, as I call them, to go out, carry out reprisals against the Iraqi
people, and try to blame it on coalition forces. So just recently we have
seen reports again that they may be wearing or using what looked like U.S.
uniforms to confuse people, to confuse our forces, to confuse the Iraqi
people.
– Q: Have you seen specific reports about them wearing U.S. uniforms accepting
the surrender of Iraqi troops, and then executing them?
– Clarke: I have seen -- I have seen at least one report.
– Clarke: I want to caution that and caveat that and say I have seen one report like
that
•
March 28th Rumsfeld: They put on American and British uniforms to
try to fool regular Iraqi soldiers into surrendering to them, and then
execute them as an example for others who might contemplate
defection or capitulation.
The story got turned into Iraqi wearing uniforms to get others to surrender, but
even Tori Clarke cautioned about its validity. Two days later, Rumsfeld announced it as
36
if it were true.
We were going to be fighting children. The State Department put out a paper in
December warning that we could see fighting from some as young as 10.
Children Soldiers
• December 2002
– Iraq: A Population Silenced by State Department
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
– Could have to fight children
– Training classes for ages 10 to 15
• Surfaced again during the conflict in some press
reports.
• Assessment: An exaggeration probably part of
the strategic influence campaign.
37
There were no reports of units encountering units of fighting children
soldiers.
Truth from These Podia
Before the war, we were told Iraq had some number of Scuds left over. It
was a story consistent on both sides of the Atlantic. This was important because it would
have meant the capability to attack Israel.
Scuds
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
12th…posses a force of Scud-type
missiles with range greater
than 150 km: President
1st…Special Operations
4th…discrepancies…suggest a small
seized and controlled the
force of extended range Scud-type
missile launch baskets and
missiles…: CIA
prevented their use by the
3rd..sources inside..a covert
Enemy: Vice President
force of a few dozen Scud-variant
ballistic missiles: Powell
20th…Scud-type missiles
being fired.
23rd…no Scuds fired.
…retained up to 20 al-Hussein
Missile with a range of 650km:
UK Dossier
23rd…in the west worried
about Scud-baskets…and
any ballistic missiles fired
into neighboring countries:
SECDEF
38
For the first three days of the war, spokesmen were using the term Scud-type
missiles to describe the missile attacks. They, of course were not Scuds, and we have
found no Scuds, but for three days, they kept the story alive.
Scuds: Assessment
• CIA made the point with the October report that
there were accounting discrepancies which could
mean some hidden missiles.
• By the Powell speech to the UN the missiles
became a fact for both the US and UK.
• The “Scud” storyline was carried through the war,
probably part of the strategic influence campaign.
Once the story had been created, it was hard to let go, but no Scuds.
We were supposed to be threatened by Remotely Piloted Vehicles that could
39
deliver chemical or biological weapons:
Truth from These Podia
Remotely Piloted Vehicles
Powell to the UN
October CIA Report
40
In October in the CIA report, these were airplanes. By the time of the Powell
presentation to the UN, they had gotten much smaller.
Remotely Piloted Vehicles
•
October CIA Report: “…attempted to convert some of its J-29 jet
trainer aircraft into an RPV… that can be fitted with spray…”
•
President in Cincinnati in October - drones that could be used to
attack the U.S.
•
June 15th, LA Times, “They quickly found the ‘drones’: five
burned and blackened 9-foot wings dumped near the front gate. ‘It
could have been a student project, or maybe a model,’ the team's
expert, U.S. Air Force Capt. Libbie Boehm, said with a shrug.
…from an investigation of a reported drones with sprayers by the
75th Exploitation Group
The President even said these drones could reach the United States. An Air Force
captain who went to the location with the WMD Exploitation Group said they looked like
a “student project.”
41
More recently, a USAF team has done further analysis and concluded the
remotely piloted vehicles were for reconnaissance. Their mission was to take pictures.
There is still a great deal we don’t know about the Jessica Lynch story, but there
are some insights we can get once we have gotten the pattern of how engineered or
manufactured stories were handled during the war. It certainly has the characteristics of
strategic influence campaign.
Truth from These Podia
Private Jessica Lynch
March
April
June
“In the Joint Operations Center, Air Force Capt. Joe Della Vedova
followed the raid as it happened, and as soon as Lynch was in the
air phoned Jim Wilkinson, the top civilian communications aide to
CENTCOM Gen. Tommy Franks. ‘She is safe and in our hands,’ he
reported. The whole operation, expected to take 45 minutes, was
over in 25. Next Della Vedova called Gen. Vince Brooks..”
Newsweek, April 14
In the early hours of April 2, correspondents in Doha were
summoned from their beds to CENTCOM. Jim Wilkinson, the
White House's top figure there, had stayed up all night. …"The
president had been briefed, as had the Secretary of Defense."
42
The first and unexplained part of the story is that just after she was returned to US
custody, the first call was to Jim Wilkinson, CENTCOM Director of Strategic
Communications. This is very strange for a military operation. When I tell military
friends, they often respond, “Do you suppose they staged it?”
I don’t have any information about it being staged,
but
Intended to
we
Influencedo know
False
from
Engineered
Wilkinson
that the President and Secretary of Defense were briefed immediately.
Yes X X
Private Jessica Lynch
March
April
June
…one of America’s “heroes,”
23rd - 507th M
Jim Wilkinson,
aintenance
6000+ stories
National Review Online
Comp
April 3rd any makes wrong turn
2nd - Story broke of rescue
3rd - Washington Post story
By Susan Schmidit & Vernon
Loeb
3rd - Family says no wounds
3rd - Rumsfeld press brief
Truth got off track on the morning of April 3rd with a story in the Washington
Post that completely exaggerated what had happened. I have been told by a source that
43
the Washington Post got the story from people in the Pentagon who were quoting
communications intercepts from Iraq. In retrospect, the Iraqi reports were probably about
the action of someone else in the convoy.
The question of releasing classified information has to be mentioned at this point
in the Lynch story. If the my source is correct, the information given to the Washington
Truth from These Podia
Post would have been very highly classified, with special handing, limited only to those
who had a need to know. This was a major pattern from the beginning of the marketing
campaign throughout the war. It was okay to release classified information if it
supported the message.
On the afternoon of the 3rd when Rumsfeld and Myers gave their press briefing,
the story on the street was that she was America’s new Rambo. We know. However, that
they had been briefed. We know he would have been aware of her injuries. When asked,
he pulled back. He left the Washington Post story as possibly being right. Again, we see
the pattern. When the story on the street supports the message, it will be left there by a
non-answer. The message is more important than the truth.
Private Jessica Lynch
•
April 3, Washington Post…"sustained multiple gunshot wounds" and also was
stabbed while she "fought fiercely and shot several enemy soldiers ... firing her
weapon until she ran out of ammunition." The paper cited an unnamed U.S. military
official as saying "she was fighting to the death."
–
NYT also reported she had gunshot wounds.
•
April 3, Rumsfeld, “We are certainly grateful for the brilliant and courageous rescue
of Sergeant -- correction -- Pfc. [Private First Class] Jessica Lynch, who was being
held by Iraqi forces in what they called a "hospital.”
–
Question: Rumsfeld: Gen. Myers and I get briefed on these types of things and there's an
orderly process for debriefing and discussing them. And I have no intention of discussing it
piecemeal.
•
…April 5, CENTCOM briefing “ … in coordination with conventional forces from the
Marine Corps and the Air Force and the Army were able to successfully rescue
Private First Class Jennifer (sic) Lynch out of a hospital and irregular military
headquarters facility that was being used by these death squads in Nasiriyah and
successfully return her to U.S. hands…”
My friends who are graduates of the Air Force Academy agree that General
Myers would have been taken before an honor board if he been a cadet during this press
44
briefing and did not speak up when he knew an untruth was being let stand.
Even Central Command kept the story alive by not giving out details.
Private Jessica Lynch
•
April 5, Armed Forces Information Service…”There were no firefights inside the
hospital, but plenty of action outside, Brooks said.”
•
April 5, Brig Gen Brooks, “There was not a firefight inside of the building, I will tell
you, but there were fire fights outside of the building, getting in and getting out.”
•
No reports on her condition.
•
April 6, Washington Times, “The hospital where Pfc. Lynch was held was reported to
be a stronghold of the Fedayeen Saddam, a guerrilla force sworn to martyrdom for
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The rescuers arrived by helicopter, secured the
building by gunfire and forced their way inside, CNN reported.”
•
April 14th, Time, “According to the Washington Post, Lynch, an Army supply clerk
with only minimal combat training, shot several advancing Iraqi soldiers, emptying
her weapon of ammunition and possibly incurring a series of gunshot wounds.
45
Truth from These Podia
The exaggerated story was allowed to stay, and even appeared in the April 14th
Time Magazine article about her.
On March 23rd General Pace, Myers’ deputy, got a little carried away with his
making Iraq evil.
Hanging of a Waving Woman
• March 23rd - “In once case, and Iraqi
woman was hanged after she waved to
Coalition forces.” General Pace, CNN
• No other reports of an incident like this
and no verification of this story.
A very strange part of the strategic influence or information of integrity would
have allowed themselves to be spokesmen for very weakly supported stories. Even if
there were a single report of something like this happening, my expectation would have
been that someone like General Pace would have wanted more details before going on
national television to make such a statement.
46
Punishing the French - The Stories
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
The evidence points to the French being the focus of punishment in the strategic
influence campaign. There are at last eight times when false stories or engineered stories
were aimed at them, the majority appearing after their lack of support in the UN for US
and UK actions.
47
Truth from These Podia
Punishing the French
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
France and Germany supplied
Iraq with high-precision switches.
NYT
France and Germany supplied
Iraq with high-precision switches.
Independent, UK leaked UN Report.
France possessed prohibited strains
of the smallpox virus. “American intelligence
sources” Washington Post
Two French companies had sold
Spare parts for aircraft and helicopters.
“US intelligence source” Washington Times
48
In September, the New York Times was told that the French (and Germans) had
sold high-precision switches to Iraq that could be used for nuclear weapons. Keeping
with the cross-Atlantic dimension of the strategic influence effort, the same story
appeared in the UK press. The fact is that although Iraq had requested these switches,
and they were never supplied.
“American intelligence sources” leaked to the Washington Post the incorrect story
that the French has prohibited strains of smallpox virus.
A “US intelligence sources’ told the Washington Times that two French
companies had sold spare parts to Iraq. The companies have said they did not. No proof
has surfaced.
Punishing the French - Roland
Missiles
April 9th - Brig. Gen Brooks: “…found an underground storage facility
containing an abundance of food and also Roland-type air defense
missiles. That’s a specific air defense missile system.
When an A-10 was shot down near the Baghdad airport, a “Pentagon
spokesman” point out they thought it was hit with a Roland missiles; not
mentioned in CENTCOM Briefing.
April 21st - Newsweek: Lt. Greg Holmes, a tactical intelligence officer with the
Third Infantry Division, told Newsweek that U.S. forces discovered 51
Roland-2 missiles, made by a partnership of French and German arms
manufacturers…one of the missiles he examined was labeled 05-11 KND
2002 which he took to mean the missile was manufactured last year.
Someone created a story that French Roland missiles were being used to shoot
down American aircraft, and these missiles were new. It turned out story was not very
49
Truth from These Podia
well put together. The production line for the Roland 2 shut down in 1993.3
We were told the French were helping Iraqi official escape to Syria:
Punishing the French - Passports
May 6 - Washington Times
“An unknown number of Iraqis who worked for Saddam
Hussein’s government were given passports by French
officials in Syria, U.S. intelligence officials said.”
“…said officials familiar with intelligence reports.”
“…revealed through sensitive intelligence-gathering
means angered Pentagon, State Department and
intelligence officials in Washington.”
“…one official said. “…a second Administration official
said.”
This story had some legs, and the Washington Times kept getting fed information
to keep it alive.
Punishing the French
50
May 6
May 7
Ireland on Line
Washington Times
Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“US intelligence officials are
Expaticia, Netherlands
intensifying the search in
.
Europe for officials of the
.
Saddam Hussein government
Fox News
who fled Iraq with French
“The reports add fuel to the fire
passports, US officials said
that Paris had been colluding
yesterday.”
with Baghdad before and during
.
the coalition invasion of Iraq.”
.
.
.
.
Many newspapers carried the story, and it even generated an official inquiry.
51
3 It is hard to explain, but this Roland fabrication keeps surfacing. It came up again in
early October when a Polish unit was reported to have found recently manufactured
missiles. After it bounced around for couple days, a Polish spokesman announced that it
was not true.
Truth from These Podia
Punishing the French
May 8
May 9
Charleston Post Courier
Rumsfeld, DOD Briefing:
“France is rumored to have
“France has historically had a
issued passports of Iraqi
very close relationship with Iraq.
officials in Syria.”
My understanding is that it
.
continued right up until the
.
outbreak of the war. What took
.
place after that, we’ll find out.
House Judiciary Chairman
I’ve read these reports, but I
James Senesbrenner wrote Tom
don’t have anything to add to
Ridge: “If the Department of
them.”
Homeland Security receives or
.
uncovers any information
.
suggesting that this allegation is
.
true…France should be
.
suspended…from a visa waiver
program.”
52
When Rumsfeld was questioned, he followed pattern. When something is on the
street that is part of the strategic influence campaign, let it linger. He said when asked
about the reports, “I have nothing to add to them.” Clearly, the implication of that kind
of answer is that he wanted people to believe the stories. He had nothing to add.
Even the White House got into this strategic influence effort. One has to believe
the Administration knew by mid-May that the stories were not true, but at the White
House press briefing, it was not stopped.
Punishing the French
May 14
May 15 & 16
Washington Post
France accuses the United
French deny…
States of a smear campaign,
using this as one example.
White House Press Brief:
Q Going back to France, the French have denied selling arms to Iraq
and issuing passports to Syria to fleeing Iraqi officials. Are those
charges valid?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that those are questions you can
address to France.
Q On that point, Scott, do you have any information that the French
did, in fact, issue passports to people so that --
MR. McCLELLAN: I think -- no, I think that's a question you need to
address to France.
Q Well, no, it's information the U.S. claims to have.
MR. McCLELLAN: I don't have anything for you.
53
Truth from These Podia
Punishing the French:
Assessment
• Technique made effective use of the concept of “echo.”
– Less than professional journalism repeated in 100’s of
newspapers and on television reporting on the story as a
story.
– Washington Times repeated the story with small bits of
information so it lingered.
• Seems most likely that this was part of the strategic
influence campaign that can be traced at least
circumstantially to the Special Plans Office in the Pentagon.
I’ve been told from sources in the press that most of the leaks during the “armed
conflict” that appeared in the Washington Times came from the Special Plans Office in
the Pentagon. Using the kind of methods Admiral Poindexter was going to do on
information operations, there would appear to be validity in what I was told.
54
The Secretary of Defense told us before the war he was going to do strategic
influence. It appears as if the French were a target.
I’m confident from my research the white flag story was engineered. Even more,
it is beginning to appear as if it were fabricated to cover a very serious friendly fire event.
Details of two incidents involving white flags have surfaced. The first was
reported on March 23rd. General Abizaig, the Deputy Commander of Central Command,
said that right after some Iraqi soldiers surrendered artillery fire came in on a Marine unit.
He called it a ruse. On the surface the explanation seems strange. The Iraqi Army had
trouble coordinating artillery fire at all. It is a stretch of the imagination to believe they
could put together a plan in which a part of their force would surrender then they would
start firing artillery.
White Flag Incident(s)
March 23
March 24
“There were several incidents
“The Iraqi regime is engaged in
reported today in which there
other deadly deceptions. They
were types of behavior that I can
are sending forces out carrying
only describe as ruses…In one
white surrender flags…the most
incident, a flag of surrender was
serious violations of the laws of
displayed, and it was followed
war.” DOD Press Briefing,
up by artillery.” CENTCOM
Clarke
briefing, General Aibzaig
Extremely difficult
Military operation
To coordinate.
58
Truth from These Podia
After this incident, however, it seems to have become a matter of policy to talk
about white flag killing. It began the next day.
(The other white flag incident was when Iraqi soldiers shot civilians that were
trying to surrender with a white flag. Both the civilians and the Iraqi soldiers were killed.
Stories also have two sides. A memorable picture of the war was of British troops
standing over to two dead Iraqi in a foxhole; they had been holding up a white flag.)
White Flag Incident(s)
March 25
March 27
“The regime has committed has
Committed acts of
“With each passing day and
treachery…sending soldiers out
everyday an increasingly
Waving white flags and feigning
desperate Iraqi regime violated
surrender, with the goal of
many international laws…As
drawing coalition forces into
you know, enemy soldiers have
ambush.”
pretended to surrender, to give
up, and then brought fire in on
“Some of the biggest losses we
our forces.” DOD Press
have taken are due to Iraqis
Briefing, Clarke
committing violations of the law
of armed conflict…by luring us
into surrender situation then
opening fire on our troops. So
this is the plan that is very well
thought out, and that will pay
out, I think, as we expect.” DOD
Press Briefing, Rumsfeld.
59
Rumsfeld really got into the story on March 25th. It continued on the 27th.
White Flag Incident(s)
April 5
April 18
“They have executed prisoners
of war, waged attacks under the
“Nixon, who served with the 1st
white flag or truce…” Bush
Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment,
2nd Marine Expeditionary
Brigade from Camp LeJuene,
North Caroline, died in battle
March 23 when his unit was
ambushed by Iraqi soldiers as
the pretended to surrender near
Nasiriyah in southern Iraq”
Arlington National Cemetery
Web Site
Intended to Influence False Engineered
Yes X X
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The President came in and picked it up on April 5th. The story had so much legs
(many legs) that it was even told as the reason for the death of a Marine at his funeral at
Arlington Cemetery.
A disheartening aspect of the white flag story is what is beginning to surface
about what might have been the real cause of the Marine casualties near An Nasiriyah on
March 23rd. Marines are saying that nine of those killed may have been killed by an A-10
that made repeated passes attacking their position.
We know from a lessons learned report released early in October that the death of
nine Marines is under investigation as a friendly fire accident. From individual reports,
we know that at least one of the Marines killed on the March 23rd,, reported as having
been caught in the ruse, was hit directly in the chest with a round from an A-10 gun. We
know at least one of the wives of a Marine killed that day is asking for the truth of her
husband’s death.
We need more truth on the white flag story.
The most significant seemingly fabricated story was the execution of prisoners.
Tony Blair was in the United States meeting with the President at Camp David. He came
out of the meeting and announced that two British prisoners had been executed. That
same day, March 27th, General Pace said almost the same thing on CNN.
Execution of Prisoners
March 27
March 28
Daily Mirror: Sapper Allsopp's
Iraq has executed two British
sister Nina said: "His Colonel
prisoners. “If anyone needs
told us he was not executed
any further evidence of the
we just can't understand why
depravity…” Tony Blair at
people are lying."
Joint News Conference with
March 27th: Victoria Clarke had told reporters the
Bush at Camp David
U.S. had at least one unconfirmed report that Iraqi
forces had shot Americans who had either
“They have executed prisoners
surrendered or were attempting to surrender.
of war.” Gen Pace, CNN, Larry
March 27th Daily Telegraph: “Intelligence
King Show
officials have received one uncorroborated
report indicating that at least some of the
dead soldiers had been captured alive…a
March 27th, UK Briefing; no
senior Pentagon official said today on the
mention made of executions by
condition of anonymity. The
Air Marshal Burridge.
information…is of undetermined reliability,
61
the official said.”
That day (March 27th) we began seeing statements attributing the story to one
report. By the next day, the UK press began attacking the story as not true. One of the
soldier’s sisters reported his colonel had said he was not executed.
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Execution of Prisoners
April 5
April 3
April 7
“They have executed
“They have executed
prisoners of war…Bush,
prisoners of war…” Bush
American Forces Press
Service.
“They have executed
prisoners of war…”
Rumsfeld
The British prime minister’s
spokesman said there was no
“absolute evidence” that UK
servicemen had been executed.
The UK finally pulled away from the story. The US side
62
stayed with it through
April 7th.
When Rumsfeld was questioned on the 7th, the story began to change; the pattern
of non-answer surfaced.
Execution of Prisoners
April 7 Press Briefing
•
Q: Mr. Secretary, you stated flatly that American POWs have been
executed. On what basis do you make that statement? And now that
there are at least nine remains that have come back from the ambush
in Nasiriyah, how many of those do you believe were American soldiers
that were executed?
•
Rumsfeld: Let me just see precisely what I said. (Looks through briefing
materials.) I think I said they have executed prisoners of war. Did I say
American prisoners of war?
•
Q: That was my -- that's been the understanding here.
•
Rumsfeld: I didn't -- you just said I said American prisoners of war, and
I'm not sure I said that. (To General Myers.) Do you know?
•
Myers: I don't know.
•
Q: Are you saying that there have not been American prisoners
executed then?
63
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Execution of Prisoners
April 7 Press Briefing
•
Rumsfeld: I'm not saying either. There may very well have been, but I'm not
announcing that, if that's what you're asking. Would you check and see if I said that
right now? You've got a copy of it; I'd be curious. If I did, I'd want to make it right.
•
Q: Well --
•
Rumsfeld: Just a minute. If I did say precisely American prisoners of war, I'd want to
correct it, because I don't have the names of anyone who has -- any American
prisoners of war who we know of certain knowledge has been executed. We do know
they executed a lot of prisoners of war over the years. And that's what I --
•
Q: Do you know if any of the nine sets of remains that have been returned, if the
forensics -- preliminary forensics have shown any of those to have been executed?
•
Rumsfeld: I have not heard the report on that. Have you?
•
Myers: I have not seen any of that.
(Later in the briefing)
•
Rumsfeld: Let me correct this. Your question was inaccurate. I had said, "They have
executed POWs," and I did not say from what country.
By the end of the questioning, he implied they were not Americans.
I’ve talked to people who have seen the picture taken when the 64
individuals from
the 507th were found. They described head wounds and fresh blood that could have been
consistent with execution. Again, the pattern was that the story was more important than
the facts.
What is wrong with the truth? Why didn’t these guys level with us? That
frustrated me at the time, and it continues to frustrate me.
Shula District Bombing
•
March 29 - Explosion kills more than 50 civilians: Central
Command spokesman suggests the likely cause was Iraqi fire.
•
April 2 - The British Independent newspaper reports that it
reporter, Robert Fisk, found a 30-centimeter piece of shrapnel at
the site of the Shula bombing showing the serial number of the
bomb, identifying it as a HARM built by Raytheon.
•
April 3rd - Jim Wilkinson, a Central Command spokesman, said
American forces have received "reliable information" that the Iraqi
regime may be planning to bomb some Shiite Muslim
neighborhoods of Baghdad, then blame the U.S.-led coalition for
the destruction. AP
•
April 3 - UK Defense Chief Geoff Hoon says thee is no evidence
the market bombings were caused by coalition missiles.
On March 29th, 50 civilians were killed in a neighborhood in Baghdad. A British
reporter found parts of a US anti-radiation missile (HARM).
65
The CENTCOM cover story came from Jim Wilkinson. He said Iraq had planned
this kind of thing. It was part of the pattern. The UK side continued the “not us” line.
This is another one of those stories that is particularly painful. One keeps wanting
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to say, “Why did you do this?” Iraq had place surface to air missiles in the area. That
was justification enough.
General Pace did not seem to have had a very good day on March 27th while on
the Larry King Show on CNN. He said troops from the 507th were shot when they
attempted to surrender.
Capture of the 507th
• “Intelligence reports indicate when the troops attempted to
surrender, they were shot.” Gen Pace CNN, March 27th
• Official Army Report: “…with no means to continue to resist,
SGT Riley made the decision to surrender the two Soldiers
(Hernandez, and Johnson) and himself. PFC Miller moved
beyond the crash-site, engaged the enemy, and was captured
after being surrounded. … Hudson, also wounded, was
immediately surrounded after the shooting stopped, and was
pulled from the vehicle by Iraqis and captured. ”
It does not seem to have been true, according to the Army report.
There was something about the “Red Zone” that caught a lot of people’s
imaginations. Maybe it was because it was easy to understand the football metaphor.
66
Red Zone
March 21st – Rumsfeld, DOD Press Briefing, “There have been a variety of
views offered on that subject (WMD use), and a lot of them tend to cluster
around the idea that the most serious period would be if the Iraqi regime
did not flee, and the forces got close to where they likely are in Baghdad
or Tikrit, and the closer they got, the greater the danger of that. But we
don't -- that's been more a theory on the part of outsiders rather than a
theory on the part of insiders through interrogation or communication.”
March 24th – David Martin, CBS News, "Iraqis have drawn a red line on the
map around Baghdad, and once American troops cross it, the Republican
Guards are authorized to use chemical weapons.”
March 24th - GEN. FRANKS: I think -- I actually think we don't know. There is a
school of thought that says as the compression becomes tighter and
tighter and tighter, the pressure will be greater and greater to use these
weapons. So we don't know
The discussion began with a question to Rumsfeld on March 21st. He provided a
fairly good answer; it would not have stimulated much of a story. It was probably close
67
to truth. Three days later someone got to CBS with more, although that same day Franks
tended to put it back in the box.
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Red Zone
March 25th – Rumsfeld, DOD Press Briefing: “There has been intelligence scraps-- who
knows how accurate they are-- chatter in the system that suggest that the closer that
coalition forces get to Baghdad and Tikrit, the greater the likelihood, and that some
command-and-control arrangements have been put in place. But whether it will
happen or not remains to be seen.”
Marc 28th - GEN. BROOKS: “We're really referring to the earlier reports that it remains
consistent as there might be trigger lines that are out there or places that which the
regime would be threatened enough that they would use it. And as we add the
additional evidence we found on the battlefield, again, we begin to take that very
seriously that in fact there is a linkage between the two.”
April 2nd - GEN BROOKS: “First, the red zone or the red lines that we describe is simply
a term that characterizes that there may be a trigger line where the regime deems
sufficient threat to use weapons of mass destruction, weapons that we know are
available to them, weapons that we've seen the regime use on their own people in the
past, weapons we believe are in the possession of some of their forces now.
By March 25th, Rumsfeld began to pick up the theme. One can be alerted to
strategic influence stuff when he talks about “scraps of intelligence.” By April 2nd, the
Red Zone had taken on a life.
68
Red Zone
April 2nd – Military Official at U.S. Central Command, …said the imaginary red line, the
conceptual trip wire for the danger zone, runs east from Karbala, about 50 miles
south of Baghdad on the Euphrates River, to Kut on the Tigris River southeast of
Baghdad.
…after April 2nd, there were more than 1500 articles using the “Red Zone.”
April 16th – USA Today, A salt desert strip west of the town of Karbala, the gap is only a
little more than a mile wide. It also lies inside what the Army commanders came to
call the "red line" — turf so close to Baghdad that Iraqi troops might defend it with
chemical weapons. U.S. commanders feared that the Iraqis would sucker advance
units through the gap, only to "slime" them from behind with chemical weapons,
cutting them off to be killed.
By the middle of April, thousands of stories appeared in the written press about
the Red Zone.
Even if one grants the Administration some room for not knowing Iraq didn’t
have chemical weapons it was immediately prepared to use against us at 69
the beginning of
the war, by April 16th, it did know. Joint Task Force 20 whose mission it was to go to
the WMD sites first would have been to the majority of them. The coalition air forces
had even stopped flying sorties against WMD areas. The evidence would have been
coming back to Washington. But, they kept the story alive.
It continued into April:
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The WMD and Scud Stories
• April 10 – NYT, “The Iraqi forces in the area, along the
Euphrates River, have been defending a large compound
that includes phosphate fertilizer and water treatment
plants. American officials say the sheer tenacity of the Iraqi
fight has led them to suspect that the Iraqis might be
defending Scud missiles or other weapons.” (Reference is
to Al Qa’im.)
No scuds or WMD were found at Al Qa’im.
An Even Darker Side
70
One element of the darker side was psychological operations. Strategic influence
is aimed at international audiences (and maybe domestic audience). PSYOPS, on the
other hand, are targeted at the bad guys. The problem is that during this war PSYOPS
became a major part of the relationship between the governments of the US and the UK
and the free press.
Psychological Operation
- March 19: “The days of Saddam Hussein are numbered.”
- March 21: “…regime is starting to lose control of their
country.”
- March 23: “The outcome is clear. The regime of Saddam
Hussein is gone. It’s over.”
-
Rumsfeld
- Assessment: Most likely part of of the Strategic PSYOPS. U.S.
press used to communicate the message.
At the lower end of the scale, when Rumsfeld and officials in London kept saying the
days of the “regime” were numbered, they were talking to people in Iraq who might have
been thinking of fighting.
72
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Psychological Operation
• Air Marshall Brian Burridge, March 24th, "It's probably unnecessary
at this stage in the campaign to focus on him as one man. The key
aspect is the regime itself. Once the regime recognizes that its
days are up, then they will crumble. And while they are crumbling,
others who for some years maybe have had designs on
overthrowing the regime, will probably develop greater levels of
courage themselves. So we'll see a crumble and Saddam's place
in that is largely becoming immaterial.”
- Assessment: Most likely part of of the Strategic
PSYOPS.
When the British commander gave a presentation to the international press on
March 24th and talked about uprising, he was not giving an assessment as a professional
about likely outcomes, he was broadcasting to see if he could inspire that to happen. It
73
was psychological operations. We can see where psychological operations begin to color
the free press. It would have been wrong to conclude from his remarks that he was
predicting overthrow. His target audience was inside Iraq.
A major example of PSYOPS distorting the free press with false information was
the case of the 51st Division. On the 21st and 22nd of March, their surrender was a
major story. It was told as if it were a truth. It was told on both sides of the Atlantic. It
had been coordinated. It was not true.
Psychological Operation?
51st Division
•
WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) -”The commander of Iraq's
regular 51st Division on Friday surrendered to American Marines
advancing through the desert toward Baghdad in southern Iraq, U.S.
defense officials said. …The defense officials, who asked not to be
identified, did not provide details but told Reuters that both the
commander and vice-commander of the division had
surrendered…the unit had been peppered in recent weeks with tens
of thousands of air-dropped leaflets calling on the Iraqi military to
give up.”
•
March 22, CBS News - “An entire division of the Iraqi army,
numbering 8,000 soldiers, surrendered to coalition forces in
southern Iraq Friday, Pentagon officials said. The move marked the
largest single unit to surrender en masse.”
74
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Psychological Operation?
51st Division
•
Agence France-Presse, March 23. “An Iraqi commander near the
southern city of Basra said Sunday that his division, which
Washington earlier said had surrendered, would continue to resist
US and British forces. ‘I am with my men in Basra, we continue to
defend the people and riches’ of the town, Colonel Khaled al-
Hashemi, commander of the 51st Mechanized Division, told the
satellite television channel Al-Jazeera.”
•
UPI, March 25. "It's quite clear elements of the Iraq regular army the
51st Division that was west of Basra have pulled back into the town,
of what scale and size, we're not quite clear.” Colonel Chris Vernon,
UK Spokesman
By the 23rd, because of interviews with the commander who was supposed to
have surrendered, it became clear the 51st had not surrendered.
75
If the first unit the Coalition encountered had surrendered as a group immediately,
it would have been a powerful message to the rest of the Iraqi military to do the same.
Certainly, it was not an intelligence failure. You would know if you have an entire
division.
The US/UK announcement of the surrender of the 51st Division was a
psychological operation.
The Brits seems to have been given lead on another strategic psychological
operation.
Psychological Operation?
- September 8 visit by General Ali Hasan al-Majid, a cousin and
trusted member of Saddam’s clan.
- Saddam Hussein has made secret plans to move his family
and some members of the regime in case of a war.
- $3.5 Billion deposited in Libyan banks.
- Not clear if Uday is part of the deal.
The Times, UK
Assessment: Strategic PSYOPS with the target most likely the
people of Iraq
It was a planted. The story reported that Saddam Hussein had worked a plan to
take members of his family to Libya. The Secretary of Defense told us he was going to
do this kind of thing.
76
I need to mentioned “black programs.” There are some very powerful historical
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examples from the Cold War. A former CIA manager for clandestine operations has
suggested some of that probably took place in this war. After one sees the pattern of the
stories in the press, it is possible to see some black operations might have been generated
by the US and the UK. Both countries have organizations whose missions are to generate
these kinds of stories.
Milt Bearden raises a profound question for me. If we would manipulate truth,
would we also manipulate evidence? That would be very serious. Is that what the
Secretary of Defense meant when he said he was going to be doing strategic influence?
Black Programs
• Historical
– US responsible for creating and experimenting with
AIDS in Africa.
– Soviet Army’s use of bobby trapped toys in Afghanistan.
• “It will be important to learn who was behind the
fake Niger document and why and what other
information driving American policies might carry
their fingerprints.” …aluminum tubes?
Milt Bearden, Former CIA Manager for Clandestine
Operations
Here are some possibilities of black propaganda.
78
September 9th - IISS Report…”only months
away if it were able to get hold of weapons
grade uranium…from a foreign source.”
Black Program?
•
Niger nuclear materials documents came to the CIA through the
Italians and the British.
•
Mentioned in the President’s State of the Union Message.
•
Reported in the September UK Dossier on the threat from Iraq.
– February - Joseph Wilson to Africa to investigate the reports.
– Sept 24th - CIA to Congressional committee
– Sept 26th - Powell in closed hearing
– Dec 19th - State position paper; first public
– Jan 28th - State of the Union Message
– March 7th - IAEA reveal forgeries
•
Fundamental questions is who had to gain by forging these
documents?
It is fairly clear now the Niger documents were forged. We have to ask ourselves
who would have benefited? For what groups was the fact that Iraq might be close to
79
having nuclear weapons important? There are three possibilities.
The forgery could have been by someone inside the US Government probably
Truth from These Podia
other than the CIA. It could have been done by parts of the Department of Defense. It
could have been done by Israeli intelligence. Israeli intelligence was participating with
the Department of Defense in the Iraq collection effort. Israel had a great deal to gain.
There was a pattern of bad intelligence from the Iraqi National Congress. This could
have been part of that pattern. If it were any of the three, the American people certainly
have a “need to know.”
There was an interesting timing of the Africa connection. On September 9th,
International Institute for Strategic Studies released a report about nuclear weapons that
said Iraq was, “only months away if it were able to get hold of weapons grade
uranium…from a foreign source.” The UK Dossier the came out shortly after that,
quoted the IISS report and mentioned that Iraq had tried to get nuclear materials from
Africa. Someone gave IISS bad information. Their argument was compounded in the
Dossier by more bad information.
What about the case of George Galloway, a British member of Parliament?
Black Program?
•
April 22nd, London Daily Telegraph reports papers retrieved from Iraq’s
Foreign Ministry alleged payoffs to George Galloway, longtime critic of a
hard line against Hussein
•
April 25th, Christian Science Monitor reports Saddam Hussein had paid
British member of Parliament, George Galloway, $10M over 11 years.
Obtained from a retired general.
•
May 11th, British paper The Mail, reported to have gotten documents from
the same source that were forgeries.
•
June 20th, Christian Science Monitor reports their analysis revealed their
documents were forgeries.
•
Who had anything to gain? Is this part of the pattern of punishment?
– Same retired general told the Christian Science Monitor he has documents
proving 6 of the 9/11 hijackers learned to fly in Iraq.
Documents were forged to suggest direct links between George Galloway and the
Iraq regime. Was this part of the pattern of punishment? Was this a black operation?
80
Documents were “found” which supported the US contention that Iraq planned a
guerilla campaign. It does stretch the imagination, however, to believe that Saddam
Hussein envisioned the eleven-step program that would go on after he had been removed
from power. Who was to benefit by these found documents? Were they forged?
Truth from These Podia
Black Program?
•
Iraqi Intelligence Service Emergency Plan, January 23, 2003
– Steps after the fall to American-British-Zionist allies, God forbid, discovered is
Basrah (NYT, June 28)
– 11 steps
• Looting and burning government office buildings
• Sabotaging power plants
• Cutting communications lines
• Attacking water purification plants
• Infiltrating new political parties and Islamic groups, particularly in Najaf, a
Shiite religious center
• Buying stolen weapons
• Assassinating Shiite and anti-Baathist leaders
•
Rumsfeld - “…there are a lot of Baathists and Fedayeen Saddam still in the country,
and that they are doing things unhelpful to the coalition…”
•
Bremer - On "Fox News Sunday, July 20: "There has been some evidence of planning
for the possibility of losing the war militarily and going into some kind of insurgency
or organized resistance,"
What is so strange about this is that someone would have us believe that Saddam
Hussein would put on his list of things to do actions that would have negative effects on
the welfare of the Iraqi people. This is not a guy who cared much about that when he was
81
in power, but now it becomes a major thrust of his popular campaign?
Feels like forgery. Feels like a black program.
Black Program?
• Saddam Hussein in the Russian Embassy in Baghdad?
– First reported by Al Jazeera network.
– White House, however, picked up on the story.
– Lines were “hot” to Moscow over the issue.
• Two possibilities:
– It was just a rumor.
– It was a planted tumor
• This is probably more likely because of the way the White House
picked up on it.
• There seems to be no other case in which the White House picked
up on an Al Jazeera rumor.
Another story with a feeling of blackness was when Al Jazeera reported that
Saddam Hussein was in the Russian Embassy. The White House picked up on the story
82
and treated it as if it were truth.
Truth from These Podia
Black Program?
Withheld Iraq Report Blamed on French
• “London - The French secret service is believed to have
refused to allow Britain’s MI6 to give the United States
‘credible’ intelligence showing that Iraq was trying to buy
uranium ore from Niger, U.S. intelligence sources said
yesterday.
U.S. Intelligence sources believe the most likely source
of the MI6 intelligence was the French secret service, the
DGSE.”
Michael Smith, London Daily Telegraph
July 14, 2003
Someone planted a story that the French had a hand in denying credible evidence
about Iraq buying uranium. This story burned out very quickly, but I have a feeling of
83
strategic influence.
The strategic influence campaign had some other strange dimensions. It’s almost
hard to believe. The Pentagon media consultants created a web site during the war
entitled “Empower Peace.” Obviously, it would be wrong to conclude the US
Department of Defense was trying to establish a peace movement. It seems as if this
program were designed to give the impression that the people of the United States
(children) wanted peace. It seems to have been aimed at the Arab audience set. It didn’t
say that on the site. It looked like a grassroots effort. Seems like playing with truth.
The web site was very short-lived. This might have been because it could have
been a violation of the Smith-Mundt act. The Smith-Mundt Act (1948) forbade the
domestic dissemination of U.S. government materials intended for
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There are some important questions I was not able to answer. Did the Rendon
Group pay for this effort with money from its DOD contracts?
“The Iraq Crisis Bulletin” was another strange web site. There was absolutely no
indication of the sponsor of the site, but the articles were by Voice of America
correspondents.
It was fairly good and was even recommended to reporters by the American Press
Institute. The problem is the Voice of America is prohibited from doing communications
for the American press, but during Gulf II, it was getting the message to them.
I contacted the press office at VOA and asked if they were aware of the “Iraq
Crisis Bulletin” and who maintained the site. No response.
VOA Serving the US Press
• “Iraq Crisis Bulletin” a web site that provided daily update
and reports from around the world about the crisis.
– Subscribe by e-mail
– No indication of the source of the stories.
– Most of the authors, however, were from the VOA.
• A recommended site by the American Press Institute.
• Question: Who was maintaining the site? Who was
paying?
After I had gotten a handle on the stories that were part of psychological
operations and those that were false or engineered for the purpose of either information
operations or strategic influence, it was possible to go back over press briefings and score
them. Of the topics covered, which were part of PSYOPS and which were false or
engineered? I added a category of “no information” in order to see
85
how much truth we
were getting.
This is the first brief of the war with Rumsfeld and Myers. As one might expect,
the opening remarks were heavy on PSYOPS content.
Truth from These Podia
Collateral Damage
March 20, 2003, DOD Press Briefing
No Information
PSYOPS
False or Engineered
Rumsfeld: 1. Hit
X
leadership
2. Fight or help
X
3. Use of WMD
X
4. Military in free Iraq
X
5. Protect civilians
X
Influence theme
6. Humanitarian
X
Influence theme
7. Coalition
Influence theme
8. Includes muslims
Strategic influence
9. War against regime
X
Influence theme
10. Coalition
Influence theme
11. Security
12. Men and women
13. Coalition
Influence theme
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Collateral Damage
March 20, 2003 DOD Press Brief
No Information
PSYOPS
False or Engineered
Myers: 14. Operational
security
15. Troops
17. Full information
Q&A: 18. Oil fires
X
19. Oil fires
X
20. Regime and WMD
X
21. Liberation
X
22. Rising up
X
23. Leadership attack
24. Saddam killed
X
25. The “Plan”
26. Liberation
X
Total
4
10
4 (plus 3 also PSYOPS)
87
That continued through the question and answer part. Even if you give them
slack for not giving any information, it turns out that more than half the answers were not
truth.
I’ll accept I might make the criteria for truth someone tough. Maybe a better way
to say it would be that if an American (or Brit) who were diligent about wanting to
understand the war, he could not rely on the statements made by the US Secretary of
Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In less that 50% of the topics
covered, the answer would have been “no.”
Doing the same kind of analysis on a press briefing on April 7th, I found a similar
pattern. The briefing opened with heavy psychological operations.
Truth from These Podia
Collateral Damage
April 7, 2003, DOD Press Briefing
No Information
PSYOPS
False or Engineered
Rumsfeld: 1. Leadership
X
isolated
2. Forces surrender
X
3. “Chemical Ali” end
X
(Bad Intelligence?)
4. Tribute to troops
5. Terrorist, execute
Influence theme
prisoners
6. Humanitarian
X
Influence theme
7. People no longer fear
X
regime
8. Meyers: Tribute to
troops
9. Facts of the
operations
10. “Chemical Ali”
X
(Bad Intelligence?)
11. Avoiding civilians
Influence theme
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Collateral Damage
April 7, 2003, DOD Press Briefing #2
No Information
PSYOPS
False or Engineered
Q&A: 12. Sarin found
X
near Karbala
13. WMD Chair of
Custody
14. Missile unit
X
Myers appeared not to
mentioned by Powell
have heard of the unit
15. Free Iraqi Forces
16. Impact of Basrah on
X
Baghdad
17. Post-conflict
X
organization
18. Execution of POW’s
X
Influence theme &
cover of previous
19. Tipping Point
20. Republican Guard
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This briefing also had two strange exchanges. I have already mentioned the
exchange about which prisoners (if any) had been executed. Also during this briefing,
General Myers was asked about the chemical missile unit Secretary Powell had talked
about in his UN speech as being on the outskirts of Baghdad with WMD warheads ready
to fire. He was very evasive saying that he did not recall ever having heard about such a
unit. I categorized that as “no information,” but it is easy to see why he did not want to
respond. It is impossible for me to believe he did not remember the unit.
Truth from These Podia
Collateral Damage
April 7, 2003, DOD Press Briefing #3
No Information
PSYOPS
False or Engineered
21. Fragging
22. Post-conflict
X
government
23. Governments
X
supporting Iraq
24. Friendly fire
25. Character of victory
26.
Stabilization
Totals
5
8
3
At the end of the briefing, we were left with fewer false stories, quite a few
PSYOPS and some “no information.” Were the American people
90
helped understand the
true nature of what we were involved with in Iraq? They were not.
Strategic Influence Scorecard
Desired
Some Desired
No or Negative
Influence
Influence
Influence
Iraq
U.S.
West
Arabs
Rest of the
World
Source: The concept of the five separate perception wars comes from John Rendon, 2 July 03.
91
One of the Pentagon media consultants said there were five separate audiences in
the perception war. After all these efforts, it’s possible to come back to the conclusion
that the truth is best story. Only two audiences were influenced positively by the
strategic influence campaign, and that influence is now diminishing.
According to the UK PSYOPS specialists I heard at a conference in London the
first week in July, they are convinced that one of the reasons we are currently having
problems in Iraq is because we oversold our story. We told them too many times and too
strongly that we would make it better and fix things.
Truth from These Podia
Organizing for Combat
Players in USG Strategic
Communication
DOD Information
Public Affairs/
Operations
Diplomacy
ASD(PA)
USD (P)
USD (I)
USD(P)
JS DDIO
ASD(SO-LIC)
White House Office of
Combatant
Global Communications
State Department
Commands
NSC CT
NSC/DOS
Info Strategy
USAID
Strat Comms
PCC
PCC
Other Government
Information Activities
PCC = Policy Coordination
Committee
CIA
NSC
Treasury
Justice
Source: Capt. Gerald Mauer, Assistant Deputy Director for Information Operations, Joint Staff, 2 July 03
92
One way to view how the US Government was organized to do the strategic
communications effort before, during and after the war is to use the chart that was used
by the Assistant Deputy Director for Information Operations. The center is the White
House Office of Global Communications, the organization originally created by Karen
Hughes as the Coalition Information Office. The White House is at the center of the
strategic communications process.
Its important to note that there are two Policy Coordination Committees, one that
deals with the information component of the war on terrorism and one that deals with
strategic communications in general.
Truth from These Podia
Organizing for Combat
Special Plans Office
Abram Shulsky
Iraqi National Congress
Harold Rhode
(London)
Michael Rubin
Frances Brooke, Rendon Group
Michael Pillsbury
Advises OSD, Joint Staff and NSC
Rendon Group
Special Operations Command
(Connecticut Avenue & T Street)
• Directorate of Central Intelligence
(Catherine Place, London)
and Information Operations
John W. Rendon
Brig. General James Parker
Sandra Libby (John’s Wife)
• 24 PSYOPS Group
David L. Perkins
Linda Flohr
Strategic PSYOPS Field Activity
Frances Brooke
(US Army INSCOM’s Information Operations
Center at Fort Belvoir supported by DARPA
and John Poindexter)
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In the Pentagon, in addition to the normal public affairs structure, the Special
Plans Office was deeply involved in this effort, supported (with information) by the Iraqi
National Congress. There was the Rendon Group, headed by John Rendon who gave
media advice to OSD, the Joint Staff and the White House. Finally, there were
connections to large PSYOPS activities.
The names of individuals came from open reports. I was given the names of
people in the Special Pans Office by a press source.
The Rendon Group worked for the Government of Kuwait during the Gulf I.
John Rendon proudly tells that it was he who shipped small American flags to Kuwait for
the citizens to wave as troops entered Kuwait City. He suggested the same technique for
this war, but the Joint Staff information operations office turned down the idea.
The Rendon Group worked for both OSD and the Joint Staff during this war.
John Rendon says he was part of the daily 9:30 phone calls with the key information
players to set themes.
Inside the White House there was an Iraq Group that did policy direction and then
the Office of Global Communications itself.
Truth from These Podia
Organizing for Combat
White House Iraq Group
Karl Rove
Karen Hughes
Coalition Information Center
Mary Matalin
(White House, London and Islamabad)
Jim Wilkinson
Nicholas Calio (Leg. Liaison)
Executive Order in January 2003
Condi Rice
Started Work ~ 6 months earlier
Stephen Hadley
Scooter Libby
$200 Million: Times of London
Office of Global Communications
White House Counterterrorism
(White House, London)
Linda Flohr (moved from Rendon Group)
CENTCOM Office in Qatar
Old Executive Office Building
Six Permanent People
•Tucker Eskew
1)
Daily Messages
•Dan Bartlett
2)
Communications Planning
Jeff Jones, Director of Strategic Communications
3)
Long Term Planning
Peter Reid - Information Attaché, British Embassy
(Maybe 3 Brits)
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The Times of London said the Office of Global Communications was a $200M
program. That certainly raises the question of how much all of this cost, including the
$250,000 for the pressroom in Doha.
It’s important to note that at times there were as many as three Brits associated
with the Office of global Communications.
Organizing for Combat
CENTCOM
Jim Wilkinson (White House)
UK
Dan Senor (White House)
Alastair Campbell, Director of Communications
Reed Dickens (White House)
and Strategy
Deputy Dir for
Tony Rowlands, Foreign Office
Colonel Richard Smith, Dir. Targeting and Info. Ops.
Information Operqations
Capt Gerald Mauer, Asst, Deputy
15 Psychological Operations Group, Chicksands
Global Information Center VTC to UK I/O Office
(White House)
CENTCOM Office in Qatar
Global Messenger
Rendon Group
• Old Executive Office Building
To: Embassies, USG Offices
•Tucker Eskew
John W. Rendon
•Dan Bartlett
Jeff Jones, Director of Strategic Communications
E-mail
Peter Reid - Information Attaché, British Embassy
0930 Morning Telecon
ASD for Public Affairs
State Public Affairs
Tori Clarke
Richard Boucher
95
These assets were networked. To insure the military would be a willing part of
the network, three people from the White House Office of Global Communications were
sent to work with Central Command. Jim Wilkinson became General Franks Director of
Truth from These Podia
Strategic Communications.
The war was handled like a political campaign. Everyone in the message business
was from the political communications community. It was a political campaign.
UK Organizing for Combat
*0830 - UK Policy Meeting
White House Office of
0930 - UK Information Operations Cell
Global Communications
works the message for the day.
Direct Coordination
• For discussions with the US
• For their forces in the field
1300 - News Release Group Meeting
…ad hoc Targeting and Info. Ops.
Coalition Information
discussions with Washington
Center
**P. Hamill
**J. Pratt
Twice weekly - Iraq Media Group
**M. Khan
**Alison Blackshaw (Campbell’s
Personal Assistant)
Every Friday - VTC with Washington
*Source: Tony Rowlands, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 2 July 03
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** Drafted the February 3rd Dossier, Telegraph, 2/8/03
In London, there was a parallel organization and a parallel coordination process.
They kept the coordination with secure video teleconferences.
My concern became even greater when I attended a conference on information
operations the first week in July. This was John Rendon’s list of things that need fixing.
The Future
• John Rendon, July 3rd, London conference
– We were on the wrong side of expectations during the conflict;
we need to fix that.
– Embedded journalists were the equivalent of reality television,
and they got air time.
– We allowed others to give the context too much; we need to fix
that.
– We were still behind the news cycle by four hours, particularly
in other time zones.
– Lanes are not important as long as an agency with the
capability contributes.
He said the embedded idea was great. It worked as they had found in the test. It
was the war version reality television, and for the most part, they did not loose control of
the story. He said one of the mistakes they made was that they lost control of the context.
97
The retired people in the networks had too much control of context. That has to be fixed
for the next war. He said he again was made aware that lanes are not important. By
Truth from These Podia
lanes he meant not letting individual organization take control the story.
The Future
•
Captain Gerald Mauer, Assistant Deputy Director for Information
Operations, Joint Staff, July 3rd, London conference.
– Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs are slowly being integrated into
information operations.
– We are looking to have a USG Strategic Fusion Center that brings
everything together.
– The Information Operations Roadmap is being coordinated within
DOD; I/O will probably go to USD (Policy).
– We hope to make more use of Hollywood and Madison Avenue in the
future.
– “Adversary” has been taken out of the working definition of
information operations; we will attempt to “disrupt, corrupt or usurp
adversarial…decision making.”
•
15 Psychological Operations Group (UK) will grow, and strategic
information operations will take on new importance.
The information operations part of the future is frightening. He said without a
98
sense of the implications that public diplomacy and public affairs are being integrated
into information operations. He said looking ahead to the next war that the US
Government needs a single fusion center that can integrate the story.
The Future
•
Captain Gerald Mauer, Assistant Deputy Director for Information
Operations, Joint Staff, July 3rd, London conference.
– Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs are slowly being integrated into
information operations.
– We are looking to have a USG Strategic Fusion Center that brings
everything together.
– The Information Operations Roadmap is being coordinated within
DOD; I/O will probably go to USD (Policy).
– We hope to make more use of Hollywood and Madison Avenue in the
future.
– “Adversary” has been taken out of the working definition of
information operations; we will attempt to “disrupt, corrupt or usurp
adversarial…decision making.”
•
15 Psychological Operations Group (UK) will grow, and strategic
information operations will take on new importance.
He described a paper called the Information Operations Roadmap that was being
98
coordinated in the Pentagon. He said when the paper was drafted by his office it said that
information operations would be used against an “adversary.” He went on to say that
when the paper got to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (Feith), it
was changed to say that information operations will attempt to “disrupt, corrupt or usurp
adversarial…decision making.” Adversarial…decision-making will be disrupted. In
other words, we will even go after friends if they are against what we are doing or want
to do.
Truth from These Podia
They seem to be documenting the practice that emerged during Gulf II. If you
don’t agree with us, you could be the target of an information attack.
Last Chart
If the democracies of the United States and the United Kingdom are based upon
informed, open debate of the issues, we’ve got some fixing to do.
A close friend always asks about my last chart. What’s your last chart? He
means what are your recommendations? What do we do? He is right. It does not seem
to be enough just to say things have gone bad.
99
Parliamentary Inquiry. In the UK, it’s not enough to look at the arguments about
weapons of mass destruction before the war. There needs to be an inquiry of the broader
question of how spin got to be more important than substance. What roles did
information operations and strategic psychological operations play in the war? What
controls need to be placed on information operations?
Information Operations. Someone inside the US Government said to me as I was
doing this research that there were so many offices doing information operations he
couldn’t even name them. We need a major investigation. We need restrictions on
which parts of the government can do information operations. We should not do
information operations against friends. We have to get this back in control.
Smith-Mundt Act. The law was written right after World War II. It’s intent was that
the American people would not become the target of our own propaganda. It no longer
works. We became collateral damage, a target group of messages intended for other
groups. The Internet and international media access have changed the conditions. We
need to revise the laws.
Truth from These Podia
Post Script
The reactions to my research have been very interesting.
When I show the stuff to individuals inside the government, mostly the career
people who have been around more than one administration, they have an almost
universal first reaction. They say something like, “Be careful with this; they will punish
you.” I don’t hear that I have gotten it wrong. They don’t correct my research. I keep
hearing the notion that, as I found in the research, punishment of those who disagree is a
dimension the strategy.
Print media have been quite interested. I think reporters like the idea of someone
confirming they had not been getting the true story. I have detected a major issue in these
discussions in what reporters have not said to me.
I think the materials point to problems in the way newspapers did their job during
the war. Why don’t they react immediately that they need to do some self-appraisal? I
think one could take the stories I have highlighted and ask some direct questions. How
was it that the Washington Post took classified information on the Jessica Lynch story
and published it just the way the individual leaking it in the Pentagon wanted? Why did
the New York Times let itself be used by “intelligence officials” on stories? Why did the
Washington Times never seem to question a leak they were given? Why were
newspapers in the UK better than those in the U.S. in raising questions before and during
the war?
I’ve not heard any self-criticism from reporters to whom I have talked.
When I’ve talked to television producers and reporters my sense is they believe
the whole story is just too complex to tell. That’s sad but probably true.
Cynicism is the most disturbing reaction I have found. I got from a limo driver
who was taking me to the MSNBC studio for a debate on the no WMD story. He said,
“It’s just what politicians do.”
I gave a briefing on my research to one of the major Washington research
organizations, a think tank. A major thrust of reactions was to keep asking, “What’s
new.” This kind of thing always takes place. I think I heard laughter when I said there
was no passion for truth in those who were taking us to war. Didn’t I understand what
goes on in government?
I pain for the limo driver because leaders have pushed him to cynical. I pain even
more for the senior researcher. He seems to have no sense of a higher vision. I pain for
our democratic process when I find individuals not angered at being deceived.
