NYT: Hidden Hand of Pentagon

[matt819]

Source: New York Times

-snip-
In the summer of 2005, the Bush administration confronted a fresh wave of criticism over Guantánamo Bay. The detention center had just been branded “the gulag of our times” by Amnesty International, there were new allegations of abuse from United Nations human rights experts and calls were mounting for its closure.

The administration’s communications experts responded swiftly. Early one Friday morning, they put a group of retired military officers on one of the jets normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney and flew them to Cuba for a carefully orchestrated tour of Guantánamo.

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?hp

---

This is a remarkable expose of the Bush Administration's extensive disinformation program using military analysts. It's an extensive article, and the few snips here don't do it justice. So, in case you're not outraged enough, take a look at this.

[Up2Late]

1. Suprised? No.

I just found this and was about to post it too. This should be a crime.:mad:

...Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.... <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/washington/20generals.html?hp>

[SpiralHawk]

27. Military industrial complex - what the repubs warned us about they have created

From wikipedia

President of the United States (and former General of the Army) Dwight D. Eisenhower later used the term in his Farewell Address to the Nation on January 17, 1961:

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every statehouse, every office of the federal government...

"...In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."

[fshrink]

2. And what did the NYT do back then?

Bend to the pressure of the bush administration. And of the very same Pentagon machine they just now discover, conveniently, as the risk is gone. I need the press when it's hard and dangerous.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

22. they sat on it, and made the IRC

look like fools, as they tried to get into GITMO and were refused access illegally.

[fshrink]

25. So this article is 6 years too late.

And I will only buy the NYT once they put out formal apologies for having betrayed their mission by submitting to pressure and support the war. Which will probably never happen. Oh well,there are other sources of information.

[stillcool]

42. it's so typical isn't it?

maybe they're setting someone up for the blame game.

[rusty_parts2001]

3. I hope this article gets wide spread attention.

Every time I see one of the retired military propagandists, I think Joseph Goebbels would be smiling.

[saigon68]

7. Yes those Miitary Thugs supporting Gangster Cheney's Torture

Need to be marched, frog style down the Halls of Justice at the Hague handcuffed in Orange Jump-Suits

[The Wizard]

16. Excepting Condi

who would look great in thigh high spiked heels, leather mask with matching G-string, and the obligatory stainless steel bracelets.

[saigon68]

40. I don't know about that

She may look good in that, but to me she's still a 2 Bagger

[The Wizard]

45. Leather mask? (nt)

[BearSquirrel2]

20. That just reminded me ...

That picture just reminded me that those little flag pendants are little different then Nazi armbands. It's a way to peer pressure everyone into loyalty to the state. Just think how people would look at Hillary Clinton if she wore a stars and bars arm band instead of a pin.

[ToughLuck]

4. Thanks for this post! Bastards need to be tried for crimes

[UpInArms]

5. the new whored times even used the "propaganda" word

In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access.

A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis.

“It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you,’ ” Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, said.

Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. “This was a coherent, active policy,” he said.

As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, Mr. Allard recalled, he saw a yawning gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequent inquiries and books later revealed.

“Night and day,” Mr. Allard said, “I felt we’d been hosed.”

[JohnnyCougar]

6. READ & REC THIS ARTICLE!!!

This is really a fantastic piece.

[ShockediSay]

17. Shines a light into the MSM / CryptoFascist

deep dark hole

Is this how Rupert Murdoch got to corner
certain media markets?

[magellan]

8. What a surprise

...for the many who haven't been paying attention.

The entire corporate media chose to let themselves be used by Bush**. It's not like they didn't know this was going on, no matter what they say about "research" just discovering it. If by some unimaginable stretch of probability that's true, then it's a damning statement on their ability to discern truth from fiction.

Imagine it, NEWS organizations unable to differentiate between reliable sources and gov't propagandists...and it's just coincidence these lapses always seem to occur wherever and whenever it benefits Bush**!! But of course no one connected to BushCo and their lies ever breaks the law. It's always just some regrettable mistake that's been made.

:eyes: :mad:

Anyone who still trusts these whores is a mug. The 4th estate is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD, turned into the US version of Pravda by their own corporate greed run under the protection racket called the US Gov't.

[NM Independent]

9. Even if it is something most of us already knew,

it is still pretty damning.

Glad to see it more in the public eye.

[McCamy Taylor]

10. WOW! Just WOW! This needs to be the lead article!

These guys pimped the war on prime time news using their credentials as generals in exchange for military contracts. They are only speaking now because the NYT got military documents that outed them as Pentagon propaganda sources.

:applause:

[democrank]

11. I think about this each and every day

when one of those Pentagon reporters steps up to the microphone and regurgitates whatever he/she has been told to say. "surge working" "morale high" It makes be feel like I`m back at the start of Shock and Awe when we used to get daily reports from "Baghdad Bob."

[bklyncowgirl]

12. Not surprising. I'd suspected as much all along but...

...but as usual when what I've suspected all along turns out to be true, there's a sinking feeling that goes into that deep core of anger about what has become of my country--and the knowledge that there isn't a damn thing I can do about it except tell others to be skeptical of anyone in our government.

[frogcycle]

13. The NYT does not know what it is talking about

Just ask Scott McClellan:

"It is unfortunate that some have chosen to take out of context a few isolated incidents by a few individuals without making clear the policies and practices of the overwhelming vast majority, the 99.9 percent, of our military personnel," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

"The military expects its high standards to be met, and does not tolerate or condone it when individuals do not -- as this report makes clear," McClellan said.

June, 2005


:puke:

[lilyannerose]

14. What's Motivating these Analysts To Come Forward?

That thought kept crossing my mind while I read this article. Did they finally find they couldn't enjoy the financial windfall with all of the blood on their hands, or did they figure out what it means to be a true patriot? Motivation? Motivation? Motivation?

[chill_wind]

41. Legacy washing, War crimes/political legacy washing.

1 Legacy washing
2 Political parasitism- hopes for fresh political favor under a McCain/ McClinton admin

[jonnyra]

15. Rumsfeld always said

the news rooms were the new battle field. Perception is everything to this creepy administration...its never about truth, its about managing perception. Spread doubt and confusion about negative stories and make up positive stories by manipulating numbers, hiding the truth and flat out lying. This is the hallmark of this administration on everything...control perception by manipulating the information and controlling the message.

[creeksneakers2]

18. A damning account of where the information we get comes from

They've probably only scratched the surface of the propaganda mill too.

[5X]

19. Seems to be CYA by the times to me.

as if Judith Miller never existed.

[rndmprsn]

21. K&R

you need to read this article...pretty much confirming what we all suspected and knew...

[jpak]

23. K&R

:kick:

[nichomachus]

24. Once more

The way you rise to the top in the military is you kiss the butts of the guys above you as often and as fervently as you can.

The ultimate goal is to get into the top echelon. Then, if you keep your nose clean and keep kissing as hard as you can, you can retire with a hefty pension AND get a double-dipping job for a military contractor. In the meantime, you retire to one of the states with no income tax, where you can lobby against the state providing any services to "common people."

Then, if you're really good and adhere to the party line, you can get a triple-dipping gig as a TV analyst. Then, you're in the money, and, if you're really popular, can get someone to ghost write a book for you. Ka-Ching!

Nowhere in this whole chain of events do you get any points for telling the truth.

[ptolle]

26. kukd

Kiss up, kick down. Nobody achieves rank in the military without being a political animal of a well-developed sort.I'm sure no one is surprised at these revelations, it's just another turn in the revolving door that exists between the military establishment and that thing Ike warned us about all those years ago.I'm pleased as anyone that this came to light, but not terribly hopeful that it will change anything the necons have succeeded in militarizing the country and the governance dialog to a disconcerting degree and you know some of the dead-end 20%ers will view this as a necessity.

[LynnTheDem]

28. Catapulting the propaganda. It's the rightwing way.

Lies, tricks, deceit, lies and more lies.

You'd really expect all Americans to be wise to this by now.

[ooglymoogly]

29. Still and all, it is interesting to see an old easy assumption turn into a very

late news story. Watching Wolf B. and all the other "news broadcasters" spoon feed these obvious operatives (clearly to get the networks corporate heads counting the profits from their war machine holdings) is still just a little settling in a kind of 'superior much' moment.

[LiberalFighter]

30. Can military brass be court martial after they retire?

[LiberalFighter]

31. News article has 11 pages. WOW!!

[dave123williams]

32. Wrap yourself in a flag, thump on the Bible, and steal, steal, steal from the Treasury.

Some patriots these guys turned out to be.

[bushmeister0]

33. Torie Clark ( a formr McCain aide) helped sell the first Gulf War too.

Asia Times:

"Some of the most impressive spin maneuvers and disinformation campaigns occurred during the Gulf War in 1991, the lessons of which are particularly pertinent as the US again gears up.

Most notorious was the work of PR giant Hill & Knowlton (H&K) (for which current Pentagon spokesperson Torie Clarke worked after she was an aide to John McCain and Bush's dad). Subsidized by the Kuwaiti royal family, H&K dedicated 119 executives in 12 offices across the country to the job of drumming up support within the United States for the 1991 war. It was an all-out grassroots blitz: distributing tens of thousands of 'Free Kuwait' T-shirts and bumper stickers at colleges across the US and setting up observances such as National Kuwait Day and National Student Information Day. H&K also mailed 200,000 copies of a book titled The Rape of Kuwait to American troops stationed in the Middle East. The firm also massaged reporters, arranging interviews with handpicked Kuwaiti emissaries and dispatching reams of footage of burning wells and oil-slicked birds washed ashore.

But nothing quite compared to H&K's now infamous 'baby atrocities' campaign. After convening a number of focus groups to try to figure out which buttons to press to make the public respond, H&K determined that presentations involving the mistreatment of infants, a tactic drawn straight from W R Hearst's playbook of the Spanish-American War, received the best reaction.

So on October 10, 1990, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus held a hearing on Capitol Hill at which H&K, in coordination with California Democrat Tom Lantos and Illinois Republican John Porter, introduced a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl named Nayirah. (Purportedly to safeguard against Iraqi reprisals, Nayirah's full name was not disclosed.) Weeping and shaking, the girl described a horrifying scene in Kuwait City. 'I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital,' she testified. 'While I was there I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with guns and go into the room where babies were in incubators. They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left the babies on the cold floor to die.' Allegedly, 312 infants were removed.

The tale got wide circulation, even winding up on the floor of the United Nations Security Council. Before Congress gave the green light to go to war, seven of the main pro-war senators brought up the baby-incubator allegations as a major component of their argument for passing the resolution to unleash the bombers. Ultimately, the motion for war passed by a narrow five-vote margin.

Only later was it discovered that the testimony was untrue. H&K had failed to reveal that Nayirah was not only a member of the Kuwaiti royal family, but also that her father, Saud Nasir al-Sabah, was Kuwait's ambassador to the US. H&K had prepped Nayirah in her presentation, according to Harper's publisher John R MacArthur, in his book Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War. Of the seven other witnesses who stepped to the podium that day, five had been prepped by H&K and had used false names. When human rights organizations investigated later, they could not find that Nayirah had any connection to the hospital. Amnesty International, among those originally duped, eventually issued an embarrassing retraction.

When asked if it acknowledges the incubator story as a deception, H&K's media liaison, Suzanne Laurita, only responded: 'The company has nothing to say on this matter.'"

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DK13Ak01.html

[bushmeister0]

34. Marine General Smedley Butler saw this all about 80 years ago

War is a Racket:

"It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. . .

The World War, rather our brief participation in it, has cost the United States some $52,000,000,000. Figure it out. That means $400 to every American man, woman, and child. And we haven't paid the debt yet. We are paying it, our children will pay it, and our children's children probably still will be paying the cost of that war.

The normal profits of a business concern in the United States are six, eight, ten, and sometimes twelve percent. But war-time profits – ah! that is another matter – twenty, sixty, one hundred, three hundred, and even eighteen hundred per cent – the sky is the limit. All that traffic will bear. Uncle Sam has the money. Let's get it.

Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and 'we must all put our shoulders to the wheel,' but the profits jump and leap and skyrocket – and are safely pocketed."

Sound famliar?

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

[LiberalFighter]

35. Among the 75 plus retired military officers involved...

David H. Petraeus

When David H. Petraeus was appointed the commanding general in Iraq in January 2007, one of his early acts was to meet with the analysts.

Ret. Army Colonel -- Ken Allard

Ret. Air Force General Thomas G. McInerney
“Good work,” Thomas G. McInerney, a retired Air Force general, consultant and Fox News analyst, wrote to the Pentagon after receiving fresh talking points in late 2006. “We will use it.”

Ret. Army Colonel -- John C. Garrett
Ret. Air Force General -- Donald W. Shepperd
Ret. Army General -- Montgomery Meigs
Ret. Army General -- James Marks
Ret. Air Force General -- Joseph W. Ralston
Ret. Army General -- Paul E. Vallely
Barry R. McCaffrey
Ret. Navy Captain -- Charles T. Nash
Dr. McCausland
Ret. Marine Colonel -- William V. Cowan
Carlton A. Sherwood
Ret. Army General -- Robert H. Scales Jr
Wayne A. Downing
Ret. Army General -- David L. Grange
Person responsible for establishing Pentagon communication... Torie Clarke
Senior aide -- Brent T. Krueger


The retired military analysts sent copies of their correspondence with network news executives.

[rumpel]

36. I also recommend this article

to be read in it's entirety.

[jzodda]

37. Read that whole article in the print version

Very good reporting, congrats to the Times. I noted that fox news refused to cooperate and only CNN seemed to be sorry for its military analysts reporting standards. Good for them, taking some responsibility. Frankly on one hand the article sickens me, in that we live in an era where more news in readily available then at any other time before, but the quality of the reporting has gone south. I am just glad that we have papers like the Times to do this kind of work. I hope that financially they start to do better or soon we may lose them.

[Narkos]

38. It almost made me weep.....

these guys are the ones we were supposed to look up to, who had integrity and honor. What is happening to this country? I am seriously depressed about what this article revealed.

[bushmeister0]

39. And what does this say about the supposed top "leadership" of our military?

It's just shameful the way these guys parleyed their service in the military into profit at the expence of those they sent to die.

I found this quote very revealing:

"'Frankly,' one participant said, 'from a military point of view, the penalty, 2,400 brave Americans whom we lost, 3,000 in an hour and 15 minutes, is relative.'"

Or 4000, it's all relative. No matter what the "penalty," the war must go on for the good of my bank account.

[stillcool]

43. Who better to sell a war?

[chill_wind]

44. US Army Psyops Unit actually placed interns at CNN and NPR in the late 90's.

They were outted in the European press.

It seems CNN is no stranger to cooperating with military information consultants and "analysts".

"The U.S. Army's Psychological Operations unit placed interns at CNN and NPR in 1998 and 1999. The placements at CNN were reported in the European press in February of this year and the program was terminated. The NPR placements will be reported this week in TV Guide. The NPR PSYOPS interns have already been terminated. NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports. "

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1072763

There is more about this at the FAIR website from a piece in 2000

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1748