"Not Just Unethical But Illegal"

[kpete]

Pentagon Pundit Scandal Broke the Law
Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on Mon, 04/28/2008

The Pentagon military analyst program unveiled in last week's exposé by David Barstow in the New York Times was not just unethical but illegal. It violates, for starters, specific restrictions that Congress has been placing in its annual appropriation bills every year since 1951. According to those restrictions, "No part of any appropriation contained in this or any other Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofore authorized by the Congress."

...................

The Target Is You

A tantalizing window into Donald Rumsfeld's motives for creating the military analysts program can be find in a transcript that the Times obtained of one of his meetings with them. In it, he complains that he has been warned that his "information operations" are "illegal or immoral":

This is the first war that's ever been run in the 21sth Century in a time of 24-hour news and bloggers and internets and emails and digital cameras and Sony cams and God knows all this stuff. ... We're not very skillful at it in terms of the media part of the new realities we're living in. Every time we try to do something someone says it's illegal or immoral, there's nothing the press would rather do than write about the press, we all know that. They fall in love with it. So every time someone tries to do some information operations for some public diplomacy or something, they say oh my goodness, it's multiple audiences and if you're talking to them, they're hearing you here as well and therefore that's propagandizing or something.http://www.prwatch.org/files/transcript.pdf

This comment shows that Rumsfeld knows about the law against information operations that propagandize U.S. audiences. Although it is illegal to target propaganda at the America people, the law does not forbid propaganda -- even covert propaganda -- aimed at foreign audiences. Rumsfeld has been warned, however, that in today's world with "bloggers and internets and emails," even information operations overseas reach "multiple audiences" including U.S. citizens who are "hearing you here as well and therefore that's propagandizing." The irony, of course, is that Rumsfeld made these comments in a meeting with military analysts whom he had recruited specifically for information operations targeting U.S. audiences. If Rumsfeld knew that there were legal concerns even about operations targeted at foreign audiences, he certainly knew that it was illegal to target the American public. Yet he went ahead and did it anyway, and in another part of the transcript, he explained why. In fighting the war on terror, Rumsfeld said, the "center of gravity's here in Washington and in the United States."

lots more at:
http://www.prwatch.org/node/7261

[Selatius]

1. If the Nuremberg Principles were applied, he'd have been hung.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Time for a strongly worded letter from Congress and

having the corrupt Justice Department look into this.



Williams' network continuously fed government propaganda to its viewers by repeatedly featuring the Pentagon's and defense industry's pre-programmed, controlled retired Generals and presenting them as "independent" military analysts.

Williams has been a central part of the media blackout of that story. Not only did NBC News refuses to comment on the story, but Williams himself has not even mentioned it once, nor has anyone on his entire network

[formercia]

3. "public diplomacy"

A new rummyism.

[Indenturedebtor]

4. Thanks for posting!

Lets see how much coverage this gets in the corp whore media. It's good to see confirmation of what we all knew was happening. Now lets get some indictments and out the whole administration for making our country into a psychology experiment.

[Amonester]

8. Can't have that (how much coverage this gets):

The Primaries clown-fest ain't over yet. :mad:

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[Winterblues]

6. I suppose Congress could threaten him with a subpoena

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: The Cabal needs a good laugh now and then I guess.

[EVDebs]

7. Don't forget Tim Weiner's book

Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget
http://www.namebase.org/sources/PR.html

showing that unconstitutional funding mechanisms were used, and continue to be used, to circumvent the public's right to know--and Congressional oversight to boot. That book is from 1991 and nothing has been done about any of this.

The SCOTUS allows for this and should forever be tarred with it.

[tanyev]

9. Kick.

[bluesmail]

10. no shit

[Poll_Blind]

11. k&r! n\t

PB

[Disturbed]

12. This will be forgotten by next week.

The crimes of this DOD & the Busholini Regime will all be swept under the
filthy rug & will be dusted out in a few hundred years.