ARKIV, DEMOKRATI OG RETTFERD - Norsk kulturråd

or email messages where hard
suspicion obtains. But the New
York Times reported that NSA
recorded many thousands of
calls, then instructed the FBI
to follow up on thousands of
leads, most of which proved to
be unrelated to the so-called
War on Terror. Issues here of
course, are the legality of the
program, who exactly is being
listened to, how the program
works, how the personal information
gleaned is maintained
and for how long, and who is
allowed to review this information.
The Bush administration
is waging a fierce public relations
campaign for the public
acceptance of the eavesdropping
program, using disinformation
and smear tactics to
win its point. 20
In March 2006, Democratic
Senator Russ Feingold introduced
a resolution to censure
George W. Bush for authorizing
the warrantless surveillance
program. 21
Phase Three – Shaping
Information (Misinformation/
Disinformation)
• In February 2002, the Pentagon
set up an Office of
0
Strategic Influence (OSI) to
coordinate information dissemination
activities, ranging
from public press releases
to information warfare. This
included disinformation activities
directed at friend and
foe alike. OSI was shut down
after Congressional and public
outcry.
This was to some degree an
experiment in testing the
waters to see how far this
sort of program can be taken
before anyone objects. The
National Security Archive
has recently made available
the Pentagon’s «Information
Operations Roadmap» which
covers in part the boundaries
between information operations
abroad and the news
media at home. The Roadmap
notes that overlap or
«leakage» might occur inadvertently,
but this is okay if
Americans are not specifically
«targeted.» 22
• In September 2005, the Government
Accountability Office
ruled that the Bush administration
violated the law by
buying favorable news coverage
of the president’s educa-
tion policies. In January 2005,
conservative commentator
Armstrong Williams admitted
being paid $186,000 by
the Department of Education
to talk up Bush’s education
initiative known as «No Child
Left Behind» on his radio
broadcasts. News columnist
Maggie Gallagher admitted
to receiving payments from
the Department of Health and
Human Services to tout conservative
views of marriage.
The administration was also
criticized for disseminating
pre-packaged video «news»
programs to television stations,
many of which ran them
without acknowledging their
governmental origins. This
occurred particularly around
the issue of so-called Medicare
reform. In February 2006, it
was reported that the U.S. military
maintained the practice
of paying a consulting firm to
write positive stories about
the war in Iraq and pay Iraqi
newspapers to print them. 23
The political objective here
was to facilitate the dissemination
of administration
message under the guise of
independent journalism or
commentary.
arkiv, demokrati og rettferd