DoD: "We Must Be Prepared to Fight the Net"

A discussion on another thread about the prevalence of disinformation on ATS piqued my curiosity to find out how the government views the internet. I think this article pretty much sums it up -- it will be fought like it was a "weapons system." Just in case you were wondering why there's so many posters on ATS who spend half their lives insisting that every event can be explained by Occam's Razor and there's no such thing as conspiracies...

More Evidence of Pentagon War Against the Internet
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
January 7, 2009

Further evidence has emerged revealing how the Pentagon is in the business of responding to blog posts critical of the U.S. government. Noah Shachtman, writing for Wired, posts an Air Force flowchart used for “counter-blogging” purposes.


Air Force flowchart used for “counter-blogging” purposes.

“In a twelve-point plan, put together by the emerging technology division of the Air Force’s public affairs arm, airmen are given guidance on how to handle ‘trolls,’ ‘ragers’ — and even well-informed online writers, too. It’s all part of an Air Force push to ‘counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force,’ Captain David Faggard says,” Shachtman writes.

In the case of the Infowars and Prison Planet websites, Centcom operatives do not respond to trolls and ragers. In fact, many of them seem to be the most vociferous trolls and ragers.

On October 16, 2006, Raw Story reported that the United States Central Command sent an email to bloggers on the subject of the GWOT, or so-called “global war on terror,” as part of the Pentagon’s “engagement operations.”

“Now [online readers] have the opportunity to read positive stories. At least the public can go there and see the whole story,” said Maj. Richard J. McNorton. “The public wants to hear these good stories.”

In fact, the public gets these ostensibly “good stories” via the corporate media that acts as a propaganda conduit for the government and the Pentagon.

“I’ve always thought that a military-like process would be a good bridge to connect the services with the blogosphere. There’s a field manual for everything in the military, so this flow-chart presents online communications in a DoD [Department of Defense] friendly format,” former military spokesman Steven Field told Wired.

Mr. Field’s assertion is seriously at odds with Pentagon policy, however. A 2003 Pentagon document entitled the Information Operation Roadmap, released to the public after a FOIA request by the National Security Archive at George Washington University in 2006, characterizes the internet as if it were an enemy “weapons system.”

“We Must Fight the Net. DoD [Department of Defense] is building an information-centric force,” the document states. “Networks are increasingly the operational center of gravity, and the Department must be prepared to ‘fight the net’… DoD’s ‘Defense in Depth’ strategy should operate on the premise that the Department will ‘fight the net’ as it would a weapons system.”

www.truthnews.us...

I believe it has already been discussed here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Oh, I think just about every topic imaginable has been previously discussed on other ATS forums. This place is too big to keep track of everything.

Nevertheless, I find it an interesting topic. Wasn't the US critical of China for censoring the internet? Is this any different, even if it's done surreptitiously?

...The Pentagon’s focus on the internet tells us a great deal about the mainstream media and its connection to the political establishment.

Why, for example, would the Pentagon see the internet as a greater threat than the mainstream media, where an estimated 75% of Americans get their news?

The reason is clear; because the MSM is already a fully-integrated part of the corporate-system providing a 24 hour per day streaming of business-friendly news. Today’s MSM operates as a de-facto franchise of the Pentagon, a reliable and sophisticated propagandist for Washington’s wars of aggression and political subterfuge.

The internet, on the other hand, is the last bastion of American democracy; a virtual world where reliable information moves instantly from person to person without passing through the corporate filter. Online visitors can get a clear picture of their governments’ depredations with a click of the mouse. This is the liberalization of the news, an open source of mind-expanding information that elevates citizen awareness of complex issues and threatens the status quo.

The Pentagon program is just one facet of a broader culture of deception; a pervasive ethos of dishonesty that envelopes all aspects of the Bush White House. The “Strategic Intelligence” Dept is a division of the Defense establishment that is entirely devoted to concealing, distorting, omitting and manipulating the truth.

In what way is “strategic intelligence” different from plain intelligence?

It is information that is shaped in a way that meets the needs of a particular group. In other words, it is not the truth at all, but a fabrication, a fiction, a lie.

Strategic intelligence is an oxymoron; a tidy bit of Orwellian doublespeak that reflects the deeply rooted cynicism of its authors.

The internet is a logical target for the Pentagon’s electronic warfare. Already the Downing Street memos, Bush’s bombing-threats against Al Jazeera, the fraudulent 2004 elections, and the leveling of Falluja, have disrupted the smooth execution of Bush’s wars. It is understandable that Rumsfeld and Co. would seek to transform this potential enemy into an ally, much as it has done with the MSM.

The Pentagon’s plans for engaging in “virtual warfare” are impressive. As BBC notes: “The operations described in the document include a surprising range of military activities: public affairs officers who brief journalists, psychological operations troops who try to manipulate the thoughts and beliefs of an enemy, computer network attack specialists who seek to destroy enemy networks.” (BBC)

The enemy, of course, is you, dear reader, or anyone who refuses to accept their role as a witless-cog in new world order. Seizing the internet is a prudent way of controlling every piece of information that one experiences from cradle to grave; all necessary for an orderly police-state.

The Information Operations Roadmap (IOR) recommends that psychological operations (Psyops) “should consider a range of technologies to disseminate propaganda in enemy territory: unmanned aerial vehicles, "miniaturized, scatterable public address systems", wireless devices, cellular phones and the internet.” No idea is too costly or too far-fetched that it escapes the serious consideration of the Pentagon chieftains.

The War Dept. is planning to insert itself into every area of the internet from blogs to chat rooms, from leftist web sites to editorial commentary. The objective is to challenge any tidbit of information that appears on the web that may counter the official narrative; the fairytale of benign American intervention to promote democracy and human rights across the planet.

The IOR aspires to "provide maximum control of the entire electromagnetic spectrum" and develop the capability to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum". (BBC)

Full spectrum dominance.

The ultimate goal of the Pentagon is to create an internet-paradigm that corresponds to the corporate mainstream model, devoid of imagination or divergent points of view. They envision an internet that is increasingly restricted by the gluttonous influence of industry and its vast “tapestry of lies”.

The internet is the modern-day marketplace of ideas, an invaluable resource for human curiosity and organized resistance. It provides a direct link between the explosive power of ideas and engaged citizen involvement. (aka; participatory democracy)

The Pentagon is laying the groundwork for privatizing the internet so the information-revolution can be transformed into an information-tyranny, extending to all areas of communications and serving the exclusive interests of a few well-heeled American plutocrats.

[full article:] www.informationclearinghouse.info...

The Internet is truly the International Truth Highway, where all people from all over the world can spread the Truth via personal Video cameras.

Main stream news with their cameras won't be able to compete with the Internet and the amount of people on the Internet that have video cameras that have audio and video that spell out the real truth behind any and all goings on anywhere in the world; so long as it hasn't been tampered with.

Countries will want to eliminate the Internet pretty soon; first by taxing its usage out of existence if possible, and then by censure and then by other yet unknown means. People must not let this happen if people want to be free from future slavery. Who wants to leave their kids behind to live in a slave world?

Everyone realizes that governments more and more want to control people, when in fact the governments were put into place "for the people", not to control the people.