Report: Army targeted senators with psyops

Report: Army Targeted Senators With Psyops

www.msnbc.msn.com

The U.S. army reportedly deployed a specialized "psychological operations" team to help convince American legislators to boost funding and troop numbers for the war in Afghanistan.

The operation was ordered by three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, Rolling Stone Magazine reported in a story published late on Wednesday.

An officer in charge of the unit objected when he was ordered to pressure the visiting senators and was harshly reprimanded.

(visit the link for the full news article)

When questioned further...

"How do we get these guys to give us more people?" Caldwell asked, according to the magazine. "What do I have to plant inside their heads?"

U.S. law bars the military from using psyops on Americans, and every defense authorization bill explicitly prohibits the manipulation, the magazine reported.

"Everyone in the psyops, intel ... knows you're not supposed to target Americans," a veteran member of similar team told Rolling Stone. "It's what you learn on day one."

Rock bottom folks....

Get inside their heads? I suppose I am not truly shocked. What do you guys think? Brings new meaning to "By Any Means Necessary".

Mods, I searched. Please remove if this is already posted. Thanks.

www.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Always known there had to be some sort of an explanation for their almost paralyzed behavior. In my mind, it's always been a tossup between blackmail and mind control. Guess this lends itself to one of those theories. And the reality is they actually did this to the entire population by osmosis. Call it the "terrists are gonna git ya" psyop.

Does anyone really think that in a world which contains Justin "Satanspawn" Beiber, that governments and military organisations pay any damned attention to the rules ? Course not.
Keep the people dumb, and let the legislators know what thier rules are worth when faced with the fury of the military, and everything will be fine! Move along, nothing to see here, and by the way we want cash and men and no questions asked.

Is it time for that crap to stop yet?

reply to post by ~Lucidity


Agreed. I think it is absolutely ludicrous how laws can be broken as the need arises with no consequences at all. It certainly doesn't instill trust in our government, if anyone still had any left.

Sadly, I'm not even surprised.

We can see psychological operations at work every time we turn on the MSM news. The fact that the media is feigning outrage when they themselves have been so perfectly played by the Military Industrial Complex is just hilarious. Where's that story? One word: Iraq.

On MSNBC's Daily Run Down this morning Chuck Todd was actually mocking this story and asked some random Congressman if he ever felt like he had been played while visiting Afghanistan. They all just laughed it off and later Todd and Guthrie were joking that they need to use psy ops more in their jobs. I nearly fell out of my chair. So what? They don't already!? Riiight.

We are at crisis levels of BS in this country.Everybody is shoveling it. We're up to our necks in it.

Anyway, I guess Rolling Stone and Mother Jones have had some of the best "journalism" to be found from Taibbi's Wall St. pieces to MJ's BP oil spill coverage.

reply to post by kosmicjack

So true about the MSM.

Wall Street was phenomenal. RS is the only mag I subscribe to. The political articles started out as a bonus, but now...just wow.

Originally posted by kosmicjack

Sadly, I'm not even surprised.

The fact that none of us are shocked, is telling and tragic at the same time. It speaks volumes about how our government has abused our trust for far too long without repercussions.

On MSNBC's Daily Run Down this morning Chuck Todd was actually mocking this story and asked some random Congressman if he ever felt like he had been played while visiting Afghanistan. They all just laughed it off and later Todd and Guthrie were joking that they need to use psy ops more in their jobs. I nearly fell out of my chair. So what? They don't already!? Riiight.

I didn't see that, but again it is not surprising. Maybe there are people that don't mind being manipulated. They want more of it, then I am sure someone is more than willing to be their benevolent benefactors. I am in agreement with you... They are obviously overdoing it already.

We are at crisis levels of BS in this country.Everybody is shoveling it. We're up to our necks in it.

Drowning for sure. Sometimes I swear I can almost hear banjo music playing in the background...

Just last night I was moaning to myself about the lack of investigative journalism these days and how the lack has added to our miseries in America over the last decade. THANK YOU ROLLING STONE!!! It lives!!
This simply makes official what many of us have known for some time - the US military is using propaganda against it's own citizens. It matters not whether they are Senators or Joe the plumber, it's supposed to be illegal yet they create entire departments dedicated to this idea.
The constant promotion of military officers for following partisan ideals has led to this juncture of poor leadership and illegal activity. To wit:

Breazile now serves at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he works in the office dedicated to waging a global information war for the Pentagon.

Legal or not, do the bidding of the White House and we'll put stars on you.
Speak up and you get canned. Small wonder career officers have been leaving in droves.
The US military is not supposed to be a partisan organization yet such ideals are constantly being pushed on them.

How much are the Pentagons' "intelligence gathering" operations being used against political enemies?
We are getting just a tiny peek inside this can of worms.

Good find

I am not surprised in the least...I think the whole, "do not target Americans" is more for false public confidence than it is for preventing application...

Besides, the advertising agencies and media have been applying 'psy ops' for a very long time...

reply to post by MemoryShock


No doubt. Why should our elected officials be exempt?

Originally posted by Asktheanimals
Just last night I was moaning to myself about the lack of investigative journalism these days and how the lack has added to our miseries in America over the last decade. THANK YOU ROLLING STONE!!! It lives!!
This simply makes official what many of us have known for some time - the US military is using propaganda against it's own citizens. It matters not whether they are Senators or Joe the plumber, it's supposed to be illegal yet they create entire departments dedicated to this idea.
The constant promotion of military officers for following partisan ideals has led to this juncture of poor leadership and illegal activity. To wit:

Breazile now serves at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he works in the office dedicated to waging a global information war for the Pentagon.

Legal or not, do the bidding of the White House and we'll put stars on you.
Speak up and you get canned. Small wonder career officers have been leaving in droves.
The US military is not supposed to be a partisan organization yet such ideals are constantly being pushed on them.

How much are the Pentagons' "intelligence gathering" operations being used against political enemies?
We are getting just a tiny peek inside this can of worms.

Good find

Great find. Upsetting in the least. One thing that has come out of this thread is that many are high on RS as a last bastion of free reporting. Keep in mind this is RS. The Rhianna's and Bieber's of the world dominate their magazine. They too, have an agenda and it may not be what we may assume it is.

ColoradoJens

This thread is much better in replies, points, and context than tbe other thread on this topic. I dont know how it works whe. one asks a mod to take it down in cases like this, but i hope this thread stays. Interesting topic. Id like to follow it on ATS via THIS thread.

The use of every possible facet of hegelian dialctics, psyops and even terror like 9/11 to goad the US into doing what the military industrial complex desies is nothing new.
This has been ongoing since ww2.
First using the "Communist threat" and onwards till we are into the war on terror.
Its all political theater for the massees.
Above it all a cabal of uber rich and untouchable elites are manipulating the the entire worlds economies and resources to their own agenda.
The psyops will continue to be run against any and all those who may oppose or even just resent the manipulations.
The real enemy is global corporatism which when combined with the military and goverment potentials may be unstoppable even now......
To the streets! Somebody has got to stop this runaway train!

reply to post by kkrattiger


Where is the other thread? This one has surprisingly little activity.

I resist the generalizations embedded in the story....

Whenever discussing what the Army, Pentagon, or DoD is up to... including this... we must acknowledge distinctly that policy and practice is directed from within the corporate cartel known as the Military Industrial Complex.

While I attribute the ability to stop this atrocious and reprehensible practice to the Army (or whatever military service) I recognize that the impetus, motivation, and planning of it is sourced 'outside' what we consider the "military" in terms of the men and women who swore an oath to serve this country and protect her people.

The military leadership (for lack of a better word) could (and should) have refused to engage in the manipulation of information and use of propaganda against - or applied to - our own citizens (representatives or otherwise). It is NOT rocket science or some great moral dilemma to identify that such activities are NOT part of "protecting and serving" the Constitution, but instead serve political and commercial expediency (or for the more conspiratorial 'ideological' expediency) of other agendas.

Yes... they should have at least ONE damn person in there who had the gumption and personal courage to speak truth to power..... (of course, the consequences nowadays is losing career prospects, amongst other inconveniences).

In a perfect world (which can never exist apparently) such 'mandates' should have been publicly exposed immediately and scrutinized from the source.... but of course, they weren't. Instead we are left only able to contemplate that it happened (without the journalistic who, what, where, when, why, and how.)

We already know the world of politically appointed cronies is the well-spring of such orders and policies, and that appears to be just fine with the military 'leadership' as it now exists.

But this article, among a plethora of others, is forging a meme wherein the military is 'separate' from the population which makes up it's constituent parts.....

While I do applaud the Rolling Stone for this and many other illuminating articles ... it is still entrenched within the same sorry simplistic generalizations that make people wrongly assume that institutions like the military have 'their own agenda.' They don't - they are a tool .... and the real problem is that this particular tool is not in the hands of "the people".... it's in "other" hands by virtue of the subversion and corruption of those in it's immediate chain of command (whom it MUST obey.)

The real question this article raises is WHO has the moral authority to justify the misuse of influence and information... did we vote for them? Are they accountable? and from whom do THEY get their marching orders?

reply to post by Asktheanimals


RS has been known to do some very good reporting IMO. Online I have run across sevral other well written articles from a different pov by High Times believe it or not. Maybe it's due to the fact that they draw the funds from a different kind of readership? I don't know, but the reporting for both seems not as biased at times as the msm.

Either way, I am glad there are other options still available.

I am curious if there will be any fallout from this.

reply to post by kkrattiger


I think usually the thread posted last gets closed. When I searched I didn't find anything, but that has happened before.

I made a thread about this and I'm not sure if that's who the other person is referencing. I can paste my info here, tried searching before posting didn't find anything. Sorry

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a bump in the night....
kx