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An amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences is being inserted into the latest defense authorization bill, BuzzFeed has learned.
The amendment would “strike the current ban on domestic dissemination” of propaganda material produced by the State Department and the Pentagon, according to the summary of the law at the House Rules Committee's official website.
The new law would give sweeping powers to the State Department and Pentagon to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public. “It removes the protection for Americans,” says a Pentagon official who is concerned about the law. “It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false.”
The new law would give sweeping powers to the State Department and Pentagon to push television, radio, newspaper, and social media onto the U.S. public. “It removes the protection for Americans,” says a Pentagon official who is concerned about the law. “It removes oversight from the people who want to put out this information. There are no checks and balances. No one knows if the information is accurate, partially accurate, or entirely false.”
According to this official, “senior public affairs” officers within the Department of Defense want to “get rid” of Smith-Mundt and other restrictions because it prevents information activities designed to prop up unpopular policies—like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon spends some $4 billion a year to sway public opinion already, and it was recently revealed by USA Today the DoD spent $202 million on information operations in Iraq and Afghanistan last year.
In an apparent retaliation to the USA Today investigation, the two reporters working on the story appear to have been targeted by Pentagon contractors, who created fake Facebook pages and Twitter accounts in an attempt to discredit them.
The U.S. Army illegally ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war, Rolling Stone has learned – and when an officer tried to stop the operation, he was railroaded by military investigators.
The Runaway General: The Rolling Stone Profile of Stanley McChrystal That Changed History
The orders came from the command of Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops – the linchpin of U.S. strategy in the war. Over a four-month period last year, a military cell devoted to what is known as "information operations" at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell. When the unit resisted the order, arguing that it violated U.S. laws prohibiting the use of propaganda against American citizens, it was subjected to a campaign of retaliation.
The bi-partisan amendment is sponsored by Rep. Mac Thornberry from Texas and Rep. Adam Smith from Washington State.
In a little noticed press release earlier in the week — buried beneath the other high-profile issues in the $642 billion defense bill, including indefinite detention and a prohibition on gay marriage at military installations — Thornberry warned that in the Internet age, the current law “ties the hands of America’s diplomatic officials, military, and others by inhibiting our ability to effectively communicate in a credible way.”
The bill's supporters say the informational material used overseas to influence foreign audiences is too good to not use at home, and that new techniques are needed to help fight Al-Qaeda, a borderless enemy whose own propaganda reaches Americans online.
Originally posted by silent thunder
reply to post by TKDRL
The problem with it, in my opinion, is that it legalizes government-sanctioned lying. Yeah, they've always lied. Now they can do it freely, openly, and proudly. Moreover, they can earmark huge budgets to bring to bear on the issue of how to influence public opinion.
It's basically a declaration of open psychological warfare on the populace.
Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA) is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).
VOA-Broadcasting Board of Governors
The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), a bipartisan panel of eight private citizens appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate (the U.S. Secretary of State is an ex officio member of the Board), is the oversight body for official U.S. international broadcasts by both federal agencies and government-funded corporations.
BBG Announces New Strategic Plan
BBG’s 2012-2016 strategic plan aims to make BBG the world’s leading international news agency by 2016, focused on both mission and impact, and targeting a 50 million worldwide audience gain. Titled “Impact through Innovation and Integration,” the plan calls for the establishment of a global news network and development of new delivery and anti-circumvention technologies. It also recommends streamlining management, evaluation of the possible consolidation of the three grantee networks into one organization, exploring possible de-federalization of the federal agency components, ending language duplication, modernizing distribution mechanisms to reflect the media audiences prefer, and repealing the ban on domestic dissemination of BBG programs contained in the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act.
Originally posted by Jagermeister
Now why would a Government with no ill intentions even need the use of propaganda? I think that's the question people need to be asking here. If the police dressed up in full riot gear, tsa sexually assaulting citizens, endless wars, or the poison in the water and food wasn't enough to get you thinking, surely openly brainwashing the public should make that little light bulb turn on?