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[infowar.de] Doch kein OSI?
Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
-------------------------------------------------------------
... dass keine(r) dem Pentagon nun noch irgendwas glaubt, wollte man wohl =
auch
nicht.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/25/international/25MILI.html?pagewanted=3Dp=
rint
February 25, 2002
New York Times
Rumsfeld Says He May Drop New Office of Influence
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 =97 The Pentagon may eliminate a new office intended t=
o
influence public opinion and policy makers overseas, Defense Secretary Don=
ald H.
Rumsfeld said today. Proposals from the new agency, the Office of Strategi=
c
Influence, have caused an uproar in Congress and elsewhere in the governme=
nt.
Its director, Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden of the Air Force, has proposed th=
at the
office coordinate activities ranging from public press releases to secret =
"information
warfare" in friendly as well as unfriendly countries, military officials s=
aid. In the past,
such secret operations included the spreading of inaccurate or misleading
information.
Mr. Rumsfeld today reiterated comments he made last week after The New Yor=
k
Times reported the office's existence and proposed activities: he said the=
military
would not be permitted to tell lies to promote American policies or views.=
But he said
today that the disclosures about the office's potential activities may hav=
e doomed its
credibility.
"The person who's in charge is debating whether it should even exist in it=
s current
form, given all the misinformation and adverse publicity that it's receive=
d," Mr.
Rumsfeld said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press."
Distancing himself from the office, which reports to Douglas J. Feith, the=
under
secretary of defense for policy, Mr. Rumsfeld said he would
leave its fate in the hands of his top lieutenants. He said he had "never =
even seen
the charter for the office."
But the office's assistant for operations, Thomas A. Timmes, a former Army=
colonel
and psychological operations officer, said at a recent industry conference=
that
General Worden had briefed Mr. Rumsfeld on the purpose and goals of the of=
fice at
least twice, and that Mr. Rumsfeld had given his general support.
The office, which has a secret multimillion-dollar budget and a staff of a=
bout 15, had
started planning its activities and coordinating with the National Securit=
y Council, the
State Department and other federal agencies.
Top aides to Mr. Rumsfeld have confirmed that he supported the broad missi=
on of
the Office of Strategic Influence, but they said he had not approved any o=
f the
classified proposals that were circulating at lower levels of the Pentagon=
, the ones
that have stirred up heated internal debate.
"We're into the frustrating part of ironing out differences within our fam=
ily," Colonel
Timmes told those attending the conference, on Feb. 8 in Arlington, Va.
The new office was formed after the Sept. 11 attacks to coordinate dispara=
te
information operations geared toward assisting the military overseas. Admi=
nistration
officials, including Mr. Rumsfeld, have voiced concern that the United St=
ates was
losing public support overseas for its
war on terrorism, particularly in Islamic countries.
"The Afghan people were being told that the food rations we were dropping =
were
poison, and they weren't," Mr. Rumsfeld said on the CBS News program "Face=
the
Nation," adding: "And the Taliban and the Al Qaeda were lying about it, an=
d we
needed to find ways to tell these people of Afghanistan that they could ea=
t that food.
Millions of these were dropped."
Mr. Rumsfeld continued, "There are lots of things that we have to do to di=
rect people
where they can get humanitarian assistance. So we need to be in the busine=
ss of
communicating that kind of information. But this department is not in the =
business of
of misinforming people."
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