DOD aims psy-ops at Iraqi officers

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk () c4i org>

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2003/0317/web-psyops-03-21-03.asp

By Matthew French 
March 24, 2003

The Defense Department is continuing, and perhaps has stepped up, its 
electronic psychological operations campaign directed at the upper 
echelons of the Iraqi military now that hostilities have begun.

In a press conference March 20, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said 
that DOD officials are "in communication with still more people who 
are officials of the [Iraqi] military at various levels," warning them 
of the outcome of their actions should they take up arms against U.S. 
or allied forces.

Defense officials confirmed in January that they had been sending 
e-mail messages to Iraqi military officials as part of a psychological 
operations campaign. For decades, military forces have dropped 
leaflets on enemy soldiers in an attempt to persuade them to surrender 
before engaging in combat. The new e-mail campaign, according to 
experts, is a technological extension of that.

DOD in January began sending thousands of e-mail messages to 
commanders, promising protection for those who comply with the order 
to not use weapons of mass destruction against allied forces. 
Responding to reports from CNN and Reuters that quote anonymous 
military officials, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command told Federal 
Computer Week that the e-mail program does exist, but he would not 
divulge any other details.

Robert Martinage, a senior defense analyst for the Center for 
Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the psychological operations 
campaigns have moved beyond just e-mail, but that remains the most 
directed effort of which he is aware.

E-mail messages can address an individual personally, rather than 
relying on blanketing a geographic area, as was required with dropping 
leaflets.

"The ability to reach into the country and communicate is really a 
part of an overall, comprehensive psychological operations plan that 
has gotten more sophisticated," Martinage said. "We have also taken 
control of the major airwaves and are sending U.S. broadcasts out."

Martinage said the message DOD is trying to get across to the Iraqi 
people in general, and military in particular, is threefold: first, do 
not resist or take up arms against the allies; second, do not use 
weapons of mass destruction, or they will be held accountable as war 
criminals; and third, this is not a force of occupation, but one of 
liberation.

Getting the right messages to the right people is a key part of the 
operation, proving that the United States has the knowledge of who is 
in charge and how to reach them, said retired Navy Rear Adm. Stephen 
Baker, a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information, a 
nonprofit, independent research organization.

Baker said the effectiveness of the psychological operations will 
probably be known in the first few days of the conflict, as allied 
ground forces move further into Iraq.

"The e-mail campaign will probably be proven to be a successful part 
of an overall psychological warfare plan to hit them in every 
direction using all of the conduits available to [the military]," he 
said.

The takeover of the radio airwaves will allow U.S. and allied forces 
to reach the Iraqi citizenry and soldiers in the field, and the e-mail 
campaign is directed at the higher-grade officers. Next, he said, 
could come the takeover of TV airwaves, giving allied forces a virtual 
lock on all forms of electronic media within the country.

"We have the technology and the capability to do just that, and it 
would probably prove to be very effective," Baker said.

Baker has said he thinks that the 193rd Special Operations Wing, which 
is part of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, and the CIA were 
"certainly" involved in the e-mail campaign, as were Iraqi defectors.

The 193rd is equipped with an airborne electronic broadcasting system 
and its mission is to support psychological operations by broadcasting 
programs in standard AM/FM radio, television, short wave and military 
communication bands, which they did during the Gulf War.



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