On The Third Hand

Information War: The Bigger Picture and the Mushy Middle

New U.S. Army sensors rock

Washington, DC, May. 27 (UPI) – The U.S. military is developing miniature electronic sensors disguised as rocks.

The disguised sensors can be dropped from an aircraft and used to help detect the sound of approaching enemy combatants, the London Financial Times has reported.

…

The new sensors would be made cheaply enough to be left on the ground without need for retrieval by soldiers.

Something like that would be right handy along our borders too. But the best thing about it is that our pilots can run around dropping real rocks along with the fake ones… and if some group really wants to sneak around an area without being caught… they’ve got to check all of them.

You have to trust people.

The power of “displeasure”

Yesterday, the papers reported that Secretary of State Rice was not going to Egypt, as expected. The announcement bagged the Egyptian government, which has been waving its arms around and generally trying to look supportive of the United States in the Middle East:

…

Today President Mubarak announced a new package of democratic reforms. The Associated Press’s Maamoun Youssef:

Me, I think it’s the boots and (Cassandara thinks so too ).

I do believe that Ms. Rice is going to be a diplomat extraordinaire (if you’ll pardon my French). I had my doubts at first, but I’ve been grinning ever since I saw those boots (and the rest of the outfit). That outfit does not say “appeasement". That outfit says, “Back me up, boys, or get the *^#! out of the way.”

By Chrenkoff. Recommended reading.

U.S. Uses Drones to Probe Iran For Arms

The Bush administration has been flying surveillance drones over Iran for nearly a year to seek evidence of nuclear weapons programs and detect weaknesses in air defenses, according to three U.S. officials with detailed knowledge of the secret effort.

The small, pilotless planes, penetrating Iranian airspace from U.S. military facilities in Iraq, use radar, video, still photography and air filters designed to pick up traces of nuclear activity to gather information that is not accessible by satellites, the officials said. The aerial espionage is standard in military preparations for an eventual air attack and is also employed as a tool for intimidation.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States, concerned Iran is covertly developing nuclear arms, has no plans to attack “at this time.” (Geert Vanden Wijngaert – AP)

The Iranian government, using Swiss channels in the absence of diplomatic relations with Washington, formally protested the incursions as illegal, according to Iranian, European and U.S. officials, all speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

A U.S. official acknowledged that drones were being used but said the Iranian complaint focused on aircraft overflights by the Pentagon. The United States, the official said, replied with a denial that manned U.S. aircraft had crossed Iran’s borders. The drones were first spotted by dozens of Iranian civilians and set off a national newspaper frenzy in late December over whether the country was being visited by UFOs.

Actually, I recall reading about a minor frenzy right after the Bam earthquake, which I suspect was caused by the same (alleged by anonymous sources and Iranian government) drones. I hope this report is correct, since I think we would be very stupid not to be spying on the Iranian government’s activities, considering its attempted interference in Iraq, its support for terrorists and its undying hatred of the ‘Great Satan’ (Khomenei being the person that coined that term). But, as always, I wonder if it’s a leak or if it’s psyops.

Austin Bay on Zarqawi’s latest babblings. Money quote:

Yup– a week before the Iraqi election Zarqawi has come out in public for imperialism, in his case Islamo-fascist imperialism.

Interesting take. Via the BlogFather, who says: ” It’s like somebody planned it or something.”

Next stop: Iran

U.S. commandos are hunting for secret nuclear and chemical weapons sites and other targets in Iran, and have a plan to turn the hard-line Islamic country into the next front in the war on terrorism.

“It’s not if we’re going to do anything against Iran. They’re doing it,” an ex-intelligence official tells this week’s issue of The New Yorker.

Since at least last summer, the U.S. teams have penetrated eastern Iran, reportedly with Pakistan’s help, the magazine said.

“Iraq is just one campaign,” the official told investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. “The Bush administration is looking at this as a huge war zone. Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign.”

The aim is to rid America and its allies of a major state sponsor of terrorism, Hersh writes.

Since it’s Hersh, I’m taking it with a huge block of salt, of course. But he does get things right once in a while. At any rate, I think this is another one that it would be nice to have them believing — as long as it’s not true.

[update] The Guardian has picked it up.

Has U.S. threatened to vaporize Mecca?

Interesting. Whether or not it’s true, it’s something I’d very much like having them believe.

Hat tip: small dead animals .

There’s a lesson worth learning in Kiev

The Babushkas change the world with warm socks

Watching on C-Span the seemingly endless stream of protesters parade past Madison Square Garden before this summer’s Republican convention saddened me.

It was not their politics or their anger or even their obscenity. It was the self-righteous indulgence. George Bush is Hitler?

Bush at worst is Wendell Wilkie, but by inflating the profile of their adversary, they wanted to inflate their own importance.

Where was their outrage over the real Hitlers of the world? Left up to them, Saddam Hussein and his sons would still be torturing and raping Iraqis. Some of these protesters did not want to overthrow the Taliban.

Theirs was the mindless banter of princesses who can find the pea underneath the 20 mattresses of freedom that they were lucky enough to be born upon.

Read the whole thing… and find out about the Babushkas and warm socks.

CNN Duped by Pentagon Into Portraying Iraq as ‘Quagmire’

Drink warning. Link thanks to Outside the Beltway’s Beltway Traffic Jam.

PR Meets Psy-Ops in War on Terror

The Pentagon in 2002 was forced to shutter its controversial Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), which was opened shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, after reports that the office intended to plant false news stories in the international media. But officials say that much of OSI’s mission — using information as a tool of war — has been assumed by other offices throughout the U.S. government.

Although most of the work remains classified, officials say that some of the ongoing efforts include having U.S. military spokesmen play a greater role in psychological operations in Iraq, as well as planting information with sources used by Arabic TV channels such as Al Jazeera to help influence the portrayal of the United States.

Other specific examples were not known, although U.S. national security officials said an emphasis had been placed on influencing how foreign media depict the United States.

These efforts have set off a fight inside the Pentagon over the proper use of information in wartime. Several top officials see a danger of blurring what are supposed to be well-defined lines between the stated mission of military public affairs — disseminating truthful, accurate information to the media and the American public — and psychological and information operations, the use of often-misleading information and propaganda to influence the outcome of a campaign or battle.

Several of those officials who oppose the use of misleading information spoke out against the practice on the condition of anonymity.

“The movement of information has gone from the public affairs world to the psychological operations world,” one senior defense official said. “What’s at stake is the credibility of people in uniform.”

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said he recognized the concern of many inside the Defense Department, but that “everybody understands that there’s a very important distinction between information operations and public affairs. Nobody has offered serious proposals that would blur the distinction between these two functions.”

If he understands their concern he’s a lot more understanding than me. If we give up using psyops and propaganda on the media when the other side is doing the same, daily, would be flat out stupid. Since the media is having an absolutely wonderful time disseminating the other side’s propaganda, it’s only fair that they get some of ours in there too.

And as far as using the media to mislead the enemy on the battlefield, I’d certainly love to see more of that. The media certainly hasn’t been backward about leaking real battle plans if they hear them. Giving them some fake ones might just make that stop.