Posts tagged military
CNN and Psyops
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From a March, 2000 article at CounterPunch.org
Thanks to LewRockwell.com for referencing it.
Military personnel from the Fourth Psychological Operations Group based at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, have until recently been working in CNN’s hq in Atlanta.
CNN is up in arms about our report in the last issue of CounterPunch concerning the findings of the Dutch journalist, Abe de Vries about the presence of US Army personnel at CNN, owned by Time-Warner. We cited an article by de Vries which appeared on February 21 in the reputable Dutch daily newspaper Trouw, originally translated into English and placed on the web by Emperor’s Clothes. De Vries reported that a handful of military personnel from the Third Psychological Operations Battalion, part of the airmobile Fourth Psychological Operations Group based at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, had worked in CNN’s hq in Atlanta.
De Vries quoted Major Thomas Collins of the US Army Information Service as having confirmed the presence of these Army psy-ops experts at CNN, saying, “Psy-ops personnel, soldiers and officers, have been working in CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta through our program, ‘Training with Industry’. They worked as regular employees of CNN. Conceivably, they would have worked on stories during the Kosovo war. They helped in the production of news.”
This particular CounterPunch story was the topic of my regular weekly broadcast to AM Live, a program of the South Africa Broadcasting Company in Johannesburg. Among the audience of this broadcast was CNN’s bureau in South Africa which lost no time in relaying news of it to CNN hq in Atlanta, and I duly received an angry phone call from Eason Jordan who identified himself as CNN’s president of newsgathering and international networks.
Jordan was full of indignation that I had somehow compromised the reputation of CNN. But in the course of our conversation it turned out that yes, CNN had hosted a total of five interns from US army psy-ops, two in television, two in radio and one in satellite operations. Jordan said the program had only recently terminated, I would guess at about the time CNN’s higher management read Abe de Vries’s stories.
The military has happily evolved alongside social media in a post-Zuckerberg, Twitterized world. What if the people of Lybia actually like Ghaddafi? What if we’ve been lied to yet again?
This is a fascinating video:
If you want to debate why he needed to be eliminated or was a horrible person please find someone else who cares to do that—all I can do is stand upon the evidence I see and go from there. The case does not appear to be settled—like so many big issues of our time.
Until God-awful Gadhafi gives in we will be in Lybia
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Although I have profound and limitless respect for our armed forces; and it is incredible to imagine The United States as the Christian saviors of the world it is a logistical impossibility that almost always comes with more problems than benefits long term. Everything I need to know on this topic I learned from Mickey Mouse and his tragic apprenticeship (hint: our arrogance creates monsters we can’t control).
Beyond the horrific reality of war and the cost to our youth’s humanity, mental health and quality of life outside of battle back in the real world; war is an economically devastating event. Prices on common goods like leather, steel and kevlar are increased exponentially, invoices are fudged, defense contractors rake Uncle Sam’s credit card through fire and much more en route to incredible profits for “defense” contractors and mile-high debts for American taxpayers. Not to mention the true lotto winners: the financiers who often finance both sides of a conflict and bankroll entire nation’s war chests.
Although we’re often told that WW2 got us out of the depression imagine what our economy would have been like with the resources spent in war being driven into socially useful goods, businesses and bank accounts.
For an infalliably precise perspective on this check out Austrian (in philosophy, not birth) economist Robert Murphy’s brilliant article on WW2 and our exit from The Depression here.
As Marine Major General Smedley Butler said, “War is a racket!” This same sentiment was echoed by President Eisenhower in his farwell address to America regarding the military-industrial complex, the corporations that run it, and the incredible risk to The American Way that it poses.
If we seek to return to prosperity, peace and passionate pride we must redefine what it means to be a “good American.”
Here’s the article about our involvement in Lybia continuing indefinitely, arg.
Yep, They Only Hate Us Because We’re Free
0Is there a segment of “radical Islam” that will probably want to destroy Christians for all eternity? Yes, the evidence does appear to stand up to this question and show beyond a doubt there are Muslims who will want to kill and eliminate
‘Infidels” for all eternity.
That being said, the number of “moderate Muslims” and peaceful, well-meaning, generally nice people that are being steadily pushed over the brink by our actions overseas is rapidly increasing–there is little debate there among many credible researchers I’ve heard from.
Are many of our bravest young soldiers and military officers doing great things overseas and making our country safer? Yes. But there are far too many accidents, crimes, and hate-fuled mistakes being made for the world to experience a net gain in peace and an overall increase is safety.
In the following video we see that some of our soldiers are doing terrible things to the women and children of Iraq (and presumably other countries as well). These crimes would drive any good Christian, any good American, and any good Middle-Eastern Muslim to the brink of madness and rage–are we surprised to find that terrorism is on the rise and the people of the Middle East don’t trust America? I just doesn’t make sense to think there won’t be “blowback” by the families of the injured.
Despite my thoughts, my deepest respect and condolences goes out to the harmed families and the fighting men and women of our military, I pray you all come home safely and these terrible afflictions are cast off like so many fleas by the Hand of God.