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Skirmishes in the Information Wars
By Mike Whitney
01/01/06 "ICH" -- -- There are only two weapons in the imperial
tool-chest; force and deception. The brutal colonial occupation of
Iraq has provided us with a lavish example of the former, but the
twin-axel of deception is more abstruse and difficult to pin down.
Sure, there’s the flagrant propaganda that floods right-wing radio
and political talk shows, but that tells us little about the
state-sponsored disinformation-programs that permeate every area of
American life.
We now know that the Bush administration authorized massive illegal
spying operations and is actively engaged in planting pro-American
stories in the foreign press. These suggest that the
administration’s overall theory of information management is much
more extensive then originally imagined. In fact, news and
information manipulation is at the forefront of Bush’s war on
terror, a comprehensive strategy to control of every bit of
information a citizen hears, sees or reads from cradle to grave. It
is information warfare on a scale that would make George Orwell
cringe.
It is only in this context that we can see that the threats made by
George Bush to bomb Al Jazeera are completely consistent with the
administration’s overall approach. Controlling information is seen
as a military necessity and those who fashion an alternate narrative
are Washington’s sworn enemies. In this respect, we can understand
how Al Jazeera would have to be destroyed to pave the way for
greater democracy.
When we observe the isolated incidents of the Bush information
strategy it seems disjointed and incoherent. How does the killing of
journalists in Iraq connect to the “Swift-boating” of Dan Rather or
Richard Clarke in the American press?
How does Condi Rice’s new Edward R. Murrow Journalism Program for
aspiring American propagandists relate to blowing up of Al Jazeera
facilities in Kabul and Baghdad?
How does the dissemination of false stories in the foreign press
connect to the massive surveillance operations being carried out
home and abroad?
Until we are able to combine the many disparate parts of the Bush
information strategy, we are at risk of seeing these illegal
activities as mere aberrations and not as vital cogs in the
machinery of the police-state.
There is nothing arbitrary about the massive cloud of secrecy that
has settled on the Bush administration. The government has built an
impervious wall around itself that conceals the venality of the
principle characters and avoids the transparency required for a
healthy democracy.
Conversely, the administration has defended its use of the various
investigative agencies; including the CIA, the Defense Dept., the
NSA, and the FBI, to probe every area of American life. In fact, the
Patriot Act’s new provisions (National Security Letters and “lone
wolf” clause) completely dispose of the 4th amendment’s right to
privacy (or “probable cause”) allowing the government to spy on
anyone it sees fit. The recent revelations that government
organizations have been spying on antiwar activists, Quakers and
environmentalists, strongly suggests that Bush is now vacuuming up
every bit of available information on political enemies real or
imagined.
Is anyone really surprised?
The surveillance state is the police state. It manifests itself in
the predictable forms of National ID cards, (which will be mandatory
in less than 2 years) increased repression, (Patriot Act, Homeland
Security Act) deployment of the military within the US, (Northern
Command and threats to activate the military in the event of a
terrorist attack, flu epidemic or natural disaster) and the
formation of a secret police. (Earlier this year Bush formed the NSS;
the National Security Service, his own private police force which
operates outside of congressional oversight)
The levers of the fascist state have been carefully assembled behind
a smokescreen of demagoguery provided by fellow-travelers in the
corporate media. And, even though support for the war in Iraq has
steadily declined, the extent of the media’s success in confounding
the public cannot be overstated. A vast number of American’s still
believe that Saddam was either working with Al Qaida, had WMD, or
contributed to the attacks on 9-11. This is, perhaps, the most
shocking example of media manipulation.
The corporate model of media is antithetical to personal freedom.
When the marketplace of ideas is reduced to the solitary task of
plying soapsuds and tennis shoes for big business, democracy is
bound to suffer. Ultimately, commercial media cannot help but become
an annex of the political establishment, developing collusive ties
with the very people it is supposed to scrutinize. Media as
“watchdog of power” is a romantic notion with no real basis in fact.
Rather, in its present manifestation, media serves as a junior
partner in the “weaponizing” of information; transforming the events
of the day into a repetitious mantra extolling the objectives of
society’s overlords.
But the role of the media in the fascist paradigm is not limited to
simply mobilizing public support for unpopular causes. It is a
multi-headed hydra designed to promote the interests of the
corporate and financial sectors while obfuscating the economic and
political facts that are necessary for a strong democracy. This
explains why the critical stories of the day rarely appear on
America’s network or cable TV news programs. The Downing Street
Memo, Iran’s compliance with the IAEA, the fraudulent Ohio
presidential election results, and the firebombing of Falluja are
just a few of the important stories which have been ignored or
drastically underplayed in the mainstream. The point is, that
“omission” of real news is used more frequently than its soul-mate,
propaganda. By excluding the stories that are essential to shape
public consciousness, the media makes war-mongering and economic
exploitation inevitable.
The recent Iraqi elections are a stunning example of this. Every TV
news program covered the elections in Iraq the very same way;
implying that they were a historic milestone on the road to
democracy. None of the major media provided an alternate view that
might reflect the 62% of Americans who now believe that the war was
“a mistake”. Those views were scrupulously avoided in the coverage.
If the media chieftains wanted balance, they could have simply
inserted the widespread view that the conflict has nothing to do
with either democracy or sovereignty, but is a savage colonial war
facilitated by fanatics to control Iraq’s prodigious oil reserves.
Despite the media’s impressive efforts to change that conclusion,
the vast majority of people now accept it as fact.
The media is just one part of a culture of deception that permeates
every part of the Bush administration. The recent revelations that
the Pentagon was planting “good news” stories in foreign newspapers,
shows us how tenacious the administration can be in its defense of
disinformation. Rather than admit its guilt and apologize,
right-wing pundits defended the action as “justifiable during
wartime”.
This demonstrates the level of ideological commitment to lying among
members of the political establishment. It is the best example of
the “end justifies the means” mentality that animates the current
regime.
The French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre said, “The essence of the
lie implies, in fact, that the liar is actually in complete
possession of the truth which he is hiding.”
Sartre’s comment points to the inherent narcissism of lying. This is
especially true of an administration that believes that the facts
should be limited to a particular class of people who are destined
to rule society. Their efforts are an attempt to “privatize” the
truth and limit the circulation of real news to an uber-class of
global plutocrats; Bush and his cadres. Everyone else is expected to
lap up the muddled fables that fill the airwaves or flash from the
headlines of America’s leading newspapers.
The newly minted “Dept of Strategic Information” is an attempt to
institutionalize lying as a basic function of government. It
conflates perfectly with administration theories on propaganda,
deception and perception-management. The department is allegedly
involved in penetrating every area of public interaction including
web pages, chat-rooms, radio talk-shows, e-mail, foreign newspapers
etc. Wherever the free expression of ideas takes place is a
potential battleground in the information war, a war that is
directed against the American people as much as it is against any
foreign power. This new division of the Pentagon, which performs
many of the duties of the former TIA, (Total Information Awareness)
is designed to insinuate itself into every area of American life
looking for better ways to control the citizenry. It is another
giant step towards a rapidly-approaching tyranny.
We should never mistake the administration’s obfuscations,
omissions, and propaganda as unintentional. Lying is policy and
accepting that fact precedes any meaningful understanding of the
Bush administration.
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