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US plans to 'fight the net' revealed
By Adam Brookes
BBC Pentagon correspondent
01/28/06 "BBC" -- --
A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into
the US military's plans for "information operations" - from
psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer
networks.
Bloggers beware.
As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the
military opportunities that computer networks, wireless
technologies and the modern media offer.
From influencing public opinion through new media to designing
"computer network attack" weapons, the US military is learning
to fight an electronic war.
The declassified document is called "Information Operations
Roadmap". It was obtained by the National Security Archive at
George Washington University using the Freedom of Information
Act.
Officials in the Pentagon wrote it in 2003. The Secretary of
Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed it.
The "roadmap" calls for a far-reaching overhaul of the
military's ability to conduct information operations and
electronic warfare. And, in some detail, it makes
recommendations for how the US armed forces should think about
this new, virtual warfare.
The document says that information is "critical to military
success". Computer and telecommunications networks are of vital
operational importance.
Propaganda
The operations described in the document include a surprising
range of military activities: public affairs officers who brief
journalists, psychological operations troops who try to
manipulate the thoughts and beliefs of an enemy, computer
network attack specialists who seek to destroy enemy networks.
All these are engaged in information operations.
Perhaps the most startling aspect of the roadmap is its
acknowledgement that information put out as part of the
military's psychological operations, or Psyops, is finding its
way onto the computer and television screens of ordinary
Americans.
"Information intended for foreign audiences, including public
diplomacy and Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic
audience," it reads.
"Psyops messages will often be replayed by the news media for
much larger audiences, including the American public," it goes
on.
The document's authors acknowledge that American news media
should not unwittingly broadcast military propaganda. "Specific
boundaries should be established," they write. But they don't
seem to explain how.
"In this day and age it is impossible to prevent stories that
are fed abroad as part of psychological operations propaganda
from blowing back into the United States - even though they were
directed abroad," says Kristin Adair of the National Security
Archive.
Credibility problem
Public awareness of the US military's information operations is
low, but it's growing - thanks to some operational clumsiness.
Late last year, it emerged that the Pentagon had paid a private
company, the Lincoln Group, to plant hundreds of stories in
Iraqi newspapers. The stories - all supportive of US policy -
were written by military personnel and then placed in Iraqi
publications.
And websites that appeared to be information sites on the
politics of Africa and the Balkans were found to be run by the
Pentagon.
But the true extent of the Pentagon's information operations,
how they work, who they're aimed at, and at what point they turn
from informing the public to influencing populations, is far
from clear.
The roadmap, however, gives a flavour of what the US military is
up to - and the grand scale on which it's thinking.
It reveals that Psyops personnel "support" the American
government's international broadcasting. It singles out TV Marti
- a station which broadcasts to Cuba - as receiving such
support.
It recommends that a global website be established that supports
America's strategic objectives. But no American diplomats here,
thank you. The website would use content from "third parties
with greater credibility to foreign audiences than US
officials".
It also recommends that Psyops personnel should consider a range
of technologies to disseminate propaganda in enemy territory:
unmanned aerial vehicles, "miniaturized, scatterable public
address systems", wireless devices, cellular phones and the
internet.
'Fight the net'
When it describes plans for electronic warfare, or EW, the
document takes on an extraordinary tone.
It seems to see the internet as being equivalent to an enemy
weapons system.
"Strategy should be based on the premise that the Department [of
Defense] will 'fight the net' as it would an enemy weapons
system," it reads.
The slogan "fight the net" appears several times throughout the
roadmap.
The authors warn that US networks are very vulnerable to attack
by hackers, enemies seeking to disable them, or spies looking
for intelligence.
"Networks are growing faster than we can defend them... Attack
sophistication is increasing... Number of events is increasing."
US digital ambition
And, in a grand finale, the document recommends that the United
States should seek the ability to "provide maximum control of
the entire electromagnetic spectrum".
US forces should be able to "disrupt or destroy the full
spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors,
and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum".
Consider that for a moment.
The US military seeks the capability to knock out every
telephone, every networked computer, every radar system on the
planet.
Are these plans the pipe dreams of self-aggrandising
bureaucrats? Or are they real?
The fact that the "Information Operations Roadmap" is approved
by the Secretary of Defense suggests that these plans are taken
very seriously indeed in the Pentagon.
And that the scale and grandeur of the digital revolution is
matched only by the US military's ambitions for it.
© BBC MMVI
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