 |  | By Adam Brookes BBC Pentagon correspondent |
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.
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
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.
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