Monday, July 19, 2010

Proposed New Law to Modify Smith-Mundt


On July 14, 2010, U.S. Congressmen Mac Thornberry (TX-13) and Adam Smith (D-WA), both members of the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, introduced “The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2010” (H.R. 5729)
( see http://www.thornberry.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=198167)

According to the Press Release which can be found at the above link: ““While the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 was developed to counter communism during the Cold War, it is outdated for the wars of today,” said Congressman Adam Smith. “Effective strategic communication and public diplomacy should be front-and-center as we work to roll back al-Qaeda’s and other violent extremists’ influence among disaffected populations. An essential part of our efforts must be a coordinated, comprehensive, adequately resourced plan to counter their radical messages and undermine their recruitment abilities. To do this, Smith-Mundt must be updated to bolster our strategic communications and public diplomacy capacity on all fronts and mediums – especially online.”

The bill’s co-sponsors include: Reps. Dan Boren (D-OK), Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), James Langevin (D-RI), Jeff Miller (R-FL), Ted Poe (R-TX), Dennis Rehberg (R-MT), and John Tanner (D-TN)

This would be an opportune time to contact your Congress person and help them understand the importance of the work we do.

I’ll leave it to you to use a name for it that you’re comfortable with.

3 comments:

Soldier-Cynic said...

I'm hearing through the grapevine that the powers to be have put out a cease and desist order at Bragg to stop the troops from slamming the name change. Have you heard anything? This is second hand reporting, but the MISO Man and League of Influence pages on Facebook have become deathly quiet.

Lawrence Dietz said...

@ Soldier-Cynic - I haven't heard a peep from any official channels, nor have had I had feedback from other sources. I have published every relevant comment I have received thus far.

Anonymous said...

The grapevine was correct.