VOA Must Be Working! Hacked by Iranians?

The Voice of America (VOA) has been in the news lately. An Iranian group is claiming responsibility for hacking the VOA website (www.voanews.com). The screen shot along with this post speaks for itself.

Reactions by your enemy are always worth noting. In this case a faction of Islamists has claimed responsibility for hacking the VOA. The logical conclusion is that VOA has been effective to the point where the hackers felt they needed to attack.

The VOA has been in the news recently as President Obama is in the process of cutting some of their funding as part of his overall program to reduce government spending. It has been argued that shortwave communications in the day of the Internet and the smart phone is a technological buggy whip.

There are a couple of good takeaways here:

1. Influence operations cross media to accomplish their goals. In this case the Iranians are attempting to counter VOA by bringing their website down – a cyber means against a broadcast medium.

2. The notion of political influence is not lost on our adversaries as Secretary Clinton is personally addressed in the hack –

3. Sometimes it’s not really possible to know what effect your influence operations are having. In this case can we assume that the VOA is so effective as to earn the ire of the cyber savvy adversary?

4. The military principle “Unity of Command” dictates that a single CDR direct an operation. I am highly skeptical that a single entity, much less an accountable CDR has the responsibility of tracking this hack and addressing the effectiveness of the group taking credit.

Truly we live in interesting times.

Other sources: ttp://www.newzimbabwe.com/news-4521-Iranian+hackers+target+VOA+website/news.aspx; and http://www.thenewnewinternet.com/2011/02/22/iranian-cyber-army-suspected-of-hacking-voice-of-america/

Juggling Multinational MISO: Turkey – Iran – Iraq

The P-5+1 talks concerning Iran will resume on 21 January 2011 hosted by Turkey. (See http://www.presstv.ir/detail/159632.html). “P-5+1” means the five permanent members of the UN Security Council + Germany. While Turkey has promised to serve merely as the host and not a participant, their impact on the talks will surely be felt through their direct and indirect acts.Photo Source is link above.

Stratfor reported that “Then there are the Turks. The Turks opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq because they expected it to fail to establish a viable government in Baghdad and thereby to destroy the balance of power between Iraq and Iran. The Turks have also tried to avoid being drawn into the south beyond dealing with threats from Turkish Kurds operating out of Iraq. At the same time, Turkey has been repositioning itself as both a leading power in the Muslim world and the bridge between the Muslim world and the West, particularly the United States.” Read more: The Turkish Role in Negotiations with Iran | STRATFOR

Clearly the US has strong interests and goals with respect to Iran and that Iran is a pivotal player in the troubled region. How does this translate into the MISO/PSYOP world?

The MISO community has a critical need for people that understand a variety of cultures and that can quickly build rapport with other military personnel. Some of these skills can be built from NATO assignments.

For example while I was in Sarajevo the Turks provided security for our quarters. The guards were mostly young conscripts who were eager to obviate their military obligations with a single year of service. Albeit this service was not easy and their lives during the year were hard ones.

Interestingly the more senior (in rank and age) officers went for a daily run when curfew was lifted. This gave us time to spend with the guards prior to our run. They were a fine group of lads and were very interested in learning English. I gave them all my magazines and newspapers including some on esoteric topics like stamp collecting. They were eager to learn and practice their English and they had a great sense of humor.

I had the opportunity to learn more about the culture of the Turkish military when I attended the Allied Command Europe (ACE) PSYOP Officers Course in the UK where I served as the informal escort officer for a Turkish Colonel.

Many of our MISO personnel have the opportunity of serving on Military Information Support Teams (MIST) in our embassies. I have talked to many of these soldiers at Fort Bragg and I can tell you that they are extraordinary. They are articulate and culturally oriented with many conversant with one or more foreign languages.

Notwithstanding today’s optempo, we need to provide more opportunities for MISO personnel to become culturally familiar. This could include training with other forces, college abroad as well as authorizing modest amounts of funds to pay for memberships in local clubs that foster this kind of knowledge. A good example Is the Japan Society of Northern California (http://www.usajapan.org/).

We also need to place a higher priority on NATO support and integration than we do in order to insure that we learn more about how to work with our allies and that we indeed train as we fight.

Hey Moe! Implications of al-Sadr Return to Iraq

On 5 January 2011 the Washington Post reported that “Cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returns to Iraq after self-imposed exile (see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/05/AR2011010500724.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert)
Photo Source: Bassem Tellawi- Associated Press via the Washington Post.


Sadr has evolved from faction leader to an important piece of the Iraqi governmental puzzle. The memory of battles in and around “Sadr City” are still somewhat fresh. Sadr is a true wild card, one that bode well or not for Iraqi and US interested. He has done many things right to position himself as a keystone in the new Iraqi government.

He has done well to retain the loyalty of his followers and pays attention to the small things that impact loyalty such as visiting the grave of his father upon his return. Sadr also was the beneficiary of a deal reportedly brokered by Iran.
What does all this have to do with Military Information Support Operations?

I believe there is a great deal at stake because Iraq and its new government are now in charge of their own destiny, unless something really bad happens such as an increase in sectarian violence, a power grab by Sadr or some other development that pushed Iraq back on the brink of disaster.

Now is the time for contingency planning by Executive Branch Strategic Communications, State Department Policy & Public Diplomacy, MISO personnel. Alternative scenarios need to be developed and considered. Intelligence and fact gathering needs to be on-going and file footage for potential information operations should be compiled.

Additionally it would be useful to track press releases and other activity by the Maliki government as well as profile and track the public affairs apparatus of the Sadr organization.

Blog Entry, 30 June 09 – PSYOP Skating to the Puck

I’m generally much of a sports fan, but I do follow, rodeo, football and hockey. And while I don’t often employ sports analogies, ‘skating to the puck’ is a good one. It implies that the player must anticipate where the puck is going and be at the right place at the right time to make the winning play.



Countries with the largest Muslim population as of 2008:
Indonesia 204 Million
Pakistan 164 Million
India 154 Million
Bangladesh 128 Million
Turkey 76 Million
Egypt 74 Million
Nigeria 73 Million
Iran 65 Million
Morocco 34 Million
Algeria 33 Million
Afghanistan 32 Million
Saudi Arabia 28 Million
Sudan 28 Million
China 27 Million
Egypt 27 Million
Iraq 27 Million
Ethiopia 27 Million

Source: http://islam.about.com/od/muslimcountries/a/population.htm
In my view skating to the puck means employing Strategic PSYOP to addre
ss audiences in Indonesia, Turkey, Nigeria, Morocco, and Algeria because while only Algeria has been in the news with respect to Al Qaeda (e.g. Washington Post @ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/29/AR2007052901967.html) the other nations are critical to global long term peace and prosperity.

Indonesia should be at the top of the list because it has the largest Islamic population and because it is a keystone of Asia and a symbol to the rest of the world. According to the CIA Factbook “Indonesia's first free parliamentary election after decades of repressive rule took place in 1999. Indonesia is now the world's third-largest democracy, …. and home to the world's largest Muslim population. Current issues include: alleviating poverty, improving education, preventing terrorism, consolidating democracy after four decades of authoritarianism, implementing economic and financial reforms, stemming corruption, holding the military and police accountable for past human rights violations, addressing climate change, and controlling avian influenza.” (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ID.html)

Indonesia faces a myriad of issues and the USG clearly should have messaging that addresses many of them. Furthermore Indonesia’s role in Asia will become more pivotal as China’s political, economic and military influence continues to grow. Indonesia must receive significant strategic communications attention as a prophylaxis to alleviate potentially serious issues in the future.

USG strategic communications will of necessity combine Department of State and Department of Defense information engagement efforts. As a core principle of democracy, the Executive Branch’s civilians drive Strategic Communications under the direction of the Ambassador in line with guidance from the President and Secretary of State Clinton.

Admiral Timothy J. Keating, Commander of the Pacific Command has a number of informational resources at his disposal as does the Commander of the US Special Operations Command. These DOD resources ought to be ‘de-conflicted’ so that they are additive in effect. After all marketing is cumulative. These efforts will likely include traditional media and the Internet. Given the burgeoning growth of mobile phones in Asia, campaigns employing Text Messages, e-mails and social networking are also appropriate especially to reach the young adult population which is a very large chunk of the overall population.

Time in the posting does not permit an analysis of other countries and their potential for strategic communications. Suffice it to say that Turkey is critical the US and global security so that it should be singled out for special attention as well.

PSYOP and Iran

I believe that the US should stay out of the melee in Iran, however, the events unfolding there can be harnessed for great effect in other theaters to convey some very important and powerful messages:

1. Fundamentalist dictatorships will never acquiesce to their people’s wishes.

2. Support of fundamentalist regimes can lead to violence against citizens who dare to oppose them.

3. In times of stress Fundamentalist dictatorships will do all they can to limit communications. State media will often be the only ‘authorized’ media covering events. Those seeking to let the outside world know the truth will have to rely on technology and creativity to get their messages out and wills subject to personal peril.

There are some observations which ought to be noted as well:

1. The Internet and amateurs may be one of the few ways to transmit messages and images from forbidden/denied areas and incidents.

2. Covert cameras need to be employed during incidents to reduce the chances of the communicator being singled out of a crowd.

3. Even the most repressive of governments (North Korea perhaps being an exception) cannot keep a total lid on negative images and communications flowing out of their countries.

From a military PSYOP perspective harnessing the images and Internet exploitation of them should take several directions. A trans-regional campaign is in order to inform moderate Islamic audiences of the events unfolding in Iran and transmitting the messages I’ve noted above and others as appropriate. Tactical PSYOP production units should accumulate file footage (often called b-roll or background roll) to be used as needed later on.

Training institutions such as SWC should develop case studies to be used in future PSYOP training and/or exercises based on two alternative scenarios. One scenario is that PSYOP forces are inside the country where the events are taking place and the other is that PSYOP forces are outside the country. The second scenario would pose questions as to how or if these images and news stories coming out of Iran should be used elsewhere and if so how.

Consideration should also be given in the use of covert cameras during hostile situations so that local images may be captured for subsequent use as well. This training should be provided out of DINFOS as well as SWC and other appropriate training venues.

I would also recommend that PSYOP Groups assign an informal project team to keep track of the events in Iran and to search out, store and categorize the images and stories as they unfold.

Source of Photo: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,528133,00.html

Can Disinformation be Credible PSYOP?

Today’s Asian Times on line is featuring an article: “Disinformation flies as US raises Iran bar” (http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JB21Ak01.html). The article talks about the informational tug of war between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the US efforts to insure that Iran is the target of a new round of UN Sanctions. According to the author of the article: “a source close to the IAEA has called the US media reports "misleading". The source said: "Without going into the intelligence we may or may not have received, I can say that in my view, these news reports were misleading.”

At issue in today’s post is to offer a bit of analysis methodology to assess effect this ‘exposure’ of the alleged misleading nature of information provided will impact the battle for mindshare over the issue.

I’ve been often been accused of being a funny person, one who if life’s path were different, might have been a professional comedian. As a result, over time I have told people that “the best stuff is never made up”. This principle holds just as true in PSYOP as in comedy because the most effective PSYOP is the truth.

Another truth is that people believe what they want to believe. They tend to give more credibility to statements that prove their position than to efforts to discredit their position or change their mind. Consequently when information comes out that has in tainted in a credible way, that information is more likely to be disbelieved than it is to be considered by people holding opinions contra to that position.

The article author’s position is that Iran is within its rights to engage in nuclear ‘research’ and that the “IAEA must insulate itself from the disinformation campaign against Iran that has by all indications gone into a higher gear as we draw closer to the upcoming meeting of the IAEA’s board of governors, and it must ignore the intensifying American lobbying efforts and those of its junior partners such as France (at a recent meeting of France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and the IAEA chief, Mohammad ElBaradei, the IAEA was urged to "stay firm" on Iran).”

Let’s look at the PSYOP/IO problem here. The article quotes an alleged source within the IAEA. The source is never named. The main thrust of the article is to reinforce the pro-Iranian position of the author. The messages are:
1. The US and its allies are trying to improperly influence the IAEA.
2. They are employing bad data (intelligence purportedly obtained from an unreliable source – stolen laptop) to do so.
3. The IAEA must remain above this sort of chicanery.
4. Iran is within its rights.

Some questions arise:
1. How credible/important is the Asia Times on-line in the information picture?
2. Who reads the Asia Times?
a. Direct Audience
b. Media that would parrot their position
c. Infuencers
3. What efforts (if any) should be made to counter this article?
I’m not going to offer responses here, but will strongly suggest that analysis like this is an important mission and that a “corporate” repository of the analysis, along with the responses and a tracking of their effects needs to be as much a part of the PSYOP arsenal as the loudspeaker.