Foreign Media: Good PSYOP Reading Material?

Before I get into this week’s post, I would like to extend a very big thank you to Psychological Operations Qualification Course Class 05/06-12 for the honor of being their graduation speaker last week and to the faculty and staff of the JFK Special Warfare center. 

A special thank you goes to 5^th Battalion for their gracious hospitality.

Now – on to this week’s posting - - - 

I subscribe to the Economist because I like an ‘unAmerican’ view. As a British publication they often say what would be politically unacceptable in America. During my time at SFOR in Bosnia I often referred to the Economist as ‘the answer key’ because it explained what happened in Bosnia the week before in such a way that made sense. Something I couldn’t do because I was in the thick of it.

However, not all foreign (in this case non-US media is so benign. One of my sources sent me a link to a foreign publication in which an article on the Boston Marathon bombing concluded: “In short, I believe the Boston Marathon bombing has all the signs of an OP: a psyop, a false-flag operation that is one more grizzly event in the marathon of mind control imposed by the U.S. government on its own citizens to justify its ever-expanding security/police state, and divert attention from the ever-shrinking civil rights held by the people” (See http://www.tehrantimes.com/yuram-writings/106956-psyops-mind-control-marathon-and-boston-bombings which is also the photo source.)

The article walks through events surrounding the bombing and alludes to “Western Propaganda” and distortion of the events surrounding the bombing throughout.

The point is not whether the article is pure journalism or whether it is Iranian state sponsored propaganda, the source is the Tehran Times of course, but that we in PSYOP/MISO need to be on top of what key foreign media are saying and if possible to be on the lookout for measures of effectiveness that show whether or not their message is getting across.

POQC Graduation 3 July 2013 - Speaker Presentation

I was honored to be the graduation speaker for the latest PSYOP Qualification Course, here's my presentation. The class consisted of 22 Officers, 52 NCOs, 6 Sister Service (Marine NCOs), 6 Allied Officers (Brazil, Estonia, Korea, Latvia, Mexico, Thailand), and 17 USAR Officers

Good Morning,

I am pleased and honored to be your graduation speaker today.

I’m hopeful that I wasn’t selected because you figured that an old guy would be glad to be invited back to Bragg and not afraid to mess up a long weekend.

I asked your Faculty what I should talk about and they suggested that I should give you a little insight as to how things were in the ‘old days’ and how they are different today.

Seemed like a reasonable place to start, so here goes.

My first PSYOP assignment was in 1989 when I became the FD Team Chief at the 7^th PSYOP Group at the Presidio of San Francisco. Don’t bother trying to figure out the acronym, it doesn’t stand for anything. The FD team was an Intelligence Team assigned to the Group – we were kind of like the market research department for the Ops people. A mini SSG if you will.

We were mostly on our own and as I recall assembled files, you know the papers in folders that went into metal cabinets. From there I served as Group XO, S2 and S3.

The highlight of the S3 experience was working then COL Altshuler on the quarterly USRs. To put it in historical context for you, the object of the game was to report the Unit’s Readiness on forms that were derived from punched cards. This lasted several days each quarter and could be compared to a long visit to the dentist.

In 1994 I was appointed CDR of the 12^th PSYOP BN. A position I served in for four years including a tour in Sarajevo which I called my semester abroad. As it turns out my time at the SFOR NATO HQ was very much of a graduate education in working with senior European Executives.

My last PSYOP assignment before retiring was as an IO at SOCOM where my main job was to act as a grumpy Colonel and ask really smart ass questions of 04s and 05s who were going to brief a certain very hostile GO.

I was elected as Honorary Colonel of the PSYOP Regiment in 2003 and served until October 2010.

I started the PSYOP Regimental Blog in 2007. Since that time I have made 325 posts and received 393 comments and over 100,000 page views.

With that as background –

How was the Regiment back then?

The Regiment, to be candid, was a bit like the North and the South during the 1860s, admittedly a bit of an exaggeration, but the AC and the RC just didn’t play well together. Up till that point there just didn’t seem any way that the two components were going to admit they were in the same business.

This changed quite a bit during the Command tenure of Colonel Jeff Jones at the 4^th POG, he and my boss, COL Altshuler got along very well, this filtered down through the staffs  and the relationship between the components flourished. I still remember one trip to Bragg where I was called out of a planning conference to go to the “Green Ramp”. I was quite surprised to find that it was neither green nor a ramp and actually looked like a Greyhound bus terminal in Fresno, CA.

My sister AC BN, the 8^th POB was being sent to Somalia and the CDR, LTC Chris St. John wanted a few words with me and presented me with his coin. Needless to say my stomach felt a bit queasy as their plane took off.

Today all y’all need to be very certain that you are one team and in the same business. When you hit the field you will be judged as a part of MISO community whether you’re AC or RC so hopefully you can all do the job up to the same standard.

This is a bit of a commercial for SWC, our proponent. The doctrinal notion of earmarking one unit for supporting one type of force and another for a different force is a bunch of crap.

Added this from the DOD ESGR Briefing: 2014: The New Normal:

Bottom line = The new fiscal and security environment requires the Services to reexamine their AC/RC mix and how they can best utilize their RC. Given the fiscal and budgetary pressures, it is clear that the RC will continue to be utilized as an operational force.        

The overall force is shrinking, unless of course there’s another Iraq or Afghanistan, so that assignments will likely be made ‘for the good of the service’ and each of the serving force will need to be skilled to do the job without regard to who their original unit of focus may have been.

In 1997 I arrived in Sarajevo on my 51^st birthday with my first active duty ID card since 1970. Working as an American officer in an alliance is a special calling. I don’t believe everyone is suited for it, but rest assured many of you will get that opportunity.

Officers in particular have to be more adept at working with other nations now and beyond. You will find that working with your peers is a very rewarding experience and you’ll be surprised that you’re more alike than you thought. A bunch of us 05s would get together over coffee and talk about how our Colonels all wanted to be generals and how they would suck up to all the stars they can find.

I’m sure that’s very different today …….

In terms of the profession of MISO, outside of the technology, I don’t believe all that much has changed.

For confirmation I sought some input from one of the great PSYOP Historians, Herb Friedman, Curator of PSYWAR.org.

Herb made a few key points that I would like to share with you:

	·        It never hurts to tell the truth. ·        You are a force multiplier. ·        Generals as Schwarzkopf have practically said that victory would be much more difficult without you. ·        Combat commands are suspicious and will want immediate results. ·        Be sure you level the expectations. ·         PSYOP is like water dripping on a rock. ·        Targets must be prepared, carefully nurtured and eventually they can be taken. ·        There are no miracles, just hard work that will eventually influence both neutrals and enemy targets and save lives. Let me offer a few more comments. To coin the common phrase, we are in the era of the strategic NCO. Future MISO will mean that NCOs in particular will shoulder more responsibility and have to function far more independently than ever before. You will need to know when to employ technology and when to use your gut. As the people who get the job done, you have to master both hard and soft skills. You will need to know how to take and edit video on the fly then craft the proper words in the right dialect with the right nuance to reinforce the video to accomplish your MISO mission. And you may have to pick out which person in the village is the right one to talk to. Officers have the unenviable task of managing up. This means you need to work through your chain of command with a high degree of concern for your troops and an extra measure of common sense. You need to determine how to carry out the OpOrder in the most effective, yet safest way and you need to raise your hand if you think there are major issues that need to be addressed prior to launch. The day of easily identifiable enemy forces is over. Influence operations by their very nature are not all directed against uniformed enemy forces. Part of the challenge of future MISO is to focus your efforts on those targets that make sense. I used to categorize targets for senior officers using their favorite system: Red, Yellow & Green. Green targets were those individuals and groups that were already pre-disposed to our efforts. The Yellow Group was the most important target. They were the people who either hadn’t made up their mind or who could be influenced to see things our way. The Red Group are those targets that would be better served by UAVs because their minds are made up, they don’t engage rationally and are totally committed. Next I would like to broach a topic that is often ignored in places like SWC and that is the role of women in MISO. I sometimes say that when I come to Bragg, my IQ goes down, but my testosterone goes up. It is ridiculous to ignore the obvious and that is women are a key component of most target audiences and clearly a prominent factor in today’s battlefield. We need to ensure that our MISO ranks include women who can relate to target audiences and function effectively as NCOs and officers. Let me leave you with this thought – today is the 150th anniversary of Pickett’s charge in the Battle of Gettysburg. Like some of you I have been to the bottom of that hill and while I’m not an infantry guy, it was pretty clear to me that charging up that hill was not a really good idea. How do you think that battle might have turned out if the defenders on Cemetery Ridge heard the loud noises that artillery fire and rebel yells from large masses of troops coming up their flanks? Thank you for your kind attention and best of luck. .

MISO and Lebanon Training Teams – Essential or Risky Business?

The Associated Press reported through Yahoo News (see http://news.yahoo.com/us-looks-send-training-teams-lebanon-iraq-214705177.html) and other outlets that “US looks to send training teams to Lebanon, Iraq”. GEN Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  was quoted “"Militarily, what we're doing is assisting our partners in the region, the neighbors of Syria, to ensure that they're prepared to account for the potential spillover effects," Dempsey said during a Pentagon briefing Wednesday. "As you know, we've just taken a decision to leave some Patriot missile batteries and some F-16s in Jordan as part of the defense of Jordan. We're working with our Iraqi counterparts, the Lebanese Armed Forces and Turkey through NATO."

While I’ve never been to either Lebanon or Iraq, I suspect that they share a number of similar characteristics: strong factions that are bent on destroying each other, urban population centers, reasonable Internet access, adequate telecommunications and a host of broadcast and print media.

This Area of Operations (AO) is more amenable for MISO than is Afghanistan – but do we really want MISO to be a part of this  “training team”?

On the pro side is the fact that MISO (formerly PSYOP) was born out of Special Operations. Special Operations Forces have training foreign militaries as a core competency. Does it follow then that MISO should be as welcome by our “allies” as F-16s?

I frankly don’t think so. Even though we would be risking lives and assets by providing training teams in the first place, I’m not convinced that the governments we would be helping are anxious to try and influence their populations using American resources. In fact the very use of US resources as a means of influence directly or indirectly might undermine the host nation government even more.

It looks like training teams in this context ought to be limited to things that blow up stuff and how to move, shoot and communicate.

Reader input encouraged.

Photo Source is the AP photo shown on: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/134262-us-looks-to-send-training-teams-to-lebanon-iraq/

Personal PSYOP - The Time is Nigh

In the PSYOP and MISO world we generally think in terms of campaigns and motivating groups. This week I was thinking about the notion of personal PSYOP. Sort of an advanced version of activities you might have practiced on the playground or in High School.

The aim of personal PSYOP is to ‘mess with’ the mind of the target. Essentially you want the target so concerned about a peripheral matter that it takes their mind of the really important things they have to do.

Of course this requires an intimate knowledge of the target individual and for this particular example to work the target needs to be dependent on Social Media, Especially Facebook. Previously I posted about how a hijacked Twitter account brought some very bad publicity to Jeep and Burger King.

In today’s scenario Tommy The Target (T) is addicted to Facebook. Even though he is  a rising star in a prominent law firm and is deeply committed to his lovely girlfriend. Tommy is also very concerned about how he looks to his friends and checks his Facebook account regularly.

Arnie the Adversary (A) works with T in the same law firm. A knows that he and T are vying for the next opening for Partner and that their meeting with the Managing Partner is scheduled for the next day.

A manages to takeover Greta (Tommy’s Girlfriend’s )(G) Facebook Account. Seems Arnie found out he could get a password cracker on the Internet for free and Greta, a graduate student in art is not very concerned about her security.

Once in the account Arnie posts some pictures that look like T. These pictures show T engaged in smoking what looks like pot, and shows other compromising views. In addition G has made some negative statements about T and has broken up with him.

T is devastated after he checks his FB page in the morning. Needless to say his performance at the Managing Partner interview does not go well.

This is an example of Personal PSYOP in the commercial sector, I’m sure all y’all can see how it can be applied for MISO purposes.

 Comments always welcome and see you at Bragg for graduation.

Photo Source: Facbeook.com

Must Be A Pretty Good Magazine

I have had a few posts on “PSY Acts”, those things you do rather than say. Recently the Al Qaeda digital magazine Inspire suffered a bit of a cyber casualty. See “US Disrupts Al Qaeda magazine at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/officials-describe-how-us-disrupts-al-qaedas-online-magazine/2013/06/11/6a9196c6-ca07-11e2-9245-773c0123c027_story.html?wpisrc=al_excl.

According to the article, the US ‘covertly’ sabotaged the magazine and within a half hour the problem was corrected and the site was back up. Inspire has been cited as a primary motivator behind the Boston attacks - see picture.

While I’m not a Counter Terrorism expert, I believe that there are a large number of disaffected individuals and small groups who intend to do us harm. I also believe that a significant number of these enemies have no natural command and control chain and seek to fly under the radar until they feel that the time has come from them to execute. They need inspiration, financing, references and support. The magazine appears to be something they need and attacking a Center of Gravity is a proven military strategy.

One should never under estimate one’s enemy. The magazine surely knows it is on the US (and other countries’) ‘radar’. They also know that the US and our allies have cyber capabilities. Their half hour reaction time is likely to be better than many business entities although electronic media is among the up and coming buyers of information security products and services such as Managed Security Services.

Perhaps we can analyze this attack on Inspire with a boxing analogy. This attack was one of many left jabs that are being thrown at the opponent. While I don’t believe there will likely be a single knock out punch, we need to demonstrate more persistence and long range thinking in our PSYOP/MISO targeting to keep our enemies off guard.

May I quote one of my favorite philosophers: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!"

Photo Source: http://blog.adl.org/extremism/latest-inspire-magazine-celebrates-boston-bombing

Collaboration and Security – Necessary Elements in MISO

Today’s posting addresses some of the components of MISO that are not taught in schools. As usual the media offers some fodder as articles and commentary about the latest information leaker (see http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/06/10/edward-snowden-heritage-foundation-editorials-debates/2410213/) about the NSA leaker, Edward Snowden. (Also the Photo Source)

MISO is an especially interesting and challenging field because it involves art, science and people sense. This trio represents the core of MISO. We need art to create, science to help figure out what to create and the people sense to see if our brilliant ideas pass the “BS” factor test.

One of the highlights of my military career was to serve at the NATO SFOR HQ in Bosnia. The reason I enjoyed it so much was I had the unique opportunity to work with colleagues from a variety of nations in many different ways. Collaboration with others who do not necessarily share the same views with you is a Socratic way of learning more about the subject at hand.

However, it is fair to say that each nation approaches the Alliance with their own national goals and priorities, some of which they would rather not share. Knowing how to balance collaboration with your nation’s secrets is part of the job.

As military professionals (and contractors of course) we are bound by our legal and moral obligations. The legal obligations with respect to protection of classified information are clear. The line between sensitive and not sensitive is a bit more blurred but still such information has a classification.

While we may have complete creative freedom to design and implement MISO campaigns IAW our missions, we don’t get to decide if a piece of protected information should be released to one of our non-cleared colleagues simply because we trust him or her and think it’s a good idea.