-Caveat Lector- And THUS started the domestic release of dis-information to Americans. Give'em a big hand!
Maybe the "office" will not be there, but they aren't claiming that they wouldn't be doing it. More likely they'll just let the existing agencies or outsourced private companies do the work. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2002 21:36:22 +0100 From: Mario Profaca <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "[Spy News]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Spy News] Bush Seals Fate of Office of Influence in Pentagon http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/26/international/26OFFI.html February 26, 2002 HEARTS AND MINDS Bush Seals Fate of Office of Influence in Pentagon By ERIC SCHMITT WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 � President Bush expressed alarm today over the possible activities of a new Pentagon office intended to influence public sentiment abroad and strongly endorsed efforts to disband or reconfigure the agency. When asked today whether he had ordered Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to close the office, Mr. Bush said, "I didn't even need to tell him this; he knows how I feel. I saw it reflected in his comments the other day." Mr. Bush went on to say that he was confident that Mr. Rumsfeld would "handle this in the right way." Interpreting the president's remarks, a senior administration official said, "He specifically mentioned that the office would be shut down before it started or that its focus would be dramatically narrowed to obvious things like leaflet campaigns." Proposals from the new agency, the Office of Strategic Influence, have stirred outrage in Congress and inside the administration. Its director, Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden of the Air Force, had proposed that the office coordinate activities as varied as issuing news releases and conducting secret "information warfare" in friendly as well as unfriendly countries � which could include spreading inaccurate information, military officials said. Mr. Rumsfeld said on Sunday that the Pentagon might eliminate the office because its credibility had been badly damaged by disclosures of its proposed activities. Senior military officials said today that it was now virtually certain that the 15-person office, as currently constituted, would be disbanded or restructured. Officials were discussing how to incorporate its missions that had not raised opposition elsewhere in the Pentagon bureaucracy. The office reports to Douglas J. Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy. Mr. Feith was traveling in Russia today, so any final decision about the office's fate will wait until he returns this week, a Pentagon official said tonight. The Office of Strategic Influence was formed after the attacks on Sept. 11 to coordinate disparate information operations inside the Defense Department that were intended to assist the military overseas. Administration officials have expressed frustration that the United States is losing public support for the war on terrorism, especially in the Islamic world. Senior Pentagon officials had endorsed the office's general mission, but Mr. Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz had not approved any of its specific, classified proposals, which had been circulating at lower levels of the Pentagon, military officials said. The office's activities, disclosed last Tuesday by The New York Times, caused major concern among Bush administration officials traveling with the president in Asia. Karen P. Hughes, senior adviser to Mr. Bush, called back to aides, and asked, "Did you know about this?" one administration official said. The official added, "We're obviously careful about any kind of effort to mislead the public." Stephen J. Hadley, the deputy national security adviser, called senior Pentagon officials to express concern about the office's reported activities, the administration official said. The matter also raised questions on Capitol Hill. Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Mr. Rumsfeld late on Friday seeking more information about the purpose of the office. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> FREE COLLEGE MONEY CLICK HERE to search 600,000 scholarships! http://us.click.yahoo.com/iZp8OC/4m7CAA/ySSFAA/TySplB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> =============================================================== SPY NEWS is OSINT newsletter and discussion list associated to Mario's Cyberspace Station http://mprofaca.cro.net/mainmenu.html =============================================================== *** FAIR USE NOTICE. 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