The BBC has put out an article discussing American plans for warfare in the electronic and media world, including sharing to a Rumsfield-endorsed “Information Operations Roadmap” obtained via a FOIA request. Quoting the BBC story:
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 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.
Perhaps rather than expending so much energy to develop tin-foil hats to protect us from Big Brother, folks need to be concerned about tin-foil firewalls.
However, while it’s tempting to think of Washington…particularly under the current administration…as something sinister just waiting to manifest, the BBC article mentions something both promising and depressing reported in the roadmap:
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.