U.S. government planting propaganda and misleading stories in the international media

[Hankaveli]

http://fpiarticle.blogspot.com/2005/04/us-government-planting-propaganda-and.html

Sunday, April 17, 2005
U.S. government planting propaganda and misleading stories in the international media
Free Press International
Sunday April 17, 2005

In 2002, The Pentagon set up a new department with the Orwellian title of the 'Office of Strategic Influence(OSI),' with the goal of planting propaganda and misleading stories in the international media -- including media outlets of friendly countries

It was well funded, being run by a 'unnamed' general and its aim was to influence public opinion abroad.

The Pentagon allegedly e-mailed journalists and community leaders abroad with information that undermines governments hostile to the United States. The e-mails came from a .com address rather than .mil to hide the Pentagon's role.

There are allegations of paying journalists in European nations to write favorable stories about American policies or secretly financing books or schools to counter radical Islam taught at some of Pakistan's madrassas, or religious schools.

Right after 9/11, the State Department hired advertising executive Charlotte Beers to head an office of public diplomacy that has produced videos hyping American religious inclusion.

The Central Intelligence Agency has secretly backed institutions like the Congress for Cultural Freedom and Encounter magazine.

There are also 'secret' department directives covering information operations.

BBC News
CBS
posted by GREG ERICSON at 5:20 PM

 

[Amara]

The Pentagon allegedly e-mailed journalists and community leaders abroad with information that undermines governments hostile to the United States.

Oh, you mean the "axis of evil" and "evil-doers" propaganda we read about is.....deliberately misleading.....well bugger me.

Seriously though, that has become the media's primary role, when has it ever been impartial and objective, it has always been doctored to direct public opinion in a certain fashion, usually to legitimise governmental policy at home and abroad.

 

[one mc on dj]

Fuck it the internet is fucked up like whoa...and its users too...The internet is definitly the worst place to get your info off...Ppl believe everything they read when its written with a serious tone....

 

[MX Red]

This is news?

 

[The.Menace]

nothing new.

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

Yeah this is not new.

Particularly easily to see is America's wrongful demonization of Cuba & Fidel Castro - confirmed by retred US officials years later. America holds grudges so there is still an embargo on Cuba & there is still anti-Fidel propaganda.

 

[THA WILD]

Yeah this is not new.

Particularly easily to see is America's wrongful demonization of Cuba & Fidel Castro - confirmed by retred US officials years later. America holds grudges so there is still an embargo on Cuba & there is still anti-Fidel propaganda.

Would you mind discussing that with a Cuban exile?

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

Would you mind discussing that with a Cuban exile?

Yeah, I'd like to meet a humbled excuse for a human being.

Bar a slight minority, most Cuban exiles who were forced out deserved the fate Fidel had in mind for them.

 

[Zero Cool]

Yeah, I'd like to meet a humbled excuse for a human being.

Bar a slight minority, most Cuban exiles who were forced out deserved the fate Fidel had in mind for them.

Fidel has imprisoned or exiled more people per capita than Stalin. The sooner he goes the better.

 

[Default MX]

Nuke ..... cuba?

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

Fidel has imprisoned or exiled more people per capita than Stalin. The sooner he goes the better.

My man was forced to be ruthless - he did not wish to be.

Stalin didn't have America burning his people out of food & work. Stalin didn't have America plotting to conquer Russia all the time. Stalin had many other nations to subsidise his agenda.

Basically, there is no real comparison. Fidel Castro was persecuted from day one because he did not wish to put American interests before Cuban interests.

 

[Zero Cool]

My man was forced to be ruthless - he did not wish to be.

Stalin didn't have America burning his people out of food & work. Stalin didn't have America plotting to conquer Russia all the time. Stalin had many other nations to subsidise his agenda.

Basically, there is no real comparison. Fidel Castro was persecuted from day one because he did not wish to put American interests before Cuban interests.

Your analogy is groundless. Terrorizing your citizens is not made OK simply because you have another nation breathing down the neck of your regime. Basic human freedoms are basic human freedoms. The U.S. is criticized daily because of it's ostensible abuses in this field but when it comes to someone like Castro his crimes are suddenly glossed over because he's the head of a "workers paradise"? Come on. Fidel Castro has never put any interests before his own, for that reason Cuba is in the state it is today. Fidel is a member of a dying caste, when he goes perhaps Cuba will see real prosperity and freedom not that which is put on show in the hotels of Havana.

 

[CalcuoCuchicheo]

Zero, Cuba was put into a situation where her natural resources had been destroyed by American terrorism & - due to impending threat - the military had to be heavily funded & on constant alert. In this situation, you have to become hardline to survive. I don't remember the last time America went to war to put food in the mouths of her people or any other people for that matter....& Fidel never even went to war, he just got strict - in his own country.

And then, how do you expect the country to get out of a bad situation when the only superpower in the world continues to do almost everything it can to stop this from happening? Havana cigars are still illegal in the US you know...& the underhanded tactics affect other areas of the economy like tourism.

Cuba's interest were initially in front of Castro's interests - including his interest in breathing.

And America were demonizing him long before he ever became 'oppressive'.

 

[Zero Cool]

Zero, Cuba was put into a situation where her natural resources had been destroyed by American terrorism & - due to impending threat - the military had to be heavily funded & on constant alert. In this situation, you have to become hardline to survive. I don't remember the last time America went to war to put food in the mouths of her people or any other people for that matter....& Fidel never even went to war, he just got strict - in his own country.

And then, how do you expect the country to get out of a bad situation when the only superpower in the world continues to do almost everything it can to stop this from happening? Havana cigars are still illegal in the US you know...& the underhanded tactics affect other areas of the economy like tourism.

Cuba's interest were initially in front of Castro's interests - including his interest in breathing.

And America were demonizing him long before he ever became 'oppressive'.

Castro is an oppressive dictator who uses Gestapo-like measures to ensure his continuation in power. "American terrorism", whatever that's supposed to mean, cannot account for Fidel's atrocious record on the most basic of human rights. As I've said degradation of human rights is degradation of human rights no matter how you try and spin it. Castro, like most of the rest of his Communist brethern, is scum. While I admit he may have had a visionary belief of a better Cuba in the beginning, with the acqusition of power this quickly descended into what it is today.

With Fidel's passing from power may come a better Cuba. Communism is dead, Fidel is simply clinging on.

 

[MX Red]

U tell em calcu, Castro aintthe monster America makes him out to be! If shit was so bad there why is there still overwhelming support for the revolution?

Cuba has the best health service (Lowest fatality rate for youth) and one of the best education systems in the world...this does not fit the face america have given castro!

Not only have america kept the trade block on for the past 35 odd years, it has constantly sabotaged one of their biggest exports, their sugar market, which only serves to hurt the Cuban people – not Castro. Thus who has America got in mind with their policy towards Cuba – the people or the ideology? America do not have the Cuban people at heart, not when Bastita ruled, and certainly not when Castro ruled.
peace
MX!

 

[MX Red]

Castro is an oppressive dictator who uses Gestapo-like measures to ensure his continuation in power. "American terrorism", whatever that's supposed to mean, cannot account for Fidel's atrocious record on the most basic of human rights. As I've said degradation of human rights is degradation of human rights no matter how you try and spin it. Castro, like most of the rest of his Communist brethern, is scum. While I admit he may have had a visionary belief of a better Cuba in the beginning, with the acqusition of power this quickly descended into what it is today.

With Fidel's passing from power may come a better Cuba. Communism is dead, Fidel is simply clinging on.

Then America has taken this to heart and learned from Castro - need i mention camp X-ray, quite ironic that its on Cuban soil really dont u think?
peace
MX!

 

[Jurhum]

^ It was the same thing with Iraq, just a different area.

 

[Zero Cool]

Then America has taken this to heart and learned from Castro - need i mention camp X-ray, quite ironic that its on Cuban soil really dont u think?
peace
MX!

A U.S. base to hold highly dangerous terror suspects is hardly comparable with a brutal dictator's 40-year plus record of eroding his peoples basic human rights now is it? No matter how the lefties try and spin it, Castro is an amoral dictator with no regard for those values which every self-respecting person holds dear.

 

[MX Red]

U said: -As I've said degradation of human rights is degradation of human rights no matter how you try and spin it

would you like to back track anymore now?

 

[Zero Cool]

U said: -As I've said degradation of human rights is degradation of human rights no matter how you try and spin it

would you like to back track anymore now?

No. Guantanamo Bay is not what I value in American democracy and believe it should be evacuated. When did I ever indicate I supported the institution? However, there is a substantial difference between holding suspected world dangerous terrorists who could commit mass murder at large and a manic dictator who consistently erodes even the most basic human rights amongst his citizens. Your analogy is nonsense.