According to Glen Greenwald of Salon.com: "A newly leaked CIA report prepared earlier this month (.pdf) analyzes how the U.S. Government can best manipulate public opinion in Germany and France -- in order to ensure that those countries continue to fight in Afghanistan. The Report celebrates the fact that the governments of those two nations continue to fight the war in defiance of overwhelming public opinion which opposes it -- so much for all the recent veneration of 'consent of the governed' -- and it notes that this is possible due to lack of interest among their citizenry: 'Public Apathy Enables Leaders to Ignore Voters,' proclaims the title of one section.

"But the Report also cites the 'fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan' and worries that -- particularly if the 'bloody summer in Afghanistan' that many predict takes place -- what happened to the Dutch will spread as a result of the 'fragility of European support' for the war. As the truly creepy Report title puts it, the CIA's concern is: 'Why Counting on Apathy May Not Be Enough':

"The Report seeks to provide a back-up plan for 'counting on apathy,' and provides ways that the U.S. Government can manipulate public opinion in these foreign countries. It explains that French sympathy for Afghan refugees means that exploiting Afghan women as pro-war messengers would be effective, while Germans would be more vulnerable to a fear-mongering campaign (failure in Afghanistan means the Terrorists will get you). The Report highlights the unique ability of Barack Obama to sell war to European populations.

"It's both interesting and revealing that the CIA sees Obama as a valuable asset in putting a pretty face on our wars in the eyes of foreign populations. It is odious -- though, of course, completely unsurprising -- that the CIA plots ways to manipulate public opinion in foreign countries in order to sustain support for our wars. Now that this is a Democratic administration doing this and a Democratic war at issue, I doubt many people will object to any of this. But what is worth noting is how and why this classified Report was made publicly available: because it was leaked to and then posted by WikiLeaks.org, the site run by the non-profit group Sunshine Press, that is devoted to exposing suppressed government and corporate corruption by publicizing many of their most closely guarded secrets.

"Over the past several years, WikiLeaks -- which aptly calls itself 'the intelligence agency of the people' -- has obtained and then published a wide array of secret, incriminating documents (similar to this CIA Report) that expose the activities of numerous governments and corporations. Among many others, they posted the Standard Operating Manual for Guantanamo, documents showing how corrupt offshore loans precipitated the economic collapse in Iceland, the notorious emails between climate scientists, documents showing toxic dumping off the coast of Africa, and many others. They have recently come into possession of classified videos relating to civilian causalities under the command of Gen. David Petraeus, as well as documentation relating to civilian-slaughtering airstrikes in Afghanistan which the U.S. military had agreed to release, only to change their mind.

"All of this has made WikiLeaks an increasingly hated target of numerous government and economic elites around the world, including the U.S. Government. As The New York Times put it last week: 'To the list of the enemies threatening the security of the United States, the Pentagon has added WikiLeaks.org, a tiny online source of information and documents that governments and corporations around the world would prefer to keep secret.' In 2008, the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Center prepared a secret report -- obtained and posted by WikiLeaks -- devoted to this website and detailing, in a section entitled 'Is it Free Speech or Illegal Speech?', ways it would seek to destroy the organization. It discusses the possibility that, for some governments, not merely contributing to WikiLeaks, but 'even accessing the website itself is a crime,' and outlines its proposal for WikiLeaks' destruction as follows (click on image to enlarge):

"As the Pentagon report put it: 'the governments of China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam and Zimbabwe' have all sought to block access to or otherwise impede the operations of WikiLeaks, and the U.S. Government now joins that illustrious list of transparency-loving countries in targeting them...." (continued)

Read the full article here

posted by: Harold Johns III

" />The War on WikiLeaks and Why it Matters | The Rathaus

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The War on WikiLeaks and Why it Matters

March 29, 2010 communication, culture, The Rathaus

According to Glen Greenwald of Salon.com:
“A newly leaked CIA report prepared earlier this month (.pdf) analyzes how the U.S. Government can best manipulate public opinion in Germany and France — in order to ensure that those countries continue to fight in Afghanistan.  The Report celebrates the fact that the governments of those two nations continue to fight the war in defiance of overwhelming public opinion which opposes it — so much for all the recent veneration of ‘consent of the governed’ — and it notes that this is possible due to lack of interest among their citizenry: ‘Public Apathy Enables Leaders to Ignore Voters,’ proclaims the title of one section.

“But the Report also cites the ‘fall of the Dutch Government over its troop commitment to Afghanistan’ and worries that — particularly if the ‘bloody summer in Afghanistan’ that many predict takes place — what happened to the Dutch will spread as a result of the ‘fragility of European support’ for the war.  As the truly creepy Report title puts it, the CIA’s concern is:  ‘Why Counting on Apathy May Not Be Enough‘:

“The Report seeks to provide a back-up plan for ‘counting on apathy,’ and provides ways that the U.S. Government can manipulate public opinion in these foreign countries.  It explains that French sympathy for Afghan refugees means that exploiting Afghan women as pro-war messengers would be effective, while Germans would be more vulnerable to a fear-mongering campaign (failure in Afghanistan means the Terrorists will get you).  The Report highlights the unique ability of Barack Obama to sell war to European populations.

“It’s both interesting and revealing that the CIA sees Obama as a valuable asset in putting a pretty face on our wars in the eyes of foreign populations. It is odious — though, of course, completely unsurprising — that the CIA plots ways to manipulate public opinion in foreign countries in order to sustain support for our wars.  Now that this is a Democratic administration doing this and a Democratic war at issue, I doubt many people will object to any of this.  But what is worth noting is how and why this classified Report was made publicly available:  because it was leaked to and then posted by WikiLeaks.org, the site run by the non-profit group Sunshine Press, that is devoted to exposing suppressed government and corporate corruption by publicizing many of their most closely guarded secrets.

“Over the past several years, WikiLeaks — which aptly calls itself ‘the intelligence agency of the people’ — has obtained and then published a wide array of secret, incriminating documents (similar to this CIA Report) that expose the activities of numerous governments and corporations.  Among many others, they posted the Standard Operating Manual for Guantanamo, documents showing how corrupt offshore loans precipitated the economic collapse in Iceland, the notorious emails between climate scientists, documents showing toxic dumping off the coast of Africa, and many others.  They have recently come into possession of classified videos relating to civilian causalities under the command of Gen. David Petraeus, as well as documentation relating to civilian-slaughtering airstrikes in Afghanistan which the U.S. military had agreed to release, only to change their mind.

“All of this has made WikiLeaks an increasingly hated target of numerous government and economic elites around the world, including the U.S. Government.  As The New York Times put it last week:  ‘To the list of the enemies threatening the security of the United States, the Pentagon has added WikiLeaks.org, a tiny online source of information and documents that governments and corporations around the world would prefer to keep secret.’  In 2008, the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Center prepared a secret report — obtained and posted by WikiLeaks — devoted to this website and detailing, in a section entitled ‘Is it Free Speech or Illegal Speech?’, ways it would seek to destroy the organization.  It discusses the possibility that, for some governments, not merely contributing to WikiLeaks, but ‘even accessing the website itself is a crime,’ and outlines its proposal for WikiLeaks’ destruction as follows (click on image to enlarge):

“As the Pentagon report put it:  ‘the governments of China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Vietnam and Zimbabwe’ have all sought to block access to or otherwise impede the operations of WikiLeaks, and the U.S. Government now joins that illustrious list of transparency-loving countries in targeting them….” (continued)

Read the full article here

posted by: Harold Johns III

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2 Comments

Currently there are "2 comments" on this Article:

  1. scott starrett says:
    March 29, 2010 at 10:02 pm

    I’m rarely surprised at what these documents say, and always surprised that people keep writing this shit down.

  2. Steven Cooper says:
    April 4, 2010 at 2:40 pm

    Very informing post. Just found an excellent site with UK government documents on it – http://www.officialdocumentwatch.com is a really well built site and them seem to be very up to date – always posting the latest UK government documents released to the public. Worth a look.

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