[Clips] US plans to 'fight the net' revealed

[R. A. Hettinga]

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  Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2006 20:36:27 -0500
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  From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] US plans to 'fight the net' revealed
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  <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/americas/4655196.stm>

  The BBC



  Friday, 27 January 2006, 18:05 GMT

  US plans to 'fight the net' revealed

  By Adam Brookes

  BBC Pentagon correspondent

  A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US
  military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological
  operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks.


  Bloggers beware.

  As the world turns networked, the Pentagon is calculating the military
  opportunities that computer networks, wireless technologies and the modern
  media offer.

  >From influencing public opinion through new media to designing "computer
  network attack" weapons, the US military is learning to fight an electronic
  war.

  The declassified document is called "Information Operations Roadmap". It
  was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington
  University using the Freedom of Information Act.

  Officials in the Pentagon wrote it in 2003. The Secretary of Defense,
  Donald Rumsfeld, signed it.

  Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to
  download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

  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 document says that information is "critical to military success".
  Computer and telecommunications networks are of vital operational
  importance.

  Propaganda

  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.

  All these are engaged in information operations.


  Perhaps the most startling aspect of the roadmap is its acknowledgement
  that information put out as part of the military's psychological
  operations, or Psyops, is finding its way onto the computer and television
  screens of ordinary Americans.

  "Information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and
  Psyops, is increasingly consumed by our domestic audience," it reads.

  "Psyops messages will often be replayed by the news media for much larger
  audiences, including the American public," it goes on.

  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.

  Credibility problem

  Public awareness of the US military's information operations is low, but
  it's growing - thanks to some operational clumsiness.

  "When it describes plans for electronic warfare, or EW, the document takes
  on an extraordinary tone. It seems to see the internet as being equivalent
  to an enemy weapons system"

  Late last year, it emerged that the Pentagon had paid a private company,
  the Lincoln Group, to plant hundreds of stories in Iraqi newspapers. The
  stories - all supportive of US policy - were written by military personnel
  and then placed in Iraqi publications.

  And websites that appeared to be information sites on the politics of
  Africa and the Balkans were found to be run by the Pentagon.

  But the true extent of the Pentagon's information operations, how they
  work, who they're aimed at, and at what point they turn from informing the
  public to influencing populations, is far from clear.

  The roadmap, however, gives a flavour of what the US military is up to -
  and the grand scale on which it's thinking.

  It reveals that Psyops personnel "support" the American government's
  international broadcasting. It singles out TV Marti - a station which
  broadcasts to Cuba - as receiving such support.

  It recommends that a global website be established that supports America's
  strategic objectives. But no American diplomats here, thank you. The
  website would use content from "third parties with greater credibility to
  foreign audiences than US officials".

  It also recommends that Psyops personnel should consider a range of
  technologies to disseminate propaganda in enemy territory: unmanned aerial
  vehicles, "miniaturized, scatterable public address systems", wireless
  devices, cellular phones and the internet.

  'Fight the net'

  When it describes plans for electronic warfare, or EW, the document takes
  on an extraordinary tone.

  It seems to see the internet as being equivalent to an enemy weapons system.

  "Strategy should be based on the premise that the Department [of Defense]
  will 'fight the net' as it would an enemy weapons system," it reads.

  The slogan "fight the net" appears several times throughout the roadmap.

  The authors warn that US networks are very vulnerable to attack by hackers,
  enemies seeking to disable them, or spies looking for intelligence.

  "Networks are growing faster than we can defend them... Attack
  sophistication is increasing... Number of events is increasing."

  US digital ambition

  And, in a grand finale, the document recommends that the United States
  should seek the ability to "provide maximum control of the entire
  electromagnetic spectrum".

  US forces should be able to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of
  globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems
  dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum".

  Consider that for a moment.

  The US military seeks the capability to knock out every telephone, every
  networked computer, every radar system on the planet.

  Are these plans the pipe dreams of self-aggrandising bureaucrats? Or are
  they real?

  The fact that the "Information Operations Roadmap" is approved by the
  Secretary of Defense suggests that these plans are taken very seriously
  indeed in the Pentagon.

  And that the scale and grandeur of the digital revolution is matched only
  by the US military's ambitions for it.

  --
  -----------------
  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'