Die trojanischen Pferde des Pentagon

--- Die New York Times hat eine umfassende Reportage über die Beeinflussung so genannter Militär-Analysen durch das Pentagon und die Bush-Regierung insgesamt. Es geht in den meisten Fällen um pensionierte Generäle, die im Fernsehen und gegenüber die Medien die Sprechblasen des US-Verteidigungsministeriums und der Rüstungsindustrie wiedergeben:

To the public, these men are members of a familiar fraternity, presented tens of thousands of times on television and radio as “military analysts” whose long service has equipped them to give authoritative and unfettered judgments about the most pressing issues of the post-Sept. 11 world. Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found. The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

... Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks. Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters, records show. They have been taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. They have been briefed by officials from the White House, State Department and Justice Department, including Mr. Cheney, Alberto R. Gonzales and Stephen J. Hadley. In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated. Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access. A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public with propaganda dressed as independent military analysis.

... Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who has taught information warfare at the National Defense University, said the campaign amounted to a sophisticated information operation. “This was a coherent, active policy,” he said. As conditions in Iraq deteriorated, Mr. Allard recalled, he saw a yawning gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequent inquiries and books later revealed. “Night and day,” Mr. Allard said, “I felt we’d been hosed.”

Das Blatt hat dazu auch eine Multimedia-Dokumentation mit zahlreichen Original-Dokumenten über Sitzungen des Pentagons mit den dressierten "Analysten", in denen offen von PsyOps die Rede ist. Dass Propaganda gegen die eigenen Bürger in den USA von der Verfassung verboten wird, hat keinen wirklich gestört, wie dieses Protokoll (PDF-Datei) eines Brainstormings belegt. Ein gehöriges Misstrauen sollte man "Experten" ja immer entgegenbringen, vor allem, wenn es sich um in Rente gegangene Vertreter großer Interessenvereinigungen geht, aber das Ausmaß der Korruption im Hintergrund überrascht doch ab und an.