Briefly and without comment,
Press, "Psy Ops" to merge at NATO Afghan HQ-sources
29 Nov 2008 06:56:49 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Jon Hemming
KABUL, Nov 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered a merger of the office that releases news with "Psy Ops", which deals with propaganda, a move that goes against the alliance’s policy, three officials said.
The move has worried Washington’s European NATO allies — Germany has already threatened to pull out of media operations in Afghanistan — and the officials said it could undermine the credibility of information released to the public.
Seven years into the war against the Taliban, insurgent influence is spreading closer to the capital and Afghans are becoming increasingly disenchanted at the presence of some 65,000 foreign troops and the government of President Hamid Karzai.
Taliban militants, through their website, telephone text messages and frequent calls to reporters, are also gaining ground in the information war, analysts say.
U.S. General David McKiernan, the commander of 50,000 troops from more than 40 nations in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), ordered the combination of the Public Affairs Office (PAO), Information Operations and Psy Ops (Psychological Operations) from Dec. 1, said a NATO official with detailed knowledge of the move.
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The friction in the second paragraph is perhaps the most interesting. There is pressure to align the fences between the practices of PA, IO, and PSYOP. General McKiernan is doing what many want, and I know McKiernan’s PAO “gets it” as well.
Read the whole thing here.
As a follow-up: Reuters reported a few hours ago that the planned merger has been “scraped”:www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL373905.htm
It will be interesting to find out what is being meant by “The new communications structure has started to be implemented now, but it is now completely within the framework of NATO policy regarding public affairs.”
I wrote a little bit about this issue here.My guess is that evferyone agreed that there would be no deception or propaganda issued from the office, and that it would use the truth to advance Nato ISAFs positions, and everyone bought off on it.