Mind Games

Why Rolling Stone's article on the military's domestic psy-ops scandal gets it so wrong.

BY MATT ARMSTRONG | MARCH 1, 2011

Rolling Stone has done it again with another scoop by Michael Hastings showing the U.S. military's manipulation of public opinion and wanton disregard for civilian leadership. The article, "Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators," is another example of an officer corps run amok, right?

Not so fast. Both stories expose an altogether different problem once you cut through the hyperbole.

Central to Hastings's article are charges by Lt. Col. Michael Holmes that he was part of a team of "psychological operations soldiers" ordered to use psychological operations techniques to deceive and manipulate the opinion of senators and other dignitaries visiting the NATO training mission in Kabul. This was done, Holmes describes, under the orders of the commanding general, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV (above), and his staff.

The overstatement in the article, stemming entirely from comments by Holmes, has in turn spurred more of the same focused on alleged "mind tricks" against several senators, including John McCain (R-Ariz.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), other members of Congress, think-tank analysts, and foreign dignitaries.

Hastings and his supporters are quick to indict the military for allowing another cowboy to go off the reservation to create support for an unpopular conflict people simply want to have disappear. Challenging the narrative by Holmes has been described as a "smear campaign." Others reacting to these criticisms slam the media as trying to take down the military.

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Matt Armstrong is an advisor on public diplomacy and strategic communication. He teaches public diplomacy at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and blogs at www.MountainRunner.us.

RBUROS

2:06 PM ET

March 1, 2011

Information Operations

Of course I haven't seen any of the documentation of what LTC Holmes is alleging.

But if I read your point correctly you say that LTC Holmes is not a PSYOP (now called MISO) officer but rather an Information Operations officer. PSYOP is one of the core capabilities under the banner Information Operations--along with Electronic Warfare, Computer Network Operations, Operational Security and Military Deception. If he is an FA30, then from DA Pam 600-3 (Commissioned Officer Professional Development and Career Management) p. 192:

a. Purpose of Information Operations.
(1) IO are the integrated employment of the core capabilities of electronic warfare (EW), computer network operations (CNO), psychological operations (PSYOP), military deception (MILDEC), and operations security (OP-SEC) in concert with specified supporting and related capabilities, to influence, disrupt, corrupt or usurp adversarial human and automated decision making while protecting our own (JP 3-13).

I disagree that he has no concern over the PSYOP.

 

NORBOOSE

5:32 PM ET

March 1, 2011

Weird

im sure that the State Department, FBI, CIA, and DOJ all intentionally send their more persuasive diplomats/agents to talk to senators to get more money from the government. However, that is boring, because those are just "guys" trying to "be good at talking." When its the military, its "psycological operations soldiers" trying to "execute a psy-ops mission," which sounds cool.

 

RBUROS

5:57 PM ET

March 1, 2011

PSYOP

The potential problem here, and again I'm going to hide under the excuse of not knowing any of the details, is that PSYOP soldiers are taught from day one that they are not to ever conduct operations against American citizens.

What will be interesting is to see what written documents are out there that RS alleges to possess.

 

NORBOOSE

8:51 AM ET

March 2, 2011

Not Sure it matters that much

psy-ops soldiers don't have super powers. I would wager that DOJ lawyers and State Department diplomats (due to their extensive specific training to speak convincingly), and CIA/FBI/Secret Service/other federal agencies agents (Since their law enforcement and intelligence work involves and relies on personal relationships and speaking with individuals much more than military conflicts do, and agents' training reflects that) would both be more effective than psy-ops soldiers. Think about it, direct 1-on-1 interactions are only a small focus of military psy-ops, as opposed to addressing crowds or using big media platforms. For a member of intelligence and elite law enforcement, being good at talking to an individual convincingly is more likely to save your life and execute your goals than being rambo himself. I think the "never on American citizens" thing is part of the military being a wee bit conceited.

 

RBUROS

11:08 AM ET

March 2, 2011

I agree

I agree that no psyop campaign can eliminate good common sense or substitute for the truth. What makes this case interesting to me is that if stuff turns up that proves the General ordered IO/PSYOP against VIPs (as opposed to simple briefing prep) there are several legal problems. There are small ones like the Foreign Relations Act of 1972 bans the use of public funds to influence public policy, But the real problem for the DoD here is if the IO section conducted actual PSYOP, they would have to study their target audience. And that would entail maintaining records on U.S. citizens, which is in direct violation of Pres. Reagan's Executive Order 12333, which every Military Intelligence Officer and PSYOP Soldier has pounded into their heads. My guess at this point is this is the sticking point. If LTC Holmes was damaged for this heads will roll due to the needs of our politically driven globalized COIN strategy.

Other than that I completely agree that even preparing for a VIP visit is absolutely a form of PSYOP. Just not in the legal sense.

I'm interested in seeing what GEN Petreus makes of all this.

But how is it that Rolling Stone is the one to get this? I wonder if there isn't another story in here we don't know about yet. . .

 

WMGEORGE

4:45 PM ET

March 5, 2011

DiSAGREED

Naturely soldiers protects their grounds. I think this is the game where civil people can play.
-
WM George

 

ACOMPANHANTES_CURITIBA

3:31 PM ET

March 29, 2011

serious.

serious.

 

YUNIE

11:38 AM ET

March 30, 2011

indeed mind games played in

indeed mind games played in every war.