Pentagon Probes Military-Sponsored Sites (paying journalists..again)

[AnnInLa]

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20050204/D881UT001.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon's chief investigator is looking into the military's practice of paying journalists to write articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans, officials said Friday.

At the request of Larry Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Pentagon's inspector general, Joseph Schmitz, is reviewing that case and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists.

The Balkans Web site, called Southeast European Times, as well as a second aimed at audiences in north Africa, have no immediately obvious connection to the U.S. government but contain a linked disclaimer that says they are "sponsored by the U.S. European Command." That is the military organization based in Germany responsible for U.S. forces and military activities in Europe and parts of Africa.

The second site, called Magharebia and aimed at the Maghreb region that encompasses Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, is still in development and has not reached the stage of having paid correspondents, said Air Force Lt. Col. Derek Kaufman, a European Command spokesman.

[Just Me]

1. The "Pentagon's chief" ain't gonna deliver,...

,..but, BUT,...between what's left of the media and those who are LOYAL TO PRINCIPLES & VALUES & MORALS will,...WILL come forward for the sake of our people.

They will come forward. They will!!!!

I BELIEVE IN BOTH OUR PEOPLE AND THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN SHAPING OUR COUNTRY!!!!

I believe we will overcome. I KNOW WE WILL PRESERVE THE EXPERIMENT OF DEMOCRACY AGAINST ALL ODDS!!!

[HereSince1628]

2. Of course, they need to blame Clinton

that way they are innocent because everybody does it.

[librechik]

3. Sure, they're pointing over there--what DON'T they want us to see?

it's got to be somewhere else, and very very big. Thise sites are teeny tiny potatoes.

[DulceDecorum]

4. Judith Miller's bank account.

Especially the direct deposit part.

How is Novakula doing these days, financially?

[EVDebs]

5. How do they control PsyOps funding in the DoD anyway ?

Is there a truly uncompromised Inspector General ? Counterpunch magazine back in 2000 did a CNN and PsyOps article by Alexander Cockburn remember...how did THAT get approval in the first place ? We're way way behind the curve.

[DulceDecorum]

6. They wargame it.

During the course of analyzing what the Red Team had accomplished, NSA officials discovered that much of the private-sector infrastructure in the U.S., such as the telecommunications and electric power grids, could easily be sent into a tailspin using the same tools and techniques. More importantly, one former high-ranking NSA official indicated that the exercise revealed it would be possible to cause "strategic damage to the U.S. money supply."
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,83841,00.html

[EVDebs]

7. You mean 'slip it into the deck' ? They've done that with TIA

which is now part of CAPPS II and offshored in the Bahamas with Ben Bell
http://www.zmetro.com/archives/000901.php

[DulceDecorum]

8. Bahamas, eh?

Approximately 80% of The Bahamas is within five feet of current mean sea level. Thus rising sea levels, temperatures and the projected increase in the number and intensity of tropical cyclones are of concern. The loss of corals by bleaching and heat stress is also concern. These issues are being dealt with in the context of a GEF/OAS regional project on the Adaptation to Climate Change (CPACC)--in which sea level rise and coral reefs are being monitored.
http://www.globaloceans.org/country/Bahamas.html

Maybe that rise in sea level due to global warming isn't such a bad thing after all.
What goes around....

[EVDebs]

9. Thanks, I needed that ! LOL ! eom