Remember Back In The Bush Admin - The Setting Up Of An Office Of Disinformation......
They called it the Office of Strategic Influence.
The intent of this office was:
The Office of Strategic Influence, or OSI, was a department created by the United States Department of Defense on October 30, 2001, to support the War on Terrorism through psychological operations in targeted countries, which did not include the United States because the Pentagon is barred from PSYOPs in the U.S.
Here is a link to a story about that office: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pentagon-establishes-new-office-of-disinformation-1.318952
Here is a line from this story: There is another practical reason why the U.S. may be very careful not to plant false stories abroad. Some of them may be picked up by U.S. media. And while it's perfectly legal for the U.S. government to lie to other countries, it is illegal for it to lie to Americans.
From Wikipedia here is the timeline of how this played out:
February 19, 2002: Major US news organizations report that the Department of Defense had set up the Office of Strategic Influence. These reports quote an unnamed official, who is discussing the advantages and dangers in setting up such an office.
February 20, 2002: After discussions on the purpose of the Office in the US media, Douglas Feith, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, assures the public in an interview that Defense Department officials will not undermine the credibility of US institutions by lying to the public, and states that the exact mandate of the office is under review.
February 26, 2002: Rumsfeld announces the decision by Douglas Feith to close the Office of Strategic Influence.
November 18, 2002: Rumsfeld states in a press briefing that the Office of Strategic Influence was closed down only in name, that the activities of the office still continue.
Rumsfeld:
And then there was the office of strategic influence. You may recall that. And 'oh my goodness gracious isn't that terrible, Henny Penny the sky is going to fall.' I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing fine I'll give you the corpse. There's the name. You can have the name, but I'm gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have.
I'm wondering if this is what is going on and what we are experiencing today - but instead of spreading lies and disinformation to foreign lands - it has been turned around and is being used on the American People - through Trump.
This morning I came across this post here at DU:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210668419
Trump and his people keep talking about a 'deep state' only he turns it around and says it is a Democratic plot. Again - they blame these things on the Dems - when in reality - it appears that it is Trump and the Repug Party that is actually doing this.
Trump's tweet storm today - jogged my memory of this OSI group that was established in BushCo times. I even question now if Trump's tweet storm today was even written by him or like we were told last week that he has ghost writers doing his tweets complete with mispellings to make it look Trumpian.
What the hell is really going on in this country. By the day - I get more and more worried as to where all this will lead.
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