Special Operations Command leads propaganda fight [View all]
Source: USA Today
Special Operations Command leads propaganda fight
Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY
2:53PM EST December 6. 2012 - WASHINGTON — The military's Special Operations Command has become an emerging player in the Pentagon's propaganda efforts to confront violent extremists around the world, according to documents and a new report from a non-partisan think tank.
Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, directs the military's elite commando units — the Navy's SEALs and Army's Delta Force — in counterterrorism missions. SOCOM, as it is known, conducted the operation to kill Osama bin Laden and dealt bloody blows to insurgent groups in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Key to its propaganda efforts is a collection of websites known as the Trans Regional Web Initiative aimed at foreign audiences. USA TODAY first reported on its existence in 2008, and it appears to have expanded.
Some of those websites and blogs are classified programs and appear without attribution, according to a report released to USA TODAY, titled "The Pentagon as Pitchman: Perception and Reality of Public Diplomacy." The report, by the non-partisan Stimson Center, examines the military's growing role in shaping perceptions about the United States around the world.
Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/12/06/socom-leads-propaganda-fight/1746013/
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