Pentagon weighs disinformation campaign; officials says won't include lying to public

<br>WASHINGTON (AP) _ A Pentagon campaign to influence global opinion will not include lying to the public but will preserve the option of deceiving an enemy for battlefield advantage, a senior Pentagon

Wednesday, February 20th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A Pentagon campaign to influence global opinion will not include lying to the public but will preserve the option of deceiving an enemy for battlefield advantage, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday.

``Despite some of the reports about the Office of Strategic Influence that I've read over the last day or two, Defense Department officials don't lie to the public,'' said Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy.

``We are confident that the truth serves our interests in the broader sense of our national security and specifically in this war'' against terrorism, he said in a breakfast interview with a group of Pentagon reporters.

A defense official said Tuesday that the Office of Strategic Influence, set up after the Sept. 11 attacks, has come up with proposals including the placing of news items _ false if necessary _ with foreign news organizations.

Feith, however, ruled out using the news media for deception efforts.

``We have an enormous stake in our credibility and we're going to preserve it,'' he said.

Feith said the main reason for creating the new office was to provide civilian oversight of information policy in military operations. He cited as examples a need to oversee the use of leaflets dropped in Afghanistan by Air Force planes and the use of airborne broadcasts in Afghanistan that encourage people to work with anti-Taliban elements and alert them to U.S. reward money.

Critics worry that planting false information abroad could result in those lies getting back to Americans.

``Anything they spread overseas will come back here, because information travels so quickly,'' said Shibley Telhami, a Middle East specialist at the Brookings Institution. ``Our own population will then hear it and believe it. It will affect our decisions.''

The proposal by the Pentagon office reflects a Bush administration worry that the United States lacks strong public support overseas, especially among Muslims who believe the United States is hostile toward Islam.

The office also is considering having an outside organization distribute the information so it would not be apparent it came from the Defense Department, one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

``This is a battle for minds,'' Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Tuesday in a speech to defense contractors. ``Our victory on the ground in Afghanistan has already changed substantially how this conflict is perceived, even in the Muslim world.''

At the same time, President Bush has decided to turn the administration's temporary wartime communications office into a permanent office to convey the nation's diplomacy efforts around the globe. The new office would not be connected to the Strategic Influence office and would coordinate the public statements of the State and Defense Departments.

Wolfowitz did not comment specifically on the proposed new campaign, and top U.S. officials have not yet approved it.

Retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded U.S. troops during the Persian Gulf war, said he doesn't believe the reports.

``We don't deliberately lie to other people. ... That's not America. That's not what we do,'' he said during a speech in Daytona Beach, Fla.

The United States considered spreading false propaganda in the early stages of the Gulf War but quickly dismissed the idea, he said.

``At that time, we said `No,''' Schwarzkopf said. ``Not that much has changed from then until now.''

At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher said the department was aware of the Pentagon office but declined to discuss its functions.

``We provide accurate and truthful information,'' Boucher said when asked about State Department policy.

The government has used covert tactics _ including disinformation _ to undermine foreign governments in the past, but mostly in super-secret CIA operations against enemies such as Iraq and Cuba.

Such covert action requires presidential authority and cannot be conducted against Americans.

The military also has long conducted wartime ``psychological operations'' such as dropping leaflets and broadcasting messages, as it did when fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But the Pentagon proposal, if approved, would significantly broaden such information efforts.

Critics warned that any campaign including deliberate lies also could undermine U.S. credibility overseas.

While the Bush administration has a legitimate desire to confuse enemies with disinformation, ``lies have a nasty way of being found out,'' said Ted Galen Carpenter, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute.

``We're already viewed with a certain amount of suspicion,'' Carpenter said. ``If we're caught in blatant lies, that hostility will increase.''