Disinformation

From 911Encyclopedia:

On February 19th, 2002 the Pentagon confirmed, that it is developing plans to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media organizations as part of a new effort to influence public sentiment and policy makers in both friendly and unfriendly countries. It confirmed the existence of the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI->), headed by Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden of the Air Force and funded with $US10 billion of emergency funds. Worden twice served in the executive office of the president, in the Bush administration's National Space Council and as as deputy director for requirements at Headquarters Air Force Space Command. The OSI has hired the RendonGroup, a Washington-based international consulting firm run by John W. Rendon Jr., a former campaign aide to President Jimmy Carter (->). The company, which was being paid about $100,000 a month, has done extensive work for the CIA, the Kuwaiti royal family and the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the opposition group seeking to oust President Saddam Hussein. After harsh criticism, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld only one week later claimed on February 26th, that this office was finally shut down. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/19/international/19PENT.html

(See Osi) (See RendonGroup) (See Kelly,Jack) In April 2002 Roberto J. Gonzalez (assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at San Jose State University) explained in the San Francisco Chronicle, what's going on in the US Media: "Recent mergers between media corporations have homogenized news, especially television news. AOL/Time Warner, Viacom, News Corporation, Disney and GE own CNN, CBS News, Fox News, ABC News and NBC, respectively. ...George Orwell once noted that in free societies, censorship is more sophisticated and thorough than in dictatorships because 'unpopular ideas can be silenced, and inconvenient facts kept dark, without any need for an official ban.' Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/01/02/ED232248.DTL