Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS (PSYOPS) - General. Rebranded 2010 as MISO
Army's 'psyops' media center a special kind of weapon by Jay Price 
Army's 'psyops' media center a special kind of weapon By JAY PRICE, Raleigh News & Observer Naples Daily Times, Thursday, July 3, 2003 FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Except for the woodland-camouflage dress code and a discreet lack of windows, the new building - with its state-of-the-art digital television and radio production rooms, studios and printing presses - could easily belong to a sophisticated marketing firm. In a way it does. But the "firm" is the U.S. Army's 4th Psychological Operations Group, and its "products" are whatever messages the Defense Department wants to sell. The group held an open house Monday to show off its new $8.1 million Special Operations Forces Media Operations Complex. It was a rare look inside the Pentagon's central production facility for "psyops" products such as fliers, posters and television and radio segments aimed at the hearts and minds of, well, those the military wants to persuade. Since 9/11, those have included civilians and enemy troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. More than 150 million fliers, all of them produced at Fort Bragg and many of them printed there, have been spread over those countries, said Col. James Treadwell, the 4th POG's commander. About 16,000 hours of radio messages produced by the group were transmitted to Afghan listeners and another 4,000 hours to Iraqis, he said. The psychological-operations campaign in Iraq reportedly cost tens of millions of dollars and has been called the biggest in history. It centered on Arabic-language leaflets and radio and television scripts designed by the 4th POG to encourage mass surrenders and erode support for Saddam Hussein. Psyops troops are still in Iraq, but their efforts have shifted to calming and winning over civilians. Like a marketing company, psyops soldiers often perform marketing studies before designing products. They also conduct detailed analyses of results. Army officials say it still may be a few months before the official report on the Iraq effort is complete. Civilian experts say the campaign probably had mixed results, but still likely saved thousands of lives on both sides by taking some of the fight out of the Iraqis. Psyops has been busy lately, and not just in Iraq and Afghanistan: The staff of the media complex is supporting nearly 900 psyops troops spread across 13 countries, Treadwell said. Until now, the psyops troops had to make do with facilities scattered around the base in several buildings, many of them predating the Vietnam War. The Pentagon's willingness to invest in the new media complex is a sign of its growing confidence in the value of psyops, he said. "This facility marks past success and emphasizes our potential for future contributions," Treadwell said. Lots of future contributions: The four new presses can churn out 1 million leaflets in a single day. The new, fully digital presses and audio and video equipment could cut the amount of time it takes to produce a given product by 20 percent or more. |