Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 5 - 2006
Rumsfeld blames free media on info war (UPI) 
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Thursday blamed the independent U.S. media for problems in the information war. Rumsfeld in a Department of Defense statement acknowledged that the United States had so far not been successful enough in the information and public diplomacy struggle it was waging worldwide against al-Qaida and other extreme Islamist movements. He acknowledged that the Islamist groups had enjoyed major success in psychological warfare and information operations and that there had been major U.S. official shortcomings in those areas. However, Rumsfeld then claimed that the U.S. government and armed forces were at an unfair disadvantage because they feared critics in the domestic U.S. media that limited the freedom of the U.S. government to put out information that could mislead America's enemies and to act freely without setting off storms of criticism. "How do we compete in this struggle in a way that can counter the ability of the enemy to lie, which we can't do, (and) the ability of the enemy to not have a free media criticizing them? You don't see much criticizing of them," Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld also claimed that the risk of being condemned by the U.S. press has a negative effect on the U.S. Army. © Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved |