Twelfth Bough

i run my own damn think tank

Archive for November 28th, 2007

PSYOPS 101

Nov 28

Posted by Marlena in Corruption & Crime, Psychology, Unreality | 1 Comment

According to this source, a CIA psyops operation against Hugo Chavez in Venezuela has been popped. Whether this is true or not, and I would guess it is, we should pay attention to the methods.

On a scarier note, an internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals a very sinister - almost fantastical, were it not true - plan to destabilize Venezuela during the coming days. The plan, titled “OPERATION PLIERS” was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. Steere is stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a Regional Affairs Officer. The internal memorandum, dated November 20, 2007, references the “Advances of the Final Stage of Operation Pliers”, and confirms that the operation is coordinated by the team of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) in Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different scenarios that the CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming referendum vote on December 2nd. The Electoral Scenario, as it’s phrased, confirms that the voting tendencies will not change substantially before Sunday, December 2nd, and that the SI (YES) vote in favor of the constitutional reform has an advantage of about 10-13 points over the NO vote. The CIA estimates abstention around 60% and states in the memo that this voting tendency is irreversible before the elections. [emphasis in original]

Officer Steere emphasizes the importance and success of the public relations and propaganda campaign that the CIA has been funding with more than $8 million during the past month - funds that the CIA confirms are transfered through the USAID contracted company, Development Alternatives, Inc., which set up operations in June 2002 to run the USAID Office for Transition Initiatives that funds and advises opposition NGOs and political parties in Venezuela. The CIA memo specifically refers to these propaganda initiatives as “psychological operations” (PSYOPS), that include contracting polling companies to create fraudulent polls that show the NO vote with an advantage over the SI vote, which is false. The CIA also confirms in the memo that it is working with international press agencies to distort the data and information about the referendum, and that it coordinates in Venezuela with a team of journalists and media organized and directed by the President of Globovision, Alberto Federico Ravell.

The following tactics were proposed: (partial list)

  • Engage in a “plan to implode” the voting centers on election day by encouraging opposition voters to “VOTE and REMAIN” in their centers to agitate others
  • Start to release data during the early hours of the afternoon on Sunday that favor the NO vote (in clear violation of election regulations)
  • Coordinate these activities with Ravell & Globovision and international press agencies
  • Creating an acceptance in the public opinion that the NO vote will win for sure
  • Generate a sensation of fraud
  • Use a team of experts from the universities that will talk about how the data from the Electoral Registry has been manipulated and will build distrust in the voting system

Operation Tenaza has the objective of encouraging an armed insurrection in Venezuela against the government of President Chavez that will justify an intervention of US forces, stationed on the military bases nearby in Curacao and Colombia. The Operation mentions two countries in code: as Blue and Green. These refer to Curacao and Colombia, where the US has operative, active and equipped bases that have been reinforced over the past year and a half in anticipation of a conflict with Venezuela.
The document confirms that psychological operations are the CIA’s best and most effective weapon to date against Venezuela, and it will continue its efforts to influence international public opinion regarding President Chavez and the situation in the country.

It strikes me how familiar these tactics feel. It’s just as if we’ve already experienced them ourselves. And I seem to recall that Fox News has made similar “mistakes” on air (see article), like labeling certain congressional cretins as “Democrats” when they were “Republicans”, and other things of that nature.

I mean, we know we’ve been manipulated and continue to be manipulated, but it’s kind of strange to see the tactics laid out so clinically. It really makes one appreciate the level of coordination involved. These people take their evil seriously.

A Seven-Level Wipe

Nov 28

Posted by Marlena in Bush/Cheney, Corruption & Crime | No Comments

These people remind me of Russian nesting dolls.

The federal official helming a probe into potentially illegal partisan political activities conducted by Karl Rove and other White House officials is himself the focus of a federal investigation.

Scott Bloch, the Bush-appointed head of the US Office of Special Counsel, is under investigation for the alleged improper deletion of emails on office computers, The Wall Street Journal’s John R. Wilke reports.

“Recently, investigators learned that Mr. Bloch erased all the files on his office personal computer late last year,” writes Wilke. “They are now trying to determine whether the deletions were improper or part of a cover-up, lawyers close to the case said.” The inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management is examining the case at the urging of the White House.

The Special Counsel is also under scrutiny for claims that he used his position to retaliate against other employees, and that he “dismissed whistleblower cases without adequate examination.” Investigation began in that case in 2005.

Interesting. I wonder if the White House will throw him under the bus as a nice, juicy scapegoat.

The Journal reports that Bloch called the tech support service Geeks on Call for help deleting computer files instead of using his agency’s own in-house computer technicians. That company “dispatched a technician in one of its signature PT Cruiser wagons,” according to Wilke, who adds that Bloch confirms contacting Geeks on Call but maintains it was part of an effort to “eradicate a virus that had seized control of his computer.”

“Mr. Bloch had his computer’s hard disk completely cleansed using a ’seven-level’ wipe: a thorough scrubbing that conforms to Defense Department data-security standards,” the report continues, describing a process which makes it “nearly impossible for forensics experts to restore the data later. Technicians were also directed to erase laptops used by Bloch’s former political deputies, Wilke adds.

[snip]

“Geeks on Call visited Mr. Bloch’s government office in a nondescript office building on M Street in Washington twice, on Dec. 18 and Dec. 21, 2006,” according the paper’s review of a company receipt. “The total charge was $1,149, paid with an agency credit card, the receipt shows. The receipt says a seven-level wipe was performed but doesn’t mention any computer virus.”

OK. There’s more, and I don’t know what to make of it. Is he just another Bush automaton covering his tracks, or was he actually trying to uncover wrongdoing? I don’t know. Maybe I’m tired, but this doesn’t quite add up.