This might come in handy if a government wished to gull its
people and the UN Security Council into believing that a
middle-eastern country had hmmmm.... weapons of mass destruction,
with a view to fictioning up a case to invade that country.

Of course, no-one would be gullible enough to fall for such a
scenario. :)

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You Can't Handle the Truth

Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream.

By Sharon Weinberger

LONDON - Over the past 24 hours, seven people have checked into
hospitals here with telltale symptoms. Rashes, vomiting, high
temperature, and cramps: the classic signs of smallpox. Once thought
wiped out, the disease is back and threatening a pandemic of epic
proportions.

The government faces a dilemma: It needs people to stay home, but 
if the news breaks, mass panic might ensue as people flee the city,
carrying the virus with them.

A shadowy media firm steps in to help orchestrate a sophisticated
campaign of mass deception. Rather than alert the public to the
smallpox threat, the company sets up a high-tech "ops center" to
convince the public that an accident at a chemical plant threatens
London. As the fictitious toxic cloud approaches the city, TV news
outlets are provided graphic visuals charting the path of the
invisible toxins. Londoners stay indoors, glued to the telly,
convinced that even a short walk into the streets could be fatal.

This scenario may sound like a rejected plot twist from a mediocre
Bond flick, but one company is dead set on making this fantasy come 
to life.

Strategic Communication Laboratories, a small U.K. firm specializing
in "influence operations" made a very public debut this week with a
glitzy exhibit occupying prime real estate at Defense Systems &
Equipment International, or DSEi, the United Kingdom's largest
showcase for military technology. The main attraction was a full-scale
mock-up of its ops center, running simulations ranging from natural
disasters to political coups.

Just to the right of the ops center, a dark-suited man with a wireless
microphone paces like a carnival barker, narrating the scenarios.
Above him a screen flashes among scenes of disaster, while to his
right, behind thick glass, workers sit attentively before banks of
computer screens, busily scrolling through data. The play actors pause
only to look up at a big board that flashes ominously between "hot
spots" like North Korea and Congo.

While Londoners fret over fictitious toxins, the government works to
contain the smallpox outbreak. The final result, according to SCL's
calculations, is that only thousands perish, rather than the 10
million originally projected. Another success.

Of course, the idea of deluding an entire city seems, well, a bit like
propaganda.

"If your definition of propaganda is framing communications to do
something that's going to save lives, that's fine," says Mark
Broughton, SCL's public affairs director. "That's not a word I would
use for that."

Then again, it's hard to know exactly what else to call it. (Company
literature describes SCL's niche specialties as "psychological
warfare," "public diplomacy," and "influence
operations.") The
smallpox scenario plays out in excruciating detail how reporters would
be tapped to receive disinformation, with TV and radio stations
dedicated to around-the-clock coverage. Even the eventual disclosure
is carefully scripted.

In another doomsday scenario, the company assists a newly democratic
country in South Asia as it struggles with corrupt politicians and a
rising insurgency that threatens to bubble over into bloody
revolution. SCL steps in to assist the benevolent king of "Manpurea"
to temporarily seize power.

Oh, wait, that sounds a lot like Nepal, where the monarchy earlier
this year ousted a corrupt government to stave off a rising Maoist
movement. The problem is, the SCL scenario also sounds a lot like
using a private company to help overthrow a democratically elected
government. Another problem, at least in Nepal, is that the king now
shows few signs of returning to democracy.

The company, which describes itself as the first private-sector
provider of psychological operations, has been around since 1993. 
But its previous work was limited to civil operations, and it now 
wants to expand to military customers.

[...]

Sharon Weinberger, a writer based in Washington, is working on a 
book about the Pentagon and fringe science.

(c)2005 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC 

Full article at Raiders News Updates - http://www.raidersnewsupdate.com/

Strategic Communication Laboratories - http://www.scl.cc/

Cheers, Steve..

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