US psychological warfare

U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has acknowledged that information spread by the Pentagon to influence foreign public opinion is increasingly finding its way back into the United States and is being "consumed by our domestic audience" through the news media and computers.

The declassified document, "Information Operations Roadmap", was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University using the Freedom of Information Act.

The roadmap was written in 2003 and sets out the need for the Pentagon to improve its capabilities in psychological operations, electronic warfare, military deception and other areas. The document also recommends that the United States should seek the ability to "provide maximum control of the entire electromagnetic spectrum" and U.S. forces should be able to "disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors, and weapons systems dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum".

File shows US `psychological operations` concerns (GG2.net, India, 27 January 2006)

US plans to 'fight the net' revealed (BBC website, 27 January 2006)

The Pentagon's Information Operations Roadmap (PDF, BBC website)

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