Psychology and Capitalism by Ron Roberts

Author:Ron Roberts [Roberts, Ron]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78279-653-4
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2015-02-27T05:00:00+00:00

Psychological Operations

Psychological operations are used in many ways. The ‘shock and awe’ strategy of the 2003 Iraq War can be considered its most visible manifestation. The immense display of coalition fire power was designed at the outset to produce an attitude of resig- nation and defeat in both the Iraqi fighting forces and the civilian population. In Britain, the army maintains a psycho- logical warfare unit: the 15 Psychological Operations group. The group, which was established shortly after the 1991 Gulf War comprises over 150 personnel, with around half of these drawn from the regular Armed Services and the other from the Reserves which may comprise people from the media, broad- casting and publishing. In addition there is GCHQ’s “Human Science Operations Cell,” in which psychologists are employed to train people to “not only understand, but shape and control, how online activism and discourse unfolds” (Greenwald, 2014). The intention is to destroy reputations and break up activist organisations. Internal documents from GCHQ acknowledge that this “online covert action” is primarily directed against “people who have nothing to do with terrorism or national security threat” (Global Research, 2014). While other countries also employ psychological operations it is the US military who make far more substantial use of them. Just a few examples are given below. Others are described at length by Harper (2007) and Rampton & Stauber (2003).

One of the most significant illustrations of the use of PSYOPS comes from the 1991 Gulf War. During this a story appeared which detailed how Iraqi soldiers had removed babies from incubators in Kuwait in October 1990. One of the chief ‘witnesses’ to this who testified before the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus was Nayirah, a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl. Her tearful and convincing evidence was widely reported at the time. What was not reported was that she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US and her evidence had been coached by Lauri Fitz-Pegado, Vice President of Hill and Knowlton, one of the largest PR firms in the world (see Harper, 2007). Then consider the activities of PR consultant, John W. Rendon who worked on extensive Iraq-related activities under contract to the Pentagon and the CIA. His contribution to mass deception included responsibility for the distribution of flags bearing the colours of the US and other coalition countries to Kuwaiti residents. Rendon described himself as an “information warrior” and a “perception manager” (p.42), classically Orwellian terms for orchestrated lying. The Pentagon sees these terms slightly differently, defining perception management as the combination of “truth projection, operations security, cover and deception” (p.42). The use of “truth projection” and “deception” simultane- ously clearly indicates it is not truth which is being projected!

Perhaps the most well-known example however of manipu- lating the public through “perception management” and deception is the infamous claim made in The UK prior to the 2003 invasion that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) able to be deployed within 45 minutes. Although Secretary of State Colin Powell, only 2 years

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