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Big Picture Cognitive Warfare Stuart Green, Cognitive Warfare and the Role of the Mainstream Media, Paper to ICT Conference, 9/09
Big Picture Cognitive Warfare Stuart Green, Cognitive Warfare and the Role of the Mainstream Media, Paper to ICT Conference, 9/09
| Stuart Green, Cognitive Warfare and the Role of the Mainstream Media, Paper to ICT Conference, 9/09 |
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In a talk he delivered to the Institute for Counter-Terrorism Conference in September of 2009, Stuart Green summarized some of the basic themes of his thesis on Cognitive Warfare and applied them specifically to the Arab-Israeli conflict.  In it he reviews a number of the Western (post-modern) memes which those waging cognitive warfare on the West (demopaths) systematically exploit. Western discourses are particularly vulnerable to fracture because of the premium placed on pluralism, political correctness, and the self-examination of guilt culture. For all the benefits of self-examination and sensitivity to other cultures, guilt and political correctness also leave gaping holes that cognitive warriors happily infiltrate with their memes. Richard Landes has devoted considerable attention to the function of the “demopath,†one who uses the progressive values of Western democracy in order to destroy it...  I will now go through some examples—by no means an exhaustive list—of some vulnerabilities that facilitate jihadist infiltration of the accepted Western discourse. In each case, because the Westerners who accept these memes fail to apply their principles to the “other,†they end up becoming – in the name of progressive values and love of peace – agents of influence and a major aid to belligerent authoritarianism. For more from Green on cognitive warfare see: PC, Prohibited Analysis, and the “Arab Mind†The Discourse and the Cognitive Offensive On Moderation and Cognitive Warfare
Cognitive Warfare and the Role of Mainstream Media By Stuart Alexander Green September 2009
INTRODUCTION  In an early 1980s interview, KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov claimed that the Soviet intelligence service only spent about 15% of its effort on intelligence collection.  The rest was spent on the slow process of ideological subversion, or “active measures.† More than a simple dump of leaflets or strident use of loudspeakers, it was the alteration of “…the perception of reality in America to such an extent that… no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their communities and their country.â€1 The targets become so demoralized, so contaminated, so “programmed to think and react to stimuli in a certain pattern†that their minds cannot be changed, even if exposed “to authentic information, even if you prove that white is white and black is black.â€
This psychological condition is not induced with truth or at least by truth alone, but by a decades-long bombardment with propaganda, disinformation and lies. Unlike the American doctrinal concept of employing only truth in psychological operations, the Soviets imposed no such restrictions on themselves.2 Latislav Bitman, former Deputy Director of Czechoslovakia’s Intelligence Service Department of Disinformation, explained that “Deliberately distorted or manipulated information [was] leaked into the communication system of the opponent [to] be accepted as genuine information and influence either the decision making process or… public opinion.†  One of the more pointed examples, if lesser known, is the “right-wing cabal†conspiracy theory of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Moscow pinned the act on an alleged gang of U.S. conservatives literally hours after the president’s death.3 Soviet active measures depended on “agents of influence,†or individuals within the target society who facilitated the process. Jean François Revel, French author and former director of L’Express Magazine, noted that “Disinformation is not simply lies. It is the art of having your enemy say what you want them to say.â€4 In many cases the journalists or authors do not know they are being used. The head of Soviet active measures in Tokyo explained that articles “…would be written by local, in many cases prominent, journalists who would express [them] as his or her own opinion. These kinds of things normally [would not] be traceable back to the Soviet Union.â€5  Bezmenov claimed that the Soviet hopes for demoralizing the American public had been “overfulfilled.†“The result you can see,†he said, “Most of the people who graduated in the ‘60s, drop outs or half-baked intellectuals, are now occupying the positions of power in the government, civil service, business mass media, and educational systems. You are stuck with them. You cannot get rid of them.â€Â The Soviet strategy’s success was impressive, if unquantifiable.
In essence, the Soviets intended for us to do it to ourselves. I am reminded of a Muslim Brotherhood-linked document exposed in the course of the U.S. v Holy Land Foundation trial, a strategic memo for internal dissemination that envisioned bringing the United States down by “its own miserable hands.â€6 Like in Judo, the intent is to exert a minimum of kinetic effort and have us collapse under our own intellectual weight. But it is a long-term investment; Bezmenov claims it takes 15 to 20 years before the first returns are noticeable, and it would take at least that amount of time to reverse the process. That period, by the way, is about the length of time it takes to educate one generation of activists. In Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against the West, Walid Phares explores a similar, Saudi Arabian penetration of the American education system. In this strategy, petro-dollars fund universities, libraries, and research centers, which willingly mute serious exploration of Islamic conquest. “In the new textbooks, there was no Islamic conquest, no fatah, no conquered peoples…. Jihad was painted as a spiritual inner experience, almost a yoga exercise.â€7 Groups like the Middle East Studies Association of America (MESA) would anoint “…new generations of Middle East studies graduates [thereby putting] even more teachers in the classrooms…. From the classroom, the graduates were picked up to serve either as teachers for future classrooms or as public servants in agencies—State Department, Congress, embassies, and beyond.â€Â MESA’s presidents have included Juan Cole and John Esposito, who defined the American discourse on jihad and Middle East studies for decades.8 Intelligentsia—including press, policy and intelligence circles—are probably no more or less immune to this phenomenon than the rest of the public. Jacques Ellul brilliantly argued that education is the very precondition for successful propaganda. It is a kind of “pre-propaganda†that is slow, constant, and paves the way for the harder stuff, when agents of influence are triggered to action.  If jihadists have really penetrated the American discourse, then Bezmenov predicts no amount of contrary evidence or “authentic information†can sway us. Ellul, for his part, argued that propaganda is successful precisely because it circumvents the thinking parts of our brains. So, without the obstacle of critical thought, which we should have all learned in our education, jihadists can leverage Esposito’s tendency to see only the positive in Islam in order to disguise their real intent. When raw and unfavorable evidence turns up showing jihad to be hegemonic and violent, Muslims can dismissively wave their hands in a manner reminiscent of Obi-Wan Kanobe in Star Wars, and suggest that “this isn’t the jihad you’re looking for.â€9 So, in the midst of an ideological war, jihadists may have convinced Western intelligentsia that the root sources of their ideology are just fine.  Read the rest in PDF
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