Is the Pentagon "briefing" retired military media analysts again?

"The Pentagon military analyst program was an information operation of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) that was launched in early 2002 by then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke.^[1] The goal of the operation is "to spread the administrations's talking points on Iraq by briefing retired commanders for network and cable televisionappearances," where they have been presented as independent analysts;^[2]Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon's intent is to keep the American people informed about the so-called War on Terrorism by providing prominent military analysts with factual information and frequent, direct access to key military officials.^{[3"  Wiki on the program.}

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Ten years ago this was a hot issue.  The intention of the Rumsfeld Pentagon in that program was clearly to control and create the media delivered narrative with regard to the "Global War On Terrorism."  

Is this happening again?

I watch a lot of 24/7 television news.  This is a personal failing that I acknowledge freely.  I fritter away my time in this way to "feed" my obsession with this blog.  

We now have  several very contentious overseas military crises; Boku Haram and the Lost Girls,  Ukraine, Syria, a deteriorating politico-military situation in Afghanistan and the truly big "Kahuna," Iraq.  The temptation must be severe among the Public Affairs squirrels to want to "handle' these problems by manipulating the message.  After all, these PAO people have to justify their continuing existence.

In the last week I have heard several suspicious statements made on the air by retired US officers under contract to the media, statements that indicate to me that some sort of communication has been re-established between DoD and the media military "analysts."

On two occasions a retired officer said on the air that he had been in communication with "the Pentagon" and had been told the true story on Iraq.  He seemed to think that was normal and that this injection of "the poop" into his knowledge base made his statements worthwhile.

On another occasion a retired four star general who works for a different network, described the 300 special operations advisers going to Iraq as "very mature, very skilled and capable of accomplishing their missions."  This retired general never served in special operations, has never been particularly friendly towards special operations forces, and has no present contact with these forces.  My question:  how would he know all this unless he has been privately assured by the Obama Administration and DoD of what it is that he should think about "the advisers."

Does history repeat itself?  Perhaps it does.  pl  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_military_analyst_program

Comments

[J]

Colonel,

Regarding the apparent repeat of 02's
DoD's narrative control all I can say is -- Not again, please not again.

[turcopolier]

J et al

Some of you will remember that in the year before the war began and for several of the early years of the war I spent a lot of time on television commenting on the Iraq War. I was not being briefed or communicated to by anyone or anything in the government. By the end of 2003 I became suspicious that many of my colleagues on these shows were being briefed by the Pentagon, but I did not know the truth of that and none of them would talk abut it. In 2004 I believe it was I was in London on commercial business and was called at my hotel by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs who asked me if I would come to a briefing in the Office of the Secretary of Defense with regard to the war. I attended the briefing. It was held in the Secretary of Defense;s conference room. Rumsfeld presided. Present on his side of the "table" were MG (Ret.) Robert Scales and then MG Keith Alexander. These two were clearly there to back up Rumsfeld. The "audience" was made up of a dozen retired three and four star officers whom I had never seen on television but who had major money consulting contracts with the media. The other twenty people in the room were retired filed grade officers and a couple of SF NCOs who were regular "contributors" in the media. Talking points were handed out exactly like the ones in the picture. This was treated as an agenda. The points dealt with the war as well as with Rumsfeld's madcap ideas for the "reformation" of the armed forces, in particular, the Army. I asked embarrassing questions about both the war and the reformation. Alexander awkwardly tried to answer my points about the war and Scales, who evidently had designed the reform for Rumsfeld, did the same. At one point Rumsfeld "cut his boys loose," saying that he did not know the truth of any of this but that, "these guys tell me this is true." the retired officer analysts stared at me with hostility. It was clear that they thought I was screwing up a good thing. I was not invited again. pl

[The beaver]

Col

Guess politics( re Dempsey) are off limit but pushing the msg of the WH/DoD is ok.

http://intercepts.defensenews.com/2014/05/dempsey-to-retired-generals-shut-up-when-it-comes-to-politics/

[Fred]

Col.,

Is that the same MG Alexander who has had the NSA spying on Americans without legal authority to do so?

[turcopolier]

fred

yes, and the same scales who scribbles sentimental drivel in the Washington Post. they had a whiff of the OKW about them. pl

[oofda]

Indeed, Scales had a piece inthe Post this Sunday morning.
"Sentimental drivel" is polite characterization.

[John]

Col:
"Whiff(?) of the OKW. They must have had BSL-4 air scrubbers for that briefing room with both Rumsfeld and Alexander present if you only got a whiff. Why do we allow sociopaths such positions of power?

[oofda]

OKW= "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht?"

[turcopolier]

oofda

Keitel, Jodl and Warlimont. pl

[Fred]

OKW? Well they managed to lose a war too, so one more thing in common.

[Ryan]

Bob Scales and Bill McCowen were on Mike Huckabee's show this weekend. They were there to explain to Huck and his audience the situation in Iraq. Before them they had a map complete with miniature weapons and cards representing Malaki and ISIS forces. It was quite a briefing they put on.

They could have used your services, colonel. They left out a few things about ISIS and who they are allied with like this:

https://twitter.com/AbuBakrAl_Janab/media

What or better yet, whose flag is that flying with these others? (This is a rhetorical question.)

This video hasn't been posted yet. When it is I'll place a link here.

[turcopolier]

Ryan

Is Bill McCowen the retired marine LTC who is on the FOX payroll? If so, he was at the OSD "briefing" that I discussed the other day. This sounds like a confirmation of the post I did yesterday about OSD briefings for network analysts. I doubt if they could have put on a dog and pony show like that without a little "he'p." pl

[Ryan]

And making the show a combine army and marine operation at that.

Yes sir, that's the one. He has a beard. I misspelled his name above. It's McCowan.

I remember him as one of the people putting out nonsense prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

[turcopolier]

Ryan

McCowan spent some time in joint SOF activities. He is not remembered well there. At the meeting I described he approached me and wanted to know if I was someone named Lang who had been a marine. He was quite insistent so that Lang must not have had a great time in the marines. I finally showed him my ID card which clearly says "US Army." For the record I was never a marine. In accord with an old Army joke I wasn't qualified to be a marine. My parents were married to each other. pl

[Ryan]

LOL, colonel. You shouldn't talk about our brother services in such a manner.

[turcopolier]

Ryan

I love the marines. pl

[crf]

Wouldn't cooperating too closely with these special advisers be the kiss of death to higher-ups in the Iraqi military? Which military commander wants to be seen as an America's boy? And even if there is good cooperation, what is going to come of it? One year from now, the specials will have left Iraq, and the situation happening now could easily repeat itself.

Cooperation is going to be minimal, and likely will be ineffective.

[Ryan]

Here you go, colonel.

Scales and McCowen brief Huckabee and his audience. I still say they could use your assistance.

If you don't want to listen to Huck skip to the 5:50 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c2DJL4pMis

This is the other half.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF8Y6Y8OhJk

That looks like a neat game they're playing. I'd like to play the OPFOR using the red counters.