WASHINGTON: The good news here in Washington is that the Defense Department’s “public diplomacy” office has been closed; the bad news is that the National Security Agency has been accused of engaging in “over collection” of domestic communications of Americans.
The good news first.
A Pentagon office responsible for coordinating Defense Department information campaigns overseas has been abolished in an effort by the Obama administration to distance itself from past practices that some military officers called propaganda, senior officials said on Wednesday. Military and civilian critics said the office overstepped its mandate during the final years of the Bush administration by trying to organize information operations that violated Pentagon guidelines for accuracy and transparency.
Created in 2007, the office was to be the central point within the Defense Department to “coordinate” overseas information efforts with the rest of the government.
But American military officers, especially those stationed in Afghanistan, were angered when they were given sets of “talking points” that they were instructed to follow when questioned on sensitive issues, such as civilian causalities. Officers said the “talking points” said Afghanis would see it as propaganda and in a rare show of defiance they refused to use them.
The decision to close the office was made by Obama’s new appointee, Michele Flournoy, the under secretary of defense for policy. The closure is intended to send a signal that global communications by the Defense Department would now be aligned with the rest of the government.
“Because of the history of the office, we needed a fresh start in how we integrate the critical function of strategic communications across the board,” Pentagon official told reporters on background.
Doubts had been raised over the Pentagon’s role in public diplomacy since it created a similar office back in 2002.
As part of George W. Bush’s war on terrorism, the military examined planting propaganda and misleading stories in the international media. The department operated within the Pentagon was given the Orwellian title of the Office of Strategic Influence.
Some generals were worried that even a suggestion of disinformation would undermine the Pentagon’s credibility and America’s attempts to portray itself as the beacon of liberty and democratic values.
The predecessor to the Pentagon public diplomacy office, it was shut down after Congress expressed concerns that its behind-the-scenes efforts to shape public sentiment in wartime might undermine the military’s credibility.
Meanwhile, over at the National Security Agency, the Justice Department has reined in electronic surveillance by the NSA after finding the agency had improperly accessed American phone calls and e-mails.
The problems were discovered during a review of the intelligence activities, the Justice Department said in a statement on Wednesday night.
The New York Times, which first reported the story, said the NSA had been improperly intercepting communications by Americans.
In its statement, the Justice Department said it has taken “comprehensive steps to correct the situation and bring the program into compliance.”
A part of an ongoing wiretapping investigation, separate from this inquiry, a senior FBI agent recently came forward with what the inspector general’s office described as accusations of “significant misconduct” in the surveillance program. Those accusations are said to involve whether the NSA made Americans targets in eavesdropping operations based on insufficient evidence tying them to terrorism.
Domestic eavesdropping has been a contentious issue since 2005, when it was revealed that for years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the NSA intercepted international phone conversations and e-mails involving US citizens without a warrant.
The NSA was accused of secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.
The NSA program reached into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of who weren’t suspected of any crime. This program did not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations, but the spy agency used the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity.
That program ended in 2007, and the following year Congress passed legislation requiring the NSA to get court approval to monitor the purely domestic communications of Americans who came under suspicion.
Once corrective measures were taken, Attorney General Eric Holder sought authorization for renewing the surveillance program, officials said.
