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BELIEF OVER TRUTH: ROAD TO AMERICA’S DOWNFALL
Facts vs. Beliefs – Today’s Ancient Warfare
By Jeff Gates STAFF WRITER
In unconventional warfare, beliefs are deployed as weapons by those waging war by way of deception. Recall Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? Iraqi ties to Al Qaeda? Iraqi biological weapons laboratories? Iraqi meetings in Prague with Al Qaeda? Iraqi purchases of yellowcake uranium from Niger?
All these claims were alleged true but later proven false or, worse, fabricated. Yet all were widely believed. In combination, those beliefs induced a consensus to wage war in Iraq in response to a mass murder on U.S. soil. The same deception traceable to the same source is now working to expand this war to Iran.
The battlefield has shifted. Ground warfare is secondary. Likewise airstrikes, naval support and covert operations. Physical operations are all downstream of information operations. False beliefs come first. Psyops precede missiles, and bombs. Hardware ranks a distant third. Foremost are the consensus shapers who manipulate perceptions until a critical mass of phony intelligence is reached. Then comes war.
Knowledge is the target. Manipulate thoughts and emotions and all else is downstream. Wars are won “upstream” — by those skilled at evoking consensus opinions. Where is modern-day warfare waged? Not on the ground; nor in the air or on the seas. The shared mindset is the theater of operations. The battlefield is the shared field of consciousness. Deceit is not new to warfare. What’s new is the technology that enables deceit on a global scale.
The military remains subordinate to politics. But politics are subordinate to those skilled at manipulating consensus beliefs. Decision-making is no better than the information on which decisions depend. Likewise for decision-makers. That’s why U.S. lawmakers have long been targeted as a force-multiplier by the Israel lobby. [See: “How the Israel Lobby Took Control of the Congress”]
With law-making dependent on information, these masterful mindset manipulators can operate atop the chain of command. In a system of law reliant on informed choice, self-governance can be replaced in plain sight by manipulated beliefs and consensus opinions. Thus the motivation for media dominance by these Masters of Deceit in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany and elsewhere.
When waged across four key areas, such “Information Operations” can displace democratic decision-making with a predetermined agenda. Here’s a quick look at each area: geopolitical, strategic, operational and tactical..
Duplicity in Plain Sight
The geopolitical realm is where the “framing” of future conflicts emerges. The Clash of Civilizations first appeared in 1993 as an article in Foreign Affairs. Three years later, when this thematic framing emerged as a book, more than 100 NGOs were prepared to promote its conflict-of-opposites theme. Thus the seamless transition from the Cold War to a perpetual Global War on Terrorism.
That new consensus emerged just as A Clean Break appeared with its proposal for “securing the realm” (Israel) by removing Saddam Hussein. Richard Perle, then a member of the Defense Policy Review Board, led the team that prepared that report for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In 2001, Perle became chairman of the board. That’s called working “upstream.”
Strategically, to evoke a new war requires a plausible Evil Doer and a credible provocation. The global branding of the Taliban emerged in the “field” in March 2001 with destruction of the ancient Buddhas at Bamiyan. Widely portrayed as a “cultural Holocaust,” that high-profile act put Afghanistan’s previously obscure Taliban on everyone’s list as certifiably evil. The missing piece in this storyline: the mass murder of September 11, 2001.
Strongly provoked emotions (as with 911) facilitate the displacement of facts with what “the mark” can be induced to believe. That displacement is enhanced in the presence of Evil Doer pre-staging and intelligence that is flawed, false or outright fixed. The combination of (a) evocation (religious extremism), (b) provocation (911) and (c) association (the Axis of Evil) enhanced the capacity to deceive. This multi-dimensional psyops was aided by false reports of Iraqi WMD and ties between the secular Saddam and the fundamentalists of Al Qaeda — even though anyone familiar with the region knew they despised each other.
When waging war on the public’s shared mindset, the power of association is one of the most effective weapons. Thus the potent imagery of the peaceful Buddhas at Bamiyan destroyed by violent extremists. Thus too the associative impact of Colin Powell’s February 2003 testimony at the U.N. Security Council when his credibility as a military leader was deployed—like a weapon—to give the appearance of truth to lies about Iraq’s possession of mobile biological weapon laboratories. Not only was Powell “the mark” – so were the U.N. and the U.S. and a global public, both the aggressors and the aggrieved.
Operationally, by the time the U.S. was induced to invade Iraq, 100-plus Israeli Mossad agents had been operating in Mosul for more than a decade. Soon after the invasion, several moderate clerics were murdered, enhancing the capacity to provoke a conflict-of-opposites between extremists among both Shiites and Sunnis, a key to evoking the destabilizing insurgency that turned a conflict into a quagmire.
As Information Operations proceed at the geopolitical, strategic and operational level, tactical deceit and misdirection provide support akin to a reserve army. Another provocation—the invasion of Gaza—was scheduled by Tel Aviv between Christmas and the inauguration of a new commander-in-chief elected on a platform of change. The timing of that assault ensured minimal capacity to criticize. Meanwhile this serial agent provocateur awaits the next reaction from those subjected to six decades of occupation so that Tel Aviv can again claim victim and, by deploying U.S. weaponry, again make us appear guilty by association.
As critics of Israeli policy emerged in universities, the Anti-Defamation League and its international network mounted a sophisticated intimidation campaign at the University of California, Santa Barbara. By promoting that campaign widely, the ADL silenced academics worldwide. [See:“Treason in Plain Sight?”]
To succeed, Information Operations require both deceit and denial of access to facts that the public requires for informed consent. How else can anyone explain the perception that Israel is a democracy and even an ally despite six decades of nonstop duplicity?
Democracy assumes that all of us collectively are smarter than any of us individually. Thus the need for an educated electorate. Thus too the need for an unbiased media to provide the facts with which to reason together. Thus, in turn, the need for media dominance by those skilled at waging war by way of deception. Thus what we now see routinely portrayed in that domain is a world turned inside out where the aggressor is portrayed as victim and the predator as prey.
With consensus beliefs the upstream target, democracy becomes the downstream casualty. With manipulated beliefs allowed to trump facts, the rule of law degenerates into a faith-based parody of self-governance. To protect the informed consent essential to liberty requires that those waging war on our shared mindset be made transparent so that those complicit become apparent.
This method of warfare is ancient; only the means are modern. This is what warfare looks like in the Information Age. Treason too. Why would anyone expect otherwise?
The common source of this treachery remains little unknown to the public. There lies the strategic role for online media unadorned by conspiracy theories that obscure the clarity required to wage this battle with confidence.
Author, educator, attorney, merchant banker and adviser to policy-makers worldwide and Vietnam veteran.
Jeff was counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance (1980-87) working for Democrat Russell Long, son of Louisiana Governor and U.S. Senator Huey P. Long. Specialist in employee benefits law—pensions, 401(k) plans, stock options, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), et.al. Tax-qualified employee benefit plans accounted for $17 trillion in assets (April 2007) and more than half the funds in the hands of institutional investors. As of 2007, ESOPs were in place in 11,500 firms nationwide, covering 10% of the U.S. workforce and holding $800 billion in assets.
Law practice w/ former Senators Russell Long, Democrat of Louisiana and Paul Laxalt, Republican of Nevada, chairman of Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaigns.
Counsel to Kelso & Company, Manhattan-based merchant bankers, completing $4 billion in transactions in 24-months, including the $3 billion leveraged buyout of American Standard, Inc., with employees and managers gaining a 33% stake in this multinational firm.
Author, Democracy at Risk – Rescuing Main Street from Wall Street (April 2000). Written as a sequel to The Ownership Solution –Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century (1998). Both books cited by presidential candidate Ralph Nader when branding U.S. Greens “the party of the new populism.” Guilt By Association – How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008).
Draftsman, 1986 Presidential Task Force Report on Project Economic Justice: “U.S. Efforts to Encourage Employee Stock Ownership Plans in Central America and the Caribbean.” Author, World Bank Discussion Paper: Employee Stock Ownership Plans: Objectives, Design Options, International Experience; DEMOS Argument Series (U.K.): Revolutionizing Share Ownership – The Stakeowner Economy; Tomorrow’s Capitalism (Pacific Institute), et. al.
Advisory work with 35-plus governments, including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Guyana, Haiti, Hungary, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the U.K. South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung announced August 2000 that the Korean edition of The Ownership Solution was his vacation-reading pick.
Contributor to trade, professional and popular publications worldwide: Financial Times, Japan Times, Financial Executive, M&A Today, Boston Review, Latin Finance, East/West Business Report, Society, Human Resource Management, Los Angeles Times, National Journal, World Times, The Humanist, Peace Review, Business Ethics, America, Tikkun, Whole Earth, Perspectives, Journal of Society of Organizational Learning, Journal of Organizational Change Management, et.al.
University of Virginia (B.A. in Honors Economics); J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of Law. Partner, Washington office of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy. Faculty in the MBA program, Emory University. Vietnam veteran (1LT, U.S. Army). Native of Athens, Georgia.
He is also the author of the new book Guilt by Association: How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War. His previous books include Democracy at Risk: Rescuing Main Street From Wall Street and The Ownership Solution: Toward a Shared Capitalism for the 21st Century.
He resides in Tempe Arizona. jeffgates2@gmail.com. Visit his web site, www.criminalstate.com
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Posted by Jeff Gates on Nov 7 2009, With 0 Reads, Filed under 9/11. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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The massive slaughter in Europe known as World War II started with such a psy op deception. Read this website and you will understand what the Allies knew from the very beginning of that war.
http://history1900s.about.com/library/holocaust/aa090399.htm [history1900s.about.com]
Here is a pertinent excerpt from this article:
"So that Germany did not officially seem the aggressor (which it was), Hitler needed an excuse for entering/attacking Poland. It was Heinrich Himmler who came up with the idea; thus the plan was code named Operation Himmler.
On the night of August 31, 1939, Nazis took an unknown prisoner from one of their concentration camps, dressed him in a Polish uniform, took him to the town of Gleiwitz (on the border of Poland and Germany), and then shot him. The staged scene with the dead prisoner dressed in a Polish uniform was supposed to appear as a Polish attack against a German radio station.
Hitler used the staged attack as the excuse to invade Poland."
It is not beyond belief that another World War based on religious lines can be started with deceptive intelligence. Has it already happened? Many highly informed writers with deep intelligence experience and broad intelligence contacts that are on the staff of this web site believe this to be true.
CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)
Good morning Tom About that uhh gotta have an excuse to go to war. Think the Japanese did much the same thing in 1931 on the Marco-polo bridge if memory serves. The good ol USA did something like that off the coast of Vietnam back in the 60s (had parts of the damaged ship on display in the library in Subic bay Naval station too. So it makes me wonder about if the Granada invasion was actually legit. Come ta think about it if we gave money and arms to Iraq to fight Iran, then why did we decide that they were are enemies in 91? Guess in the final analysis, you gotta know who your friends are and it may not always be Uncle Sam.
“The common source of this treachery remains little unknown to the public.” And drugs are used to dampen the public’s intellectual capacity and urge to know the truth about the genocidal agenda of the oligarchy . Anything can be a drug, especially mass medias. George Gurdjieff said that all “impressions” are a kind of food, as nutritious or as potentially toxic as anything you may eat. Today, as so many question and examine the “beliefs” of psychiatry and its potential to bring us peace (psychiatrist means “doctor of the soul) it would be prudent to draw aside the curtain on these doctors who cannot seem to heal themselves, never mind our soldiers’ hearts. Check this out. Information already well-known to MK Ultra and Operation Shad veterans.
http://www.politicalfriendster.com/showPerson.php?id=2775&name=American-Psychiatric-Association
If the old IG Farben gang gets its way, even Americans may soon not even be able to buy a vitamin pill or a viable seed to grow their own nutritious food. Look and listen to the wife of the man who stared at goats.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NaturalSolutions#p/u/0/P30Itrfhn8o
Want to know how the public continues to be fooled? Ready this book by John Coleman… a real eye opener.
http://www.amazon.com/Tavistock-Institute-Human-Relations-Political/dp/0963401971/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257612051&sr=8-2-spell
Ever since Columbus rode the tide and “discovered” the Americas greed has prevailed as the primary motive. Greed is the common demoninator in everything that we called historic events; war specifically.
.
When Columbus and his fleet arrived they went ashore in search of much needed fresh water. He brought with a number of missionary’s, and a few conquistidors. When he spoke to the native chieg he noticed the bright and shiny necklaces the natives were wearing. He forgot about the fresh water and demanded the chief tell hium where he had gooten the necklace.
Columbus demanded that the chief show him where he found the gold pieces and the chief, being very kind and a bit afraid of these white travellers walked him to the small river that runs trough Aquadilla, PR where he pointed out that his people simply pick up these shiny nuggets which were everywhere.
Columbus demanded the chief and his people give him every nugget and to begin working on gathering every nugget. The chief aqnd the natives refused to do that as they were a simple people and gathered only what they needed. The cconquisitors captured three native men that evening and when morning came all the people in the village became afraid as to where the men had gone.
A small boy discovered the three men at the bottom of a cliff, they were dead. It was then that the spanish missionaries explained to the men, women, and children that God had punished the men for not gathering the gold nuggets as they were told to do.
This is the beginning of slavery and greed in the Americas, the western hemishere in 1492. The natives who refuse3d to work for the spainards were killed in the name of God, thus the believe that” God will punish you” which prevails as the first brainwashing evidence, to me, in this hemisphere. In 2009, that message still prevails, “God will punish you” when in fact it is now the government who will punish you, and yes, its all in the name of God, freedom, and for the children now.
My point: I am entering the Florida 2010 U.S. Senate race and will enter as an Independent Candiadte. I will not take one penny and I will be up against some very wealthy and powerful charaqcters who represent the business interest of the very folks who have taken over America. I have been told I haven’t a chance in Hell. Well, when I ran for the Florida state senate I didn’t take a penny and I recieved approx 72,000 votes – not counting the absentee votes.
I know that the ballot box is rigged in Florida and being a Marine for life I think the odds are just right. I am using my “Paqss the Word” campaign and if any of you readers are registered in Florida, please consider that I have only American freedom as my motive, and I seek to knock every businness person politican out of the ring; the US Senate actually. Please pass the word if you want to see some real deal action.
My name is Jorge Antonio Lovenguth Lawlor, George Lovenguth, a Jersey guy originally, who entered the Marine Corps at 17 and became a commanding officers scribe and then at 18 volunteered to fly door gunner in country with HMM-262 the Flying Tigers.
Thanks for reading my announcement statement and Pass the Word if you feel up to it. Sempre Fi – and fight till you die! Thanks Gordon, keep up the good work and thank you for getting me back into the (writing) saddle again. We have a nice battle coming up! Who else is onboard? Sitting at the the TV is BS, help me pass the word for the 2010 Florida US senate election. Thank again and I’ll see you all on the flip side. Bye for now.
Hey Night Flyer,
Good luck in the Senate Race. I’m not from Florida, but maybe I can pull an Acorn and come down and vote anyway. Learn to use your spell checker before you Pass the World. It can make the difference in thousands of votes!
Tom
I am a Florida resident, former Marine Crew Chief on H-46′s in HMM-165 & HMM-263 in Phu Bai & Marble Mountain starting in Feb. of 1968. I had several good friends in 262 & 264.
I too am fed up with the two party system and have changed my voting classification to Independent.
The only thing Gov. Crist has done since taking office is use the time to run for the Senate Seat. He nor our State Congress has done one thing to help the State and the people within the State during these trying times. What a sham they are! Let me know what I can do for your campaign.
Thank you Tom. I sometimes write too quickly, and you are 1000% correct. I also need to write a proper paragraph as well. Can’t afford to pay professionals to write and edit for me, and I wouldn’t want them anyway. I will slow it up and write more correctly, I will proof read it, and re-proof read it. Thanks again. George Lovenguth
T,
Always good to read about CH 46 Marine Aircrew, YEAH. I’m the long, long, long shot here and I won’t be taking any corporate donations. I’ve been told that is crazy. Yet as you know, flying in a CH 46 in country (70-71 my time) was also considered crazy.
I am asking those who still vote to simply “Pass the Word” as I cannot compete with the professional politicians and their corporate financiers. Most people now understand that just because a candidate has a multi-million dollar war chest doesn’t make them the best choice these days.
I believe that game is over. Still, there are many people who do believe that a candidate with the largest campaign dollars must be the best candidate. Can’t change that mindset, but I also believe that given the state of affairs, literally and figuratively in Florida, perhaps that thinking will change.
I was a very conservative democrat, but during the Florida state senate election in 2008, I was told by the Duval Democratic Party I didn’t have their permission to run for the District 5 state senate seat. I did run, and I received appox. 72,000 votes. Those Rothschild inspired electronic voting machines; along with the land line faxed voting results to the supervisor of elections office are very interesting aren’t they?
Gone are the days of a good paper trail. It was the corporate controlled state senate who decided this method would keep them all in place, and they may be correct as every election since 1994 has gone to them. I will need challengers on Election Day.
Well, I also need to have more people to “Pass the Word” as I have registered to be a member of the new Tea Party in Florida. I will not be taking any corporate contributions as I stated. This is winnable but will be very difficult. I’m not afraid of that however. I am currently finishing up my Agent Orange treatments with the VA in Puerto Rico.
I have also been visiting with some relatives on my mother’s side. My grandfather came from Puerto Rico to New Jersey back in 1908. If you know the island, it’s the Añasco municipality on the west coast just north of Mayaguez; beautiful and healthy.
I will be flying up to my place in Williston, Florida (North Central Florida) after a stay in Orlando. I have discovered I have family there as well. It’s been a very interesting journey, and I expect it will get even more interesting in the months to come. So, keep in shape, and keep your ears on. Over and out for now.
Sempre Fi…and fight till you die. George Lovenguth (Jorge)
Thanks Prof. Jeff Gates for this precise and concise exposition about pre-war lies and psych-ops.
The men and women in charge who send young men and women to the slaughter do it on order of others who’s motive is greed and power. They call it many names, (to rally the people and gather consensus for war), ranging from “Defending Democracy and getting rid of tyrants” to “Defending the Interests of Our Country Abroad against Terrorism”. Before, they used to call it “Communism”.
If the American People want to stop the crazy spin, and being subordinated to the whims of a rogue State (Israel) and Big Finance, it is easy:
1) Nationalize the Federal Reserve and give the American people back what is rightfully theirs: Ownership and Management of The Money,
2) AIPAC is foreign government agent operating as an ONG in the USA. its top brass spy on the Government, expect every coming president of the USA, before being approved by them as fit for the job, that he or she wears the kipa, pays his respects to the Wailing Wall and say the “Magic Words”: “Israel First” at the AIPAC yearly gathering. Any informed person, with common sense can see that something is wrong here. How comes that an ethnic group representing only 4% of the US population (of whom only a minority is active-outspoken Zion-Talmudist) has so much say in AMERICAN POLITICS?
3) Easy to mend for that: Forbid any lobbying activity in Congress, Senate and give each political candidate a public allowance for his or her campaign. No fancy cheerleaders, expensive outfits and meetings. Public DEBATE in a TV station owned by the Federal Government, i.e. the PEOPLE,
4) Direct vote, the one who gets more votes from the PEOPLE goes in as president. No more Lobbies, No more Wailing Walls
5) Quotas for occupation of key position in Government, Financial Sector and Trade Organizations. A particular ethnic group should get only the percentage of upscale jobs that corresponds to its real percentage in the population.
That will help getting rid of the woes that are plaguing the American society now and American Foreign Policy, and would on top of that be more fair for its citizens.