Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Saturday, December 17th, 2016

The NDAA Legalizes The Use Of Propaganda On The US Public

Author:     Michael B Kelley
Source:     Business Insider
Publication Date:     May 21, 2012, 5:11 PM
Link: The NDAA Legalizes The Use Of Propaganda On The US Public
Stephan:   One of the hallmarks of Fascism is its use of propaganda. As Joseph Goebbels put it, "This is the secret of propaganda: Those who are to be persuaded by it should be completely immersed in the ideas of the propaganda, without ever noticing that they are being immersed in it." That little lesson has clearly been learned by the Republicans, as this article describes. To quote Goebbels again, "We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this bear's work, that is its affair. We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come."

1948 propaganda Santa
Credit: Flickr/x-ray delta one

The newest version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) includes an amendment that would legalize the use of propaganda on the American public, reports Michael Hastings of BuzzFeed.

The amendment — proposed by Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and passed in the House last Friday afternoon — would effectively nullify the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which explicitly forbids information and psychological operations aimed at influencing U.S. public opinion.

Thornberry said that the current law “ties the hands of America’s diplomatic officials, military, and others by inhibiting our ability to effectively communicate in a credible way,” according to Buzzfeed.

The vote came two days after a federal judged ruled that an indefinite detention provision in the annual defense bill was unconstitutional.

Lt. Col. Daniel Davis, who released a highly critical report regarding the distortion of truth by senior military officials in Iraq and Afghanistan, dedicated a section of his report to Information Operations (IO) and states that after Desert Storm the military wanted to transform IO […]

Read the Full Article

3 Comments

  1. Steven K Hovland on Saturday, December 17, 2016 at 7:07 am

    NY Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, ABC, NBC, NPR will be the channels they use. That is why the alternative media are more important than ever.

  2. Laurie Kleisinger on Sunday, December 18, 2016 at 4:38 pm

    So it appears this happened in 2012? Ugh.

  3. TJ on Saturday, December 24, 2016 at 4:11 pm

    I am confused about the 2012 publication date as well.