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Weaponizing Information
Weaponizing Informationby JOYCE NELSON
CounterPunch
In mid-April, hundreds of U.S. paratroopers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade arrived in western Ukraine to provide training for government troops. The UK had already started its troop-training mission there, sending 75 troops to Kiev in March. [1] On April 14, the Canadian government announced that Canada will send 200 soldiers to Kiev, contributing to a military build-up on Russias doorstep while a fragile truce is in place in eastern Ukraine.
The Russian Embassy in Ottawa called the decision counterproductive and deplorable, stating that the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine have called for enhanced intra-Ukrainian political dialogue, as agreed upon in the Minsk-2 accords in February, and that it would be much more reasonable to concentrate on diplomacy [2]
That viewpoint is shared by many, especially in Europe where few are eager for a hot war in the region. Nor are most people enamoured of the fact that more billions are being spent on a new arms-race, while austerity is preached by the 1 Per Cent.
But in the Anglo-American corridors of power (also called the Atlantic Alliance), such views are seen to be the result of diabolical propaganda spread through the Internet by Russias secret army. On April 15, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Ed Royce (R-Calif.), held a hearing entitled Confronting Russias Weaponization of Information, with Royce claiming that Russian propaganda threatens to destabilize NATO members, impacting our security commitments. [3]
The Committee heard from three witnesses: Elizabeth Wahl, former anchor for the news agency Russia Today (RT) who gained her moment of fame by resigning on camera in March 2014; Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow at the Legatum Institute (a right-wing UK think-tank); and Helle C. Dale, Senior Fellow for Public Diplomacy at The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing U.S. think-tank. [4] The Foreign Affairs Committee website contains video clips of the first two witnesses well worth watching if you enjoy Orwellian rhetoric passionately delivered.
Continued:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/23/weaponizing-information/
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Weaponizing Information (Original Post)
newthinking
Apr 2015
OP
tech3149
(4,452 posts)1. It's funny and sad that any competition to Western dominated news
is demonized as propaganda without any supportive documentation. FFS, they bombed Al Jazeera reporters in Baghdad and demonized RT as propaganda even before they were on the air. From my POV they just demean their credibility by going hyperbolic about any competing viewpoint.