Reflections From a Murky Pond

InfoWar or Information Warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of an advantage over an opponent. Information warfare may involve collection of tactical information, assurance that one’s own information is valid, spreading of propaganda or disinformation to demoralize the enemy and the public, undermining the quality of opposing force information and denial of information collection opportunities to opposing forces.

InfoWar has always been important in political and military struggles. In the modern world it possibly even more important for adversaries in a conflict to control and shape the information available.

Below is a video reporting on how some African citizen journalists - read that as Bloggers - are waging campaign of information warfare against the ruling parties in their lands who seek to maintain their authority at least partially by controlling and censoring what information is provided to their citizens and the world through the media.

This video is courtesy of Current_TV

These are some very brave and committed people who daily risk their freedom and their lives in an ongoing attempt to break their governments’ stranglehold on information dissemination. Across the globe citizen journalists - bloggers mostly - are engaged in an asymmetric war of information. They often manage though the porous nature of the internet to do what the Main Stream Media (MSM) is unable or unwilling to accomplish - the free and open release of information about unpopular, uncomfortable, and/or unprofitable issues.

“Bush Lied, People Died” is a modern mantra among the Democrats and Liberal independents in the US. It has become an article of faith among the Left that the United States’ campaign in Iraq was based on a tissue of lies by Pres. George W. Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.

On June 5, 2008, Sen. John Rockefeller’s Intelligence Committee Report was released by a 10:5 majority of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). This majority did not include the Vice Chairman, Sen. Kit Bond. The purpose of this report was to substantiate those claims of falsehood.

Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence.

In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent

– Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.)
Chairman, Select Committee on Intelligence

Sen. John Rockefeller and his cronies - along with the rest of the Democrats - claim that the report achieved its purpose of proving that the Administration on numerous occasions, misrepresented the intelligence and the threat from Iraq. Sadly for them even their partisan report failed to prove their case.

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I believe that just about everyone in America knows of MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech - even if very few in America actually know much of the text of that famous address of August 28, 1963. Few though remember a later and much more controversial speech by Dr. King though.

On April 8, 1967 - a year to the day before his assassination - Rev. Martin Luther King gave this speech, entitled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence, at the Riverside Church in New York.

MLK: Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence

I believe that Aaron McGruder is one of those few who knows of this speech. In episode 9, The Return Of The King, of his animated series Boondocks McGruder shows a alive and well Rev. King protesting the US’ response to 911 and being branded a “Hate American Traitor” by the media for doing so. This is almost exactly what really happened in ‘67.

If you would like to read the full text of King’s Beyond Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence, it’s posted after the break.

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