Forwarded from: William Knowles <wkc4i.org>

http://europe.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/01/11/sproject.irq.email/

CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr
Saturday, January 11, 2003 Posted: 0751 GMT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies
have begun a surreptitious e-mail campaign inside Iraq, CNN has
learned, in an effort to get some Iraqis to defy President Saddam
Hussein.

A senior military official tells CNN thousands of e-mail messages have
been sent out since Thursday.

The official says "this is just the beginning of a psychological
warfare campaign" to convince the Iraqi leadership they cannot win a
war against the United States and its allies.

The message includes instructions to the e-mail recipients to contact
the United Nations in Iraq if they want to defect.

Senior military sources told CNN this was the first time the military
had engaged in this type of "information warfare campaign."

Sources say the program was developed by the military and intelligence
agencies in recent weeks.

The disguised e-mails, being sent to key Iraqi leaders, urge them to
give up, to dissent and to defect. If they do not, the messages warn,
the United States will go to war against them.

The U.S. military and intelligence officials were apparently hoping
that the Iraqis do not realize where the e-mails are coming from.

One official tells CNN the Pentagon wanted "to preserve this
capability as long as possible," but once the e-mail campaign was
discovered it would be acknowledged publicly.

The official also says the United States acknowledges that Iraq may
have already shut off some Internet gateways to prevent the e-mails
from getting through.

He said these same types of messages will now be sent by radio
broadcast in the days ahead from U.S. airborne and ground platforms.

CNN learned about the operation Friday afternoon, and was initially
asked not to report on it by senior Bush administration officials.
Those officials later decided the information could be released.

 
*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise; Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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