Researchers Help U.S. Military Track, Defuse Rumors

[Richard]

Where's MISO?

And so it goes...

Richard

Researchers Help U.S. Military Track, Defuse Rumors
SFGate, 14 Oct 2011

In 2005, two years into the Iraq war, American soldiers began vaccinating cows across that nation not only to improve their health but also to garner goodwill among Iraqi farmers.

But instead of appreciating the help, the farmers stepped up support for the insurgents and even joined the violence.

Why? Because of a single, well-placed rumor that the Americans were actually poisoning livestock to starve the Iraqis.

A rumor, it turns out, can be as deadly as an IED, the improvised explosive devices favored by insurgents.

That's why the U.S. Navy is paying $1.6 million to San Francisco State University Professor Daniel Bernardi and three Arizona researchers to track, collect and find ways to defuse stories used as weapons.

Those who doubt the lethal power of "narrative IEDs," as Bernardi calls them, might recall the impact of another falsehood initially spread by now-deceased Iraqi President Saddam Hussein: that his country had weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration used that rumor to justify invading Iraq and for a war that continues today.

"Like their explosive cousins, rumors can be created and planted by nearly anybody, require limited resources to utilize, can be deadly for those in its direct path, and can instill fear," said Bernardi, a Naval Reserve officer who served 10 months in Iraq and six months in the Pacific.

He calls them a "low-cost, low-tech weapon."

Involving Technology

To find out which rumors are genuine threats, the Navy will pay $400,000 a year for four years to Bernardi and his team of computing and communications experts. They plan to start the project the way many start these days: with an app.

A rumor app for smart phones.

"By uploading rumors as they are encountered on the battlefield, operational and strategic commanders will be able to track their spread," the professor told the Navy in his grant application.

Into a new database of pernicious fictions they'll go, as Bernardi's team tries to learn which ones pose a threat anywhere in the world. Figuring that out requires knowledge of the communities where the rumors germinate and thrive.

And that gets to Bernardi's speciality: cultural and media studies.

Giving Military An Edge

Bernardi has a doctorate in film and TV from UCLA, has taught at Arizona State University, and has written and edited books on race in the movie industry.

He is the new chairman of the cinema department at San Francisco State, where he teaches an online course called Signs of Aliens about cultural diversity as seen through aliens in pop culture. His book on "Star Trek" is required reading.

Think about it: Every time the Romulans outmaneuvered the Starship Enterprise, it was because of something Capt. Kirk didn't get about their alien culture. But once he figured it out, the Romulans were toast.

Bernardi wants to give the U.S. military that kind of an edge.

Long, Unhappy History

Back to the cattle poisoning rumor. It helps to understand that the West has a history of attempting dominion over Muslims, notably the Crusades, almost 1,000 years ago, Bernardi argues. While that may seem old enough to forget, it's also old enough for cultural myths and archetypes to take hold.

So Iraqi culture - in which the West has long played the role of oppressor of Muslims - is fertile ground for rumors about evil Americans, from phony inoculations to drought-causing weapons.

"We, not the insurgents, become the enemy the people must defeat," Bernardi said.

The project at San Francisco State is a wise use of military dollars, said Peter Vietti, spokesman for the Office of Naval Research.

"Rumors are a common method used by adversaries for discrediting U.S. efforts and as an instrument of persuasion and misinformation," he said. "Therefore, countering them effectively is important."

Rumors Prove Deadly

Bernardi's project isn't the first time the military has looked at rumors. Early in the Iraq war, intelligence analysts, linguists and Iraqis published a weekly feature called "What's the Word on the Streets of Baghdad?"

The word on the street in 2003 was that Hindu militants had killed a Muslim builder in India. Iraqis retaliated, killing nine people before realizing that the builder was actually killed by a Muslim.

Iraqi veterans also heard that they would lose their stipend that year. They rioted in Baghdad and Basra that year, burning businesses, killing two people, and injuring dozens. Only then did they learn it wasn't true.

Lack Of Tracking

The U.S. military fails to systematically track rumors, Bernardi said.

To do it right, he'll employ an ethnographic team - people who study cultures - to evaluate the threat of individual rumors, an engineering team to build the rumor database, and analysts to do what analysts do. Finally, a "countermeasures team" will "develop targeted counter-narratives that speak directly to the cultural and religious traditions of relevant populations," Bernardi said.

He'll use Afghanistan as the testing ground - though no travel is required, he reassured the Navy.

Ultimately, he envisions a website for anyone, anywhere, to check in on threatening rumors as they check on threatening weather.

"We don't know that it's going to help," Bernardi said. "But we hope so."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BAQM1LD1QH.DTL

[Guy]

Involving Technology

To find out which rumors are genuine threats, the Navy will pay $400,000 a year for four years to Bernardi and his team of computing and communications experts. They plan to start the project the way many start these days: with an app.

$400K/year to a SOB and his clones that ain't NEVER walked around Iraq yet--he's a f*cking expert?

[Roguish Lawyer]

Absurd

[Guy]

Originally Posted by Roguish Lawyer

Absurd

Is putting it mildly!

For $400K--I'll get on a plane and walk around Iraq getting 'on-the-ground' info like I've done for a whole lot less!

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by Guy

$400K/year to a SOB and his clones that ain't NEVER walked around Iraq yet--he's a f*cking expert?

Your right Guy,this is really nothing more than just plain old bullshit.......

Big Teddy

[Saturation]

Snopes at $400k a year?!?!

[11Ber]

MISO's too busy doing Operator stuff; they don't have time to run an effective IO/counter IO program...

[Dusty]

For 200K, I'll place a rumor that if you spread rumors, we'll drone you.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally Posted by Dusty

For 200K, I'll place a rumor that if you spread rumors, we'll drone you.

I'll do it for $150k.

[Richard]

For $200k I'll convince the Islamic world that any Muslim who commits a terrorist act against anybody is really a sleeper admissions counselor for Liberty University's graduate program in Global Apologetics.**

Richard

** http://www.liberty.edu/academics/rel....cfm?PID=13320

[Guy]

Bernardi has a doctorate in film and TV from UCLA, has taught at Arizona State University, and has written and edited books on race in the movie industry.

He is the new chairman of the cinema department at San Francisco State, where he teaches an online course called Signs of Aliens about cultural diversity as seen through aliens in pop culture. His book on "Star Trek" is required reading.

Think about it: Every time the Romulans outmaneuvered the Starship Enterprise, it was because of something Capt. Kirk didn't get about their alien culture. But once he figured it out, the Romulans were toast.

A PhD in film and TV and, Star Trek is required reading?

CA is in debt and this MOTHERF*CKER gets $400K too study Iraqi rumors...did anyone tell him that DOD is pulling out at the end of the year?

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally Posted by Guy

A PhD in film and TV and, Star Trek is required reading?

CA is in debt and this MOTHERF*CKER gets $400K too study Iraqi rumors...did anyone tell him that DOD is pulling out at the end of the year?

I'm guessing this was part of the stimulus package . . .

[1stindoor]

Originally Posted by Guy

...did anyone tell him that DOD is pulling out at the end of the year?

Is that a rumor?

[mark46th]

Rumor has it that for $200K. I'll explode a goat with my death stare...

[Defend]

Originally Posted by 11Ber

MISO's too busy doing Operator stuff; they don't have time to run an effective IO/counter IO program...

11Ber, sounds like you are a good person to get opinion from - what should PSYOP be doing different down range right now?

And a $400,000 waste? Definitely. Put $400,000 into training a couple of Det's from 4th Grp to do it themselves. Or put it into better screening processes for all 37's, and we wouldn't need to spend the extra money training monkeys to wipe themselves. Part of my job description is to be a SMS (subject matter specialist) on culture and media in my AOR. I get paid 42 days of the year (when admin is doing their job and actually paying us) to do that and a hell of a lot more.

It pisses me off to see civilians who take no risk get incredible compensation packages to do what I do for next to nothing.

-out