Domestic information operations

Today the New York Times reported on an effort by the US administration and Pentagon to shape domestic media coverage of the Iraq war. An informal network of military analysts was tapped and urged to send out the desired message.

Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to ... shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks.

This prompted me to recall and earlier effort from 2002 that later got officially canned, the Office of Strategic Influence.

The Pentagon has established a new Office of Strategic Influence to market America's war on terrorism outside the United States...
Under law, the Pentagon operation can only work outside the United States.

The current administration practices tight access control to information, according to this report from 2005.

As part of a tight message control, the Bush White House does have a few "designated hitters" who speak on the record with reporters. It confines that kind of access to presidential counselor Dan Bartlett and a few others. The policy is a big shift from past administrations that offered frequent background briefings with top officials who helped reporters and their readers and audiences understand the rationale for decisions and strategies.

Though the administration seems to be applying scientific management principles with regard to controlling information flow, there appears to be a glaring blind spot with regard to managing their reputation. Credibility counts, particularly when attempting to persuade a global audience that may be highly skeptical.

Another reason why Nepal is in China's pocket

We've all seen reports of Nepalese police beating and detaining Tibetan protesters. So why the support? The Reuters piece blithely states:

Nepal, which gets development grants from the Chinese government, accepts Tibet as part of China.

Let's not forget another form of "aid": arms sales. According to a Nepalese source:

Two huge jumbo size aircrafts landed at the TIA Kathmandu delivering huge cache of arms and ammunitions from China and US some ten day ago...
A consignment of 120 tons of modern weapons from China arrived first at the TIA, tentatively on January 25-26.

China is arming Nepalese government forces, enabling them to face off against a Maoist insurgency. Keeping Tibetan territory under Chinese control is clearly worth more than backing a Maoist insurgency no longer in ideological lockstep.

Despite its Maoist identification, the CPN(M) has not won Beijing's blessing. By the time the CPN(M) was formed, Beijing had led China some way into a pro-capitalist transformation in which revolutionary solidarity has little relevance.

This is a somewhat awkward situation tactically for the West, since the USA and the UK have been providing arms to the Nepalese government in order to keep the Maoist insurgency from gaining ground or linking up with other regional insurgencies. India has its own regional and internal reasons for courting Nepal with arms sales, such as allied insurgent groups operating within the state of Assam. All in all, the Nepalese government appears to be playing these disparate interests against each other in order to ensure a supply of arms, with moderate success.

Interestingly, the Nepalese Maoist insurgents apparently released a statement backing China earlier in March.

The CPN-Maoist Wednesday said that Tibet is an integral part of China.Issuing a press statement here on the ongoing unrest in the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Maoists expressed sadness over the continuing violence in Lhasa.
"We strongly condemn the incident that put at risk the freedom and sovereignty of the Chinese people. We want to draw the attention of the concerned authority to the activities against China at the Nepal-China border," Kantipur quoted the Maoist statement, as saying.

I wouldn't put it past China to be playing both sides of a conflict in Nepal, but it's also possible that the Nepalese Maoists are placating China with the aim of limiting the amount of arms China provides to the Nepalese government.