Rumsfeld Hearts Info-Ops

In "the lady doth protest too much, methinks" department we find Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld whining about mainstream media coverage of defense issues and calling for better DOD information operations.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday called for the military and other government agencies to mount a far more aggressive, swift and nontraditional information campaign to counter the messages of extremist and terrorist groups in the world media.

Rumsfeld criticized the absence of a "strategic communications framework" for fighting terrorism. He also lashed out at the U.S. media, which he blamed for effectively halting recent U.S. military initiatives in the information realm -- such as paying to place articles in Iraqi newspapers -- through an "explosion of critical press stories."

The speech follows a top-level review of Pentagon strategy and resources released earlier this month that concluded: "Victory in the long war ultimately depends on strategic communication." The Quadrennial Defense Review called for closing gaps in U.S. capabilities in what the Pentagon describes as "information operations," an area being reorganized in the Pentagon, according to current and former defense officials...

He also called for creating 24-hour media operations centers and "multifaceted media campaigns" using the Internet, blogs and satellite television that "will result in much less reliance on the traditional print press."

As if the "traditional print press" wasn't already fully compromised by their obsequious attitude towards power. The electronic corporate media is even closer, ask "Bomb" Woodruff.

An info-op that is proceeding exactly as planned, the "cartoon controversy", continues to be a big draw crowd-wise on the Muslim "street."

Protests sparked by newspaper cartoons of the prophet Muhammad continued across (Pakistan) Friday, as a cleric announced a $1 million bounty for the killing of any of the Danish cartoonists responsible for the caricatures and Denmark temporarily closed its embassy.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital, Islamabad, after midday prayers. Rallying at a downtown intersection, some chanted, "Bush is a dog!" and others carried banners reading, "Death sentence for the cartoonists." Police in riot gear watched from the sidelines. Similar demonstrations were reported in other cities across the country...

In the conservative northwestern city of Peshawar, Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi announced after Friday prayers at the historic Mohabat Khan mosque that the mosque and an affiliated religious school would give $25,000 and a car to anyone who killed one of the artists responsible for the cartoons, news agencies reported from the city.

The cleric also said a local jewelers' association had offered a $1 million bounty.

"If the West can place a bounty on Osama bin Laden" and his top deputy, Ayman Zawahiri, "we can also announce a reward for killing the man who has caused this sacrilege of the holy prophet," Qureshi told the Reuters news agency...

Political leaders from moderate as well as hard-line religious parties have vowed to continue the demonstrations, which have expanded beyond the cartoon controversy into a broader attack on Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, and his Western backers, especially the United States.

Religious parties have announced plans for a large rally in the capital on Sunday as part of a series of demonstrations intended to peak when President Bush arrives on a visit in early March.

"They are pursuing a larger agenda against this regime under the cover of the cartoons," said Hasan Rizvi, a political analyst and author. "They want a confrontation now."

They aren't the only ones who "want a confrontation now."

"And finally", as Elizabeth Vargas nightly intones, a related sideshow of the anti-Muslim info-op--the videotaped beatings of the young Iraqi demonstrators by British troops in southern Iraq--is paying it's dividends:

Iran's foreign minister demanded the immediate withdrawal of British forces in Basra, saying that they had destabilized the southern Iraqi city near the Iranian border.

Basra is about 22 miles from a southern Iranian province that witnessed riots and bombings last year allegedly connected to Iran's Arab minority. Iran has blamed British intelligence for some of the bombings, a charge that Britain denies.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran demands an immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra," Mottaki told reporters after talks with his Lebanese counterpart.

Mottaki's allegations seemed to be spurred by the recent publicity given to a video of what appeared to be British soldiers assaulting Iraqi boys after a street confrontation in January 2004 in the southern Iraqi city of Amarah, about 100 miles north of Basra. The British Army has launched an investigation and arrested two people.

And to think, Rumsfeld would like you to believe that the United States doesn't do information operations well.

Update: Indonesian Muslims are reacting according to plan.

Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy on Sunday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured.