NEWS AS A WEAPON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403690002-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 9, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403690002-1
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE i- G -
Joseph Laitin
News as
A Weapon
Disinformation has been the subject
of much editorial discussion the past
month. Everybody seems to have for-
gotten that the Soviets invented only
the word, not the practice, which is
despicable. It does take on a kind of
respectability in wartime because
news, true or false, is viewed by the
military as another weapon to destroy-
the enemy by confusing them. In an
open society such as ours, even in an
all-out war, there is danger of confusing.
your friends more than your enemies.
In World War 11, all nations used
disinformation, or black propaganda,
as it was called then. In Washington,
with the United Press, I sensed that
my competition, the Associated.'
Press's Sterling Green, was on to a-
Ombudsman
-anlAULUN YU5'T
9 November 1986
The Gestapo wasn't fooled; but the
program did give false hope to Amert
can families who were led to believe
that the Hitler regime might be on
the verge of collapse.
One of the most secret U.S. black
propaganda programs, however, was
effective, and Americans weren't
aware of it until decades after the war;
It was the brainchild of an intelligence
agent named Eugene Warner, who had
been a Washington newspaperman, one.
Of the first reporters hired by Eugene
Meyer after he bought The Post. Un-
der Mr. Warner's supervision at a se- -
cret Allied installation in Rome, the-
Ore--precursor of the CL4- s.
turning out a one-page news aped
called Ass New lkutsc*k, ,which
Purported to be an undergrounnt anti.
Hitler newspaper published and diatribe
uted inside Germany. I .
Under tight security, it was printed
on cheap paper that might be avail,
able to a subversive group, with an
odd assortment of type. There was
one seemingly insurmountable probe
lem in this project, which any newspa-
per publisher could have alerted Mr.
Warner to: home delivery.
Mr. Warner came up with a bril-
liant plan. Telephone directories of
the large German cities were collect-
ed, and mailing lists were prepared
from each. German stamps, wese-
counterfeited; German-type mail
pouches were duplicated to the last
stitch. Envelopes were printed with
return addresses of German business
establishments likely to make large
mailings to private homes.
The envelopes were addressed, into
them went t properly 'The New ~Germany ; the
envelopes were stuffed into mail sacks.
Railway timetables were studied, and
every day fighter-bombers took off on
the hunt for a railroad train heading
toward a specific German city.
When the quarry was spotted, one
element swooped down and loosed de.
molition bombs on locomotive and cars
After them came B-25s at treetop*
level, machine guns blazing away to
keep surviving heads down, and from
their bomb bays came hundreds of mail
sacks, strewn among the wreckage. '
Unfailingly, rescue crews, with
German efficiency, gathered up the
scattered mail and turned it over to
the post office.
big story. He scored with an exclusive
splashed on the front pages of The
Washington Post, The Washington
Star and The New York Times.
It said that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower,
commander of U.S. European Forces in
London, had been ordered to return to
Washington the following week for con-
sultations with the high command to
discuss details of a second front. Pres%?
dent Roosevelt on the following day
excoriated the press for publishing such
unfounded speculation. A few days lat-
er, on Nov. 8, 1942, U.S. troops, led bji''
Gen. Eisenhower, invaded North Afri-
ca. It probably was this country's fuat..
venture into deliberately planting false
information in the U.S. news media;.
There is no way of knowing whether it
was of any military value. That was a
one-shot.
But a continuing disinformation
program that this country's intelli-
gence people promoted over a long
period during that war backfired. It
was billed as a "mobile underground
radio station" operating inside Nazi.
Germany and broadcasting daily defi-
ance to Hitler. Monitored by an Allied-
listening post, the translated texts
were distributed to U.S. newspapers-.
and received considerable attention:
Mr. Warner won a bronze star and
a presidential citation. More impor-
tant to him was learning later that.
advancing Allied troops reported that.
Germans were surrendering with cop-
ies of this newspaper to show that
they were anti-Nazis.
That was disinformation's finest
hour. And I'd like to think its only one.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000403690002-1