Matt, from Blackfive, already beat me to writing this, so some of what I say may parrot what’s already been written there. But, I know LTC Caldwell and I can’t sit silent and let RS get away with stupidity.

Rolling Stone – I’m glad I ended my subscription YEARS ago – alleges that LTG William Caldwell violated laws and regulations by using “psychological operations” against American, specifically Senators and Congresscritters.

The list of targeted visitors was long, according to interviews with members of the IO team and internal documents obtained by Rolling Stone. Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts.

The incident offers an indication of just how desperate the U.S. command in Afghanistan is to spin American civilian leaders into supporting an increasingly unpopular war. According to the Defense Department’s own definition, psy-ops – the use of propaganda and psychological tactics to influence emotions and behaviors – are supposed to be used exclusively on “hostile foreign groups.” Federal law forbids the military from practicing psy-ops on Americans, and each defense authorization bill comes with a “propaganda rider” that also prohibits such manipulation. “Everyone in the psy-ops, intel, and IO community knows you’re not supposed to target Americans,” says a veteran member of another psy-ops team who has run operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “It’s what you learn on day one.”

Like Blackfive, I wouldn’t be surprised if this LTC is out for vengeance and swinging wildly trying to pass the buck. I have worked and do work very closely with Psy-ops units for years and they all know the rules. Being in the military, I see exactly what is happening from this article, but the uninformed that have never served a day in uniform will assume the worst. I’m going to try and break this down allegation by allegation in the hopes that it makes sense. Some areas I CAN’T directly respond to by virtue of my access and duties and this is NOT an official response by any means – just my personal opinions based on experience. I will completely ignore those.

According to Holmes, who attended at least a dozen meetings with Caldwell to discuss the operation, the general wanted the IO unit to do the kind of seemingly innocuous work usually delegated to the two dozen members of his public affairs staff: compiling detailed profiles of the VIPs, including their voting records, their likes and dislikes, and their “hot-button issues.” In one email to Holmes, Caldwell’s staff also wanted to know how to shape the general’s presentations to the visiting dignitaries, and how best to “refine our messaging.”

The entire military is gravely short on Public Affairs Officers. It’s also very short on IO officers. It’s not uncommon for there to be some dual hats worn in these areas. The mission is very similiar, though the target audience is different. None of the stuff in this quote is considered Psy-ops or IO. It’s no different that what ALL politicians do when they are trying to get across a message: find out who the audience is and tailor the message to them. President Obama does it every time he holds a town hall meeting or gives a speech in a factory. He finds that one person in the town that fits the description of the message he’s trying to convey. It’s important that commands know this information so that they don’t engage in conversation that may be politically sensitive or create a hostile tone. Every single person looking for a date employs the same tactics when trying to “score.”

The general’s chief of staff also asked Holmes how Caldwell could secretly manipulate the U.S. lawmakers without their knowledge. “How do we get these guys to give us more people?” he demanded. “What do I have to plant inside their heads?”

Again, see above. This SHOULD be common sense. Let’s take a recent military example where about a dozen women went to Congress to complain about sexual harrassment in the Army. They aren’t going to have a bunch of women who have NEVER been sexually harrassed testify because that isn’t the message they want to convey. They aren’t going to have 12 sexually harrassed women and 12 women that haven’t been testify either, because that doesn’t convey the message either. Those women were asking the asking the same question of themselves: “what do we have to plant inside their heads to make them think that this is a real problem in the military?” And they succeeded, even though I personally believe their figures are uber-inflated. When you ask for a loan, you don’t tell the bank other ways you could get the money without needing a loan, you tell them why you need the loan and can’t pay for it with cash – debt, death in the family, doctors bills, etc.

After a stint as the top U.S. spokesperson in Iraq, the general pushed aggressively to expand the military’s use of information operations. During his time as a commander at Ft. Leavenworth, Caldwell argued for exploiting new technologies like blogging and Wikipedia – a move that would widen the military’s ability to influence the public, both foreign and domestic. According to sources close to the general, he also tried to rewrite the official doctrine on information operations, though that effort ultimately failed. (In recent months, the Pentagon has quietly dropped the nefarious-sounding moniker “psy-ops” in favor of the more neutral “MISO” – short for Military Information Support Operations.)

This is where author Michael Hastings shows that he, himself, knows NOTHING about the difference between Public Affairs and Information Operations. While Caldwell was at Leavenworth, he mandated that all students keep and maintain a blog. In IO operations, there is an official message that is conveyed or position. These blogs were not mandated to do anything. The officers could write about whatever they wanted – and they did. These activities more closely resembled PAO than anything remotely close to IO. Things that I write on this blog may very well influence the public too, but that doesn’t mean that I’m engaged in IO. Under Hastings’ definition of IO, he is also guilty in writing this article of using IO against Americans. Of course, isn’t all media guilty of that in this country? (rhetorical)

In March 2010, Breazile issued a written order that “directly tasked” Holmes to conduct an IO campaign against “all DV visits” – short for “distinguished visitor.” The team was also instructed to “prepare the context and develop the prep package for each visit.” In case the order wasn’t clear enough, Breazile added that the new instructions were to “take priority over all other duties.” Instead of fighting the Taliban, Holmes and his team were now responsible for using their training to win the hearts and minds of John McCain and Al Franken.

That bold line that I highlighted should be all that anyone needs to read to know that what Hastings is alleging didn’t happen. If Holmes’ duties were IO, and this tasking was to take precedence over those duties, then what he was tasked to do was NOT IO, but in fact PAO. Again, the rest of this paragraph is nothing that isn’t done in corporations, town hall meetings, presidential briefings, or any other formal setting where a DV is hosted.

Reading the rest of the article, I can only surmise that LTC Holmes truly had no grasp of the differences between PAO and IO. I’m confident that LTC Caldwell will come out of this unscathed as I know him to be a honorable, competent, and engaging leader. Believe me, I have no problem saying when I think an officer or any other Soldier is wrong.

And for the record, JAG is ALWAYS nervous about EVERYTHING! They’re first instinct is always “no.” “That’s wrong.” “Don’t do that.” etc.