Word: commando
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...second set of leaflets amounts to a programming guide for radio psyops. They have printed on them the times and frequencies Afghans can tune in their radios to receive broadcasts from Commando Solo. Sounds exotic and it is. Commando Solo is a U.S. Air Force special operations EC-130 plane flying near the Afghan border. A $70 million converted cargo aircraft, flown by the Pennsylvania Air National Guard, Commando Solo is an airborne Radio Shack. It's packed with all kinds of broadcasting gear: secure faxes and computers, cassette decks, compact disks, VHS tape players, and powerful transmitters. The hardware...
...Commando Solo's programming is fairly simple as well. "We are here to take measures against terrorists who have rooted themselves in your country," one broadcast begins. "It is not you, the honorable people of Afghanistan, who are targeted, but those who oppress you, seek to bend you to their will, and make you their slaves...
...weapon often is the truth. The 4th Psyops Groups, for example, launched a massive psyops campaign during the 1991 Desert Storm War that proved effective. Millions of leaflets were air dropped on Iraqi troops occupying Kuwait urging them to give up and giving them instructions on how to surrender. Commando Solo broadcast straight news to Iraqi soldiers along with a surrender hotline: a two-way frequency they could call with their field radios to reach an Arabic-speaking officer who'd give directions on how to give up safely. Military officers believe that the Desert Storm psyops campaign, paired with...
...runup to the 1994 U.S. invasion of Haiti, Commando Solo beamed pro-Jean-Bertrand Aristide radio and TV spots into Haiti to prepare people for his return. Using sophisticated market research surveys, the 4th Psyops specialists divided Haiti's population into 20 target groups to be bombarded with different types of leaflets. No detail was ignored. Psyops radio broadcasts began with the crow of a rooster, the mascot for Aristide's party. Leaflets were printed in red and blue - the colors of Haiti's flag. Orange was avoided; it was the color of Haiti's hated military buildings...
...Port au Prince before the invasion. But State Department officials, horrified at the thought of Haitian children beaned by the balls, objected. The balls were passed out to the kids after the Americans landed. A Defense Science Board study found that during NATO's 1999 air war over Kosovo, Commando Solo broadcasts were largely ineffective. No one knows how effective tactical psyops will now be in a country as isolated and backward as Afghanistan has become. Afghans should be starved for information. The Taliban regime is unpopular among large segments of the population. But the Taliban has had an iron...