The Cincinnati Beacon
U.S. Special Ops: Secretly hire grandmothers, er, bloggers?
Friday, April 04, 2008
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
Last week, Wired reported: “A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested ‘clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers.’” A spokesperson told Wired that the ideas were not actionable, but apparently they were not aware of the FOIA documents obtained by The Beacon last year showing collaboration between The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Pentagon! The old “Grandma in Iraq” blog sounds like just the kind of thing U.S. Special Ops now denies planning as real action.
From Wired:
Lt. Commander Marc Boyd, a U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman, says the report was merely an academic exercise. “The comments are not ‘actionable’, merely thought provoking,” he tells Danger Room. “The views expressed in the article publication are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, policy or position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, USSOCOM [Special Operations Command], or the Joint Special Operations University.”
When Suzanne Fournier, who worked doing PR for the Army Corp of Engineers, communicated to William Croyle at The Enquirer about creating the “Grandma in Iraq” blog, she acknowledged they were “charting new waters,” and she even referred to friends at the Pentagon who were “championing” the project:
I have my request in several different offices of the Army. Two personal friends of mine who work at Department of the Army in the Pentagon are championing my request. I won’t go forward without official approval and I realize that you are in a similar situation. We are charting new waters and we both have to know the parameters of a safe channel.
NOTE: See a collection of “Grandma in Iraq” related documents here.
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