Information Operations and Counterterrorism

There is an increasing awareness that TTOs and other asymmetric enemies seek to exploit Western vulnerabilities to cyberbased information operations.

The Mindsets of High-Technology Terrorists: Future Implications from a Historical Analog

An examination of the thoughts and actions of nineteenth century dynamite terrorists, as an historical analog that may provide insights into the psychological and political attributes of possible future nuclear terrorists.

 The main task of PSYOPS has been political and military deceptions in order to influence important individuals and populations, and to disrupt normal processes and functions, as well as to destabilize perceptions and belief systems among the civilian population and the military forces

Principles of the modern Russian INFOOPS/PSYOPS

 Facilitate the degradation of the adversaries’ defense capability, undermining the readiness and capabilities of the adversaries’ forces, weakening the trust of military and civilian leadership, destabilize the armed forces personnel and its moral, and enhance malfunctions in the rear echelons of the armed forces. 

2) Organize controlled chaos and crises by discrediting the political leadership, undermining state authorities and functions, and finally initiate disorder, panic and armed struggle among population. 

3) Concealment of own purpose of conflict and war to weaken critical elements of own population and create a perception of threat and danger directed to Russia.

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Smuggling network creating look-alikes

 15 and 16 July 2019, 
the Hellenic Police, supported by Europol, dismantled an organised criminal group (OCG) smuggling migrants from Turkey to Greece 

Using commercial flights in regional airports for the transportation of migrants from Greece to Western Europe. The network was providing the migrants with genuine documents which resembled the holder (look-alike method), and/or forged documents.

OCG was even using a specific hair salon in Athens to enhance the resemblance of the migrants to the legal owner of the travel documents.

Among the seizures made are identities cards from various EU countries, equipment for document forgery, cash and various electronic devices.

 

PSYOPS - False Narratives And Deception

Psychological operations are spreading information to a population or a target group to influence their emotions, their motivation, their way of thinking and, finally; how they act. 

Psychological operations are spreading information to a population or a target group to influence their emotions, their motivation, their way of thinking and, finally; how they act.  

In psychological operations disinformation and deceit is routine. 
Psychological warfare is ancient as warfare itself.  
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brainwashing and control of subjects - psychological warrior

There's a method established by all such persons: 

Thought reform 
- Fundamental changes to the way the target thinks. See earlier sections on propaganda, gaslighting, and such.

 Isolation - This is the most important factor. In order to control someone completely, you must cut them off from all outside influence. Frequently cult members are forbidden from watching TV or from communicating with their  family. 

 Induced dependency - Making the cult leader the sole source of livelihood. Cult members are forbidden from having their own money, and must live with the cult leader, only eating what they allow.

 Dread - Ruling through fear is the key tool of cult brainwashing. The cult leader convinces the members that there is a grave threat to them outside the cult compound. The cult leader also harshly punishes all disobedience.Demands of dedication 
- Finally, the cult members must pledge their lives, brain and blood, to the cause of the cult leader. They dedicate every waking hour to serving their leader's mission.

It is not our moral duty to withhold information just because it can be used to do wrong. Just as open information in the art of lock-picking helps the security industry know how to defeat a lock-picker, the open exposure of psychological manipulation tactics helps you become a stronger individual against the same tricks being used on yourself. The bad guys already have all of this information, rest assured.

Don't be ambitious and try something you can't handle. Give it patience. Be the Zen master.Wait for the time to take seed. Psychological warfare is an art more than a science, so your gut will tell you when to make moves. Don't distrust your gut instinct: That's just your brain telling you something without bothering to explain the details to you
 

PSYOPS - Psychological attacks

White torture is a non-physical form of torture.  It includes sensory deprivation, isolation, solitary confinement, threats against one's family, "white noise," being made to wear restricting clothes and to stand in stressful positions, sleep deprivation, loss of all privacy, and cutting the prisoner off from all information, under bright light and constant noise, never allowed to see a human face or hear a human voice,

Anybody who escapes such treatment is at least psychologically scarred for life, if not completely mad.
These practices are used because they dodge Geneva conventions and human rights laws, because they can't be proven as they leave no physical scars.

These techniques aren't considered "real" torture. People often dismiss mental anguish because "it's all in your mind."  

Gaslighting 
is a form of mental abuse in which the victim is tricked into doubting their ownsanity. Its name comes from the 1938 stage play "Gaslight" where a man slowly drives hiswife insane just by disturbing her reality. 

An example would be if a group of people in your home decided to take something of yourswhen you're not looking, then when you asked where it was, everyone would conspire to pretend as if it never existed and you were making it up. 

Or, you might decide to "haunt" somebody with a guilty conscience by making ghostly sound effects and "unexplained" startling events, to convince them that a ghost was haunting them. 

Gaslighting is an important step in brainwashing. Since you're trying to change a person's whole frame of reality, it helps to break down their prior sense of reality first so you can rebuild them in your ideal. 

It is also quite easy to gaslight someone innocently. In psychiatry, one example is the "Martha Mitchell Effect," in which a sane person's claims are chalked up by a mis-diagnosis as being the product of delusions or hallucinations 

John Mitchell, Attorney-General in the Nixon administration, whose claims of White House officials engaging in a criminal conspiracy were first put off to paranoid delusions. 

 You almost can't run out of variations on the theme of gaslighting. In fact, some form or another is employed whenever a person in authority leads those under them to a deliberately wrong conclusion. In the workplace, a boss may gaslight a secretary they don't like in order to try to force them to quit. 

In the military, a drill sergeant may gaslight one private under his charge as a method of driving them to either shape up or quit. 
Anything you could qualify as "head games" can usually be classified as gaslighting.


It is unlikely that the average individual has the resources to enact some elaborate campaign of slow psychological abuse complete with Gothic period atmosphere. 
But small change, casual incidents of shaping somebody else's reality can be pulled off with little preparation. 
The effect may not be lasting, but a pattern of cumulative effects over time, if carried out in a dedicated manner, can add up to the target having an increasingly slippery grasp on reality.

While gaslighting cannot actually induce proper mental illnesses, it can produce an effect similar to a delusional state.

If gaslighting is the act of creating false events to fool someone, catfishing takes the extra step of creating a whole fake person! Catfishing is a more recent invention, named after a 2010 documentary film called "Catfish," in which a person is led astray by the creation of a fake persona.
 

PSYOPS -

 

Persuasive Communications. 
All communications systematically conveyinformation and impressions directly to allinvolved. Personal conclusions that result willinteract with individual perceptions to changeor reinforce attitudes and behaviors.

Command Disruption.  
directly interferes with thecapabilities of an opponent to succeed incombat but also can have serious impactupon the opponent’s morale, cohesion,discipline, and public support essential toefficient operations.

Information Denial.
Competing partiescan systematically deny opponentsinformation they require to formulatedecisions. The Information SecurityProgram establishes procedures to protectclassified information and the OPSECprogram establishes measures to denyunclassified but sensitive indicators offriendly activities

Intelligence Shaping.
possible tosystematically convey and deny data toopposing intelligence systems with theobjective of causing opposing analysts toderive selected judgments. 
judgmentsinteract with the perceptions of opposingplanners and decision makers to influenceestimates upon which capabilities, intentions,and actions are based
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Dissemination Plan.
 The dissemination plan must take into account the type of PSYOP product
A joint communications plan should be prepared to ensure thatcommunications systems are compatibleand adequate
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Means.  
The most numerous andgenerally useful means to conduct PSYOP areopen sources of information.  
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Personnel.
Dedicated personnel withadequate language and area expertise andresources are needed during MOOTW andwar to conduct theater, operational, andtactical PSYOP. 
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Inter-Service, Interagency. 
The formation of an Office of the Secretary of Defense level inter-Service and, in some cases,interagency level committee may be necessaryto facilitate coordination  
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planning PSYOP for joint operations and planning for overt peacetime PSYOPprograms. Peacetime programs are planned inconsonance with the respective USAmbassador’s country plan and support nationalobjectives and policy. Plans for MOOTW andwar also support national objectives and policy,but generally have a different focus for PSYOPthan peacetime programs 
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MOOTW Involving the Use or Threatof Force. MOOTW involving the useor threat of force require the applicationof the diplomatic, military, economic,and informational instruments ofnational power. 
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Objectives. 
 PSYOP are directedtoward selected target audiences insupport of MOOTW to achieve the objectives
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psychological media/ moyens psychologiquesThe media, technical or non-technical, which establish any kind of communication with a target audience.
  psychological operation/ opération psychologiquePsyOpPlanned activities using methods of communication and other means directed at approved audiences in order to influence perceptions, 
 attitudes and behaviour, affecting the achievement of political and military objectives.


psychological operations approach/ forme d'opérations psychologiquesThe technique adopted to induce a desired reaction on the part of the target audience

 psychological situation/ situation psychologiqueThe current emotional state, mental disposition or other behavioral motivation of a target audience, basically founded on its national political, social, economic, and psychological peculiarities but also subject to the influence of circumstances and events

psychological theme/ thème psychologiqueAn idea or topic on whicha psychological operation is based

rotective security/ sûreté1The organized system of defensive measures instituted and maintained at all levels of command with the aim of achieving and maintaining security

patrol/ patrouilleA detachment of ground, sea, or air forces sent out for the purpose of gathering information or carrying out a destructive, harassing, mopping up, or security mission.

open-source intelligence/ renseignement de sources ouvertesOSINTIntelligence derived from publicly available information, as well as other unclassified information that has limited public distribution or access

Approaches to verbal judo:
Avoidance - Recognizing a conflict early and heading it off before it becomes one. 
Withdrawing - Retreating on a position temporarily until a more advantageoustime.
Deflecting - Changing the topic or focus of a conflict. 
Compromise - Making a deal that's advantageous to both parties