Page 8 - Spsy Ops News Today

Senators named is me brainwashed? thats what theyre saying. senator carl levin for example released a statement saying there would be no need for them to trial psy-ops him to get more funding for troops in afghanistan because he says hes always supported that. and al franken has said released a statement saying he always is skeptical of what hes told entirely on trips like this to afghanistan. he takes great pains to get information from a host of sources before he forms policy decisions. but th...

William caldwell the head of training afghan security forces. this is the linchpin, tamron, of the war in iraq. this is how we get out of iraq, make sure afghan security forces are trained. last week the chairman of the joint chiefs was praising caldwell saying hes done a great job training many of these afghan çforces. and then finally, this "rolling stone" article quotes colonel michael holmes as its source, allegedly led this five-man psy-ops team, ordered to plan information in these peopl...

Communicators wanted to use psychological operations against iraqi americans in detroit of all places. >> wow. >> it was the public affairs people who were caught up in that, that blew the whistle, quite frankly, leaked the information to reporters like me to bring that to an abrupt halt. >> boy, all right. jim, thank you so much for the update. if you get anything else over the next hour or so, wed love to come back and talk to you about it. >> you bet. well see how the psy-ops are. >> exactly....

My job in psy-ops is to play with peoples heads, get the enemy in a way we want them to behave. but he said this, quote, im prohibited from doing that to our own people. when you ask me to use those skills on senators and congressmen, youre crossing a line and the comparison has been made, jim, to the president using cia officers to spy on members of congress. it just seems like a clear line has been crossed here. im surprised that you dont have a quicker response from the pentagon. >> so am i. ...

William called dwe caldwell gave orderss to persuae senators and even general mullen to pour more money into afghanistan. one was jack reed who talked to me last hour. >> i think first of all it has to be clearly, i think, evaluated as to what went on. what was the intent? were there any regulations violated? if there was there has to be suitable punishment. i didnt feel any -- anything unusual going on, and i think that a result simply of trying to cast a vast net, talked to lots of people, not...

Kind of open a can of worms. doesnt it make you kwae whole bunch of decisions made? >> the generals people denied this story, but a spokesman for the training mission that he oversaw did put in writing according to "rollingstone," if psy-ops were to be used against all distinguished visitors. some sort of investigation. what could the fallout be? >> possibly a resignation and complete rewrite of the chactua law was broken. as an american, chris, if in fact something like this happened, this is a...

Youre not going to pull the wool over their eye its unclear what general caldwell may have been thinking. >> i would suggest that a general using psy-ops on the chairman of the joint chiefs, not a really smart career move. its a stunning story. you know, youre right. it depends on whether they pass along raw data. it seems to me, this is just my gut, intuition, if you even have a general calling on the psy-ops unit for any data, using any data that is supposed to be collected for the enemy and t...

Administrative requirements are for individuals under the generals command in terms of what we would call, you know, prebriefing, manipulating through arguments, manipulating through briefings that happened to these senators all the time. every time they arrive at a military base, they know a can-do general will get his best guys around him, trying to convince them what theyre doing is right. whether these individuals as part of this spy-ops team ought to be part of the congressional affairs ope...

Tactics, what exactly are these guys doing? >> i dont know that -- its not completely spelled out in this "rolling stone" article but its a campaign of influence. they sort of lobbying, finding out what the senators likes and dislikes are, which would be normal in any sort of meeting with senators. i think theres a suggestion that what was done was illegal. psy-ops are illegal. they did something to influence united states senators which would be completely shocking. theres no suggestion that se...

Obvious. >> right. so nasa, jay barberies listening. hes waiting for a decision here, folks. thank you, jay. good to see you. and were watching for that shuttle liftoff again here this afternoon. youll see it here on msnbc. im contessa brewer, thank you for watching. ill see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. out west. up next, "andrea mitchell reports." andrea, hi? >> hi, contessa, thanks. well have the latest on breaking developments in texas, where a saudi college student h...