The DC 5-Step

Last week I posted about how Washington DC lobbyists create an indirect quid-pro-quo to hide how legislation is influenced.

This week we read in the NY Times -- Behind Military Analysts, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand -- how the Pentagon also uses this 5 step dance to influence public opinion for the Iraq War.


The diagram above shows the strategy described in the NYT article. The goal is to have a positive public opinion for the Department of Defense's [DoD] activities -- in this case, the Iraq War. Public opinion/approval is indicated by the green link. The "message machine" is composed of the grey links.

The grey arrows show the clockwise flow of influence. What is not obvious are the relationships of dependency that move in a counter-clockwise direction. It is these pairwise dependencies that enable the flow of influence. A-->B: A influences B because B is dependent upon A for work/money/information/access.

The NYT article explains how firewalls were set up to hide some of these dependencies.

"The access came with a condition. Participants were instructed not to quote their briefers directly or otherwise describe their contacts with the Pentagon."

Poor traceability enables plausible deniability.

Is it personal opinion or coordinated group-wide spin? Examine the network of social/business ties the "expert" is embedded in!

UPDATE: The Pentagon has put a temporary stop to feeding of information to retired officers acting as military analysts while they investigate the issue.

Originally published April 20, 2008