Secret
agencies and the media have a long history of association and this relationship
continues and will keep on continuing. The two champions of democracy, the US
and the UK, are known for their elaborate vast secret systems of secret
agencies, CIA and MI6 and MI5, and we all know the influence both have on their
politics and governance.
Long ago, the media was confined to a few newspapers, magazines
and radio and television channels. The CIA had not been created yet. US
President Harry S Truman founded the Central Intelligence Group in 1946 to
bring public opinion under American government influence. The National Security Act was passed the next year in 1947 under which
the CIA was formed. Under Article 102(a) of this Act, the CIA director general
was given vast authority, which included making public opinion favourable
towards the ruling administration. The White House assigned the CIA the
authority of a psychological operation in 1954 with the objective of creating
propaganda and of binding the media within the confines of the national
interest.
This
included three kinds of propaganda: ‘white’, ‘grey’ and ‘black’. White propaganda
was approved by the White House and included all kinds of classified and
non-classified information. Grey propaganda was something whose source of
information the CIA could not disclose. Its objective was to stop the hands
that were against US foreign policy and US interests. Black propaganda
consisted of information that apparently goes against the policy of the US
government and was something that it could categorically deny in public. Such
information is usually fictitious, but the intended audience may believe it to
be true. Journalists across the world are purchased for disseminating such
information.
In 1973,
the CIA disclosed to The
Washington Star News (it
closed down in 1982) that 30 American journalists across the world were
actually employees of the agency. They all were members of the Congress for
Cultural Freedom, which was later exposed as being funded by the CIA. In the
1990s, the CIA started a project to promote a peculiar kind of entertainment in
South America and Hollywood was used to produce films for this purpose.
These included The
Recruit, The Sum
of All Fears, Enemy of
the State and Bad Company. Articles
against communists were also commissioned. Operation Mockingbird was started in
1951 and the objective was to produce news that would turn people against
communism. The
National Endowment for Democracy was
established in 1983 to force the implementation of democracy across the world
and under this project funds were provided to NGOs, human rights organisations
and political parties.
In 1963,
US President John F Kennedy was assassinated and some suspected that the CIA
was involved. His successor, President Lyndon Johnson, set up a commission
headed by the then US Chief Justice, Earl Warren, but the agency refused to
provide any kind of information to it. And as the commission released its
report, the agency started sponsoring a series of books and articles against
it.
The history of MI5 and MI6 is not much different. Lawrence of Arabia is one
such example. Recent examples include Operation
Rockingham in
1990-91, under which cooked-up information was to be provided about Iraq’s
nuclear weapons. Under this project, the entire media, government agencies and
even the office of the prime minister were given fake information through
forged documents, video films and other formats to convince them that Iraq
posed a threat to world peace.
A more astonishing fact is that the relation between the media
and the secret agencies established in the national interest also has influence
over the judicial systems of both the US and the UK. The Justice and Security Act of
2013 provided
legal cover to set up courts to deal with cases relating to the secret
agencies. The mechanism for doing this is called ‘Closed Material Procedures’,
under which a secret agency can provide a court material which only the court
or the lawyers with the necessary security clearance can see. The accused is
not provided a full list of the charges against him or her. Agents can appear
in such courts to provide evidence as well. Such courts have been working in
the US since 1978 and are calledintelligence surveillance
courts.
This
relationship between the secret agencies, media and the courts in the name of
national interest is seen in all democracies. Secret agencies plan how to make
someone win an election. They plan how to carry corporate money to which
political leader. Important persons like Princess Diana and JFK were eliminated
when the question of national interest arose. Secret agencies also decide where
and when to wage a battle and against whom, who is to be befriended and who is
to be treated like an enemy. As a matter of fact, words are put into the mouths
of democratic rulers and these parliamentarians utter these as if it was their
national duty. This is the reality and status of the democratic system
prevailing all over the world.
But
despite the fact that the secret agencies enjoy all this authority in the name
of national interest, people raise their voices against them. During the Cold
War it was almost impossible to imagine that a media group could set up a TV
channel or publish a newspaper with Soviet money or on instruction from the
Soviets or run a campaign against a policy which that country had adopted as
reflective of its national interest. Even the so-called independent media of
the world cannot think of making any independent documentary on the life of
Osama bin Laden and run it continuously.
A producer
tried to make such a film and then what happened to him is a long story. The
secret agencies, media and courts do not oppose one another in any of the
democratic countries. That happens only when people feel that their newly found
media power is too great. They start feeling that they have become king-makers
and policymakers. They start feeling that they can make and break governments.
These people should look around to see the ground realities and study history.
Published in The Express
Tribune, May 13th, 2014.
