A military investigation of the operation led by Navy Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk should be completed soon, Pentagon officials say.
U.S. law forbids the Pentagon from conducting propaganda efforts that target U.S. audiences. Yet many in the military say that the globalization of media, driven by the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, makes it likely that information campaigns targeting foreign audiences find their way into U.S. media coverage.
That much is acknowledged in the 78-page document released Thursday, which says that "information for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and psy-op, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience."
The directive recommends that boundaries be established to ensure that U.S. military information operations don't target U.S. audiences directly. It does not say what the boundaries should be.
The document was written to set out policy guidelines and establish the Pentagon's reasoning for elevating information operations to a "core" mission for the U.S. military, Pentagon officials say.
"Information, always important in warfare, is now critical to military success and will only become more so in the foreseeable future," the document says.
