Donald Rumsfeld on the New Media War

"I believe with every bone in my body that free people, exposed to sufficient information, will, over time, find their way to right decisions."

Photo by Don Pollard, courtesy of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Today I attended a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations on East 68th Street, New York. Donald Rumsfeld addressed the Members of the Council, providing a fascinating insight into the Federal Government's war on the violent extremists that terrorise our modern world.

"And in this war, some of the most critical battles may not be in the mountains of Afghanistan or the streets of Iraq, but in newsrooms -- in places like New York, London, Cairo, and elsewhere."

"Consider this statement: [QUOTE] 'More than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media... we are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of [Muslims].'[UNQUOTE] The speaker was not some ... image consultant in a public relations firm in New York City. It was Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri." He asks us "for a moment" to "consider the vast quantity of column inches and hours of television devoted to the ... detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib" and "compare that to the volume of coverage and condemnation associated with things like ... the discovery of Saddam Hussein's mass graves -- which were filled with literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis."

"Looking ahead, we are considering a number of changes: First, government at all levels must make communications planning a central component of every aspect of this struggle... Second, government public affairs and public dimplomacy efforts are ... beginning to reorient staffing, schedules and culture to engage the full range of media that are having an impact today."

"U.S Central Command, for example, has launched an online communications effort that includes electronic news updates and a links campaign that has resulted in several hundred blogs receiving and publishing Centcom content... Blogs are appearing even in countries where the press is still government controlled. Pro-democracy forces are communicating and organizing by e-mail, pagers and blackberries... We are fighting a war where the survival of our free way of life is at stake... We need to do all we can to attract supporters to our efforts" and to "shatter the appeal of the enemy."

"I believe with every bone in my body that free people, exposed to sufficient information, will, over time, find their way to right decisions."