In the
early 80s, Ronald Reagan's neocons decided that they should overthrow
the democratically elected government of Nicaragua.
An
agency called the Office of Public Diplomacy was set up that
disseminated what was called "white propaganda". It
produced dossiers and fed stories to journalists that “proved”
Soviet fighter planes had arrived in Nicaragua to attack America.
Another story, from "intelligence sources", said that the
Soviets had given stock piles of chemical weapons to the Sandinistas.
President
Reagan appeared on TV with maps to show how quickly such a chemical
attack could be launched on America itself. It was only a matter of
time. Reagan also told America that Nicaragua was part of an access
of rogue states, including Iran and North Korea, who together ran a
global network of terror.
Those
who run the Office of Public Diplomacy, called this technique
"Perception Management". The thinking was, that if you can
control the perceptions of the American people about events, that
would help you ‘bring them on board’. If they thought something
was a huge threat to them, they perceived it that way, then they will
react a certain way, they will react in support of a more aggressive
policy.
With the
years, simple narratives started to fade in the eyes and ears of the
American public. After the fiasco of the alleged chemical weapons
possessed by Saddam Hussein's regime, which brought the Iraq war and
the subsequent chaos in the Middle East, the narratives had to be
upgraded to false flag operations involving 'chemical weapons'.
As
explained in Adam Curtis' documentary The Trap: What Happened to
Our Dream of Freedom:
The
Sandinistas were Marxists revolutionaries who had seized power in
1979, but since then they held elections and had been democratically
elected. The Reagan administration dismissed these though as a sham,
and an operation was set up to enforce the "right kind of
democracy" by overthrowing the Sandinistas if neccesary. The man
in charge was a leading neoconservative, Elliot Abrams.
The
Americans started funding and training a counterrevolutionary army
called the Contras. But there was enormous political opposition in
the United States, and to get around it, the leaders of Project
Democracy set out to frighten the American public.
An
agency called the Office of Public Diplomacy was set up that
disseminated what was called "white propaganda". It
produced dossiers and fed stories to journalists that “proved”
Soviet fighter planes had arrived in Nicaragua to attack America.
Another story, from "intelligence sources", said that the
Soviets had given stock piles of chemical weapons to the Sandinistas.
President
Reagan appeared on TV with maps to show how quickly such a chemical
attack could be launched on America itself. It was only a matter of
time. Reagan also told America that Nicaragua was part of an access
of rogue states, including Iran and North Korea, who together ran a
global network of terror.
Those
who run the Office of Public Diplomacy, called this technique
"Perception Management". The thinking was, that if you can
control the perceptions of the American people about events, that
would help you ‘bring them on board’. If they thought something
was a huge threat to them, they perceived it that way, then they will
react a certain way, they will react in support of a more aggressive
policy.
What was
happening was that the neoconservatives were beginning to believe
that their ideal of freedom wasn't absolute. And that this then
justified lying and exaggerating in order to enforce that vision,
that the end justified the means.
Although
they portrayed the Contras as freedom fighters, it was well known
that they used murder, assassination and torture, and also were
allegedly using CIA supply planes to smuggle cocaine back into the
United States.
And to
finance the Contras, the neoconservatives were even prepared to deal
with America's enemy, the leaders of the Iranian revolution. In 1985,
those running the Nicaragua operation, held a series of secret
meetings with Iranian leaders in Europe. They arranged to sell the
Iranians American weapons. In return, the Iranians would release
American hostages held in Lebanon.
Then the
money from these sells would be used by those running Project
Democracy to fund the Contras. The only problem, was that this
was completely illegal, and the president knew it.
What was
beginning to emerge was the problem of spreading the ideal of freedom
around the world. To do it, those leading Project Democracy
had turned not just to manipulation and violence, but were beginning
to undermine the ideals of Democracy in America, the very thing, they
were trying to create abroad.
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