An ambitious three-star general in Afghanistan ordered a team of soldiers specializing in "psychological operations" to help manipulate visiting American lawmakers into kicking more money into the Graveyard of Empires, according to a fascinating article in Rolling Stone. Reporter Michael Hastings, whose fly-on-the-wall profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal prompted the general’s resignation last June, says that for four months last year, Gen. William Caldwell pressured the psy-ops unit to target visiting senators and other VIPs. His subordinate, Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, says that after he questioned the legality of the order, Caldwell retaliated with a spurious investigation.
The list of targets included Rep. Steve Israel of Long Island, Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken, and Carl Levin. Holmes says Caldwell ordered the psy-ops unit to compile detailed profiles of the visiting lawmakers, including their voting records, their likes and dislikes, and their "hot-button issues." Holmes says he was also ordered to help the general "refine" his message to the visiting VIPs, and Caldwell's chief of staff allegedly asked Holmes, "How do we get these guys to give us more people? What do I have to plant inside their heads?"
Holmes says that, under duress, he compiled the profiles and counseled General Caldwell, but he also consulted a lawyer with the judicial arm of a military. Holmes believed using "information operations" [IO] on the lawmakers violated the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which prohibits the State Department from using propaganda techniques on U.S. citizens. The lawyer agreed, writing, "The short answer is that IO doesn’t do that. [Public affairs] works on the hearts and minds of our own citizens and IO works on the hearts and minds of the citizens of other nations. While the twain do occasionally intersect, such intersections, like violent contact during a soccer game, should be unintentional."
It's unclear what effect the psy-ops campaign had on the lawmakers, but Hastings notes that one of Caldwell's targets, Sen. Carl Levin, became the biggest booster for increased funding for the Afghanistan folly. The Defense Department’s inspector general refused to grant Holmes whistleblower protection, and he was later reprimanded after an investigation found that he wore civilian clothes off base and had an "inappropriate" relationship with one of his subordinates, which he denies.
