DISINFORMATION: TWISTED FACTS DISTORT REALITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00443R000301140046-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: April 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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AYT I r. E.I _KIM
-A
WASHINGTON TIMES
8 April 1985
President Reagan told The Washington Post last the groundwork for yet another U.S. strategic defeat.
week that "we've been subjected, in this country, to a.:;::"? There are many groups in the United States whose
very sophisticated lobbying campaign by a totalitarian media connections are an open secret. Their mission
government - the Sandinistas. There has been a disin- is to shade, embroider and distort the truth for their
formation program that is virtually worldwide, and we own disinformation agenda, while excoriating anyone
know that the Soviets and Cubans have such a disinfor- - else who is less than truthful
mation network that is beyond anything we can match ?:.:J:. These groups have helped nurture an' entire .new
The Post in particular, and the liberal media in get generation of journalists who have made it'their duty'
eral dismiss the very notion of to transforms America's sworn
Soviet and Soviet-proxy disinfor- enemies into misunderstood inno
mation as a manifestation of mind- cents, while at the, same time por--
less anti-communism. In a column traying our own leaders as the foes
headlined "Sandinista Disinfor- of democracy and freedom:'
mation?"- the question mark was ^ Apologists for communism to
designed-to . discredit.;the Cuba, Vietnam, Angola; Mozam .
president's irrefutable statement TARGET bique,Ethiopja; ,Nicaragua
of fact -The Post'-deputy edi- ' Afghanistan; and elsewhere have.
tonal page -.editor,, Stephen S. Reagan's Central arguedthattheyweredrivendown
Rosenfeld,:wrbe, effect, Yes, the Marxist path Hof hostility
but so what. Z , ;.:. =r because of abuse by U,4 .gDv
Mr. Rosenfeld ;_ American Policy, ernment `"
-So a lot
Tllat
,
AN.
'*ot Vietnamese officials (e g. Gen- unadulterated ; dish ormauon , is''
have confirmed that disinformation operations th the dents and defectors; yetit is still.ea"W- Iy)regurgitate~':~.
U S. media.and on Capitol Hill played a major-role in by the liberal establishment onbothsides, tl'feAtlat
h
b
th
c
anging perceptions a
out
at wet c "%o. ."? , 4 F ,w ,w +~ ^' ': '"~-t+ ;?!.6"!wr.7'~'""'..'ii r T
t The former Justice minister:of . so-called National How is it possible` that se menu intellaenr.Twin" e
trolled bytheHanoi government-.escaped among the'- political gospel?- Disinformatioii s he' keytbc Wast'
boat people He has testified that clever disinformation ` ington Times, beginning' today and ending Friday, will
operations led us to believe that the 1968 Tet offensives.:unravel;"The Network that 1as"fl5een :poisoning ,the
was an unmitigated disaster for the United States' lifeblood of democracy; -~.
r So pervasive was this perception tliismispercep- How does it do this';' tote simply, beyn ,. . ...
distorting the:;
- _tt
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? '_L---- felt _-
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rid
do
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site a few months laterr.The'3eality;~according m {: such a, way: that'"it leads:public opinion;t reactdlf c
unmitigated disaster for Hanoi. Y .. 't, ? 46
It would behoove the Congress to itake`noig fore
7 There is every,indication that the liberal,mediaand ,,r .our~elected representatives voteyet another.resolumo
file Congress do not Bttppgrtxth V Reagan.admirustra~ that will of c e again make it possible for the 1Vi$nusf,~
bon's policy a Central Ame ica notwithstandingthe= 'm steal a revolution from the. eople, only impose a
endorsement "of the bipartisan lCtssinger Cominissio? totalitarian dictatorship .zmo cot it the
lion thatztisinformatio rid Soviet Cubed-Nicaraguan "'c r Arnaud de'lchgtave ?.
@Cr"alive measures" hlayeda=:ductal toOa-Chiefy
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WASHINGTON TIMES
8 April 1985
By John Holmes
and Bill Outlaw
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Intelligence experts call it "The
Network" a massive but almost'
invisible spiderweb of hundreds of
left-wing groups and organizations,'
linked together by sinewy threads of
personnel, ideology and politics, and
seeking dramatic changes in the
social, economic and political poli-
cies of the United States govern-
ment.
And? now, The Network has
focused its attention and resources
on its latest target: President Rea-
gan's Latin American policy.
Last Thursday night, shortly after
President Reagan announced his
plans for bringing a halt to conflict
in Nicaragua, a coalition of pacifist
church groups began to prepare for
a program of "nationally coordi-
nated legal vigils and phone-ins" of
protest.
Dennis Marker, spokesman for
that coalition, which is called Pledge
of Resistance, was quoted over the
weekend as saying that an "active
alert" went out over its SS,000-
person telephone network- Mem-
bers of this network were told to call
their congressmen the day after Mr. .
Reagan makes a future television
speech on Nicaragua and urge them
to vote against his policies.
This apparently well-oiled protest
machine is just a small part of what
is called "The Network.:" 6ver the
years, those who organize, operate
and manipulate this web have
thrown their efforts behind many
causes opposed to policies of the
administration. ... ..
The Network consists of literally
hundreds of groups on the left side
of the religious and political spec-
trum. Many are shoebox and tele-
phone booth outfits - small groups
of cause-oriented people working in
cramped spaces for little or no
money. Some, however; are large,
well-funded and highly organized.
Most of these organizations claim
to be non-partisan and independent,
interested in such noble causes as
"human rights" and "social justice!'
7b a degree, that's true; and many
individuals who participate in these
activities are motivated out of a
genuine sense of righteousness and
altrusim.
But in many cases, that's not the
Well-oiled
protest.
machine
aims to kill
Contra aid
Wall Street Journal columnist
Suzanne Garment pointed out that
"there is by now - on the American
left - a whole cottage industry
using the language of human rights
and social justice to delegitimize"
the United States' efforts to nurture
democratic', anti-communist
regimes in Latin America.
"While these organizations, por-
tray themselves as 'objective'
observers of Latin America, this
often is not the case:' said Joan
Fraley, an analyst writing in the
Heritage Foundation's "Policy
Review"
"Analysis of Latin American
issues is offered mainly by organiza-
tions whose fundamental ideological
perspective is sharply suspicious of,
if not openly hostile to, U.S. policy in
this region."
Of course, legitimate differences
of opinion and debate are essential
to the democratic process. But
experts who have observed The Net-
work over many years point out that
some of the groups employ question-
able tactics
including the planting
,
of disinformation and outright
deception - a tactic known as
"active measures" .
"Anything that advances their
cause is, in their eyes, the truth. Any-
thing that retards it becomes an
untruth;' wrote Auguste Lecoeur, a
former high-ranking : Communist
Party official in France, who was
drummed out for protesting the
Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Adds one analyst: "Ever since the
creation of the World Peace Council
by the Soviet Union in 1949, Moscow
has manipulated the slogan 'peace'
as a weapon of 'war.' '
And some groups in The Network.
actively cooperate with organiza-
tions established by the Kremlin for
just these "active measures:' pro-
claiming allegiance nevertheless to
the lofty goal of "world peace"
The president himself expressed
concern over this aspect of The Net-
work.
"We've been subjected, in this
country, to a very sophisticated lob-
bying campaign by a totalitarian
government - the Sandinistas," Mr.
Reagan said.
"There has been a disinformation
program that is virtually worldwide,
t and we know that the Soviets and the
Cubans have such a disinformation
network that it is beyond anything
that we can match," the president
said in a recent interview with The
Washington Post.
Mr. Reagan has proposed $14 mil-
lion in aid for Nicaraguan resis-
tance. Congress has until late April
to act on the president's proposal.
According to a 1984 Heritage
Foundation report entitled "The
Left's Latin American Lobby," there
are six major organizations that con-
stitute the bulk of this "cottage
industry." These are the North
'American Congress on Latin
America (NACLA), the Washington
Office on Latin America (WOLA),
the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
(COHA), the Commission on U.S.-
Central America Relations, the Cen-
tral America Historical Institute
(CARD and the Committee in Soli-
darity with the People of El Salvador
(CISPES).
Among The Network's hundreds
of groups, this handful stands out as
the largest, best organized and sin-
gularly most effective. In an arena
littered with amateurs, these are the
professionals.
While their names may sound
vague and non-partisan, and they
may have differing fields of prime
interest, many groups in The Net-
work are linked in one way or
another to the Institute for Policy
Studies (IPS), which has been
described as a radical "think tank"
with headquarters near Dupont Cir-
cle.
"IPS has one line [on Central
America]: It wants the United States
to be disinvolved"says Sam Dickens,
director of Interamerican Affairs
for the conservative American Secu-
rity Council.
"The single objective is to curtail
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the efforts the Reagan administra-
tion is making;' he said.
In 1978 Brian Crozier, a London-
based, veteran Soviet affairs analyst,
called the IPS the "perfect intellec-
tual front for Soviet activities which
would be resisted if they were to
originate openly from the KGB."
Mr. Crozier later stated that in
1982 the IPS concluded a public
arrangement with two Soviet institu-
tions used regularly by the Kremlin
for "active measures" against the
West.
IPS co-founders Richard Barnet
and Marcus Raskin "are both spe-
cialists in 'blame-America-for-
everything lobby,"' said Rael Jean
i Isaac, a close observer of The Net-
work, in an interview.
Writing in "Midstream" magazine
in 1980, Mrs. Isaac stated, "What IPS
is really concerned about is assuring
United States withdrawal of support
from 'reactionary' regimes
worldwide. Once that is done, IPS is
I quite confident in the ability of 'pro-
gressive' forces (backed presum-
ably by 'progressive' arms of Cuba,
the Soviet Union, etc.) to achieve vic-
tory."
Robert Borosage, IPS director,
maintains that allegations of Soviet
influence on the institute are "pre-
posterous."
He said the organization has had.
meetings with the Soviet Academy
of Sciences but said these are done
to promote an exchange of ideas.-
Asked about allegations that IPS is
strongly influenced by those meet-
ings, Mr. Borosage said "That's
ridiculous. It's an open dialogue
between two institutes"
He said IPS itself does not take a
position on issues, but that institute
fellows are free to take a position in
their research. He further stated
that efforts to link the IPS to pro.
Soviet positions are attempts to "dis-
credit" the organization.
"The IPS, nevertheless, has
espoused many Soviet, Cuban and
North Vietnamese positions since its
creation 23 years ago;' said an ana-
lyst. "It has acted as a conduit for
major Soviet disinformation
themes." .
Depending on the specific task at
hand, members of The Network will
work together or separately.
Cooperation isn't mandatory, or even
easy at times, but they often pool
their resources to great effect.
While on the surface separate,
free-standing entities, each seems to
specialize in a specific area. IPS keys
.much of its efforts to research;
COHA has mastered the art of influ-
encing - and, some say,
manipulating - the media.
CISPES and other solidarity
groups organize demonstrations
and protests on university campuses
across the country and around the
world. The National Council of
Churches, the Interreligious Usk
Force on Central America and oth-
ers seek to spread their liberal politi-
cal gospel in the religious world.
Many of these groups, both
politically and religiously oriented,
are banding together later this
month to stage one of the largest,
most overt shows of strength in
some time. They will be protesting
"Reagan's War In Central America"
Organizations such as the Women
Strike for Peace, CISPES, the Mobi-
lization for Survival and the U.S.
Peace Council - which the FBI has
characterized as Soviet-controlled
- are organizing and sponsoring a
four-day weekend of activity in
Washington, D.C., and around the
country beginning April 19.
. [When the U.S. Peace Council was
set up in 1979 as one of the Moscow-
controlled World Peace Council's
137 national branches, numerous
U.S. and state congressmen partici-
pated in the founding conference
and subsequent meetings.]
The upcoming weekend of activ-
ity, according to the groups' litera-
ture, will *include protests, marches
and rallies, as well as "training ses-
sions" for lobbying. and'civil disobe-
dience, activities that the groups
plan to carry out primarily on Mon-
day, April 22.
Similar activities also are planned
for New York Seattle San Francisco
Los Angeles and other cities. Orga-
nizers expect .20,000 protesters for
the Washington rally. '
But while such demonstrations
are the most obvious and blatant
shows of strength, the key element
I and single most important facet of
The Network's operation is influenc-
ing policy- and decision-makers.
These groups may not see them-
selves as "lobbyists" and, in the
classic sense of glad-handers in
three-piece suits who spend their
days chatting. up congressmen and
staff assistants, they are not.
But if "lobbying" can be defined
as an attempt at persuasion through
education, then there is little doubt
that these groups, are "lobbyists"
and very effective ones at that.
A major reason many of these
organizations so vehemently
renounce the label of "lobbyist" is
legal. Groups such as IPS, COHA
and WOLA are non-profit, tax-
exempt organizations. That is a
2
highly desirable status that might be
jeopardized if they were deemed to
be engaged in influencing legisla-
tion.
"We don't do lobbying on the Hill;'
said Larry Birns, COHAs founder
and director.
"We've never lobbied. I don't think
I've been to Capitol Hill 10 times in
the past 10 years."
Reggie Norton, an associate at
WOLA, admits that WOLA represen-
tatives meet and talk with members
of Congress and their staffs, but dis-
agrees that that constitutes lobby-
ing.
"We don't lobby," he said. "I don't
see them and say, "Vote against the
Contras" I go in and say this is the
situation we saw and a peaceful solu-
tion is possible"
And IPS' Borosage stated that
institute fellows may talk with a lot
of people in Washington about a wide
range of issues, but said that these
are not pegged to any congressional
agenda.
There is, however, little question
to conservatives involved in the
Latin American question that these
groups are lobbying.
"Lobby? Absolutely," said the
ASC's Sam Dickens. "They have an
extremely effective lobby, particu?
larly with staffers on the Hill"
The Network uses a variety of tac-
tics in their efforts to influence
Congress and public opinion. The
primary technique in dealing with
Congress is the passing of informa-
tion, at least some of which is held
by many conservatives to be biased
or misleading.
Mr. Dickens explains that repre-
sentatives from these groups estab-
I lish contacts with congressional
staffers and supply them with
"slanted" information. Some staffers
then pass the information to mem-
bers of Congress.
Often, some of the material ends
up in the Congressional Record, in
speeches the congressmen give, in
? mailings they send out, or in articles
they write for various publications.
COHA Director Larry Birns
boasts that his people prepare as
many as 100 Congressional Record
inserts each year for various legisla-
tors, including, according to Mr.
Birns, D.C. Delegate Walter Faun-
.,troy, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn.;
Rep. Don Bonker, D-Wash.; and Sen.
Tbm Harkin, D-Iowa.
Some of the individuals with the
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groups - most notably IPS and
COHA - also generate opinion
pieces for major newspapers around
the world. Articles by IPS fellows
can frequently be found on the New
York Times and Washington Post's
opinion-editorial pages and are
picked up by many of America's
1,700 daily papers.
Some media watchdogs have com-
plained that IPS is seldom, if ever,
identified in these publications as a
radical think-tank on the left.
Rather, it is frequently termed a
"Washington-based research insti-
tute:' as the New York Times has
called it.
COHA issues scores of press
releases each year. Mr. Birns claims
COHA is merely spreading the
i word, but those on the other side
accuse him of manipulating the
media by passing his information as
straight news.
"COHA is not a human rights
group. It is a left-wing foreign policy
group that often masquerades as a
human rights group;" said .Elliott
Abrams, assistant secretary of state
for human rights and humanitarian
affairs.
"If you read what they've had to
say through the years about human
rights violations in Surinam, or
Bishop's Grenada, or Cuba - worst
of all,. Cuba - you will see that they
don't care about human rights in
leftist or Communist regimes,-.
Some groups such as WOLA
which Mr. Dickens describes. as
"openly supportive of the Sandinista .
government" - go far beyond the
gathering and distribution of infor
mation.
"In addition to lobbying, they're
[WOLA] taking people to Nicaragua
on the guided tour effort;" Mr. Dick
ens says. "They're playing an activ-
ist role in getting people to be
supportive" WOLNs Mr. Norton
maintains that they merely allow
people to see the situation in Nicara-
gua for themselves.
Some of the church-related
groups also are heavily involved in
this "guided tour" effort, an activity
that appears to be growing in pop-
ularity throughout The Network -
"Some of these church-related
groups seem to think the Sandinista
regime is just another form of gov-
ernment" said one analyst. "But
even the Sandinista anthem refers to
the U.S. as'the enemy, "he said. [The
verse in question is: "The children of
Sandino don't surrender or sell out
We fight against the Yankee,
enemy of humanity's
Much of the left-wing church
activity is coordinated through the
National Council of Churches, the
umbrella group covering 32 major
Protestant and Eastern Orthodox
churches with congregations total-
ling 42 million people.
Since the mid-1960s, the NCC has
actively campaigned for what it calls
"social justice." But, said one
observer, "just think of any left-of-
center cause and the NCC has been
involved."
Though -the liberal church net-
work maintains its own agenda, it is
extremely similar, if not identical, to
that pursued by its secular counter-
part. And in many cases, the two
groups are tightly interwoven, shar-
ing common goals, projects, ide=
ology and membership.
The North American Congress on
Latin America, for instance, was
estabished in the NCC offices in
Washington, D.C., and receives
financial support from numerous
Protestant churches through the
NCC's Latin American Division and
through specific projects like the
Presbyterian hunger program,
according to a report by the indepen-
dent Institute for Religion and
Democracy.
And the Heritage Foundation
quotes WOLA's 1983 annual report as
saying that WOLA received 5124,000
from the United Methodist Church.
The IRD has documented main-
line Protestant church support for
left-wing political activities in the
United States and to Vietnam. The
United Methodist Board has contri-
buted to the National Network in
Solidarity with the Nicaraguan Peo-
ple, which was founded "to support
and defend the Nicaraguan rev-
olution;' and other solidarity groups
that assist the Salvadoran rebels,
according to IRD.
In her book, "The Coercive
Utopians;' Rael Jean Isaac details
many examples of the ways in which
church groups fund leftists in Cen-
tral America and around the world.
Primary among her tales is that of
David Jessup, an AFL-CIO official
and member of the United Method-
ist Church, who studied Methodist
-contributions and reported to ? the
1980 General. Conference of the
? . "Most Methodist churchgoers
would react with disbelief, even
anger, to be told that a significant
portion of their, weekly offerings
were being siphoned off to groups
supporting the Palestine Liberation
Organization, the governments of
Cuba and Vietnam, the pro-Soviet
totalitarian movements of Latin
America, Asia and Africa; and sev-
?eral violence-prone fringe groups in
this country," Mr. Jessup wrote.
Another group, the Americati
Friends Service Committee, has
become involved in political contro-
versy.
2.
In December 1984, the Citizens
for Reagan submitted a letter to the
Internal Revenue Service
requesting an investigation of the
AFSC and four other groups. CFR
stated that the groups were violating
the rules governing their tax-
exempt status because they were
engaged in "substantial lobbying"
and political activities in favor of the
Sandinista regime in Nicaragua and
in opposition to U.S. policy in Central
America.
As one observer of The Network
put it, "the church lobby is impor-
tant because they give (the debate)
respectability. You can't argue with
priests and nuns," he said.
7bmorrow: Activities of the Coun-
cil on Hemispheric Affairs.
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WASHINGTON TIMES
9 April 1985
Latin council called backer
of lnot human rights
By John Holmes
E NMSHINOTON TIMES
In the spiderweb that comprises
"The Network" of left-wing organi-
zations opposed to administration
policies, the Council on Hemisphe-
ric Affairs (COHA) stands out as one
of the better known...
COHA literature describes the
organization as "a non-profit, tax-
exempt independent research and
information organization founded
"to promote the common interests of
the hemisphere, raise, the visibility
and increase the importance of -the
r,' t i' Part two of a series?t iu'! t
y t t Yet '~R. ?;r".: ('^!. ?