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I don't know where to begin, so I thought I'd share (with the usual disclaimer) and let greater minds than mine pile on - go for it!
One interesting tidbit stood out for me (highlighted) was a CBC producer (sorta) saying it might make sense having Canadians give input on a speech an AFG politician gives in Canada.
DND spins war U.S.–style
Travis Lupick, Georgia Straight (BC), 11 Oct 07
Article link
Stephen Staples knows a thing or two about just how far the Conservative government will go to control its message on Afghanistan. In July 2007, the prominent critic of Canada's role in Afghanistan learned that the Department of National Defence was keeping a file on him.
"They took surveillance, generated a report, and assessed it on how the military would need to respond to my comments in the media," Staples told the Georgia Straight from his office in Ottawa. Through an access-to-information request, Staples learned that the DND's report, which it originally denied existed, was distributed to 50 senior military officials, including two brigadier-generals.
Staples is not an Islamist. He's the founder of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, a research and advocacy group on public-policy issues. "I'd love all these guys to attend my presentations," he said. "That's fine in an open democracy. But when they deny it, there is something more nefarious about it."
It was no surprise to Staples that the DND was watching him. Nor was he shocked to learn on September 25 of this year that the DND may have had a hand in writing a speech that Afghan president Hamid Karzai gave to Canada's Parliament a year earlier. "The military has been caught at the level of influence they have been wielding," he argued. "Manipulating the message, right down to putting words in the Afghan president's mouth".
Staples characterized Karzai's visit to Canada as nothing more than "a scripted PR exercise", performed in order to achieve certain policy goals of the Conservative government. He argued it was likely such a stunt was "just the tip of the iceberg" and part of a larger effort to shape and manipulate public opinion and, by extension, government policy.
NDP defence critic Dawn Black (New Westminster–Coquitlam) also knows what it's like to get a taste of Harper's dealings with critics. Black is the MP who accused the DND of writing Karzai's speech. Her office filed an access-to-information request and attached to a news release one of the documents obtained.
The document, a situation report from the Canadian Military's Task Force Afghanistan, read: "Team prepared initial draft of president's address to parliament Sept 22. It was noted that key statistics, messages and themes, as well as overall structure, were adopted by the president in his remarks to joint session."
Black argued that the document was a clear indicator of just how far the Conservative government will go "in order to try to pull the wool over Canadians' eyes".
Speaking to the Straight from a NATO meeting in Iceland, Black said it was "just so inappropriate" that the DND would draft a speech for a foreign leader, particularly in the context of the audience for which it was written. Black alleged that it all amounted to the Canadian military speaking to the Canadian people under the guise of a foreign head of state, in order to manipulate the public's perception of the war. "It is appalling," she added.
Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, responded to Black's claims in an interview with the Associated Press. He called the allegations "laughable" and said "it verges on being insulting".
Dan Dugas, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, earlier told AP it was "not precedent-setting nor a surprise" that information would be provided to someone asked to speak to Parliament. He labelled Black's news release "NDP spin".
Black said she has taken a fair amount of criticism since the document's release but noted that no evidence has come forward to contradict her allegations. "There's been a lot of huffing and puffing and name-calling," she told the Straight. "But the fact of the matter is that no one has released any further documentation that puts my document into question at all."
Not everyone is convinced that the NDP's document is the smoking gun some have made it out to be. Ira Basen, a producer for CBC Radio One's Spin Cycles, told the Straight that he would not be surprised if the Conservative government did write Karzai's speech, but he doubted that was the case.
Basen said it was critical to the Conservatives that the Canadian people hear the same message from the government and from Karzai. "If he's coming here, they would want to make sure the message was consistent," Basen said. "But I have no idea to what extent that was done."
The Rideau Institute's Staples argued that the DND's alleged writing of Karzai's speech was just one piece of a much larger strategy. He argued that what is going on in Canada is an Americanization of the government's handling of the media, and at the centre of it all is Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier.
"It keeps me up at night, thinking about the impact that this war has had on the country," Staples said. He argued that Hillier was using the war in Afghanistan to help bring about a change in Canadian society, working toward a military-oriented culture.
"It's quite clear the Canadian military now sees public opinion and the use of the media as a way of conducting the war," he said. "And the fact that you've got Hillier acting like a politician out there is part of that."
Staples noted that some of Hillier's military background came from the U.S., where he spent time embedded in the U.S. military as part of an exchange program. "He's imported that into Canada," Staples said.
However, it was the Liberal party that helped Hillier rise to the top of the Canadian military, Staples noted. He claimed that senior Liberals who were around at that time now "cringe" at what they got the country into. "It is pretty clear that they created a monster," Staples said. "Hillier was running through the village, doing whatever he wanted, and nobody could stop him."
Black called Hillier "the primary spokesperson and cheerleader for the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan". She claimed that many politicians in Canada believe Hillier would not have been promoted without his skills in public relations.
Basen also characterized Hillier as the "face" of the government's Afghanistan campaign. "For better or worse," he said, "there has never been a chief of defence staff that has been as public and has assumed such an important PR role."
Hillier was promoted to his present rank in February 2005. According to a DND departmental-performance report for 2005-06, the DND led the Canadian government's "communication strategy response to operations in Afghanistan". Its activities were "designed to ensure that Canadians received comprehensive, timely information about [Canadian Forces] operations at home and abroad." According to Sarah Kavanagh, a spokesperson for the DND, public affairs is accountable to the deputy minister of defence and the chief of the defence staff, Hillier.
According to a CBC report on The National, the DND operates with a public-affairs staff of 500 and an annual budget of $23 million.
"They are spending millions and millions of dollars on a massive public-relations effort," Staples said. "And I'm sure they see it as an equally important part of the war as they do fielding Leopard tanks in Afghanistan."
One interesting tidbit stood out for me (highlighted) was a CBC producer (sorta) saying it might make sense having Canadians give input on a speech an AFG politician gives in Canada.
DND spins war U.S.–style
Travis Lupick, Georgia Straight (BC), 11 Oct 07
Article link
Stephen Staples knows a thing or two about just how far the Conservative government will go to control its message on Afghanistan. In July 2007, the prominent critic of Canada's role in Afghanistan learned that the Department of National Defence was keeping a file on him.
"They took surveillance, generated a report, and assessed it on how the military would need to respond to my comments in the media," Staples told the Georgia Straight from his office in Ottawa. Through an access-to-information request, Staples learned that the DND's report, which it originally denied existed, was distributed to 50 senior military officials, including two brigadier-generals.
Staples is not an Islamist. He's the founder of the Rideau Institute on International Affairs, a research and advocacy group on public-policy issues. "I'd love all these guys to attend my presentations," he said. "That's fine in an open democracy. But when they deny it, there is something more nefarious about it."
It was no surprise to Staples that the DND was watching him. Nor was he shocked to learn on September 25 of this year that the DND may have had a hand in writing a speech that Afghan president Hamid Karzai gave to Canada's Parliament a year earlier. "The military has been caught at the level of influence they have been wielding," he argued. "Manipulating the message, right down to putting words in the Afghan president's mouth".
Staples characterized Karzai's visit to Canada as nothing more than "a scripted PR exercise", performed in order to achieve certain policy goals of the Conservative government. He argued it was likely such a stunt was "just the tip of the iceberg" and part of a larger effort to shape and manipulate public opinion and, by extension, government policy.
NDP defence critic Dawn Black (New Westminster–Coquitlam) also knows what it's like to get a taste of Harper's dealings with critics. Black is the MP who accused the DND of writing Karzai's speech. Her office filed an access-to-information request and attached to a news release one of the documents obtained.
The document, a situation report from the Canadian Military's Task Force Afghanistan, read: "Team prepared initial draft of president's address to parliament Sept 22. It was noted that key statistics, messages and themes, as well as overall structure, were adopted by the president in his remarks to joint session."
Black argued that the document was a clear indicator of just how far the Conservative government will go "in order to try to pull the wool over Canadians' eyes".
Speaking to the Straight from a NATO meeting in Iceland, Black said it was "just so inappropriate" that the DND would draft a speech for a foreign leader, particularly in the context of the audience for which it was written. Black alleged that it all amounted to the Canadian military speaking to the Canadian people under the guise of a foreign head of state, in order to manipulate the public's perception of the war. "It is appalling," she added.
Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, Omar Samad, responded to Black's claims in an interview with the Associated Press. He called the allegations "laughable" and said "it verges on being insulting".
Dan Dugas, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence, earlier told AP it was "not precedent-setting nor a surprise" that information would be provided to someone asked to speak to Parliament. He labelled Black's news release "NDP spin".
Black said she has taken a fair amount of criticism since the document's release but noted that no evidence has come forward to contradict her allegations. "There's been a lot of huffing and puffing and name-calling," she told the Straight. "But the fact of the matter is that no one has released any further documentation that puts my document into question at all."
Not everyone is convinced that the NDP's document is the smoking gun some have made it out to be. Ira Basen, a producer for CBC Radio One's Spin Cycles, told the Straight that he would not be surprised if the Conservative government did write Karzai's speech, but he doubted that was the case.
Basen said it was critical to the Conservatives that the Canadian people hear the same message from the government and from Karzai. "If he's coming here, they would want to make sure the message was consistent," Basen said. "But I have no idea to what extent that was done."
The Rideau Institute's Staples argued that the DND's alleged writing of Karzai's speech was just one piece of a much larger strategy. He argued that what is going on in Canada is an Americanization of the government's handling of the media, and at the centre of it all is Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier.
"It keeps me up at night, thinking about the impact that this war has had on the country," Staples said. He argued that Hillier was using the war in Afghanistan to help bring about a change in Canadian society, working toward a military-oriented culture.
"It's quite clear the Canadian military now sees public opinion and the use of the media as a way of conducting the war," he said. "And the fact that you've got Hillier acting like a politician out there is part of that."
Staples noted that some of Hillier's military background came from the U.S., where he spent time embedded in the U.S. military as part of an exchange program. "He's imported that into Canada," Staples said.
However, it was the Liberal party that helped Hillier rise to the top of the Canadian military, Staples noted. He claimed that senior Liberals who were around at that time now "cringe" at what they got the country into. "It is pretty clear that they created a monster," Staples said. "Hillier was running through the village, doing whatever he wanted, and nobody could stop him."
Black called Hillier "the primary spokesperson and cheerleader for the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan". She claimed that many politicians in Canada believe Hillier would not have been promoted without his skills in public relations.
Basen also characterized Hillier as the "face" of the government's Afghanistan campaign. "For better or worse," he said, "there has never been a chief of defence staff that has been as public and has assumed such an important PR role."
Hillier was promoted to his present rank in February 2005. According to a DND departmental-performance report for 2005-06, the DND led the Canadian government's "communication strategy response to operations in Afghanistan". Its activities were "designed to ensure that Canadians received comprehensive, timely information about [Canadian Forces] operations at home and abroad." According to Sarah Kavanagh, a spokesperson for the DND, public affairs is accountable to the deputy minister of defence and the chief of the defence staff, Hillier.
According to a CBC report on The National, the DND operates with a public-affairs staff of 500 and an annual budget of $23 million.
"They are spending millions and millions of dollars on a massive public-relations effort," Staples said. "And I'm sure they see it as an equally important part of the war as they do fielding Leopard tanks in Afghanistan."
