Read on and see just why there should be national outrage over this bill.

Transcription

1 by KrisAnne Hall htttp:// May 22, 2012 Once again, the National Defense Authorization Act is used as a Trojan horse to unload a dangerous threat on America. This time it is offered up in an amendment sponsored by Representative Thornberry from Texas and its called Disse mination of Information Abroad. This bill has also been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs as a separate bill titled HR 5736, The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of This bill will overturn a prohibition that has been in place since 1948 and make it possible for the US Government to fund the dissemination of propaganda to influence American citizens. Immediately, the question comes up, why should we care? Isn t domestic propaganda something that this administration has been engaging since 2008? Would any of us disagree that the mainstream media is a tool of this administration? Read on and see just why there should be national outrage over this bill. 1 / 60

2 Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information through an executive order with the purpose of influencing American public opinion toward supporting the US involvement in World War I. The man appointed to be the chairman over this committee was George Creel, a well renowned investigative journalist and editor of the Rocky Mountain News. In 1942, FDR established the United States Office of War Information by e xecutive order to truthfully inform the American 2 / 60

3 people about the government s efforts in World War II. FDR appointed Elmer Davis, a well-known CBS News analyst, as director of OWI. Davis job was to coordinate information from the military and mobilize public support of the war. OWI was to create an avenue for the government to develop and disseminate the information that they believed people needed to know about the war. 3 / 60

4 "Our job at home is to give the American people the fullest possible understanding of what this war is about not only to tell the American people how the war is going, but where it is going and where it came from." Elmer Davis. AP/Wide World In 1946 Rep. Sol Bloom (D-NY) introduced a bill that 4 / 60

5 would grant the Secretary of State the power to give monetary, service, or property grants to nonprofit public and private corporations to prepare and disseminate informational materials. Although this act was intended to disseminate information abroad, there were no limitations to keep it from being used upon the American people and opposition began to form. After having lived through two 5 / 60

6 regimes of government propaganda and having seen the effects of such government propaganda machines as Joseph Goebbels Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Congress decided this was not something they wanted to engage in. An AP Press Release stated gover 6 / 60

7 nment cannot engage in news casting without creating the fear of propaganda which necessarily would reflect the objectivity of the news services from which such news casts are prepared. The Bloom Bill passed the house, but failed in the 7 / 60

8 Senate. In 1948, the Smith-Mundt Act was passed with three key limitations on the government. The first and most well-known restriction was originally a prohibition on domestic dissemination of materials intended for foreign audiences by the State Department. 8 / 60

9 This restriction has been supported by the courts even in the face of freedom of information act challenges. In November 1996 the federal District Court in Washington, D.C., ruled that the material under the Smith-Mundt Act is not to be available, 9 / 60

10 applying the Freedom of Information Act's Exemption 3 to block access. The Smith-Mundt Act is now found in 22 USC a titled, Ban on domestic activities by 10 / 60

11 United States Information Agency. The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 is set to change all of that. This act does several very destructive 11 / 60

12 things. First, it puts the President s Board of Broadcasting Governors on the same level of authority as the Secretary of State. 12 / 60

13 The Board of Broadcasting Governors is an independent government agency whose members are appointed by the President and whose sole function is to create American 13 / 60

14 propaganda and disseminate this propaganda abroad. The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 created a limitation for propaganda to be 14 / 60

15 released in the United States. If such propaganda was requested, the information could not be released until 12 years after its publication. This was an 15 / 60

16 additional protection established so that this government created information could not be used to influence current public opinion. Thornberry s HR 5736, The 16 / 60

17 Smith-Mundt Modernization Act, would preserve that 12 year limitation for all propaganda created prior to the adoption of this act but would remove 17 / 60

18 the limitation for everything created after. Therefore, you have to wait 12 years to obtain propaganda created in 2010, but propaganda created 18 / 60

19 in 2013 would be immediately available for dissemination domestically. Finally, although I am sure supporters 19 / 60

20 of this legislation will attempt to tell you that this act has protections built in to prevent the use of propaganda to influence Americans; make no mistake this act 20 / 60

21 fails to ensure that result. It is true the Act maintains the original prohibition for domestic use. 21 / 60

22 (a) In General- No funds authorized to be appropriated to the Department of State or the Broadcasting Board of Governors shall 22 / 60

23 be used to influence public opinion in the United States. This section shall apply only to programs carried out pursuant to the United States 23 / 60

24 Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (22 U.S.C et seq.), the United States International Broadcasting Act of 1994 (22 24 / 60

25 U.S.C et seq.), the Radio Broadcasting to Cuba Act (22 U.S.C et seq.), and the Television Broadcasting to Cuba Act (22 25 / 60

26 U.S.C. 1465aa et seq.). This section shall not prohibit or delay the Department of State or the Broadcasting Board of Governors from 26 / 60

27 providing information about its operations, policies, programs, or program material, or making such available, to the media, public, or 27 / 60

28 Congress, in accordance with other applicable law. However, this new Act adds 28 / 60

29 new language that completely nullifies that prohibition through a couple rather clever loopholes. 29 / 60

30 The original Act does not include program material in the list of items that must be 30 / 60

31 provided. This is how the courts could decide that the propaganda material was covered under the Freedom Information Act s 31 / 60

32 section 3 limitations. The addition of program material will now require the actual 32 / 60

33 propaganda to be available through a FOIA request. As if that was 33 / 60

34 not bad enough, the new Act adds a section b that will create the most effective loophole to nullify the 34 / 60

35 prohibition in section (a). (b) Rule of 35 / 60

36 Construction- N othing in this section shall be construed to prohibit the Department of State or the 36 / 60

37 Broadcasting Board of Governors from engaging in any medium or form of communicatio 37 / 60

38 n, either directly or indirectly, because a United States domestic audience is or 38 / 60

39 may be thereby exposed to program material, or based on a presumption 39 / 60

40 of such exposure. Such material may be made available within the United States and 40 / 60

41 disseminated, when appropriate, pursuant to sections 502 and 1005 of the United States 41 / 60

42 Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (22 U.S.C and 1437), except that 42 / 60

43 nothing in this section may be construed to authorize the Department of State or the Broadcasting 43 / 60

44 Board of Governors to disseminate within the United States any program material 44 / 60

45 prepared for dissemination abroad on or before the effective date of the Smith-Mundt 45 / 60

46 Modernization Act of Section (b) tells the 46 / 60

47 Secretary of State and the Board of Broadcasting Governors that they do not have to worry 47 / 60

48 about the limitation of section (a). Th ey are to go about business as usual in spite 48 / 60

49 of the fact that this information will be immediately available for domestic distribution. 49 / 60

50 This creates a loophole the size of the Grand Canyon for these agencies to 50 / 60

51 create propaganda that they know will be distributed domestically 51 / 60

52 and will be used to influence Americans. 52 / 60

53 So, why should we care? We should care, because this crime against the American 53 / 60

54 people is not being perpetrated by a Socialist President through executive 54 / 60

55 order. It is CONGRESS authorizing this manipulation. It is coming 55 / 60

56 from alleged CONSERVATI VE CONGRESS MEN. This act will 56 / 60

57 not only legitimize the heinous manipulation of mainstream media, but will allow 57 / 60

58 Congress to FUND IT with TAX PAYER DOLLARS. 58 / 60

59 Are you Tyrannized Enough Already? CONTACT YOUR 59 / 60

60 CONGRESS MEN NOW. 60 / 60