Two Examples of Disinforamtion in the Eastern Bloc In the USSR manipulation of the population was one of the big tasks for the government. But manipulation got even further, for example when the English expert John Maynard came back from a visit in the Ukraine in 1933, he told about poverty but not about hunger. In fact he did not have seen anyone starving as the Soviets just showed him the things they wanted to show. Maynard was involuntarily used to spread Soviet disinformation. As a person from the West, the Western media tended to believe him. A nearly humorous variety of disinformation was ordered by Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980s. It was a very cold winter and too little heating material was available. Therefore Ceausescu made a law that TV-forecasts-weather-forecasts were not allowed to talk about temperatures below 15° Celsius. Like this he hoped to keep the population quiet.

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Democracy How is democracy concerned with propaganda and disinformation? "Democratic governments must tolerate a free press, regardless of criticism. It is a measure of their democracy." (Taylor, Munitions of the Mind, p. 147) Disinformation is not at all the contrary of democracy. The idea that democracy means a system to disclose disinformation or even to be the opposite of disinformation, is itself a disinforming message, because democracies themselves frequently use that tool, if it serves their purposes, like in war, economy and elections. No (contemporary) political/ideological system is safe from propaganda and disinformation. All of them are using them if it seems necessary and appropriate. Democracy, always pretending to be the most liberal and most human system, is no exception. For Military disinformation/propaganda see: http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/ArmsPropaganda.asp

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Fort Meade Headquarters of the US National Security Agency in Maryland.

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Roberto d'Aubuisson Roberto D'Aubuisson is another Salvadorian graduate of the SOA. In 1980 he organized the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, voice of the poor and marginalized. In 1981 he founded the extreme right wing party ARENA as a weapon against the guerrilla. Between 1978 and 1992 he was the (not so) secret head of the Salvadorian Death Squads. He died of cancer in 1992, but his ideas are still followed by a new group of death squads, which was founded in 1996 (Fuerza Nacionalista Mayor Roberto D'Aubuisson = FURODA).

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