psy-ops

(Newser) - The video is unsettling, with haunting images of faceless people, fire, and soldiers. The voiceover is a cascade of recognizable historical voices as the screen pulses cryptic messages touting the power of words, ideas, and "invisible hands." Hints of its origin are tucked into frames as they flash...

(Newser) - The Pentagon has begun investigating claims that one of its generals used psychological trickery to try to convince US lawmakers to support the Afghan war effort. (Read the earlier summary of the Rolling Stone expose here .) "The facts will take them where they lead," said a Pentagon...

(Newser) - In an illegal effort to build support for the war, a top US general in Afghanistan ordered troops trained in "psychological operations" to manipulate visiting lawmakers, reports Michael Hastings for Rolling Stone . Over a four-month period last year, Gen. William Caldwell reportedly pushed the psy-ops team to focus their...

(Newser) - In its battle to win hearts and minds, the Army doesn't want to sound too devious. Therefore, it's changed the Vietnam-era name of "psychological operations"—or "psy-ops" as it's been depicted in countless movies—to the bureaucratic-sounding Military Information Support Operations, reports AP .