The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1905) is an example of black propaganda which purports to be created by the group it was created to discredit
Black propaganda is a form of propaganda intended to create the impression that it was created by those it is supposed to discredit. Black propaganda contrasts with grey propaganda, which does not identify its source, and white propaganda, which does not disguise its origins at all. It is typically used to vilify, embarrass, or misrepresent the enemy.
The major characteristic of black propaganda is that the people
are not aware that someone is influencing them, and do not feel that
they are being pushed in a certain direction. Black propaganda purports to emanate from a source other than the true source. This type of propaganda is associated with covert psychological operations.
Sometimes the source is concealed or credited to a false authority and
spreads lies, fabrications, and deceptions. Black propaganda is the "big lie", including all types of creative deceit.
Black propaganda relies on the willingness of the receiver to accept
the credibility of the source. If the creators or senders of the black
propaganda message do not adequately understand their intended audience,
the message may be misunderstood, seem suspicious, or fail altogether.
Governments conduct black propaganda for reasons that include: A)
by disguising their direct involvement a government may be more likely
to succeed in convincing an otherwise unbelieving target audience, and
B) there are diplomatic reasons behind the use of black propaganda.
Black propaganda is necessary to obfuscate a government's involvement in
activities that may be detrimental to its foreign policies.
In the American Revolution
Benjamin Franklin
created and circulated a fake supplement to a Boston newspaper that
included letters on Indian atrocities and the treatment of American
prisoners.
In World War II
British
Sefton Delmer (1958)
In the United Kingdom, the Political Warfare Executive operated a number of black propaganda radio stations. Gustav Siegfried Eins
(GS1) was one of the first such stations—purporting to be a clandestine
German station. The speaker, "Der Chef", purported to be a Nazi
extremist, accusing Hitler and his henchmen of going soft. The station
focused on alleged corruption and sexual improprieties of Nazi Party
members.
Another example was the British radio station Soldatensender Calais, which purported to be a radio station for the German military. Under the direction of Sefton Delmer, a British journalist who spoke perfect Berliner German, Soldatensender Calais and its associated shortwave station, Kurzwellensender Atlantik, broadcast music, up-to-date sports scores, speeches of Adolf Hitler for "cover" and subtle propaganda.
Radio Deutschland was another radio station employed by the
British during the war aimed and designed to undermine German morale and
create tensions that would ultimately disrupt the German war effort.
The station was broadcast on a frequency close on the radio dial to an
actual German station. During the war most Germans actually believed
that this station was in fact a German radio station and it even gained
the recognition of Germany's propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
Goebbels, German Federal Archive photo
There were British black propaganda radio stations in most of the languages of occupied Europe as well as German and Italian. Most of these were based in the area around Bletchley Park and Woburn Abbey in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire respectively.
Another possible example was a rumour that there had been a German attempt to land on British shores at Shingle Street, but it had been repulsed with large German casualties. This was reported in the American press, and in William L. Shirer's Berlin Diary
but was officially denied. British papers, declassified in 1993, have
suggested this was a successful example of British black propaganda to
bolster morale in the UK, USA and occupied Europe.
Author James Hayward has proposed that the rumours, which were widely reported in the American press, were a successfully engineered example of black propaganda with an aim of ensuring American co-operation and securing lend lease resources by showing that the United Kingdom was capable of successfully resisting the might of the German Army.
David Hare's play Licking Hitler provides a fictionalised account based on the British black propaganda efforts in World War II.
German
German black propaganda usually took advantage of European racism and anti-Communism. For example, on the night of April 27, 1944 German aircraft under cover of darkness (and possibly carrying fake Royal Air Force markings) dropped propaganda leaflets on occupied Denmark. These leaflets used the title of Frihedsposten,
a genuine Danish underground newspaper, and claimed that the "hour of
liberation" was approaching. They instructed Danes to accept "occupation
by Russian or specially trained American Negro soldiers" until the
first disorders resulting from military operations were over.
The German Büro Concordia
organisation operated several black propaganda radio stations (many of
which pretended to broadcast illegally from within the countries they
targeted).
Pacific Theatre
The Tanaka Memorial was a document that described a Japanese plan for world conquest, beginning with the conquest of China. Most historians now believe it was a forgery.
The following message was distributed in black propaganda leaflets dropped by the Japanese over the Philippines in World War II. It was designed to turn Filipinos against the United States:
Guard Against Venereal Diseases
Lately there has been a great increase in the number of venereal diseases among our officers and men owing to prolific contacts with Filipino women of dubious character.
Due to hard times and stricken conditions brought about by the Japanese occupation of the islands, Filipino women were willing to offer themselves for a small amount of foodstuffs. It is advisable in such cases to take full protective measures by use of condoms, protective medicines, etc.; better still to hold intercourse only with wives, virgins, or women of respectable character.
Furthermore, in view of the increase in pro-American leanings, many Filipino women are more than willing to offer themselves to American soldiers, and because Filipinos have no knowledge of hygiene, disease carriers are rampant and due care must be taken.
— US Army
Cold War black propaganda of the Soviet Union
Prior to, and during the Cold War, the Soviet Union used disinformation on multiple occasions. It also employed the technique during the Iranian hostage crisis
that took place from 1979 until 1981. For strictly political purposes,
and to show support for the hostages, Soviet diplomats at the United
Nations vocally criticized the taking of the hostages. At this same
time, Soviet "black" radio stations within Iran called the National
Voice of Iran openly broadcast strong support for the hostage-takers in
an effort to increase anti-American sentiment inside Iran.
This was a clear use of black propaganda to make anti-American
broadcasts appear as if they were originating from Iranian sources.
Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union effectively used the
KGB's Service A of the First Chief Directorate in order to conduct its
covert, or "black", "active measures".
It was Service A that was responsible for clandestine campaigns that
were targeted at foreign governments, public populations, as well as to
influence individuals and specific groups that were hostile towards the
Soviet government and its policies. The majority of their operations was
actually conducted by other elements and directorates of the KGB.
As a result, it was the First Chief Directorate that was ultimately
responsible for the production of Soviet black propaganda operations.
By the 1980s, Service A consisted of nearly 120 officers whose
responsibilities consisted of covert media placements, and controlled
media to covertly introduce carefully manufactured information,
disinformation, and slogans into the areas such as government, media,
and religion of their targeted countries, namely the United States.
Because both the Soviet Union and the KGB's involvements were not
acknowledged and intentionally disguised, these operations are therefore
classified as a form of black propaganda.
The activities of Service A greatly increased during the period of the
1980s through the early 1990s presumably as the Soviet government fought
to maintain control during the declining period of the Cold War.
Office of Strategic Influence
Following the September 11 attacks against the United States, the Pentagon organized and implemented the Office of Strategic Influence in an effort to improve public support abroad, mainly in Islamic countries. The head of OSI was an appointed general, Pete Worden
who maintained the mission of "circulating classified proposals calling
for aggressive campaigns that use[d] not only the foreign media and the
Internet, but also covert operations." Worden, as well as then Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld planned for what they called "a broad mission
ranging from 'black' campaigns that use[d] disinformation and other
covert activities to 'white' public affairs that rely on truthful news
releases." Therefore, OSI's operations could include black activities.
OSI's operations were to do more than public relations work, but
included contacting and emailing media, journalist, and foreign
community leaders with information that would counter foreign
governments and organizations that are hostile to the United States. In
doing so, the emails would be masked by using addresses ending with .com
as opposed to using the standard Pentagon address of .mil. and hide any
involvement of the US government and the Pentagon. The Pentagon is
forbidden to conduct black propaganda operations within the American
media, but is not prohibited for conducting these operations against
foreign media outlets. The thought of conducting black propaganda
operations and utilizing disinformation resulted in harsh criticism for
the program that resulted in its closure in 2002.
In domestic politics
Australian media
- In the run-up to the 2007 federal election in Australia, flyers were circulated around Sydney under the name of a fake organisation called the Islamic Australia Federation. The flyers thanked the Australian Labor Party for supporting terrorism, Islamic fundamentalists, and the Bali bombing suspects. A group of Sydney-based Liberal Party members were implicated in the incident.
Brazil
The Cohen Plan
was a document prepared by Brazilian military with the intention to
simulate, for study purposes, a Jewish-Communist revolution in Brazil. Although it was a hypothetical situation, the plan was falsely attributed to the Communist International and used as the main political instrument for the establishment of a dictatorial fascist regime in Brazil, called Estado Novo.
On September 30 1937, general Góes Monteiro, head of the Brazilian Army, reported through the radio, the discovery of a plan to overthrow president Getúlio Vargas.
According to the general, the Cohen Plan, as it came to be called, had
been jointly planned by the Brazilian Communist Party and by
international Jewish organizations. The plan of course, didn't exist and
it was a total fabrication by right wing military leaders, such as
captain Olímpio Mourão Filho.
The Cohen Plan was elaborated by captain Mourão Filho, a former
member of the Brazilian fascist party Integralist National Alliance (pt.
Aliança Nacional Integralista). The same Mourão Filho, 27 years later, would be the central figure in another coup d'etat, the 1964 overthrown of president João Goulart.
The name "Cohen" was given in reference to communist leader Bela
Cohen, who had governed Hungary between March and July 1919 and whose
actions was supposedly the inspiration for the Brazilian revolutionaries
that were trying to overthrow the government.
British media
- In November 1995, a Sunday Telegraph newspaper article alleged Libya's Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (Muammar Gaddafi's son) was connected to currency counterfeiting. The story's author, Con Coughlin, falsely attributed the claim to a "British banking official", but his information actually came from MI6 agents. This fact, and the fact that Coughlin had no other sources for the story, only came to light when Saif Gaddafi later sued the newspaper for libel.
- The Zinoviev letter was a fake letter published in 1924 in the British newspaper the Daily Mail. It claimed to be a letter from the Comintern president Grigory Zinoviev to the Communist Party of Great Britain. It called on Communists to mobilise "sympathetic forces" in the Labour Party and talked of creating dissent in the armed forces. The Zinoviev letter was instrumental in the Conservative victory in the 1924 general election. The letter seemed authentic at the time but historians now believe it was a forgery. It called for intensified communist agitation in Britain. Historians now agree that the letter had little impact on the Labour vote—which held up in 1924. However, it aided the Conservative Party in hastening the collapse of the Liberal Party that led to the Conservative landslide.
United States media
- In the "Roorback forgery" of 1844 the Chronicle of Ithaca, New York ran a story, supposedly by a German tourist called Baron von Roorback, that James K. Polk, standing for re-election as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives, branded his slaves before selling them at auction to distinguish them from the others on sale. Polk actually benefited from the ploy, as it reflected badly on his opponents when the lie was found out. Afterwards the term "Roorback" was coined for political dirty tricks.
- During the 1972 U.S. presidential election, Donald H. Segretti, a political operative for President Richard Nixon's reelection campaign, released a faked letter, on Senator Edmund Muskie's letterhead, falsely alleging that Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, against whom Muskie was running for the Democratic Party's nomination, had had an illegitimate child with a seventeen-year-old. Muskie, who had been considered the frontrunner, lost the nomination to George McGovern, and Nixon was reelected. The letter was part of a campaign of so-called "dirty tricks", directed by Segretti, and uncovered as part of the Watergate Scandal. Segretti went to prison in 1974 after pleading guilty to three misdemeanor counts of distributing illegal campaign literature. Another of his dirty tricks was the "Canuck letter", although this was libel of Muskie and not a black propaganda piece.
United States Government
- The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Counter-intelligence program "COINTELPRO", was intended to, according to the FBI, "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalists, hate-type organizations and groups, their leadership, membership, and supporters." Black propaganda was used on Communists and the Black Panther Party. It was also used against domestic opponents of the 'invasion' of Vietnam, labor leaders, and Native Americans. The FBI's strategy was captured in a 1968 memo: "Consider the use of cartoons, photographs, and anonymous letters which will have the effect of ridiculing the New Left. Ridicule is one of the most potent weapons which we can use against it." The FBI employed a similar tactic in 1968 to disrupt activities of the Ku Klux Klan, as hundreds of 'racist' flyers with misleading information were fabricated and made to appear as if they originated from known Klan leaders.
- "The Penkovsky Papers" are an example of a black propaganda effort conducted by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency during the 1960s. The "Penkovsky Papers" were alleged to have been written by a Soviet GRU defector, Colonel Oleg Penkovsky, but were in fact produced by the CIA in an effort to diminish the Soviet Union's credibility at a pivotal time during the Cold War.
Religious black propaganda
- The Church of Scientology, under the leadership of L. Ron Hubbard, is alleged to have advocated the usage of "black propaganda" to "destroy reputation or public belief in persons, companies or nations" as a practice of Fair Game against Suppressive Persons. After the author Paulette Cooper wrote The Scandal of Scientology, the Church of Scientology ran a false flag operation that stole stationery from her in order to fabricate bomb threats.
Environmentalist black propaganda
- The "Let's Go! Shell in the Arctic" website was designed to look like an official website by Royal Dutch Shell, but was in fact a fake produced by Greenpeace.
