(np) (political) the Big O institutes a new Cointelpro?

[Michael Bailey]

http://www.alternet.org/story/145229/obama_confidant%27s_spine-chilling_proposal_to_%27cognitively_infiltrate%27_conspiracy_theorist_groups

"Cass Sunstein has long been one of Barack Obama's closest confidants.
 Often mentioned as a likely Obama nominee to the Supreme Court,
Sunstein is currently Obama's head of the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs where, among other things, he is responsible for
"overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and
statistical programs."  In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein
co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government
employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-"independent" advocates to
"cognitively infiltrate" online groups and websites -- as well as
other activist groups -- which advocate views that Sunstein deems
"false conspiracy theories" about the government.  This would be
designed to increase citizens' faith in government officials and
undermine the credibility of conspiracists.  The paper's abstract can
be read, and the full paper downloaded, here.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1084585

....

"This isn't an instance where some government official wrote a bizarre
paper in college 30 years ago about matters unrelated to his official
powers; this was written 18 months ago, at a time when the ascendancy
of Sunstein's close friend to the Presidency looked likely, in exactly
the area he now oversees.  Additionally, the government-controlled
messaging that Sunstein desires has been a prominent feature of U.S.
Government actions over the last decade, including in some recently
revealed practices of the current administration, and the mindset in
which it is grounded explains a great deal about our political class.
All of that makes Sunstein's paper worth examining in greater detail.



sheesh - do we really need to spend tax money to quash rumors of
government malfeasance???

 while it's still legal, let me just say this:      Tuskegee Experiment,
Cointelpro, Downing Street Memo, Gulf of Tonkin, the Maine,
BCCI, Election 2000, Salvador Allende, Mohammad Mossadegh,
Watergate, Operation Paperclip, Iran-freakin'-Contra, Whitewater, Troopergate,
Monicagate, Monkeygate (monkey can subvert Diebold voting machine),
Coingate (Ohio scandal)...

...the Business Plot (attempted coup in 1931), Enron, General Motors
Streetcar Conspiracy, Yellowcake forgery...
(okay, now I'm just quoting wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conspiracies_(political) )

and, aw, heck:  Chemtrails!  Area 51!  Shakespeare's plays weren't
written by Shakespeare at all, but by another man with the same
name...



OTOH, maybe I could get a job infiltrating those groups...hmmm, I
could be the Hector Zuniga of the 9-11 truthiness movement...
something to consider - I hear the benefits are pretty okay...





-- 
- "Releasing all we can, protecting what we must" - slogan of the
National Declassification Center