Top U.S. military leaders said the United States is lagging behind the Chinese Communist Party and Russia in information warfare, Politico.com reported Sunday. Unheard of, nine four-star combatant commanders signed a memo together asking the intelligence community to take more action to show the world what Russia and the Chinese Communist Party are doing. The top levels of the U.S. intelligence community are looking for ways to declassify and release more intelligence on the bad behavior of their adversaries.
Photo: General Jay Raymond
A group of four-star military commanders is looking for ways to declassify and release more intelligence on adversaries’ bad behavior after sending a rare and urgent request for help in the information war against China (Communist Party) and Russia, top U.S. intelligence community officials said.
The commanders said a series of disturbing actions by the two countries, including undermining U.S. relations with allies and violating the sovereignty of other nations, means the intelligence community must do more to show the world what the Communist Party of China and Russia are doing.
Last year, nine regional military commanders signed a memo imploring the intelligence community to provide them with more publicly available evidence as a way to combat “pernicious behavior.
Only by “waging a war of truth in the public domain against America’s 21st century challengers,” they said, will Washington gain the support of U.S. allies.
Last January, commanders overseeing U.S. military forces in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America and special operations forces wrote to Joseph Maguire, then acting director of national intelligence, saying, “We ask for this help to better enable the United States and its allies and partners to fight in the so-called gray areas and win without fighting, to provide the ammunition in the ongoing narrative war.
They added, “Unfortunately, we continue to miss opportunities to clarify the truth, rebut distortions, puncture false narratives and influence events in time to make a difference. “
The memo, which according to Politico’s website has not yet been released, has been making waves in the Pentagon, the intelligence community and on Capitol Hill for the past year and is known as the “36 Star Memo. It is not an order or an ultimatum, but rather a plea for the intelligence community to make significant changes.
Multiple administration officials with knowledge of the memo said nine of the 11 four-star combatant commanders signed it. All but one are in uniform, which is almost unheard of. The top leaders of U.S. Central Command and Cyber Command did not sign.
The letter was organized by Adm. Phil Davidson, the outgoing commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and also signed by Gen. Jay Raymond, then commander of U.S. Space Command but now commander of the Space Force and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Spokesmen for Davidson and Raymond declined to comment on the memo or their concerns.
“The Russians, especially the Chinese, have weaponized information,” Kari Bingen said.” This is a major concern being raised by military commanders and intelligence professionals. “
Kari Bingen was one of the recipients of the memo when she was undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security.
“Combatant commands are on the edge,” she added in an interview, “and their forces are interacting with our allies and partners every day and seeing what our adversaries are doing every day. They need timely and relevant information to expose undesirable activities and counter what they see.
Undesirable Behavior
The Chinese Communist Party and Russian military are becoming increasingly aggressive. This spring, Moscow amassed a large combat force along the border with Ukraine and stepped up incursions into North American and European airspace.
Beijing continues to expand into the disputed South China Sea region, and it has launched an aggressive offensive to bully Taiwan, which it considers a breakaway province, including this month by brazenly sending more than two dozen fighter jets into Taiwan’s air defense zone.
Meanwhile, the State Department said the Communist Party of China and Russia are using the coronavirus (CCP virus) pandemic to promote conspiracy theories against the United States, including that the virus is a U.S.-made biological weapon and that the U.S. military is responsible for its rapid spread.
The generals’ and admirals’ memos, which are not classified but are labeled “for official use only,” insist that the status quo falls far short of what they need to counter the propaganda, which means broadcasting to the world that the Communist Party and Russia are undermining global order and democratic institutions.
One area of intelligence that the military says needs to be made public is satellite imagery. A former senior Pentagon intelligence official said the memo hints at the dissatisfaction of some combatant commanders with the inability to share satellite photos of enemy behavior with allies and partners.
Another former Defense Department official also said commanders privately vent that they don’t get the kind of intelligence they want, or they get it too late, or they overclassify it so they can’t disseminate it.
The administrator’s plan
Last summer, a panel of Pentagon and intelligence officials convened a series of working group meetings in response to the military’s memo and made recommendations, according to Matt Rahl, deputy assistant to the National Intelligence Agency for strategic communications.
In December 2020, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence asked intelligence agencies to “review their existing processes and improve their posture to support combatant commands at the required speed and scale,” Rahl said in a statement.
In January, he added, intelligence agency directors received “initial responses. Now, National Intelligence Director Avril Haines and David Taylor, who is fulfilling the role of undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, “are reviewing the agencies’ progress and emphasizing that combating malicious influence remains a top priority.
The officials outlined a series of measures to address the military’s ongoing concerns about losing the information war. First, this includes “reviewing existing intelligence processes to shorten timelines and improve the efficiency of disclosure, degradation and declassification processes. Another goal, Rall said, is to “publish priority intelligence requirements that address strategic messaging and malicious influence.
In other words, it means the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is telling other U.S. intelligence agencies to increase their focus on how hostile governments are trying to shape global public opinion, both covertly and overtly. But the statement doesn’t indicate how far up the list of priorities to focus on this has risen.
The statement said the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is also developing education and training programs for intelligence officers and analysts on how to detect different forms of adversary misinformation or disinformation.
Need for speed
Some current and former national security officials told Politico.com that the ongoing effort is moving too slowly.
Ruben Gallego, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Intelligence and Special Operations Subcommittee, briefly referenced the memo during a hearing last month. He told Politico.com that the changes its authors called for have yet to materialize.
He said of the 15 months since the memo was delivered, “I think there’s been meaningful progress.” I can’t say it has changed, because that is still evolving.”
Gallego said the United States is most effective in combating enemy propaganda where U.S. forces are in combat, because there is a greater urgency to share intelligence to refute conspiracy theories or to try to sway the civilian population.
But when competing with adversaries in a murkier environment somewhere between peace and full-scale war, as with Russia, Gallego said the U.S. is struggling.
Republicans and Democrats alike agree with that concern. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Politico.com that four-star commanders “need more tools to empower them” when waging an “information war.
Inhofe said in a statement, “Our inability to talk openly about the real threats from China and Russia means that many Americans don’t really understand what we’re up against. When we can’t have an honest discussion about these threats, it’s easier to argue for defense budget cuts.”
He added, “I know this frustrates many of my colleagues – we need to do a better job of fighting in this area.”” Our adversaries like to operate in the shadows, and the best way to deal with them is to shout their lies.”
This ideological battle is seen as only growing. In a new threat assessment published this month, the National Intelligence Agency highlighted the aggressive activities of the Communist Party and Russia to shape global public opinion.
It said, “Beijing has been stepping up its efforts to shape the U.S. political environment to promote its policy preferences, shape public discourse, pressure political figures Beijing perceives as opposing its interests, and suppress criticism of the CCP on issues such as religious freedom and suppression of democracy in Hong Kong.
Here’s what the generals said in their memo.” The Chinese (Communist) states and Russia are using all the tools of combined national power to perpetrate political warfare, manipulate the information environment, violate national sovereignty, co-opt international institutions, weaken the integrity of multilateral institutions, and divide our alliances and partnerships. Their efforts to reinvent themselves, proliferate authoritarianism and advance their ambitions are provocative, dangerous and destabilizing.”
But to those watching from close quarters, the United States is still playing catch-up.
Citing the “severity and speed of the information challenge,” the commanders said confronting the Communist Party and Russia in the court of public opinion and “will require the active and long-term engagement of senior leaders” to accelerate the transformation to meet the volume, variety, authenticity and speed of the information ammunition we need.
But the United States also has a significant advantage against the Chinese Communist Party and Russia, said Sen. Jack Reed, who chairs the Armed Services Committee.” The truth is on our side, and we need to do a better job of articulating and exposing these activities.”
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