WELL, DUH! The
Tampa Tribune's Brad Smith reports the biggest non-scoop of the year: the Pentagon engages in disinformation during war. Stop the presses! The Pentagon leaks of the last several months regarding Iraqi war plans were probably planted to either misinform, distract or intimidate the enemy, Smith has learned.
If this comes as news to Brad Smith and the Tribune's editors, then they are are woefully ignorant of history. Disinformation is part and parcel of every successful military effort. The best example is relatively recent: Operation Fortitude in 1944. Under Fortitude, a campaign of orchestrated leaks revealed that the newly created (and largely fictitious) 1st U.S. Army Group under the command of General George S. Patton would spearhead the continental attack on German forces at Pas-de-Calais in France. Hitler fell for Operation Fortitude and concentrated most of his defenses at Calais, leaving the Normandy coast vulnerable to the Allies' massive Operation Overlord invasion. Less than a year later, Hitler put a gun barrel in his mouth.
Maybe I'm being too hard on Brad Smith; maybe his assignment is to report on the obvious. Brad's next big scoop: bears crap in the woods.
