NEWSWORKS: It’s no secret that drilling natural gas in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale is controversial. Now, several Pennsylvania gas drilling executives say their companies use military tactics to counter drilling opponents. Speaking at an industry conference in Houston, Texas, the men encouraged their colleagues to look to counter-insurgency techniques. An environmental activist attending the conference captured the talks on a hand-held recorder, and released the tape to the media. On tape, Anadarko Petroleum executive Matt Carmichael gave this advice: “Download the U.S. Army Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual, because we are dealing with an insurgency here. There’s a lot of good lessons in there and coming from a military background I found the insight in that extremely remarkable.” Similarly, Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella is recorded telling the audience that his company has hired ex-military personnel who specialize in “psy-ops”—that’s the military slang for “psychological operations.” “Really all they are doing are helping folks develop local ordinances,” he said. “But really having that understanding they learned in the Army and in the Middle East has applied here in Pennsylvania.” MORE
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RELATED: Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PSYOP), have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda.[1] Various 
techniques are used, by any set of groups, and aimed to influence a target audience’s value systems, belief systems, emotions, motives, reasoning, or behavior. It is used to induce confessions or reinforce attitudes and behaviors favorable to the originator’s objectives, and are sometimes combined with black operations or false flag tactics. Target audiences can be governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The U.S. Department of Defense defines psychological warfare as: “The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives.” MORE
RELATED: In the 1990s it came to light that soldiers from the 4th Psychological Operations Group had been interning at the American news networks Cable News Network (CNN) and National Public Radio (NPR). The program was an attempt to provide its PSYOP personnel with the expertise developed by the private sector under its “Training with Industry” program. The program caused concern about the influence these soldiers might have on American news and the programs were terminated. National Public Radio reported on April 10, 2000: The U.S. Army’s Psychological Operations unit placed interns at CNN and NPR in 1998 and 1999. The placements at CNN were reported in the European press in February of this year and the program was terminated. The NPR placements will be reported this week in TV Guide.[21] MORE
DOWNLOAD: U.S. Army Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual [PDF]
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