Pentagon to monitor the Internet

The Pentagon is planning to take Internet blogs under their scrutiny. A new public relations department dealing with this will have tasks including the provision of information and propaganda regarding the war in Iraq and other events of strong public interest.

The main efforts of the new department will be aimed at fighting “inaccurate” coverage of events in the media. According to the statement from the US Defense Department, particular attention will be paid to the Internet and Internet-blogs.  The department will monitor information around the clock.  The BBC reports that it is planned to involve prominent politicians and lobbyists who will make addresses on the radio and television.

With the help of the new department, the American military want to curb “anti-American”  propaganda on the Internet. According to the Defense Minister Donald Ramsfield this is needed while the American Army as far as information and ideological presentation of their operations is concerned get a “D+”.  He had previously commented that the US was losing the propaganda war to Al-Quaida and other extremist Islamic groups. He had stressed that extremist groups had an advantage in the information war due to their mobility and speed of response, whereas the American bureaucratic machine was still far from fully mastering modern information technology.