![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
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I agree with every word.
Where WAS goo?Voronwë_the_Faithful wrote:Where was Goo... ?
Thank you tolkienpurist.Don’t be evil. We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served—as shareholders and in all other ways—by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains. This is an important aspect of our culture and is broadly shared within the company.
China sets up squads to combat terrorism
By Richard McGregor in Beijing
China has set up a new police force in large cities, equipped with helicopters and armoured vehicles, to combat the threat of terrorism and the rising incidence of rioting and social unrest across the country.
The squads, to be stationed in 36 large cities, reflect the need for a more professional police force amid concerns that it is currently ill-equipped to manage such issues, scholars and analysts said on Thursday.
Combating urban and rural rioting has traditionally been the preserve of the People's Armed Police, a paramilitary force formed in 1983 to relieve the military of any internal security responsibilities.
But the Public Security Bureau, the mainstream policing body, has in practice been forced to handle an increasing number of incidents of domestic unrest and under a powerful minister, Zhou Yongkang, may have been able to make a case for funds for a new force.
"The new squads are aimed at improving the ability of the police to handle terrorist crimes, riots and other emergencies," said a statement on Xinhua, the official news agency.
Mr Zhou said the authorities dealt with 74,000 protests and riots nationwide last year, involving more than 3.7m people, compared with 10,000 incidents in 1994.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics, which may make the capital and other cities a target for attacks, has also focused on China's anti-terror and anti-riot capability.
The new squads will consist of 600-strong units in large urban centres such as Beijing and Shanghai, and slightly smaller groups in second-tier cities.
They will also be well equipped, according to Xinhua, with plans to arm the squad in Zhengzhou, the capital of the poor province of Henan, with three helicopters and an armoured vehicle.
Nicolas Becquelin, Hong Kong-based research director for Human Rights in China, said there were many "political and institutional reasons" to establish such a force, ranging from the global war on terror to worries about increasing protests. "It is legitimate for China to have an anti-terror force but the problem is the context in which it is used and how you define terror," Mr Becquelin said.
China is also drafting a new anti-terror law, which is due to be released later this year.
Zhou Xiaozheng, a professor at Renmin University in Beijing, was sceptical about the ability of any new force to have a real impact on the root cause of unrest. "The crux of the problem lies in an unbalanced society which lacks justice and equality," he said.
Mr Zhou went on: "As the income gap widens, and officials become more and more corrupt, better equipped police will only be used to protect the rich people and residents of big cities.
"The only way out is to actively and steadily implement a reform of the political system."
Public disorder and street action rise in China
By Richard McGregor in Beijing
Published: January 19 2006 10:53
Anti-social and mob violence in China rose sharply last year, according to official statistics released on Thursday by the Public Security Bureau, confirming anecdotal evidence of a growing willingness of citizens to take their grievances to the street.
“Public order disturbances” increased by 6.6 per cent to 87,000 in 2005 as a whole, but mob violence rose more quickly, by 13 per cent, the bureau said in an announcement posted on its website.
The bureau counts four different kinds of incidents under the overarching classification of “public order disturbances” but did not define them in any detail in Thursday’s release.
The figures on “disturbances” are consistent with a previous statement by Zhou Yongkang, the public security minister, who has said the number of “mass incidents”, or protests, rose by nearly 30 per cent in 2004 from 2003 to 74,000.
Not to mention paying Iraqi newspaper to print pro-U.S. stories. Does anyone know anything about the secret disinformation program that was initially headed by John Poindexter of Iran-Contra fame? Scary stuff. I really do fear sometimes that our country is turning into the Soviet Union before our very eyes.Jnyusa wrote:the U.S. government also altered the history of the Soviet Union for presentation in our textbooks, so that when the in-country censorship was eased and 'correct' information was sought, it was not available in other places either.
Some of us are old enough to remember the "hearts and minds" phase of the Vietnamese War. Once you buy into the idea that war is either necessary or unavoidable to resolve a problem, picking and choosing weapons (outside of WMDs and land mines) for moral reasons is somewhat disingenuous. I would much rather we bombard a population with disinformation to suit our purposes than real 500 pound bombs, so I'm in favor of keeping it in the arsenal. I would prefer to do neither, but we don't always have that choice as a nation.Psychological Operations or PSYOP are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of organizations, groups, and individuals. Used in all aspects of war, it is a weapon whose effectiveness is limited only by the ingenuity of the commander using it.
A proven winner in combat and peacetime, PSYOP is one of the oldest weapons in the arsenal of man. It is an important force protector/combat multiplier and a non-lethal weapons system.
Psychological Operations (PSYOP) or Psychological Warfare (PSYWAR) is simply learning everything about your target enemy, their beliefs, likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. Once you know what motivates your target, you are ready to begin psychological operations.
Psychological operations may be defined broadly as the planned use of communications to influence human attitudes and behavior ... to create in target groups behavior, emotions, and attitudes that support the attainment of national objectives. The form of communication can be as simple as spreading information covertly by word of mouth or through any means of multimedia.