THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR)

U.S. Propaganda Blitz to Unfold in Pakistan

A propaganda blitz aimed at swaying Pakistani citizens' views on U.S. involvement in the region is about to unfold, The Peacock Report (TPR) has discovered. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) yesterday commenced its search for a contractor capable of carrying out the euphemistically titled "USAID/Pakistan Outreach Campaign," as the project officially is known. According to a "presolicitation notice" dated June 5 that TPR has located, the agency envisions a multi-language delivery of U.S. government messages in urban as well as rural areas of Pakistan. The contractor will execute the campaign in English, Urdu, Pashtu, Punjabi, and other regonal languages. This USAID endeavor will place messages in newspapers, magazines, and billboards as well as radio and television broadcasts, according to the document. The agency will make available a formal and more detailed solicitation later this month. USAID hopes to launch the Pakistani campaign by summer's end.

Contractor Gets Millions for Radio, TV, Leaflet PSYOPS Technology Project

A $100 million contract to support psychological operations (PSYOPS) that U.S. Special Forces carry out internationally via aerial leafleting and radio and TV broadcasts has been awarded to CACI International, a Virginia-based vendor for Defense and Homeland Security IT services. CACI will provide up to four years of PSYOPS technology- and other electronic systems-assistance to the U.S. Navy Air Warfare Center, whose Special Communications Requirements (SCR) Division is tasked with designing and maintaining federal systems for C4ISR – command, control, computers, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Although the Navy and the Pentagon publicly earlier this week began spinning the award by emphasizing the vague provision of C4ISR services to the military, a closer inspection of related contracting documents reveals an expanded list of possible recipients of the SCR unit’s work, including the White House Communications Agency, the FBI, and "other federal agencies" that the documents did not identify.

The bulk of the direct propaganda segment of the contract indeed appears to center upon the Special Operations Command of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, respectively, for whom CACI would assist in the use of what are known as the Special Operations Media System Broadcast (SOMSB) and the Fly Away Broadcast System (FABS). The contract, however, is not exclusively for those purposes, as it also entails the deployment of digital network technologies, military and commercial satellite communications, and encryption and IT security devices -- goods and services that CACI feasibly could provide to any of the above-named Naval clients. Although the documents do not elaborate on what CACI will offer to the "other" agencies, they point out that systems and sub-systems under the contract will be used at "locations or platforms including shipboard, aircraft/airborne, weapon systems, on small crafts, boats, shelters or vehicles."