Information Operations Roadmap

John Rendon, President of the Rendon Group, "insists that information is terrain and someone will occupy it, either the adversary, a third party, or US." [1]

"Information is an instrument of national power, just as military, economic and political. Like any weapon or tool, the United States Government needs to use it or cede the 'battlefield' to someone else." [2]

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The "Roadmap"

On October 30, 2003, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed a secret order for the classified 74-page directive the Information Operations Roadmap. [3]

The Roadmap is a "detailed plan being implemented by the Pentagon," Christopher J. Lamb, a senior fellow in the Institute for National Security Studies at the National Defense University and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Resources and Plans, wrote First Quarter 2005 in the Joint Force Quarterly. "The roadmap charts a course for developing IO into a mature warfighting capability and a core joint competency. It is designed to enable capabilities to keep pace with threats and exploit opportunities afforded by innovation and information technologies. Lessons learned from Iraqi Freedom underscore the validity of its recommendations."

"The key assumption underlying the IO roadmap is that exploiting information for decisionmaking has become critical for military success. Accordingly, it must be treated on a par with ground, maritime, air, and special operations," Lamb wrote.

The Roadmap "represents 18 months of effort to determine IO issues and makes 57 recommendations for implementation. Execution of these 57 recommendations has begun," Allen W. Batschelet wrote in the July/August 2004 FA Journal. "Setting the course for IO's future as a DoD core competency, the roadmap provides a common framework and definition for understanding IO, empowers combatant commanders with the authority to plan and integrate IO, and improves education and training opportunities designed to strengthen IO efforts."

"Noting the complexities and risks, Mr. Rumsfeld ordered studies to clarify the appropriate relationship between Pentagon and military public affairs - whose job is to educate and inform the public with accurate and timely information - and the practitioners of secret psychological operations and information campaigns to influence, deter or confuse adversaries," Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt reported in the December 13, 2004, New York Times.

Perception Management

"'In the battle of perception management, where the enemy is clearly using the media to help manage perceptions of the general public, our job is not perception management but to counter the enemy's perception management,' said the chief Pentagon spokesman, Lawrence Di Rita" in December 2004. [

Related Documents & Reports

• From "Information Operations Roadmap," Information Warfare Site:

• Maj. Norman Emery, "Information Operations in Iraq," Military Review, May/June 2004.
• FM 3-13 (FM 100-6) Information Operations: Doctrine, Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, Headquarters, Department of the Army, November 2003. 314-page pdf. (Supersedes FM 100-6, August 27, 1996.)
• Joint Information Operations Planning Handbook, Joint Command, Control and Information Warfare School, Joint Forces Staff College, July 2003. 206-page pdf. Old Version July 2002. 208-page pdf.
• Lt.Col. Linda R. Urrutia-Varhall, "Capturing the Information Terrain," Air University, April 2002. A Research Report Submitted to the Faculty In Partial Fulfillment of the Graduation Requirements Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. 57-page pdf.
• "Protecting the Homeland," Defense Science Board Task Force on Defensive Information Operations, 2000 Summer Study, Volume II, March 2001. 181-page pdf.

SourceWatch Resources

• Able Danger
• Coalition Information Center
• Combined Press Information Center (CPIC in Iraq)
• data mining
• embedded
• fake news
• information operations
• Information Operations Task Force
• information warfare
• Iraqi Media Engagement Team (IMET)
• Joint Vision 2020
• National Clandestine Service
• Office of Global Communications
• Office of the Secretary of Defense
• psyops
• "Truth Tour"
• U.S. Central Command
• war propaganda
• White House Iraq Group

External links

• Gar Smith, "America's Ministry of Propaganda -- Part Four: Black Programs and the Future of Propaganda," The Edge (envirosagainstwar.org), December 23, 2003.
• David Miller, "The Domination Effect," Guardian (UK), January 8, 2004: "The Pentagon is reportedly coordinating an 'information operations road map', drafted by the Information Operations Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ... information operations would be directed against an 'adversary'."
• Thomas Donnelly, Summary: "Winning Hearts and Minds: Information Warfare in the Global War on Terror," American Enterprise Institute, December 2004.
• Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, "Pentagon Weighs Use of Deception in a Broad Arena," New York Times, December 13, 2004.
• Charles Adlinger, "Pentagon Wants to Polish U.S. Image Abroad," Capitol Hill Blue, December 14, 2004.
• Christopher J. Lamb, "Information Operations as a Core Competency," Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 36 (First Quarter 2005).
• Christopher J. Lamb, "Review of Psychological Operations. Lessons Learned from Recent Operational Experience," Defense University Press, September 2005. 220-page pdf. "The purpose of the study was to obtain an independent look at the performance of psychological operations forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom and to determine whether improvements were possible. Specifically, results from the research were to be compared with recommendations for reform of psychological operations from the Information Operations Roadmap. In particular, the research was to assess whether and how new technology might affect PSYOP performance."
• William A. Arkin, "Help for Karen Hughes. Codename of the Week: Global Harvest," Washington Post, September 30, 2005.
• James Bamford, "The Man Who Sold the War. Meet John Rendon, Bush's general in the propaganda war," Rolling Stone, November 17, 2005.