In the USA, "Propaganda Special Forces" is formed

For the past six months, a group of specialists in the psychological war, as part of two or four people, are sent to the disposal of the commanders of the United States abroad for "pro-American advertising campaigns in opposite enemy propaganda, including Islamic extremists," ITAR-TASS reports with reference to Time weekly.

According to the publication, unusual military specialists are attributed to the command of special US operations in Tampa (Florida). It is to this command that the US special forces are subordinated, called in accordance with the directive of the country's Minister of Defense Donald Ramsfeld to play a leading role in the global war against terrorism. The staff of the so -called group "support for psychological operations" includes so far 38 people. They also gave two editors, one of which is engaged in graphics and the other - video information. According to the magazine, by the New Year the staff of the group should grow to 113 people, and its budget should exceed $ 77 million in the next 7 years.

The leader of the group Jim Tredwell said Time weekly that his subordinates will work in Europe, in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America over time. Their task will be to produce pro -American advertising products and place it in print, on radio and television, as well as on the Internet.

Already next week, Tredwell expects to place up to four contracts worth 250 thousand dollars in the US multimedia corporations, which will deal with the conceptual development of future advertising campaigns.

Mindful of the sad experience of the previous propaganda initiatives of the Pentagon, which aroused suspicion, in particular, due to the alleged possibility of using misinformation, the threadellele assumes that his group intends to rely only on reliable information.

The fact of the formation of such a unit can be considered as indirect confirmation that the US authorities are concerned about the preservation of strong anti -American sentiments in the world and are trying to counteract this, including at the departmental level.

Improving the image of America in the world - the main work of the personal adviser Bush

The foreign policy and strengthening of the positive image of America abroad in the US administration is engaged in the presidential confidant, his personal adviser Karen Hughes . Hughes is among the people closest to George Bush and was the main "PR man" of both his presidential election campaigns.

She works with US Secretary of State Condolizes Rice. In March of this year, at budget hearing in the House of Representatives of the US Congress, Rice said that the United States should better withstand hostile propaganda and anti -American myths abroad. "We need to improve work on counteracting hostile propaganda, dispeling dangerous myths and spreading a story about America," said the Secretary of State.

She called the work in the field of informing the foreign public and the "public diplomacy" of one of the most important tasks of the US administration and the State Department headed by it. Rice emphasized the importance of using the experience already available in this area to activate information work abroad. “We won the Cold War because we won the war of ideas,” said the Secretary of State.

Rice pointed out the importance for the United States to further expand the existing radio and television channels to other countries, as well as a new access to commercial satellite television channels, which, according to her, are now playing a “most important role” in the world information space.

Rice informed legislators that the US State Department in the US State Department for 2006, the George Bush administration requests $ 328 million on “interaction, informing and influence on the foreign public”, as well as $ 430 million for cultural and educational exchanges with foreign countries.