A voice in Arabic crackles over the airwaves: “This is Radio Tikrit”. It sounds like an Iraqi station broadcasting from Saddam Hussein’s home town, but it isn’t. Though the shooting war with Iraq has not yet begun, Radio Tikrit is just one sign that US psychological operations against the Baghdad regime are well under way. Inside Iraq, senior figures have also been bombarded with subversive emails and phone calls, and telephone lines have been hacked to give bogus instructions to the military. When Radio Tikrit was launched early this month, it appeared to be just another regime-run station. It mocked the US and its efforts to win Arab support for a war. There was even a programme called Open Dialogue which praised “Saddam Hussein’s Iraq”. The only clue that Radio Tikrit’s mix of news, music and features might not have been what it seemed came when the station omitted to play the Iraqi national anthem either at the beginning or end of its broadcasts, as all government-run stations do. By February 15, however, Radio Tikrit began to change its tune. This time the Open Dialogue programme talked about Iraqi citizens who were so poor they had to sell doors and windows from their homes in order to get money for food. Then the station urged members of the Republican Guard to desert their posts “before it is too late”. Full Story
About OODA Analyst
OODA is comprised of a unique team of international experts capable of providing advanced intelligence and analysis, strategy and planning support, risk and threat management, training, decision support, crisis response, and security services to global corporations and governments.