In 1983, mujahid leader Sibjhautullah Mojadedi visited Washington and confronted CIA Director William Casey with the lethal reality of his policy: “You are making us die too cheap.”
Casey’s response was not to fix the supply line; it was to retaliate with arms reductions that led to hundreds of deaths. This was the consequence of a systemic CIA strategy where managing perception in Washington was more important than winning the war.
This information war was waged in the pages of America’s most respected publications.
In Chapter 9 of Normal Channels: Blocked or Compromised, I provide a “how-to” guide for detecting this disinformation. The chapter deconstructs two perfect case studies: a 1984 Time Magazine “hoax” that praised the CIA’s “daring success” and a 1985 Washington Post column that invented fictitious aid from China and Iran to cool public concern.
I have posted a free preview of the chapter—including the full deconstruction of the Washington Post article and its “external deflection” tactic—on my Substack.
Click Here to Read the Free Preview of Chapter 9 on my Substack
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