The question in Washington today is this: Did the federal government try to scare Libya's Colonel Muammar Quddafi in August by way of a disinformation campaign in the American media? The Washington Post Bob Woodward reports today that there was an elaborate disinformation program set up by the White House to convince Quddafi that the United States was about to attack again, or that he might be ousted in a coup. The White House today denies that officials tried to mislead Quddafi by using the American media. NPR's Bill Busenburg has our first report on the controversy. The story starts on August 25th when the Wall Street Journal ran a front page story saying that Libya and the United States were once again on a collision course. Quoting multiple official sources, the paper said Quddafi was plotting new terrorist attacks and the Reagan Administration was preparing to teach him another lesson. The Journal reported that the Pentagon was completing plans for a new and wider bombing of Libya in case the President ordered it. That story caused a flurry of press attention. Officials in Washington and at the western White House in California were asked if it was true. "The story was authoritative," said the White House spokesman Larry Speakes. Based on that official confirmation, other news organizations, including the New York Times , the Washington Post , NPR and the major TV networks, all ran stories suggesting Libya should watch out. US naval maneuvers then taking place in the Mediterranean might be used as a cover for more attacks on Libya as in the past. Today's Washington Post , however, quotes from an August 14th secret White House plan, adopted eleven days before the Wall Street Journal story. It was outlined in a memo written by the President's National Security Advisor John Poindexter. That plan called for a strategy of real and illusory events, using a disinformation program to make Quddafi think the United States was about to move against him militarily. Here are some examples the Post cites, suggesting disinformation was used domestically: Number one, while some US officials told the press Quddafi was stepping up his terrorist plans, President Reagan was being told in a memo that Quddafi was temporarily quiescent, in other words, that he wasn't active. Number two, while some officials were telling the press of internal infighting in Libya to oust Quddafi, US officials really believed he was firmly in power and that CIA's efforts to oust him were not working. Number three, while officials were telling the press the Pentagon was planning new attacks, in fact nothing new was being done. Existing contingency plans were several months old, and the naval maneuvers were just maneuvers. The Post says this policy of deception was approved at a National Security Planning Group meeting chaired by President Reagan and his top aides. Two new studies were published today on the links between television coverage of suicide and subsequent teenage suicide rates.
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