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Iraqi Denial and Deception Far Beyond Battlefield Tactics
Tuesday, October 8, 2002
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service

"Iraq has learned some very useful lessons from former inspection programs, And (Saddam Hussein) is taking steps to conceal and
disperse sensitive equipment and documentation in anticipation of another inspection regime."

WASHINGTON -- AFIS
Military forces typically use denial and deception to fool the enemy and protect themselves. Iraq, however, has made denial and deception a finely tuned art designed to convince the world Saddam Hussein's regime isn't cooking up deadly weapons of mass destruction.

An analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency today called the Iraqi denial and deception program "a deliberate, methodical, extensive and well-organized national-level, strategic effort, which aims at deceiving not just the United States, not just the United Nations or even the public media, but, in fact, the entire world."

John Yurchenko, a DIA expert on information operations and "D&D," as he refers to denial and deception, spoke to Pentagon reporters today about the lengths to which Hussein has gone in concealing his intentions from the world.

Yurchenko described denial as "methods used to conceal state and military secrets, particularly from foreign intelligence collection." Deception, on the other hand, is "the manipulation of information and perceptions" designed to change an enemy's course of action, he explained.

The two go hand in hand. "Denial is the basis for a successful deception," Yurchenko said. "One cannot manipulate or blur the truth or lie convincingly unless the truth is first concealed."

Since the end of the Gulf War, he explained, Iraq's denial and deception campaign has had three main goals:

* Blur the truth about Iraqi compliance with the Nuclear Proliferation treaty and U.N. resolutions.

* Keep U.N. Special Commission inspectors from learning the full extent of Iraq's WMD capabilities.

* Prevent UNSCOM from completely disarming Iraq's nuclear, chemical, biological and long-range missile programs in accordance with U.N. resolutions.

They've been largely successful in meeting these goals, Yurechko said. A Central Intelligence Agency report released Oct. 4 contends Iraq's D&D efforts have prevented many aspects of the country's WMD program from being uncovered, he said.
(More: DoD News Source)
2002 © The United States Department of Defense.

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