World Domination

Full-Spectrum Dominance sounds like something from an apocalyptic science fiction movie, but it's not. It's an actual concept by the U.S. military to achieves control over all elements of the battlespace including the physical space (air, surface and sub-surface) as well as the electromagnetic spectrum and information space.

At the center of the information-space battle is the Arabic-language television network al-Hurra. Last Sunday, 60 Minutes did a report on the ineptitude of the project. (If the video doesn't show, click here.)



Coincidentally, the Washington Post also has a two part series on al-Hurra.

What did Americans get for $350 million? Enough laughs for a TV bloopers show:

One news anchor greeted the station's predominantly Muslim audience on Easter by declaring, "Jesus is risen today!"
...
"Many people just didn't know how to do their job," said Yasser Thabet, a former senior editor at al-Hurra. "If some problem happened on the air, people would just joke with each other, saying, 'Well, nobody watches us anyway.' It was very self-defeating."
...
In 2004, when an Israeli airstrike killed the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, virtually all Arabic news channels interrupted their regular programming. Al-Hurra continued with a cooking show.

Meanwhile, al-Qaeda is conducting online chats in their own propaganda coup. You can read some of the questions and answers here (PDF).

Somehow I don't think any amount of U.S. money, PSYOPS, or mass persuasion is going to win the ideological war.