[Infowarrior] - Obama staffer wants ‘cognitive infiltration’

[Richard Forno]

Obama staffer wants ‘cognitive infiltration’ of 9/11 conspiracy groups

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 -- 10:48 pm

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/obama-staffer-infiltration-911-groups/

In a 2008 academic paper, President Barack Obama's appointee to head  
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs advocated "cognitive  
infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the  
ones surrounding 9/11.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article  
entitled "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures," in which he argued  
that the government should stealthily infiltrate groups that pose  
alternative theories on historical events via "chat rooms, online  
social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine"  
those groups.

As head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Sunstein  
is in charge of "overseeing policies relating to privacy, information  
quality, and statistical programs," according to the White House Web  
site.

Sunstein's article, published in the Journal of Political Philosphy in  
2008 and recently uncovered by blogger Marc Estrin, states that "our  
primary claim is that conspiracy theories typically stem not from  
irrationality or mental illness of any kind but from a 'crippled  
epistemology,' in the form of a sharply limited number of (relevant)  
informational sources."

By "crippled epistemology" Sunstein means that people who believe in  
conspiracy theories have a limited number of sources of information  
that they trust. Therefore, Sunstein argued in the article, it would  
not work to simply refute the conspiracy theories in public -- the  
very sources that conspiracy theorists believe would have to be  
infiltrated.

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Sunstein, whose article focuses largely on the 9/11 conspiracy  
theories, suggests that the government "enlist nongovernmental  
officials in the effort to rebut the theories. It might ensure that  
credible independent experts offer the rebuttal, rather than  
government officials themselves. There is a tradeoff between  
credibility and control, however. The price of credibility is that  
government cannot be seen to control the independent experts."

Sunstein argued that "government might undertake (legal) tactics for  
breaking up the tight cognitive clusters of extremist theories." He  
suggested that "government agents (and their allies) might enter chat  
rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt  
to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about  
their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political  
action."

"We expect such tactics from undercover cops, or FBI," Estrin writes  
at the Rag Blog, expressing surprise that "a high-level presidential  
advisor" would support such a strategy.

Estrin notes that Sunstein advocates in his article for the  
infiltration of "extremist" groups so that it undermines the groups'  
confidence to the extent that "new recruits will be suspect and  
participants in the group’s virtual networks will doubt each other’s  
bona fides."

Sunstein has been the target of numerous "conspiracy theories"  
himself, mostly from the right wing political echo chamber, with  
conservative talking heads claiming he favors enacting "a second Bill  
of Rights" that would do away with the Second Amendment. Sunstein's  
recent book, On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them,  
What Can Be Done, was criticized by some on the right as "a blueprint  
for online censorship."

Sunstein "wants to hold blogs and web hosting services accountable for  
the remarks of commenters on websites while altering libel laws to  
make it easier to sue for spreading 'rumors,'" wrote Ed Lasky at  
American Thinker.