The Numbers

A Run at the Latest Data from ABC's Poobah of Polling, Gary Langer

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One of these polls was released Aug. 9 by an outfit called Glevum Associates, which appears from its website to be a military contractor engaged in producing psychological operations data as part of a U.S. Army counterinsurgency program, the Human Terrain System. The New York Times identified its poll as “financed by the United States government,” with no details; AP and Reuters did similarly.

Glevum did not return our repeated calls and e-mails for details, both methodological and in terms of the survey’s sponsorship, at the time of its release. Its methodological statement sounds satisfactory, but leaves some questions unanswered. Its poll was done July 8-17, more than a month before the election. Its full questionnaire, essential in discerning bias, was not released (rather, we got a PowerPoint summary).

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Phi Beta Iota:

Read the full story online to get a sense of how Human Terrain Team (HTT) Psychological Operations (PSYOP) is blowing back into US media, something specifically prohibited by legislation.

HTT is a project, not a program, and it is making the same kind of promises it cannot keep that the Open Source Center (OSC) made to the Combatant Commands (COCOM).  Like OSC, HTT needs to be put to rest.

HTT is severely flawed in its management, its parentage (TRADOC), its funding (G2), and its core personnel (intelligence professionals with top secret clearances, rather than bona fide anthropologists without clearances).

HTT is a good concept destroyed by bad management lacking in integrity.  Recruiting contractors without the necessary skills is dishonest and a betrayal of the public trust.  We recommend a complete Inspector General review of the entire HTT program.

In the longer term HTT mis-management is screwing over the career uniformed personnel who could be, should be trained, equipped, and organized for the long hault.

To be effective, HTT needs to be ripped out of TRADOC and put und3er a new Major Command, White SOF, with Civil Affairs in the lead for both defense Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and HTT, while also down-sizing PSYOP, a dated ineffective cadre, redirecting spaces, dollars, and facilities toward a multinational White SOF command with global reach.