Rolling Stone: (Al) Franken targeted by military 'psy-ops' team

Minneapolis StarTribune (aka The Red Star) ^ | 2/25/11 | Jeremy Herb - Staff Reporter

[MplsSteve]

Is the Pentagon trying to control Sen. Al Franken's mind?

While mind games might not be involved, an article in Rolling Stone magazine has alleged that the military ordered a team of soldiers fluent in psychological operations to manipulate Franken and other senators into supporting more funding and troops for the war in Afghanistan.

The story prompted Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to order an investigation Thursday into whether the "psy-ops" team in Kabul directed by Lt. Gen. William Caldwell improperly targeted U.S. officials.

"My job in psy-ops is to play with people's heads, to get the enemy to behave the way we want them to behave," Lt. Col. Michael Holmes, a member of the team, told Rolling Stone. "I'm prohibited from doing that to our own people. When you ask me to try to use these skills on senators and congressmen, you're crossing a line."

Franken said Thursday that nothing out of the ordinary occurred during his January 2010 trip with Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin to Afghanistan, where he met with Caldwell.

"I didn't think there was anything unusually manipulative during my time in Kabul, but even if there had been, it wouldn't have been successful," Franken, D-Minn., said. "My perspective on Afghanistan wasn't formed because of that single trip.

He said that while that was his first trip to Afghanistan as a senator, "it was my fifth trip to the country since the war started, and I've learned that to get a clear sense of what's happening on the ground you have to talk to everyone from privates to generals."

[MplsSteve]

I can't say if there's any truth to this story but the concepts of Al Franken and Psy-Ops in one news story will definitely lead to a number of hysterically funny posts.

Comments or opinions - anyone?

[MplsSteve]

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[econjack]

Is the Pentagon trying to control Sen. Al Franken's mind?

Al Franken has a mind??

[Arm_Bears]

Why is the media circling the wagons around Franken regarding this?

[Palmetto Patriot]

Psy-Ops don’t work on the brain dead.

(That was just too easy.)

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

For brainwashing to work, shouldn’t the subject have a functioning brain?

[MplsSteve]

LOL @ Post 3!

[Eureka_Lead]

Voice of Scotty

But Cap’tn, I kinna do the impossible, you gotta have something there to start with...

EL

[Joe 6-pack]

"Is the Pentagon trying to control Sen. Al Franken's mind?"

It sounds kind of whacky on its face, but DARPA has been doing a lot of work with nanotechnology in recent years...

[Rocky]

Sounds like George Romney (Mitt’s dad):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney

“Following a mid-1967 remark that his earlier support for the Vietnam War had been due to a “brainwashing” by U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Vietnam, his campaign faltered...”

[Sawdring]

[Jaxter]

If you don't want to be subjected to mind control, don't put on the hat..

[kevkrom]

[Franken] said that while that was his first trip to Afghanistan as a senator, "it was my fifth trip to the country since the war started, and I've learned that to get a clear sense of what's happening on the ground you have to talk to everyone from privates to generals."

This must be a misquote because it makes too much sense for it to have been said by Franken.

[MizSterious]

I find this hard to believe. To begin with, for psy-ops to work, a person must first of all have a mind. No one has ever produced any proof that Al Franken has one. Obviously a prank story.

[Gasshog]

Whats the frequency, Franken?

[de.rm]

"Just the fact of what in the Whitehouse is proof it works!"

[miss marmelstein]

He’s no Laurence Harvey!

[Martin Tell]

Rolling Stone?

Only folks who did way too much acid back in the '60s would even come up with a "story" like this, let alone print it.

[MortMan]

There is no psy to op in Stewart Smalley.

[greyfoxx39]

Franken had already been treated.