title: Rare (company)

text: Rare has developed a number of video games since its founding, with sales nearing 90 million copies by 2002. The company is best known for its platform games, which include the "Donkey Kong Country", "Banjo-Kazooie", and "Conker" series, and for its Nintendo 64 first-person shooters "GoldenEye 007" and "Perfect Dark". Rare does not adhere to a few specific video-game genres. They have also developed action-adventure games, including "Star Fox Adventures" and ""; fighting games, such as the "Killer Instinct" series; racing games, such as "R.C. Pro-Am" and "Diddy Kong Racing", and beat 'em up-shoot 'em up games such as "Battletoads" and "Captain Skyhawk". Since Rare has usually been associated with a video-game console manufacturer (such as Nintendo and Microsoft), most of their games have been developed as exclusives for a particular platform. In 2018, Rare released "Sea of Thieves", a pirate-themed open world sandbox game for Xbox One and Windows 10. At Microsoft's X019 event, a fantasy action-adventure title called "Everwild" was announced.


title: Rare (company)

text: The company's cancelled projects include "", which became "Banjo-Kazooie"; "Perfect Dark Core", originally the sequel to the first "Perfect Dark"; "Black Widow", an open world game that tasks players to control an eight-legged robot; "Sundown", which featured a horde-like survival mode; "The Fast and the Furriest", a mascot racer; "Tailwind", an action game featuring helicopters; "Urchin", a "Fable"-style game which began development after the completion of "Live & Reloaded"; "Ordinary Joe"; "Savannah", a Kinect-based game; Kinect equivalents of "Wii Fit" and "Professor Layton", a sequel to "Diddy Kong Racing", and a sequel to "Kameo: Elements of Power".


title: Rare (company)

text: Rare received numerous awards, including BAFTA award for "Best UK Developer" for its work on "GoldenEye 007". In 1997, "Electronic Gaming Monthly" named Rare "Most Promising Game Company", citing their high rate of success in putting out killer apps for the Nintendo 64. Rare was awarded the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award in 2000 for developing "Perfect Dark". Tim and Chris Stamper were named as Development Legends in the 2015 "Develop" Industry Excellence Awards. Rare was included as Gamasutra's Top 30 Developers of All Time, and was ranked as the 36th best video game maker by IGN. The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum curated a retrospective of the company's work in 2018.


title: Princely state

text: A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to a subsidiary alliance and the suzerainty or paramountcy of the British crown.


title: Princely state

text: There were officially 565 princely states when India and Pakistan became independent in 1947, but the great majority had contracted with the viceroy to provide public services and tax collection. Only 21 had actual state governments, and only four were large (Hyderabad State, Mysore State, Jammu and Kashmir State, and Baroda State). They acceded to one of the two new independent nations between 1947 and 1949. All the princes were eventually pensioned off.


title: Princely state

text: At the time of the British withdrawal, 565 princely states were officially recognised in the Indian subcontinent, apart from thousands of zamindari estates and jagirs. In 1947, princely states covered 40% of the area of pre-independence India and constituted 23% of its population. The most important states had their own British political residencies: Hyderabad of the Nizams, Mysore and Travancore in the South, followed by Jammu and Kashmir, and Sikkim in the Himalayas, and Indore in Central India. The most prominent among those – roughly a quarter of the total – had the status of a salute state, one whose ruler was entitled to a set number of gun salutes on ceremonial occasions.


title: Princely state

text: The princely states varied greatly in status, size, and wealth; the premier 21-gun salute states of Hyderabad and Jammu and Kashmir were each over in size. In 1941, Hyderabad had a population of over 16 million, while Jammu and Kashmir had a population of slightly over 4 million. At the other end of the scale, the non-salute principality of Lawa covered an area of , with a population of just below 3,000. Some two hundred of the lesser states even had an area of less than .


title: Princely state

text: The era of the princely states effectively ended with Indian independence in 1947; by 1950, almost all of the principalities had acceded to either India or Pakistan. The accession process was largely peaceful, except in the cases of Jammu and Kashmir (whose ruler decided to accede to India following an invasion by Pakistan-based forces, resulting in a long-standing dispute between the two countries), Hyderabad State (whose ruler opted for independence in 1947, followed a year later by the invasion and annexation of the state by India), Junagarh and its vassal Bantva Manavadar (whose rulers acceded to Pakistan, but were annexed by India), and Kalat (whose ruler declared independence in 1947, followed in 1948 by the state's accession to Pakistan).


title: Princely state

text: As per the terms of accession, the erstwhile Indian princes received privy purses (government allowances), and initially retained their statuses, privileges, and autonomy in internal matters during a transitional period which lasted until 1956. During this time, the former princely states were merged into unions, each of which was headed by a former ruling prince with the title of "Rajpramukh" (ruling chief), equivalent to a state governor. In 1956, the position of "Rajpramukh" was abolished and the federations dissolved, the former principalities becoming part of Indian states. The states which acceded to Pakistan retained their status until the promulgation of a new constitution in 1956, when most became part of the province of West Pakistan; a few of the former states retained their autonomy until 1969 when they were fully integrated into Pakistan. The Indian government abolished the privy purses in 1971, followed by the government of Pakistan in 1972.


title: Princely state

text: Though principalities and chiefdoms existed on the Indian subcontinent from at least the Iron Age, the history of princely states on the Indian subcontinent dates to at least the fifth or sixth century C.E., during the rise of the middle kingdoms of India following the collapse of the Gupta Empire. Many of the future ruling clan groups – notably the Rajputs – began to emerge during this period; by the 13th–14th centuries, many of the Rajput clans had firmly established semi-independent principalities in the north-west, along with several in the north-east. The widespread expansion of Islam during this time brought many principalities into tributary relations with Islamic sultanates, notably with the Mughal Empire. In the south, however, the Hindu Vijayanagara Empire remained dominant until the mid-17th century; among its tributaries was the future Mysore Kingdom.


title: Princely state

text: The Turco-Mongol Mughal Empire brought a majority of the existing Indian kingdoms and principalities under its suzerainty by the 17th century, beginning with its foundation in the early 16th century. Despite the difference in religion, the Mughal emperors also contracted a series of marriages with Rajput princesses, and Rajput forces and generals became an important part of their military power. The advent of Sikhism resulted in the creation of the Sikh Empire in the north by the early 18th century, by which time the Mughal Empire was in full decline. The Muslim nawabs had begun as appointed governors of territories conquered by the Mughals, in theory a non-hereditary title, with obligations to pay a large share of their revenues to the emperor. As the emperors became too weak to enforce their power, the nawabs stopped paying, and passed on their realms to their sons.


title: Princely state

text: At the same time, the Marathas carved out their own states to form the Maratha Empire. Through the 18th century, former Mughal governors formed their own independent states. In the north-west, some of those – such as Tonk – allied themselves with various groups, including the Marathas and the Durrani Empire, itself formed in 1747 from a loose agglomeration of tribal chiefdoms that composed former Mughal territories. In the south, the principalities of Hyderabad and Arcot were fully established by the 1760s, though they nominally remained vassals of the Mughal emperor.


title: Princely state

text: The largest Muslim-ruled state was Hyderabad State, which was also the first to sign a treaty with the British, in 1798, when it was caught between them and the Marathas. The treaties of 1817 and 1818 concluding the decisive Third Anglo-Maratha War left the remaining Maratha territories as princely states, with treaties with the British, and the Rajput states resumed their subordinate status, now with the British.


title: Princely state

text: India under the British "Raj" (the "Indian Empire") consisted of two types of territory: British India and the "native states" or "princely states". In its Interpretation Act 1889, the British Parliament adopted the following definitions:


title: Princely state

text: (4.) The expression "British India" shall mean all territories and places within Her Majesty's dominions which are for the time being governed by Her Majesty through the Governor-General of India or through any governor or other officer subordinate to the Governor-General of India.


title: Princely state

text: (5.) The expression "India" shall mean British India together with any territories of any native prince or chief under the suzerainty of Her Majesty exercised through the Governor-General of India, or through any governor or other officer subordinate to the Governor-General of India.


title: Princely state

text: In general the term "British India" had been used (and is still used) also to refer to the regions under the rule of the East India Company in India from 1774 to 1858.


title: Princely state

text: The British Crown's suzerainty over 175 princely states, generally the largest and most important, was exercised in the name of the British Crown by the central government of British India under the Viceroy; the remaining approximately 400 states were influenced by Agents answerable to the provincial governments of British India under a governor, lieutenant-governor, or chief commissioner. A clear distinction between "dominion" and "suzerainty" was supplied by the jurisdiction of the courts of law: the law of British India rested upon the legislation enacted by the British Parliament, and the legislative powers those laws vested in the various governments of British India, both central and local; in contrast, the courts of the princely states existed under the authority of the respective rulers of those states.


title: Princely state

text: The Indian rulers bore various titles – including Chhatrapati (exclusively used by the three Bhonsle dynasty of the Marathas) ("emperor"), Maharaja or Raja ("king"), Sultan, Nawab, Emir, Raje, Nizam, Wadiyar (used only by the Maharajas of Mysore, meaning "lord"), Agniraj Maharaj for the rulers of Bhaddaiyan Raj, Chogyal, Nawab ("governor"), Nayak, Wāli, Inamdar, Saranjamdar and many others. Whatever the literal meaning and traditional prestige of the ruler's actual title, the British government translated them all as "prince", to avoid the implication that the native rulers could be "kings" with status equal to that of the British monarch.


title: Princely state

text: More prestigious Hindu rulers (mostly existing before the Mughal Empire, or having split from such old states) often used the title "Raja", Raje" or a variant such as Rai, Rana, "Rao", "Rawat" or Rawal. Also in this 'class' were several Thakurs or Thai ores and a few particular titles, such as Sardar, Mankari (or Mānkari/Maankari), Deshmukh, Sar Desai, Istamuradar, Saranjamdar, Raja Inamdar etc.


title: Princely state

text: The most prestigious Hindu rulers usually had the prefix "maha" ("great", compare for example Grand Duke) in their titles, as in "Maharaja, Maharana, Maharao", etc. This was used in many princely states, including Mewar, Travancore and Cochin. The state of Travancore also had queens regent styled Maharani, applied only to sister of king in Kerala.


title: Princely state

text: There were also compound titles, such as (Maha)rajadhiraj, Raj-i-rajgan, often relics from an elaborate system of hierarchical titles under the Mughal emperors. For example, the addition of the adjective "Bahadur" raised the status of the titleholder one level.


title: Princely state

text: Furthermore, most dynasties used a variety of additional titles, such as Varma in South India. This should not be confused with various titles and suffixes not specific to princes but used by entire (sub)castes. This is almost analogous to Singh title in North India.


title: Princely state

text: The Sikh princes concentrated at Punjab usually adopted Hindu type titles when attaining princely rank; at a lower level Sardar was used.


title: Princely state

text: Muslim rulers almost all used the title "Nawab" (the Arabic honorific of "naib", "deputy", used of the Mughal governors, who became de facto autonomous with the decline of the Mughal Empire), with the prominent exceptions of the Nizam of Hyderabad & Berar, the Wāli/Khan of Kalat and the Wāli of Swat.


title: Princely state

text: Other less usual titles included Darbar Sahib, Dewan, Jam, Mehtar (unique to Chitral) and Mir (from Emir).


title: Princely state

text: However, the actual importance of a princely state cannot be read from the title of its ruler, which was usually "granted" (or at least recognised) as a favour, often in recognition for loyalty and services rendered to the Mughal Empire. Although some titles were raised once or even repeatedly, there was no automatic updating when a state gained or lost real power. In fact, princely titles were even awarded to holders of domains (mainly jagirs) and even taluqdars and zamindars, which were not states at all. Most of the zamindar who hold the princely titles were in fact erstwhile princely and royal states reduced to zamindari by the British EIC. Various sources give significantly different numbers of states and domains of the various types. Even in general, the definition of titles and domains are clearly not well-established.


title: Princely state

text: In addition to their titles all princely rulers were eligible to be appointed to certain British orders of chivalry associated with India, the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India and the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire. Women could be appointed as "Knights" (instead of Dames) of these orders. Rulers entitled to 21-gun and 19-gun salutes were normally appointed to the highest rank, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India.


title: Princely state

text: Many Indian princes served in the British Army, the Indian Army, or in local guard or police forces, often rising to high ranks; some even served while on the throne. Many of these were appointed as an Aide de camp, either to the ruling prince of their own house (in the case of relatives of such rulers) or indeed to the British monarchs. Many saw active service, both on the subcontinent and on other fronts, during both World Wars.


title: Princely state

text: Apart from those members of the princely houses who entered military service and who distinguished themselves, a good number of princes received honorary ranks as officers in the British and Indian Armed Forces. Those ranks were conferred based on several factors, including their heritage, lineage, gun-salute (or lack of one) as well as personal character or martial traditions. After the First and Second World Wars, the princely rulers of several of the major states, including Gwalior, Patiala, Nabha, Faridkort, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jammu and Kashmir and Hyderabad, were given honorary general officer ranks as a result of their states' contributions to the war effort.


title: Princely state

text: It was also not unusual for members of princely houses to be appointed to various colonial offices, often far from their native state, or to enter the diplomatic corps.


title: Princely state

text: The gun salute system was used to set unambiguously the precedence of the major rulers in the area in which the British East India Company was active, or generally of the states and their dynasties. As heads of a state, certain princely rulers were entitled to be saluted by the firing of an odd number of guns between three and 21, with a greater number of guns indicating greater prestige. Generally, the number of guns remained the same for all successive rulers of a particular state, but individual princes were sometimes granted additional guns on a personal basis. Furthermore, rulers were sometimes granted additional gun salutes within their own territories only, constituting a semi-promotion. The states of all these rulers (about 120) were known as salute states.


title: Princely state

text: After Indian Independence, the Maharana of Udaipur displaced the Nizam of Hyderabad as the most senior prince in India, because Hyderabad State had not acceded to the new Dominion of India, and the style "Highness" was extended to all rulers entitled to 9-gun salutes. When the princely states had been integrated into the Indian Union their rulers were promised continued privileges and an income (known as the Privy Purse) for their upkeep. Subsequently, when the Indian government abolished the Privy Purse in 1971, the whole princely order ceased to be recognised under Indian law, although many families continue to retain their social prestige informally; some descendants of the rulers are still prominent in regional or national politics, diplomacy, business and high society.


title: Princely state

text: At the time of Indian independence, only five rulers – the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Maharaja of Mysore, the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir state, the Maharaja Gaekwad of Baroda and the Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior – were entitled to a 21-gun salute. Six more – the Nawab of Bhopal, the Maharaja Holkar of Indore, the Maharaja of Bharatpur, the Maharana of Udaipur, the Maharaja of Kolhapur, the Maharaja of Patiala and the Maharaja of Travancore – were entitled to 19-gun salutes. The most senior princely ruler was the Nizam of Hyderabad, who was entitled to the unique style "Exalted Highness" and 21-gun salute. Other princely rulers entitled to salutes of 11 guns (soon 9 guns too) or more were entitled to the style "Highness". No special style was used by rulers entitled to lesser gun salutes.


title: Princely state

text: As "paramount ruler", and successor to the Mughals, the British "King-Emperor" of India, for whom the style of Majesty was reserved, was entitled to an 'imperial' 101-gun salute—in the European tradition also the number of guns fired to announce the birth of an heir (male) to the throne.


title: Princely state

text: There was no strict correlation between the levels of the titles and the classes of gun salutes, the real measure of precedence, but merely a growing percentage of higher titles in classes with more guns.


title: Princely state

text: As a rule the majority of gun-salute princes had at least nine, with numbers below that usually the prerogative of Arab Sheikhs of the Aden protectorate, also under British protection.


title: Princely state

text: There were many so-called non-salute states of lower prestige. Since the total of salute states was 117 and there were more than 500 princely states, most rulers were not entitled to any gun salute. Not all of these were minor rulers – Surguja State, for example, was both larger and more populous than Karauli State, but the Maharaja of Karauli was entitled to a 17-gun salute and the Maharaja of Surguja was not entitled to any gun salute at all.


title: Princely state

text: A number of princes, in the broadest sense of the term, were not even acknowledged as such. On the other hand, the dynasties of certain defunct states were allowed to keep their princely status – they were known as political pensioners, such as the Nawab of Oudh. There were also certain estates of British India which were rendered as political saranjams, having equal princely status. Though none of these princes were awarded gun salutes, princely titles in this category were recognised as a form of vassals of salute states, and were not even in direct relation with the paramount power.


title: Princely state

text: A controversial aspect of East India Company rule was the doctrine of lapse, a policy under which lands whose feudal ruler died (or otherwise became unfit to rule) without a male biological heir (as opposed to an adopted son) would become directly controlled by the company and an adopted son would not become the ruler of the princely state. This policy went counter to Indian tradition where, unlike Europe, it was far more the accepted norm for a ruler to appoint his own heir.


title: Princely state

text: The doctrine of lapse was pursued most vigorously by the Governor-General Sir James Ramsay, 10th Earl (later 1st Marquess) of Dalhousie. Dalhousie annexed seven states, including Awadh (Oudh), whose Nawabs he had accused of misrule, and the Maratha states of Nagpur, Jhansi, Satara, Sambalpur, and Thanjavur. Resentment over the annexation of these states turned to indignation when the heirlooms of the Maharajas of Nagpur were auctioned off in Calcutta. Dalhousie's actions contributed to the rising discontent amongst the upper castes which played a large part in the outbreak of the Indian mutiny of 1857. The last Mughal Badshah (emperor), whom many of the mutineers saw as a figurehead to rally around, was deposed following its suppression.


title: Princely state

text: In response to the unpopularity of the doctrine, it was discontinued with the end of Company rule and the British Parliament's assumption of direct power over India.


title: Princely state

text: By treaty, the British controlled the external affairs of the princely states absolutely. As the states were not British possessions, they retained control over their own internal affairs, subject to a degree of British influence which in many states was substantial.


title: Princely state

text: By the beginning of the 20th century, relations between the British and the four largest states – Hyderabad, Mysore, Jammu and Kashmir, and Baroda – were directly under the control of the governor-general of India, in the person of a British resident. Two agencies, for Rajputana and Central India, oversaw twenty and 148 princely states respectively. The remaining princely states had their own British political officers, or Agents, who answered to the administrators of India's provinces. The agents of five princely states were then under the authority of Madras, 354 under Bombay, 26 of Bengal, two under Assam, 34 under Punjab, fifteen under the Central Provinces and Berar and two under the United Provinces.


title: Princely state

text: The Chamber of Princes ("Narender Mandal" or "Narendra Mandal") was an institution established in 1920 by a royal proclamation of the King-Emperor to provide a forum in which the rulers could voice their needs and aspirations to the government. It survived until the end of the British Raj in 1947.


title: Princely state

text: By the early 1930s, most of the princely states whose agencies were under the authority of India's provinces were organised into new Agencies, answerable directly to the governor-general, on the model of the Central India and Rajputana agencies: the Eastern States Agency, Punjab States Agency, Baluchistan Agency, Deccan States Agency, Madras States Agency and the Northwest Frontier States Agency. The Baroda Residency was combined with the princely states of northern Bombay Presidency into the Baroda, Western India and Gujarat States Agency. Gwalior was separated from the Central India Agency and given its own Resident, and the states of Rampur and Benares, formerly with Agents under the authority of the United Provinces, were placed under the Gwalior Residency in 1936. The princely states of Sandur and Banganapalle in Mysore Presidency were transferred to the agency of the Mysore Resident in 1939.


title: Princely state

text: The native states in 1947 included five large states that were in "direct political relations" with the Government of India. For the complete list of princely states in 1947, see List of princely states of India.


title: Princely state

text: The armies of the Native States were bound by many restrictions that were imposed by subsidiary alliances. They existed mainly for ceremonial use and for internal policing, although certain units designated as Imperial Service Troops, were available for service alongside the regular Indian Army upon request by the British government.


title: Princely state

text: According to the , Since a chief can neither attack his neighbour nor fall out with a foreign nation, it follows that he needs no military establishment which is not required either for police purposes or personal display, or for cooperation with the Imperial Government. The treaty made with Gwalior in 1844, and the instrument of transfer given to Mysore in 1881, alike base the restriction of the forces of the State upon the broad ground of protection. The former explained in detail that unnecessary armies were embarrassing to the State itself and the cause of disquietude to others: a few months later a striking proof of this was afforded by the army of the Sikh kingdom of Lahore. The British Government has undertaken to protect the dominions of the Native princes from invasion and even from rebellion within: its army is organised for the defence not merely of British India, but of all the possessions under the suzerainty of the King-Emperor.


title: Princely state

text: The treaties with most of the larger States are clear on this point. Posts in the interior must not be fortified, factories for the production of guns and ammunition must not be constructed, nor may the subject of other States be enlisted in the local forces. ... They must allow the forces that defend them to obtain local supplies, to occupy cantonments or positions, and to arrest deserters; and in addition to these services they must recognise the Imperial control of the railways, telegraphs, and postal communications as essential not only to the common welfare but to the common defence.


title: Princely state

text: The Imperial Service Troops were routinely inspected by British army officers and generally had the same equipment as soldiers in the British Indian Army. Although their numbers were relatively small, the Imperial Service Troops were employed in China and British Somaliland in the first decade of the 20th century, and later saw action in the First World War and Second World War .


title: Princely state

text: At the time of Indian independence on 15 August 1947, India was divided into two sets of territories, the first being the territories of "British India", which were under the direct control of the India Office in London and the governor-general of India, and the second being the "princely states", the territories over which the Crown had suzerainty, but which were under the control of their hereditary rulers. In addition, there were several colonial enclaves controlled by France and Portugal. The integration of these territories into Dominion of India, that had been created by the Indian Independence Act 1947 by the British Parliament, was a declared objective of the Indian National Congress, which the Government of India pursued over the years 1947 to 1949. Through a combination of tactics, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and V. P. Menon in the months immediately preceding and following the independence convinced the rulers of almost all of the hundreds of princely states to accede to India. In a speech in January 1948, Vallabhbhai Patel said:


title: Princely state

text: Although this process successfully integrated the vast majority of princely states into India, it was not as successful in relation to a few states, notably the former princely state of Kashmir, whose Maharaja delayed signing the instrument of accession into India until his territories were under the threat of invasion by Pakistan, and the state of Hyderabad, whose ruler decided to remain independent and was subsequently defeated by the Operation Polo invasion.


title: Princely state

text: Having secured their accession, Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon then proceeded, in a step-by-step process, to secure and extend the central government's authority over these states and to transform their administrations until, by 1956, there was little difference between the territories that had formerly been part of British India and those that had been princely states. Simultaneously, the Government of India, through a combination of diplomatic and economic pressure, acquired control over most of the remaining European colonial exclaves on the subcontinent. Fed up with the protracted and stubborn resistance of the Portuguese government; in 1961 the Indian Army invaded and annexed Portuguese India. These territories, like the princely states, were also integrated into the Republic of India.


title: Princely state

text: As the final step, in 1971, the 26th amendment to the Constitution of India withdrew recognition of the princes as rulers, took away their remaining privileges, and abolished the remuneration granted to them by privy purses. In 2012, the High Court of Kerala in a judgement on "Mujeeba Rahman vs the State Of Kerala" stated that, 'though by the 26th amendment of the Constitution, Article 363 was repealed whereby the rights and privileges of the rulers of Indian States were taken away, still the name and title of the rulers remained as such and unaffected in so far as names and titles were not contemplated as rights or privileges under the repealed Articles 291 and 362 of the Constitution.' So the titles were not abolished by the government; only their political powers and right to receive Privy Purse were cancelled.


title: Princely state

text: During the period of the British Raj, there were four princely states in Balochistan: Makran, Kharan, Las Bela and Kalat. The first three acceded to Pakistan. However, the ruler of the fourth princely state, the Khan of Kalat Ahmad Yar Khan, declared Kalat's independence as this was one of the options given to all princely states. The state remained independent until it was acceded on 27 March 1948. The signing of the Instrument of Accession by Ahmad Yar Khan, led his brother, Prince Abdul Karim, to revolt against his brother's decision in July 1948, causing an ongoing and still unresolved insurgency.


title: Princely state

text: Bahawalpur from the Punjab Agency joined Pakistan on 5 October 1947. The princely states of the North-West Frontier States Agencies. included the Dir Swat and Chitral Agency and the Deputy Commissioner of Hazara acting as the Political Agent for Amb and Phulra. These states joined Pakistan on independence from the British.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: The 2021 FIA Formula 2 Championship was a motor racing championship for Formula 2 cars that was sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was the fifty-fifth season of Formula 2 racing and the fifth season run under the FIA Formula 2 Championship moniker. It was an open-wheel racing category that served as the second tier of formula racing in the FIA Global Pathway. The category was run in support of selected rounds of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship. As the championship was a spec series, all teams and drivers competing in the championship ran the same car, the Dallara F2 2018. The championship was contested over twenty-four races at eight circuits. It began in March 2021 with a round in support of the Bahrain Grand Prix, and ended in December where it supported the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: A new chassis package was due to be introduced for the 2021 season, but in a bid to cut costs in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lifespan of the Dallara F2 2018 chassis package was extended until 2023.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Oscar Piastri secured the Drivers’ Championship in Race 1 at Yas Marina, the season finale. Piastri became F2's first rookie champion since George Russell in 2018. He took five consecutive pole positions, from Silverstone to Yas Marina, and won all four feature races in the second half of the season in addition to sprint race victories in Bahrain and Jeddah. The strong results of Piastri and team-mate Robert Shwartzman, the championship runner-up, allowed Prema Racing to secure the Teams’ Championship with a round to spare.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Piastri's dominance after the summer break quickly dented the title hopes of early title favourites like Shwartzman and Guanyu Zhou. Shwartzman faced trouble in the early rounds, suffering collisions at both Bahrain and Monaco, but he finished in the top six in all but one race from Baku until the end of the season. Zhou took four wins, including the feature races at Bahrain and Silverstone, but his campaign fizzled out after difficult weekends at Sochi and Jeddah. Dan Ticktum, Théo Pourchaire, Jüri Vips, and Jehan Daruvala took two wins each—with Vips becoming the first F2 driver to take two wins in one weekend—but none of them were able to sustain a season-long championship challenge.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: In an effort to cut costs during the COVID-19 pandemic, series organizers adopted a new format for both F2 and FIA Formula 3 for the 2021 season. Notably, each weekend comprised three races rather than two. The traditional feature race with the mandatory pit-stop was moved to Sunday morning, while on Saturday, there were two sprint races with reverse-grid formats based on the results of qualifying and Race 1 respectively. The extra race was made possible because F3 races were run on different weekends to F2, with the exception of the Sochi round, leaving more space in the timetable of each race weekend. But the large gaps between rounds—eight weeks between Rounds 1 and 2 and 4 and 5 and ten weeks between Rounds 6 and 7—made the format widely unpopular, and it has been changed for the 2022 season.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: The following teams and drivers competed in the 2021 championship. As the championship was a spec series, all competitors raced with an identical Dallara F2 2018 chassis with a V6 turbo engine developed by Mecachrome. Teams competed with tyres supplied by Pirelli. The same eleven teams who competed during the 2020 season were retained for the next three-year cycle.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Prema Racing hired reigning FIA Formula 3 champion Oscar Piastri to replace Mick Schumacher, who graduated to Formula One with Haas F1 Team.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: UNI-Virtuosi Racing signed former MP Motorsport driver Felipe Drugovich to replace Callum Ilott, who left the championship to become a test driver for Formula One team Scuderia Ferrari.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Carlin hired former DAMS driver Dan Ticktum to replace Yuki Tsunoda, who graduated to Formula One with Scuderia AlphaTauri.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Hitech Grand Prix fielded a new driver line-up. Nikita Mazepin graduated to Formula One with Haas F1 Team and Luca Ghiotto joined Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters. They were replaced with Red Bull juniors Liam Lawson, who graduated from Hitech's FIA Formula 3 outfit, and Jüri Vips, who temporarily raced for DAMS in 2020 as a replacement driver.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: ART Grand Prix signed FIA Formula 3 runner-up Théo Pourchaire, who briefly debuted in Formula 2 with HWA Racelab in the final rounds of 2020. He replaced Marcus Armstrong, who left the team to join DAMS.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: MP Motorsport hired FIA Formula 3 graduates Lirim Zendeli and Richard Verschoor. Giuliano Alesi left the team and the series to join Super Formula Lights.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Charouz Racing System fielded a new line-up as Pedro Piquet vacated his seat and left Formula 2 after one year in the series, citing financial reasons. Louis Delétraz also left the team to join the European Le Mans Series. Charouz hired FIA Formula 3 graduate David Beckmann and former Campos driver Guilherme Samaia.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: DAMS parted ways with Sean Gelael, who left Formula 2 after six years in the championship and its predecessor GP2 Series to join the World Endurance Championship. The team hired former Trident driver Roy Nissany to partner Marcus Armstrong.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Campos Racing hired Ralph Boschung, who deputised for the team at the final round of the 2020 season and previously raced for them in . Boschung was signed alongside reigning Formula Regional European champion Gianluca Petecof. Jack Aitken left the team to compete in the GT World Challenge Europe series.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: HWA Racelab entered a new driver line-up with FIA Formula 3 graduates Matteo Nannini and Alessio Deledda. Nannini will combine his Formula 2 campaign with a second season in FIA Formula 3. Artem Markelov left the team and the series after seven years in Formula 2 and GP2.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Matteo Nannini left HWA Racelab and the championship after the first round, citing sponsorship reasons and his desire to focus on his FIA Formula 3 campaign. He was replaced by former Campos driver Jack Aitken for the following three rounds.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Nannini returned to the championship for the third round at the Baku City Circuit, replacing Campos driver Gianluca Petecof who left the team for budgetary reasons.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: David Beckmann left Charouz Racing System prior to the fifth round at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, citing his financial situation. Enzo Fittipaldi was promoted from Charouz's FIA Formula 3 outfit to replace him. Beckmann was then hired by Campos to replace Matteo Nannini. The round also saw Jake Hughes join HWA Racelab in place of the injured Jack Aitken.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: The seventh round at Jeddah Corniche Circuit saw four drivers promoted from the 2021 FIA Formula 3 Championship to make their Formula 2 debuts. Williams Driver Academy member Logan Sargeant replaced Jake Hughes at HWA Racelab and Olli Caldwell took David Beckmann's seat at Campos. MP Motorsport featured an all-new lineup, hiring FIA Formula 3 runner up Jack Doohan and third-place finisher Clément Novalak to replace Richard Verschoor and Lirim Zendeli, both of whom left the team for financial reasons.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Jake Hughes returned to HWA Racelab for the final round of the championship at Yas Marina Circuit, replacing Logan Sargeant. Charouz Racing System driver Enzo Fittipaldi was ruled out of the final round due to injuries suffered in a crash during the Jeddah feature race. Richard Verschoor returned to the championship to replace him.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: A provisional calendar was published in November 2020. An updated version due to the postponement of the 2021 Australian Grand Prix, which required several Grands Prix to change dates, was revealed in January 2021.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: As a consequence of cost-cutting measures, the Formula 2 and Formula 3 championships adopted a new format. The two championships alternated between Grands Prix meetings and didn't appear together on the support race bill. Although this reduced the number of rounds, both championships ran three races at a Grand Prix instead of two, keeping the overall number of races the same as in previous years. The format change was designed to cut costs for teams competing in both championships by allowing them to rotate staff between each championship.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: As the 2020 championship was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 calendar featured substantial revisions:


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: The Circuit Zandvoort had been included on the 2020 calendar, but was removed from the schedule in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was initially expected that the round would feature on the 2021 calendar, but it was not included on the provisional calendar. The circuit was included on the Formula 3 calendar instead.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: The weekend format was changed with two sprint races held on Saturday and the feature race with mandatory pit stop on Sunday. Qualifying determined the grid of the feature race and the first sprint race; the grid for the first sprint race was set by reversing the top ten qualifying positions. The grid of the second race was formed by results of the first sprint race, with top ten finishers reversed. The addition of a third race to the weekend schedule saw teams provided with an extra set of tyres.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Guanyu Zhou set the fastest time in qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit, giving him pole position for the feature race. Théo Pourchaire started the first sprint race from pole position by virtue of qualifying 10th, but he lost the lead to Liam Lawson at the first corner and later retired with mechanical issues. Lawson held the lead for the rest of the race to claim victory on his Formula 2 debut.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: sprint race from pole position after finishing the first race in 10th place, but was overtaken by Zhou in the early laps. The safety car was brought out after Lawson and Felipe Drugovich collided, and a number of drivers elected to make a pit stop. Oscar Piastri, who started the race in sixth place, took the lead on the final lap to achieve his first Formula 2 race win. Second-placed Christian Lundgaard was demoted to ninth by a penalty for colliding with Lirim Zendeli, but was later reinstated to the podium after it emerged he had served his penalty during his pit stop.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Lundgaard took the lead of the feature race at the first corner from pole-sitter Zhou, but was later overtaken by Piastri. A safety car caused by Gianluca Petecof's fire extinguisher deploying allowed Marcus Armstrong to take the lead after all drivers had completed their mandatory pit stops. The lead then passed between Piastri and Richard Verschoor before Zhou, who was in sixth place after the pit stop phase, reclaimed first position with four laps remaining. Piastri was then eliminated from the race after colliding with Dan Ticktum. Zhou took the chequered flag to claim his first feature race victory in Formula 2. Zhou led the championship after the first round by 11 points over second-placed Liam Lawson.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Théo Pourchaire was fastest in qualifying at the Circuit de Monaco, with Guanyu Zhou starting the opening sprint race from pole position. Christian Lundgaard challenged for the lead until an engine failure halfway into the race forced his retirement, allowing Zhou to take his second consecutive race victory.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: The second sprint race was run in wet track conditions. A pre-race engine issue forced pole-sitter Marcus Armstrong to start the race from the pit lane. Liam Lawson therefore started from the front, but lost the lead to Oscar Piastri at the first corner before retaking first place a few laps later. UNI-Virtuosi were the only team to change to dry-weather tyres, but Zhou and Felipe Drugovich lost large amounts of time before pitting again and returning to wet-weather tyres. Lawson crossed the finish line first, but was later disqualified for a technical infringement. Dan Ticktum, who had earlier passed Piastri for second place, was awarded the victory.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Pole-sitter Pourchaire controlled the feature race to become the youngest driver to win an FIA Formula 2 race. Robert Shwartzman had qualified and ran in second place before a slow pit stop dropped him out of the podium positions. Ticktum was forced into retirement in the closing laps after coming to a halt whilst battling Piastri for third place. After the second round, Zhou had extended his lead in the championship to 16 points over second-placed Piastri.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Liam Lawson set the fastest qualifying time at the Baku City Circuit and Robert Shwartzman started the first race from pole position. Shwartzman controlled the race to take his first podium and victory of the season, whilst Lawson and Oscar Piastri were eliminated on the first lap due to an accident caused by Felipe Drugovich. The podium was completed by Dan Ticktum, who had overtaken four cars throughout the race, including third-placed finisher Guanyu Zhou.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Bent Viscaal started the second race, the 100th FIA Formula 2 race, on pole position. Six drivers retired from the race, including championship leader Zhou after colliding with Ticktum at the first corner. David Beckmann took the lead from Viscaal early on, but was later passed by Jüri Vips, who claimed his first Formula 2 race win. Lawson, Piastri and Ticktum all recovered to score points after being at the back of the grid on the opening lap.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Vips took the lead of the feature race from Lawson at the first corner. Vips' frontrunning rivals were unable to challenge him due to penalties and collisions; Lawson was issued a time penalty for an aggressive defence against Théo Pourchaire, and Ticktum was penalised after a collision that eliminated Marcus Armstrong and Pourchaire from the race. Pourchaire was later taken to hospital with a fractured arm. Second-placed Piastri was later handed a time penalty for an unsafe release in the pits. Vips took the chequered flag to claim his second consecutive victory. Despite failing to score in the feature or second sprint races, Zhou maintained the lead of the championship after the third round, albeit with his advantage over Piastri cut to five points.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Oscar Piastri topped qualifying at Silverstone Circuit and Christian Lundgaard started on reverse-grid pole position for the first sprint race. Robert Shwartzman, who started the race in fourth place, took the lead before the first corner and held his position to take his second win of the season. Guanyu Zhou spun on the first lap and retired from the race, allowing Piastri to take the championship lead.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Richard Verschoor started on pole position for the second sprint race and controlled the race to claim his first Formula 2 victory. The race was interrupted by two safety car periods, the first coming after a heavy collision between Alessio Deledda and Ralph Boschung. Marcus Armstrong finished second to claim his first podium finish of the season.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Zhou took the lead of the feature race from pole-sitter Piastri before the first corner. Dan Ticktum later passed Piastri during the pit stops, and Piastri successfully defended third place after battling Verschoor on the final lap. Piastri held the championship lead at the conclusion of the fourth round, five points ahead of Zhou.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Oscar Piastri took a second pole position in qualifying at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, beating Jehan Daruvala by 0.041 seconds. David Beckmann took reverse-grid pole position for the opening sprint race but lost the lead to Jüri Vips at the first corner. The race was interrupted by a safety car due to a collision between Dan Ticktum and Felipe Drugovich. Vips was later passed by Théo Pourchaire who took his second Formula 2 victory.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Beckmann again claimed reverse-grid pole position for the second sprint race, but was again passed at the first corner, this time by Daruvala. Daruvala controlled the race to take his first win of the season. The podium was completed by Bent Viscaal, who claimed Trident's first ever Formula 2 podium finish, and Robert Shwartzman.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Pole-sitter Piastri maintained his lead at the start of the feature race. The safety car was deployed after Vips stopped on track with a mechanical issue and Ticktum took the lead by electing not to make a pit stop. A second safety car period came later in the race when Liam Lawson broke down, allowing Piastri to regain the lead as Ticktum pitted. Ticktum moved from tenth place up to third in the closing laps with his fresh tyres, however his progress was halted as the race ended under the safety car due to a collision between Beckmann and Viscaal. This ensured Piastri would take his first Formula 2 feature race victory to extend his championship lead to 15 points over Guanyu Zhou.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Oscar Piastri took yet another pole position beating Jehan Daruvala yet again. Sprint Race 1 was postponed to Sprint Race 2 timing and Sprint Race 2 was cancelled due to heavy rains. Dan Ticktum took reverse grid pole and controlled the race from start to finish, leading Juri Vips and Robert Shwartzman, while the top 2 in the championship did not score points at all.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Oscar Piastri took his second consecutive Feature Race to extend his championship lead. He led Pouchaire and Daruvala. Daruvala pressured Boschung into a lock-up taking the place. Championship contender Zhou only finished sixth.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Points were awarded to the top eight classified finishers in the Sprint races, and to the top ten classified finishers in the Feature race. The pole-sitter in the feature race also received four points, and two points were given to the driver who set the fastest lap in both the feature and sprint races if that driver finished inside the top ten. No point was awarded if the fastest lap time was achieved by a driver who was classified outside the top ten. No extra points were awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint races as the grid for the first sprint race was set by reversing the top ten qualifiers and the grid for the second sprint race was based on the results of the first race.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Points were awarded to the top eight classified finishers, excluding the fastest lap points which were given to the top ten classified finishers.


title: 2021 Formula 2 Championship

text: Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers. Bonus points were awarded to the pole-sitter and to the driver who set the fastest lap and finished in the top ten.


title: Psychological operations (United States)

text: Psychological operations (PSYOP) are operations to convey selected information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.


text: The purpose of United States psychological operations is to induce or reinforce behavior perceived to be favorable to U.S. objectives. They are an important part of the range of diplomatic, informational, military and economic activities available to the U.S. They can be utilized during both peacetime and conflict. There are three main types: strategic, operational and tactical. Strategic PSYOP include informational activities conducted by the U.S. government agencies outside of the military arena, though many utilize Department of Defense (DOD) assets. Operational PSYOP are conducted across the range of military operations, including during peacetime, in a defined operational area to promote the effectiveness of the joint force commander's (JFC) campaigns and strategies. Tactical PSYOP are conducted in the area assigned to a tactical commander across the range of military operations to support the tactical mission against opposing forces.


text: PSYOP can encourage popular discontent with the opposition's leadership and by combining persuasion with a credible threat, degrade an adversary's ability to conduct or sustain military operations. They can also disrupt, confuse, and protract the adversary's decision-making process, undermining command and control. When properly employed, PSYOP have the potential to save the lives of friendly or enemy forces by reducing the adversary's will to fight. By lowering the adversary's morale and then its efficiency, PSYOP can also discourage aggressive actions by creating disaffection within their ranks, ultimately leading to surrender.


text: Between 2010 and 2014, PSYOP was renamed Military Information Support Operations (MISO), then briefly renamed PSYOP in August 2014, only to return to MISO shortly thereafter in 2015. The term was again renamed back to PSYOP in October 2017.


text: PSYOP involves the careful creation and dissemination of a product message. There are three types of products that are used to create these messages. They include White products which are used in overt operations and Gray or Black products which are used in covert PSYOP. White, Gray, and Black don't refer to the product's content but rather the methods used to carry out the operation.


text: In order for PSYOP to be successful they must be based in reality. All messages must be consistent and must not contradict each other. Any gap between the product and reality will be quickly noticed. A credible "truth" must be presented which is consistent to all audiences. Primarily it is a component of offensive counterinformation but can be used defensively as well.


text: PSYOP are used in support of special operations, unconventional warfare, and counterinsurgency (COIN) operations. PSYOP can include military operations other than warfare and also include joint operations. They include counterterrorism operations, peace operations, noncombatant evacuation, enforcement of sanctions and maritime interception operations, strikes and raids, etc.


text: White PSYOP is attributable to PSYOP as a source. White is acknowledged as an official statement or act of the U.S. government, or emanates from a source associated closely enough with the U.S. government to reflect an official viewpoint. The information should be true and factual. It also includes all output identified as coming from U.S. official sources.


text: Authorized to engage in white activity directed at foreign audiences are: The State Department, USIA, the Foreign Operations Administration (a predecessor of the Agency for International Development), the Defense Department and other U.S. government departments and agencies as necessary.


text: The source of the gray PSYOP product is deliberately ambiguous. According to a 2007 State Department from the Historian of the Department of State:


text: The true source (U.S. Government) is not revealed to the target audience. The activity engaged in plausibly appears to emanate from a non-official American source, or an indigenous, non-hostile source, or there may be no attribution.


text: Gray information is information whose content is such that the effect will be increased if the hand of the U.S. Government and in some cases any American participation are not revealed. It is simply a means for the U.S. to present viewpoints which are in the interest of U.S. foreign policy, but which will be acceptable or more acceptable to the intended target audience than an official government statement will be.


text: The activity engaged in appears to emanate from a source (government, party, group, organization, person) usually hostile in nature. The interest of the U.S. government is concealed and the U.S. government would deny responsibility. It is best used in support of strategic plans.


text: Covert PSYOP is not a function of the U.S. military but instead is used in special operations due to their political sensitivity and need for higher level compartmentalization. Further, black PSYOP, to be credible, may need to disclose sensitive material, with the damage caused by information disclosure considered to be outweighed by the impact of successful deception. In order to achieve maximum results and to prevent the compromise of overt PSYOP, overt and covert operations need to be kept separate. Personnel involved in one must not be engaged in the other.


text: PSYOP conveys messages via visual, audio, and audiovisual media. Military psychological operations, at the tactical level, are usually delivered by loudspeaker, and face to face communication. For more deliberate campaigns, they may use leaflets, radio or television. Strategic operations may use radio or television broadcasts, various publications, airdropped leaflets, or, as part of a covert operation, with material placed in foreign news media.


text: Before these steps can occur, intelligence analysts must profile potential targets in order to determine which ones it would be most beneficial to target. In order to figure this out, analysts must determine the vulnerabilities of these groups and what they would be susceptible to. The analysts also determine the attitudes of the targets toward the current situation, their complaints, ethnic origin, frustrations, languages, problems, tensions, attitudes, motivations, and perceptions, and so on. Once the appropriate target(s) have been determined, the PSYOP can be created.


text: Psychological operations should be planned carefully, in that even a tactical message, with modern news media, can spread worldwide and be treated as the policy of the United States. The U.S. Army is responsible for military psychological warfare doctrine. See the World War I section for an example of how a tactical leaflet, not properly coordinated, can cause national-level harm.


text: The message to be delivered can be adapted to tactical situations, but promises made must be consistent with national policy.


text: U.S. PSYOP forces are generally forbidden to attempt to change the opinions of "U.S. persons" (citizens, residents, or legal entities), in any location globally. However, commanders may use PSYOP forces to provide public information to U.S. audiences during times of disaster or crisis. Information support to a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) by PSYOP forces to provide evacuation information to U.S. and third-country nationals would also adhere to the order. The use of PSYOP forces to deliver necessary public information to a U.S. audience was established in relief activities after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Tactical Psychological Operations teams (TPTs) were employed to disseminate information by loudspeaker on locations of relief shelters and facilities.


text: During such Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) operations, military public affairs activities, military civil authority information support (CAIS) activities, public information actions, and news media access to the DSCA operational area are subject to approval by the federal department or agency assigned primary responsibility for managing and coordinating a specific emergency support function in the National Response Framework. Since October 2018, PSYOP forces may be employed domestically for such CAIS activities during an emergency under direction of the Department of Homeland Security. In such instances,


text: As an example of the use of PSYOP in a humanitarian relief operation Major General Anthony Zinni, Director of Operations for Unified Task Force Somalia, said


text: Psychological operations were a key Battlefield Operating System used extensively to support Unified Task Force (UNITAF) Somalia operations. In order to maximize the PSYOP impact, we established a Joint PSYOP Task Force under the supervision of the Director of Operations, integrated PSYOP into all plans and operations, and limited the PSYOP focus to the operational and tactical levels. Psychological operations do not accomplish missions alone. They work best when they are combined with and integrated in an overall theater campaign plan. In Operation RESTORE HOPE, we were successful in doing that.


text: An emerging field of Strategic Psychological Operations is the "Battle of the Narratives". The battle of the narrative is a full-blown battle in the cognitive dimension of the information environment, just as traditional warfare is fought in the physical domains (air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace). One of the foundational struggles, in warfare in the physical domains, is to shape the environment such that the contest of arms will be fought on terms that are to your advantage. Likewise, a key component of the “Battle of the Narrative” is to succeed in establishing the reasons for and potential outcomes of the conflict, on terms favorable to your efforts.


text: The majority of U.S. military psychological operations units are in the Army. White PSYOP can come from the Voice of America or regional radio/TV. Central Intelligence Agency units are apt to have responsibility, on a strategic level, for black and some gray PSYOP. White PSYOP, especially at the strategic level, comes from the Voice of America or United States Information Agency.


text: In the United States Department of Defense, Psychological Operations units exist as the Army's 4th Psychological Operations Group, 8th Psychological Operations Group and Air Force with COMMANDO SOLO units under the Air Force Special Operations Command's 193rd Special Operations Wing. The United States Navy also plans and executes limited PSYOP missions.


text: United States PSYOP units and soldiers of all branches of the military are prohibited by law from conducting PSYOP missions on domestic audiences. While PSYOP soldiers may offer non-PSYOP related support to domestic military missions, PSYOP can only target foreign audiences. It is worth noting that this does not rule out PSYOP targeting foreign audiences of allied nations. In the Information Operations Roadmap made public January 2006 but originally approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003, it stated "information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa."


text: Until shortly after the start of the war on terror, the Army's Psychological Operations elements were administratively organized alongside Civil Affairs to form the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (USACAPOC), forming a part of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC).


text: In May 2006 the USCAPOC was reorganized to instead fall under the Army reserve command, and all active duty PSYOP elements were placed directly into USASOC. While reserve PSYOP forces no longer belong to USASOC, that command retains control of PSYOP doctrine. Operationally, PSYOP individuals and organizations support Army and Joint maneuver forces or interagency organizations.


text: Army Psychological Operations provide support to operations ranging from strategic planning down to tactical employment.


text: PSYOP Units generally support Corps sized elements. Tactical Psychological Operations Companies typically support Division sized elements, with Tactical Control through G-3. Brigades are typically supported by a Tactical PSYOP Detachment. The PSYOP Commander maintains Operational Control of PSYOP elements, advises the Commander and General Staff on the psychological battlespace.


text: The smallest organizational PSYOP element is the Tactical PSYOP Team (TPT). A TPT generally consists of a PSYOP team chief (Staff Sergeant or Sergeant), an assistant team chief (Sergeant or Specialist), and an additional soldier to serve as a gunner and to operate the speaker system (Specialist). A team is equipped with a Humvee fitted with a loud speaker, and often works with a local translator indigenous to the host or occupied country.


text: Generally, each maneuver battalion-sized element in a theater of war or operational area has at least one TPT attached to it.


text: All active duty PSYOP soldiers must initially volunteer for Psychological Operations Assessment and Selection, held year-round at Camp Mackall. Upon selection for Psychological Operations, Soldiers then enter the Psychological Operations Qualification Course (POQC) or "Q-Course" consisting of Special Operations Language training, advance cultural and regional studies, MOS specific training, special operations particular training along with a culmination exercise which incorporates and validates the new skillsets attained by the Soldier.


text: At the conclusion of the POQC the new PSYOP Soldier is typically assigned to either 4th Psychological Operations Group or 8th Psychological Operations Group. Certain reserve soldiers serving in units designated as Airborne are also required to attend Airborne training, while language training and Airborne qualification for PSYOP soldiers assigned to non-Airborne units is awarded on a merit and need basis.


text: A U.S. Army field manual released in January 2013 states that "Inform and Influence Activities" are critical for describing, directing, and leading military operations. Several Army Division leadership staff are assigned to “planning, integration and synchronization of designated information-related capabilities."


text: The 4th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne), based at Fort Bragg, was historically the only active duty PSYOP unit in the United States Army, until the August 26th, 2011 activation of 8th Psychological Operations Group (Airborne). The 2nd and the 7th Psychological Operations Groups are in the Army Reserve.


text: The Navy provides support to Joint PSYOP programs by providing assets (such as broadcast platforms using shortwave and very high frequency (VHF) frequencies) for the production and dissemination of PSYOP materials. With the ability of naval vessels (especially the larger task forces) to produce audio-visual materials the Navy can often produce PSYOP products for use in denied areas. Leaflets are dropped utilizing the PDU-5B dispenser unit (aka Leaflet Bomb). The Navy coordinates extensively with the Army as the majority of PSYOP assets reside within USASOC. PSYOP planning and execution is coordinated through the Naval Network Warfare Command (NETWARCOM) and the Naval Information Operations Command (NIOC), both located in Norfolk, VA.


text: The U.S. Navy possesses the capability to produce audiovisual products in the Fleet Audiovisual Command, Pacific; the Fleet Imagery Command, Atlantic; the Fleet Combat Camera Groups; Naval Imaging Command; various film libraries; and limited capability from ships and aircraft of the fleet. A Naval Reserve PSYOP audiovisual unit supports the Atlantic Fleet. Navy personnel assets have the capability to produce documents, posters, articles, and other material suitable for PSYOP. Administrative capabilities exist ashore and afloat that prepare and produce various quantities of printed materials. Language capabilities exist in naval intelligence and among naval personnel for most European and Asian languages.


text: The Fleet Tactical Readiness Group provides equipment and technical maintenance support to conduct civil radio broadcasts and broadcast jamming in the amplitude modulation frequency band. This unit is not trained to produce PSYOP products and must be augmented with PSYOP personnel or linguists when necessary. The unit is capable of being fully operational within 48 hours of receipt of tasking. The unit's equipment consists of a 10.6 kW AM band broadcast radio transmitter; a broadcast studio van; antenna tuner; two antennas (a pneumatically raised top-loaded antenna mast and a wire helium balloon antenna); and a 30 kW generator that provides power to the system.


text: The Air National Guard provides support for Psychological Operations using a modified C-130 Hercules aircraft named "EC-130 COMMANDO SOLO", operated by the 193d Special Operations Wing. The purpose of COMMANDO SOLO is to provide an aerial platform for broadcast media on both television and radio. The media broadcast is created by various agencies and organizations. As part of the broader function of information operations, COMMANDO SOLO can also jam the enemy's broadcasts to his own people, or his psychological warfare broadcasting.


text: The Commando Solo aircraft currently is the only stand-off, high-altitude means available to PSYOP forces to disseminate information to large denied areas. Two orbits were established during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, one in the northern area and one in the southern part of the country, both far enough from harm’s way to keep the aircraft out of reach of potential enemy attack. At their operational altitude of and assuming clear channels, these aircraft can transmit radio and TV signals approximately , which does not reach the objective areas near Baghdad. Straightforward physics dictate the range, given the power installed and the antenna configuration and assuming clear channels.


text: The enhanced altitude capability of the Commando Solo EC–130J (now funded) is increasing transmitter range. While this is an improvement over 130E capability, it is a small step, since the increase in altitude is only 7,000 feet (less than 50 percent) and the range increase is governed by a square root function (that is, a 14 percent increase in range).


text: A challenge to COMMANDO SOLO is the increasing use of cable television, which will not receive signals from airborne, ground, or any other transmitters that the cable operator does not want to connect to the system. At best, in the presence of cable TV, COMMANDO SOLO may be able to jam enemy broadcasts that are not, themselves, transmitted by cable.


text: Psychological operations was assigned to the pre-CIA Office of Policy Coordination, with oversight by the Department of State. The overall psychological operations of the United States, overt and covert, were to be under the policy direction of the U.S. Department of State during peacetime and the early stages of war:


text: After the OPC was consolidated into the CIA, there has been a psychological operations staff, under various names, in what has variously been named the Deputy Directorate of Plans, the Directorate of Operations, or the National Clandestine Service.


text: The career field is fairly new. It was only in the summer of 2018 that the Marine Corps created the new Military Occupational Specialty (MOS). The aim of PSYOP Marines (0521) is to influence target audiences and advise higher officers and partner forces on cultural considerations to ensure mission success. Candidates will have to complete the Army’s Psychological Qualification Operations Course. The qualification course includes classes in psychology, sociology, cultural training blocks, language training, and human dynamics training, among other training components.


text: The Commandant of the Marine Corps has placed a renewed emphasis on operating in the information environment. The Marine Corps seeks to meet this demand by building a capability to influence target audiences and to advise staffs and partners on cultural considerations to achieve tactical and operational objectives. Information Operations (IO) includes all actions taken to affect enemy information and information systems while defending friendly information and information systems. IO is focused on the adversary’s key decision-makers and is conducted during all phases of an operation, across the range of military operations, and at every level. IO, in planning and execution, seeks to coordinate and integrate MAGTF actions and communications and enhance all MAGTF Operations. PSYOP conveys selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign organizations, groups, and individuals in a manner favorable to the commander’s objectives. PSYOP enables the Marine Corps to understand and achieve effects in the information environment. PSYOP Marines are primarily responsible for the analysis of cultural factors, as well as the development and distribution of products used to cause informational and psychological effects. PSYOP researches and determines effective methods of influencing foreign populations from a variety of information sources. PSYOP Marines operate and maintain a variety of message dissemination equipment. Interpersonal communication skills, interest in foreign cultures and languages, and the ability to analyze and organize information are required. PSYOP Marines build rapport with key leaders in unfamiliar surroundings.


text: PSYOP Marines enable the Marine Corps to achieve targeted effects in the information environment (IE) by conducting Military Information Support Operations (MISO), providing Civil Authorities Information Support (CAIS), or supporting Military Deception (MILDEC). MISO are missions that convey selected information and indicators to foreign organizations, groups, and individuals to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately their behavior in a manner favorable to the Commander’s objectives.


text: During World War I, the Propaganda Sub-Section was established under the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) Military Intelligence Branch within the Executive Division of the General Staff in early 1918. Although they produced most propaganda, the AEF Propaganda Sub-Section did not produce a few of the leaflets. General Pershing is supposed to have personally composed Leaflet “Y,” Austria Is Out of the War, which was run off on First Army presses, but distributed by the Propaganda Sub-Section. That Sub-Section, perhaps reflecting some professional jealousy, thought the leaflet sound in principle, but too prolix and a little too “brotherly.” Corps and Army presses issued several small leaflet editions containing a “news flash,” after the Sub-Section had approved their content. But in one or two cases that approval was not obtained, and in one unfortunate example a leaflet in Romanian committed the Allies and the United States to the union of all Romanians in Austria-Hungary with Romania. Such geopolitics was emphatically not the job of AEF propaganda and had the potential to cause serious embarrassment.


text: There was extensive use of psychological operations in World War II, from the strategic to the tactical. National-level white propaganda was the responsibility of the Office of War Information, while black propaganda was most often the responsibility of the Morale Operations branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).


text: Psychological operations planning started before the U.S. entry into the war, with the creation of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs (OCIAA), under Nelson Rockefeller, with the responsibility for psychological operations targeted at Latin America. Special operations and intelligence concerning Latin America was a bureaucratic problem throughout the war. Where the OSS eventually had most such responsibilities, the FBI had its own intelligence system in Latin America.


text: On 11 July 1941, William Donovan was named the Coordinator of Information, which subsequently became the OSS. At first, there was a unit called the Foreign Information Service inside COI, headed by Robert Sherwood, which produced white propaganda outside Latin America.


text: To deal with some of the bureaucratic problems, the Office of War Information (OWl) was created with Elmer Davis as director. FIS, still under Sherwood, became the Overseas Branch of OWl, dealing in white propaganda. The OSS was created at the same time. Donovan obtained considerable help from the British, especially with black propaganda, from the British Political Warfare Executive (PWE), part of the Ministry of Economic Warfare. PWE was a sister organization to the Special Operations Executive, which conducted guerrilla warfare. The British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also known as MI6), was an essentially independent organization. For the U.S., the OSS included the functions of SIS and SOE, and the black propaganda work of PWE.


text: The OSS Morale Operations (MO) branch was the psychological operations arm of the OSS. In general, its units worked on a theater-by-theater basis, without a great deal of central coordination. It was present in most theaters, with the exception of the Southwest Pacific theater under Douglas MacArthur, who was hostile to the OSS.


text: The OSS was responsible for strategic propaganda, while the military commanders had operational and tactical responsibility. Dwight Eisenhower was notably supportive of psychological operations, had psychological warfare organization in the staff of all his commands, and worked with OSS and OWI. The military did theater-level white propaganda, although the black propaganda function varied, often carried out by joint U.S.-UK organizations.


text: For the first time in U.S. history, American psywarriors employed electronic psywar in the field, in September 1944. Engineers of the 1st Radio Section of the 1st MRBC recorded POW interviews for front- line broadcasts, and reproduced the sound effects of vast numbers of tanks and other motor vehicles for Allied armored units in attempts to mislead German intelligence and lower enemy morale.


text: The U.S. engaged in major worldwide radio broadcasts to contain communism, through Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.


text: Psychological operations were used extensively during the Korean War. The first unit, the 1st Loudspeaker and Leaflet Company, was sent to Korea in fall 1950. Especially for the operations directed against troops of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK; North Korea), it was essential to work with Republic of Korea (ROK; South Korea personnel) to develop propaganda with the most effective linguistic and cultural context.


text: Since the war was a United Nations mandated operation, political sensitivities were high. While rules limited mentioning the People's Republic of China or the Soviet Union, first due to fear it would increase their intervention, and later because it might demoralize ROK civilians, Stalin was depicted and Chinese troops were targeted in leafleting.


text: Various methods were used to deliver propaganda, with constraints imposed by exceptionally rugged terrain and that radios were relatively uncommon among DPRK and PRC troops. Loudspeaker teams often had to get dangerously close to enemy positions. Artillery and light aircraft delivered leaflets on the front lines, while heavy bombers dropped leaflets in the rear. Over 2.5 billion leaflets were dropped over North Korea during the war. There was a somewhat artificial distinction made between strategic and tactical leaflets: rather than differentiating by the message, tactical leaflets were delivered within of the front lines and strategic leaflets were those delivered farther away.


text: Less direct and immediate correlation between tactical PSYOP efforts and target audience behavior may still be substantiated after the fact, especially by means of polling and interviews. For example, in the Korean War, approximately one-third of the total prisoner of war (POW) population polled by the United Nations (UN) forces claimed to have surrendered at least in part because of the propaganda leaflets. The contributions of PSYOP in the first Persian Gulf War have also been corroborated through POW interviews. Ninety-eight percent of the 87,000 POWs captured either possessed or had seen PSYOP leaflets that provided them with instructions on how to approach U.S. troops to surrender. Fifty-eight percent of the prisoners interviewed claimed to have heard coalition radio broadcasts, and 46 percent believed that the coalition broadcasts were truthful despite coming from their enemy. Again, some portion of the surrenders might have occurred even without PSYOP encouragement; but certainly, there would appear to be a correlation between PSYOP, which offered the enemy a way to escape the onslaught of U.S. military power, and their compliance with those instructions.


text: One such operation, is Operation Moolah. The objective of the psychological operation was to target Communist pilots to defect to South Korea with a MiG-15, in order for the U.S. to conduct analysis of the capabilities of the MiG.


text: Some leafleting of North Korea was resumed after the Korean War, such as in the Cold War "Operation Jilli" from 1964 to 1968.


text: The CIA's operation to overthrow the Government of Guatemala in 1954 marked an early zenith in the Agency's long record of covert action. Following closely on two successful operations, one of which was the installation of the Shah as ruler of Iran in August 1953, the Guatemalan operation, known as PBSuccess, was both more ambitious and more thoroughly successful than either precedent. Rather than helping a prominent contender gain power with a few inducements, PBSuccess used an intensive paramilitary and psychological campaign to replace a popular, elected government with a political non-entity. In method scale and conception it had no antecedent, and its triumph confirmed the belief of many in the Eisenhower Administration that covert operations offered a safe, inexpensive substitute for armed force in resisting what they declared was Communist inroad in the Third World.


text: Psychological operations were extensively used in Vietnam, with white propaganda under the United States Information Agency and Military Assistance Command Vietnam, and grey and black propaganda under the Central Intelligence Agency and the Studies and Observation Group.


text: As early as August 1964, almost one year before the activation of the Joint U.S. Public Affairs Office (JUSPAO), General William Westmoreland told a CA and PSYOP conference that “psychological warfare and civic action are the very essence of the counterinsurgency campaign here in Vietnam…you cannot win this war by military means alone.” Westmoreland’s successor, Creighton Abrams, is known to have sent down guidelines to the 4th Psychological Operations Group that resulted in the drawing up of no fewer than 17 leaflets along those lines. In fact, the interest in PSYOP went all the way up to the Presidency; weekly reports from JUSPAO were sent to the White House, as well as to the Pentagon and the Ambassador in Saigon. In sum, it is a myth that the United States, stubbornly fixated on a World War II-style conventional war, was unaware of the "other war."


text: During the Vietnam era, the organization of the 4th Psychological Operations Group was very different. The four battalions of the group were divided by geographic region rather than area of expertise as they are now.


text: The A company of each battalion consisted of a "command section", S-1, S-2, S-3, and a Psyop Development Center (PDC). Additionally, they generally had extensive printing facilities.


text: The B companies consisted of the field teams that were stationed throughout their respective corps billeted with MACV teams and combat units.


text: The CIA wrote a manual for right-wing rebels—the Contras—entitled "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla Warfare" in order to bolster their fight against the Marxist Sandinistas.


text: Ola Tunander, a Swedish author, claimed that U.S. submarines as well as other vessels "frequently" and "regularly" operated in the territorial waters of neutral Sweden in the early 1980s, including Stockholm harbor, as part of an elaborate psychological warfare operation whose target was the Swedish people. It is claimed that U.S. operations were conducted by the National Underwater Reconnaissance Office (NURO) and aspects of the operations were coordinated with the secret NATO "stay-behind" network deployed in Sweden. See Strategy of tension and Operation Gladio. It is also claimed that British submarines also participated in such secret operations.


text: Most PSYOP activities and accomplishments in Panama were hardly noticed by either the U.S. public or the general military community. But the special operations community did notice. The lessons learned in Panama were incorporated into standard operating procedures. Where possible, immediate changes were made to capitalize on the PSYOP successes of the Grenada and Panama operations. This led to improved production, performance, and effect in the next contingency, which took place within 6 months after the return of the last PSYOP elements from Panama. Operations [in Iraq] employed PSYOP of an order of magnitude and effectiveness which many credit to the lessons learned from Panama.


text: The broader scope of information operations in Panama included denying the Noriega regime use of their own broadcasting facilities. A direct action mission removed key parts of the transmitters. After-action reports indicate that this action should have had a much higher priority and been done very early in the operation.


text: An unusual technique, developed in real time, was termed the "Ma Bell Mission", or, more formally, capitulation missions. There were a number of Panamian strongpoints that continued to have telephone access. By attaching Spanish-speaking Special Forces personnel to a combat unit that would otherwise take the strongpoint by force, the Spanish-speaking personnel would phone the Panamian commander, tell him to put away his weapons and assemble his men on the parade ground, or face lethal consequences. Because of the heavy reliance on telephones, these missions were nicknamed "Ma Bell" operations. "During this ten day period, TF BLACK elements were instrumental in the surrender of 14 cuartels (strongpoints), almost 2,000 troops, and over 6,000 weapons without a single U.S. casualty. Several high-ranking cronies of Manuel Noriega who were on the "most wanted" list were also captured in Ma Bell operations.


text: Psychological operations sometimes are intimately linked to combat operations, with the use of force driving home the propaganda mission. During the Panamanian operation, it was necessary. In Ft. Amador, an installation shared by the U.S. and Panamanian Defence Forces (PDF). There were U.S. dependents at the installation, but security considerations prevented evacuating them before the attack. Concern for U.S. citizens, and rules of engagement (ROE) that directed casualties be minimized, PSYOP loudspeaker teams, from the 1st Bn, 4th PSYOP Gp, became a key asset. When the PDF did not surrender after initial appeals, the message changed, with the tactical commander warning "that resistance was hopeless in the face of overwhelming firepower and a series of demonstrations took place, escalating from small arms to 105 mm howitzer rounds. Subsequent broadcasts convinced the PDF to give up. The entire process allowed Ft. Amador to be secured with few casualties and minimal damage."


text: Psychological operations were particularly valuable during the Gulf War due to the reluctance of many in the Iraqi military to engage in combat. Through leaflets and loudspeaker broadcasts, PSYOP forces walked many enemy soldiers through successful surrender.


text: Coalition forces worked extensively with Saudi, Kuwaiti, and other partners, to be sure psychological operations were culturally and linguistically appropriate.


text: One unusual technique employed during the Gulf War was dropping leaflets in advance of a strike. These leaflets informed the Iraqi soldiers that they would be bombed the next day by B-52 bombers, and urged them to surrender and save their own lives. The subsequent bombings were then performed in a way that did not necessarily maximize casualties. Subsequently, another set of leaflets were dropped, saying the promise was kept and the survivors should surrender to save themselves. Afterwards, this technique would be employed on other units, telling them the specific unit that had been bombed the previous day.


text: Following the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords in 1995, active duty PSYOP units reinforced with US Army reserve personnel deployed to Bosnia in support of NATO Peace Implementation Forces (IFOR). Elements of the 6th PSYOP Battalion served as the "Headquarters, Coalition Joint IFOR Information Campaign" (IFOR-CJIIC) at Sarajevo, initially operating out of the former Zetra Olympic Stadium. Security at Sarajevo was provided by British, French, Italian and Turkish conventional military forces, who had been operating there under United Nations control until NATO initiated operations. Elements of the 3rd PSYOP Battalion also deployed to Sarajevo and conducted print, radio and television product development. Elements of the 9th PSYOP Battalion deployed to Tuzla in direct support of the 1st Armored Division conducting media dissemination by radio and handbill.


text: The initial mission was to provide information to military and civilians of all three warring factions (Croat, Bosniak and Serb) helping to restore a peaceful environment with the ultimate goal of saving lives and reducing tensions. The primary means of information dissemination was through radio and television as well as considerable handbill, poster and souvenir distribution such as soccer balls and coloring books. At the start of the mission, PSYOP forces in Sarajevo often came under sniper fire. Although several 6th PSYOP Battalion HUMMWV vehicles were damaged by gunfire, no casualties were sustained. Gunfire incidents largely subsided within the first 90 days of the mission.


text: As the mission continued to develop, PSYOP forces assumed new information support missions focused on educating the civilian population to the considerable danger of landmines and unexploded ordnance littering the countryside. A reporting system was developed for the civilian population similar to 911 in the United States, with the ultimately successful goal of encouraging civilians to report the presence of landmines and unexploded ordnance for safe removal and destruction. The threat was so significant and the civilian casualty rate so alarming that this mission became the major focus. Support was sought and achieved from DC Comics, who produced special editions of Superman comics printed in the Croatian and Serbian dialects, with equal editions printed in Latinic and Cyrillic alphabets for appropriate audiences. German organizations also contributed with print editions of a children's magazine developed in Germany specifically for this mission called "Mirko", a play on the Serbo-Croatian word "mir", meaning "peace".


text: In 2000, it came to light that soldiers from the 4th Psychological Operations Group had been interning at the American news networks Cable News Network (CNN) and National Public Radio (NPR) during the late 1990s. The program was an attempt to provide its PSYOP personnel with the expertise developed by the private sector under its "Training with Industry" program. The program caused concern about the influence these soldiers might have on American news and the programs were terminated.


text: The U.S. Army's Psychological Operations unit placed interns at CNN and NPR in 1998 and 1999. The placements at CNN were reported in the European press in February of this year and the program was terminated. The NPR placements will be reported this week in TV Guide.


text: Arguably the most visible image of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in central Baghdad. Allegations that the event was staged have been published. It is claimed it was actually an idea hatched by an Army psychological operations team. Allegations surfaced that not only were the cheering group of people surrounding the statue in fact smaller than they were made out to be, in media depictions, but that also the group were not local to the area and were instead brought in by the military for the specific purpose of watching and lending credence to the pre-planned toppling.


text: In 2003 Sergeant Mark Hadsell claimed to have used loud music during the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners:


text: On 9 December 2008 the "Associated Press" reported that various musicians were coordinating their objections to the use of their music as a technique for softening up captives through an initiative called Zero dB. However, not all musicians have taken issue with the possibility that their music is being used during interrogations. Stevie Benton of the group Drowning Pool commented supportively:


text: On 1 October 2005 in Gumbad, Afghanistan, soldiers from the 173rd Airborne decided to burn the bodies of two Taliban fighters killed in a firefight the previous day for hygienic reasons. Despite Islamic customs that forbid cremation, they chose to proceed. The platoon leader also failed to properly notify his battalion commander of the decision prior to burning the bodies. When his battalion commander was notified, he ordered the flaming bodies to be extinguished. An official investigation into the incident found evidence of poor decision making, poor judgement, poor reporting, a lack of knowledge and respect for local Afghan custom and tradition. The infantry officer received a general officer letter of reprimand. Reserve PSYOP soldiers were involved because they heard about the incident and used the information to incite Taliban fighters in another area where freelance journalist Stephen Dupont was located. Dupont reported that the PSYOP soldiers claimed the bodies were to be burned due to hygiene concerns.


text: During the War on Terror, U.S. PSYOP teams often broadcast abrasive messages over loudspeakers to try to tempt enemy fighters into direct confrontation, where the Americans have the upper hand. Other times, they use their loudspeaker to convince enemy soldiers to surrender. In the Afghanistan incident, a PSYOP sergeant allegedly broadcast the following message to the Taliban:


text: You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are.


text: U.S. authorities investigated the incident and the two Reserve PSYOP soldiers received administrative punishment for broadcasting messages which were not approved. Investigators found no evidence that the bodies were burned for a psychological effect. They concluded that the broadcast violated standing policies for the content of loudspeaker messages and urged that all soldiers in the command undergo training on Afghan sensitivities.


text: In 2008, "The New York Times" exposed how analysts portrayed in the U.S. news media as independent and objective were in fact under the tutelage of the Pentagon. According to the "NYT": Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance


text: In February 2011, journalist Michael Hastings reported in "Rolling Stone" that Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, the supposed leader of a PSYOP group in Afghanistan, alleged that Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell a three-star General in charge of training troops in Afghanistan, ordered Holmes and his group to perform in-depth research on visiting U.S. congressmen in order to spin presentations and visits. According to Holmes, his team was tasked with "illegally providing themes and messages to influence the people and leadership of the United States."


text: Reported targets included United States Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken, Carl Levin, Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and think-tank analysts. Under the 1948 Smith–Mundt Act, such operations may not be used to target Americans. When Holmes attempted to seek counsel and to protest, he was placed under investigation by the military at the behest of General Caldwell's chief of staff.


text: Caldwell's spokesman, Lt. Col. Shawn Stroud, denied Holmes's assertions, and other unnamed military officials disputed Holmes's claims as false and misleading, saying there are no records of him ever completing any PSYOP training. Subsequently, Holmes conceded that he was not a Psychological Operations officer nor was he in charge of a Psychological Operations unit and acknowledged that Caldwell's orders were "fairly innocuous." Officials say that Holmes spent his time in theater starting a strategic communications business with Maj. Laural Levine, with whom he conducted an improper relationship in Afghanistan. A former aid said, "At no point did Holmes ever provide a product to Gen. Caldwell". General David Petraeus has since ordered an investigation into the alleged incident.


title: Earnings before interest and taxes

text: In accounting and finance, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) is a measure of a firm's profit that includes all incomes and expenses (operating and non-operating) except interest expenses and income tax expenses.


title: Earnings before interest and taxes

text: Operating income and operating profit are sometimes used as a synonym for EBIT when a firm does not have non-operating income and non-operating expenses.


title: Earnings before interest and taxes

text: A professional investor contemplating a change to the capital structure of a firm (e.g., through a leveraged buyout) first evaluates a firm's fundamental earnings potential (reflected by earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and EBIT), and then determines the optimal use of debt versus equity (equity value).


title: Earnings before interest and taxes

text: To calculate EBIT, expenses (e.g. the cost of goods sold, selling and administrative expenses) are subtracted from revenues. Net income is later obtained by subtracting interest and taxes from the result.


title: Earnings before interest and taxes

text: Earnings before taxes (EBT) is the money retained by the firm before deducting the money to be paid for taxes. EBT excludes the money paid for interest. Thus, it can be calculated by subtracting the interest from EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes).