Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-12-31
Listening Posts
(WNU Feature-Through special arrangement
with The American Magazine.)
By Jerome Beaffie

Uncle Sam, the smart old snooper,
notebook in hand, listens today at
keyholes all over the world, and
what he hears is amusing, crafty
ing, infuriating-and likewise very
helpful in outguessing the enemy. He
picks up the gossip in more than Is
languages, from Arabic to Urdu, but
mostly in English, German, and jap
anese. It's all done through radio
listening posts that pick up what the
wild waves are saying.
Uncle Sam hears more than I, $780,
600 words day-what our enemies
are saying to Americans in the
United States, in the South Pacific,
India, China, and the Mediterranean
countries.
He picks up the lies they tell to
South Americans, Hindus, Arabs,
Russians, French, South African ma
tives-to everybody, everywhere.
He hears their official communi-
ques, and, from his own military
knowledge, separates the truth from
the falsehoods. He listens in, too,
on neutrals and semi-neutrals-and
even on his friends, for he wants to
keep up with what the British, Rus
sian, Chinese and Latin Americans
are talking about.
Sixty Enemy Stations.
In the Bible Job cries: my desire
is that mine adversary had written
a book" A radio station operated
by somebody you'd like to destroy
is even more to be desired than a
book, and our adversaries, spouting
almost constantly over about 60 of
them, are unwittingly exposing to
our expert analysts facts that help
us block the enemy's punches and
hit him where it hurts the most
When you enter the offices of the
Foreign Broadcast Intelligence serv-
ice of the Federal Communications
commission, in an old apartment
house on K street in Washington, it's
as if you were in the headquarters
of a great news service. In booths
sit the translators, wearing ear
phones, tipping summaries of radio
programs. Beside them, recording
machines absorb every word.
This mass of material may include
speech by Goebbels, German
claims Of submarine sinkings, at
tacks on American Jews, Japa-
nese program to Americans in the
South Pacific playing recordings of
Old Black Joe and My Bonnie Lies
Over the Ocean Supposed to make
the marines so homesick they won't
fight any more), or German military
orders regarding the distribution of
food in Holland.
Thirty editors select about $4,000
words day and wire them to the
offices of President Roosevelt, to the
top generals and admirals, to the
Office of War Inform alton, which re-
lays items to newspapers, and to 9TH
er departments.
Chart Trends in Lies.
An expert staff charts Axis prop
uganda as Wall Street chart max
er handles corporation reports. Ex-
perience shows that when Germans
and Japanese tell certain lies, GER
tain things are happening, and when
line of argument suddenly
changes, that's clue for pretty
ooolId NSSdNl@oilo'
When the Germans brag about
what they are going to do, if they
really believe they'll be successful
they'll make the announcement Of
ficially in government statement.
If they doubt that they can make
good, the statement is more apt to
be attributed to some outside source.
One analyst told me: "When Fred
erick the Great shows up in Ger
man broadcast, we suspect things
are going badly. The Nazis frequent
ly of late have reminded their peo-
pie of Frederick, who fought against
almost the entire continent of Eu-
rope for seven years, who at times
appeared to be hopelessiy beaten,
but who emerged victorious.
From the careful language of
some German communiques we can
tell that they are losing the battles
that, according to these communi-
ques, are glorious victories. AS long
as they mention fighting in specific
cities, we can assume that they feel
confident in their strength. When
they're losing they are shortening
the 'front.' 'retreating to inner lines,
using an elastic Defense and in
stead of mentioning cities they say
the fighting is in the vicinity of So
and-so' or in the so-and-so sector. y
When the Japanese lose, they often
keep quiet for days, and then burst
out with lie that is so monstrous
it is comic.
Early in the war they announced
that New York had been bombed
twice, and boosted that 1.-THE Amer
lean navy is resting on the bottom
of the Pacific and the Allied forces
are irrevocably split, so that co-ordi-
nation among them is impossible"
Lately Admiral Koga claims to
have sunk SO American warships.
Our naval headquarters says there
have been no important engage
ments for months.