View source for Strategic Communication Laboratories

'''Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL)''' is a London based communications company set up by former advertising executive and old-Etonian [[Nigel Oakes]]. It calls itself, “the leading supplier of strategic communications, information operations and public diplomacy to governments and military clients around the world.” SCL’s approach to propaganda is based upon a methodology developed by the associated [[Behavioural Dynamics Institute]]. This apparently secret methodology was – according to SCL’s website - developed with $20 million funding from SCL’s backers.<ref>Strategic Communication Laboratories, [http://www.scl.cc/article.php?id=2 History], (20 June 2008)</ref>

==Origins of the company==
The company’s website states that SCL was formed in 1993<ref>Strategic Communication Laboratories, [http://www.scl.cc/article.php?id=2 History], (20 June 2008)</ref> although the company was not registered at Companies House until 20 July 2005. In September that year the company officially launched as a military communications company at the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi) arms show at London’s Excel Centre. Reporting the launch, ''The Observer'' called SCL a UK political communications consultancy firm, which it said was ''re-launching'' as a psyops operator.<ref>Oliver Morgan, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/sep/11/theobserver.observerbusiness4 ‘Lobby firm goes to war’], ''The Observer'', 11 September 2005</ref>
What legal personality the company had prior to the 2005 re-launch - if any - is not clear. Companies House lists no former companies under that name although there were several companies affiliated to the founder [[Nigel Oakes]] during the 1990s so perhaps it existed in name only, whilst legally taking the form of a network of offshore entities. It must have existed in some sense because several newspapers in 2000 reported that the company had worked for the Indonesian government. Australia’s ''The Age'' reported at the time that SCL had operated in Indonesia since the final days of the Suharto regime<ref>Simon Mann, ‘PR tweaks president, then folds his tent’, ''The Age'', 7 August 2000</ref> which confirms the company’s existence at least as far back as 1998. What it was, and what it was doing between its purported formation in 1993 and its first appearance in the press in 2000 however is unknown.

==Activities==
SCL is clearly involved in military propaganda operations although few specific details are known of its operations. SCL’s website states that: 

:'The demand for the agency grew out of the failure and frustration many clients experienced when trying to apply traditional marketing techniques to non-commercial issues, such as resolution of wars and civil strife, strike aversion, international crises and riot control.'<ref>SLC Website, [http://www.scl.cc/article.php?id=2 Strategic Communication Laboratories]</ref>

Quoting Abraham Lincoln, the opening page of SCL's website clearly states its objective: 

:"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment nothing can fail. Without it nothing can succeed. He who molds public opinion is greater than he who enacts laws."<ref> SLC Website, [http://www.scl.cc/home.php Strategic Communication Laboratories]</ref>

Here is another, perhaps more methodologically appropriate, quote often attributed to Lincoln:

:You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.<ref>Quote DB [http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/4183 Authors :: Abraham Lincoln], accessed February 2007.</ref>

Who are SCL out to fool and with what, is not immediately obvious from their description of themselves.  They are pioneers of "a new methodology" based on "16 years of academic research and development conducted at 42 universities around the globe."  But what is it?

:"The methodology uses 'scientific techniques' from a variety of social sciences to make ‘communications with groups’ far more effective (and measurable)."

What this scientific methodology ''does'' is enable governments 'and countries' to 'manage their relationships with their key audience groups through more powerful communication.'  SCL offers various solutions based on this methodology to help countries in specific governmental areas such as defence, foreign affairs, internal security, health, finance and tourism.  The site also tells us that SCL are the 'leading supplier of strategic communications, information operations and [public diplomacy] to governments and military clients around the world'.  Communication can be more than just propaganda.  Their section on Homeland Security [http://www.scl.cc/article.php?id=45] tells us they are in the business of 'population control.'

''Public diplomacy'', ''information operations'' and ''strategic communication'' are the polite terms for propaganda, spin and psychological operations, a further look at the site reveals that this methodology has a name (and an institiute) the 'Behavioural Dynamics Institute' a 'virtual lab' led by Professor [[Phil Taylor]] of Leeds University.

At times their tone can be a bit ominous "In a world where the perception is the reality, all countries need to have the capability to manage their own perceptual alignment – otherwise someone else will."  But they are not without humour, and quote Sourcewatch on their own site.<ref>SCL [http://www.scl.cc/article.php?id=40 Strategic Communication Laboratories], reposted from Sourcewatch</ref> Nigel Oakes, their CEO has stated: 'We used to be in the business of mindbending for political purposes....'<ref>[http://www.scl.cc/article.php?id=37 Lobby firm goes to war] Oliver Morgan Sunday September 11, 2005 The Observer</ref>

SCL's website gives the following vague accounts of past operations:

*Design and develop a permanent military strategic communication facility capable of delivering strategic and operational psyop campaigns for a South Asian country.
*Production of a five-tiered training programme covering strategic, operational and tactical Psyop and the design and re-equipping of a communication facility. The personnel had to be able to take over the new facility after only six months.
*Design, build and install a Homeland Security Centre for an Asian country. The Opcentre can override all national radio and TV broadcasts in time of crisis.
*Design, build and install a diplomatic communication centre staffed by researchers, writers and spokespersons for an International Organisation.
*Design and installation of a Strategic Communication Centre to improve a country's ability to conduct Public Diplomacy.
*Recruitment, training and equipping an operational and tactical Psyop and Civil Affairs military unit for a British Commonwealth country.

==Areas of operation==
The company pledges strict confidentiality, saying that “absolutely no information concerning any of our past projects will be made available under any circumstances”.<ref>[http://www.scl.cc/article.php?id=2 Strategic Communication Laboratories]</ref> However, [[Nigel Oakes]] did tell ''Slate Magazine'' that they have worked for post-Apartheid South Africa and the United Nations.<ref>Sharon Weinberger, [http://www.slate.com/id/2126479/ ‘You Can't Handle the Truth: Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream’], ''Slate Magazine'' 19 September 2005</ref> SCL are also known to have operated in Indonesia until 2000 and were reportedly operating there since at least 1998<ref>Simon Mann, ‘PR tweaks president, then folds his tent’, ''The Age'', 7 August 2000</ref> (see the page on SLC head [[Nigel Oakes]] for further details).

It is also extremely likely that SCL are involved in operations in Afghanistan. A word document previously posted on [[RUSI|RUSI’s]] website lists retired colonel [[Ian Tunnicliffe]] of ‘Strategic Communications [sic.] Laboratories’ as a presenter of a talk at the [[RUSI]] event ''Countering Asymmetric Taliban Strategies in Afghanistan'', held on 26 March 2008. The session Tunnicliffe co-presented was 
entitled ''Winning and Maintaining Indigenous Support: Current and Future Strategies''.<ref>Google [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.rusi.org%2Fdownloads%2Fassets%2FProgramme.doc html version] of the file http://www.rusi.org/downloads/assets/Programme.doc</ref>

===Lithuania - Training Centre "Valkyrie"===
In late 2009, "in cooperation with UK based company SCL", '''Training Centre Valkyrie''' opened in Lithuania which purports to carry out many of the same activities as SCL does. The centre claims that it "creates, implements, and evaluates complete Strategic Communication campaigns for governments and military organisations worldwide" using a "unique scientific approach [which] focuses on creating real, measurable behavioural change, not simply conceptual change that may not be played out with real-world consequences"<ref>"[http://www.valkirija.lt/en/about.html About Us]", Training Centre Valkyrie, accessed April 27 2010</ref> - this description is lifted verbatim from the "What We Do" section on SCL's website<ref>".[http://www.scl.cc/src/what-we-do.html What We Do]", Strategic Communication Laboratories, accessed April 27 2010</ref>. The [http://www.valkirija.lt/en/about.html website for Valkyrie] is only partially constructed (as of April 27 2010) but looks to be modelled on the SCL example - there are "Election Campaigns" and "Propaganda" sections under construction, and there are also a number of types of operation described: psychological operations; information operations; Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC); media operations; deception operations; computer network operations; electronic warfare and key leader engagement.<ref>"[http://www.valkirija.lt/en/informavimo_op.html Information Operations]", Training Centre Valkyrie, accessed April 27 2010</ref> The "offers" section of the website offers expertise in "research and analysis", election "consultancy" and "crisis management" <ref>"[http://www.valkirija.lt/en/offer1.html Offers]", Training Centre Valkyrie, accessed April 27 2010</ref> - with descriptions of work which are taken verbatim from the [[SCL Elections]] website.<ref>"[http://www.sclelections.org/what-can-scl-do-for-you What can SCL do for you?]", SCL Elections, accessed April 27 2010</ref>
The "news" section of the website gives details of a meeting between Lithuanian Valkyrie staff and SCL in London. Stating that on December 4th 2009 the head of Valkyrie, '''Aušra Antanaitienė''' met SCL's [[Ian Tunnicliffe]] to discuss and agree "collaboration of the two companies and supporting of training and campaign planning"<ref>"[http://www.valkirija.lt/en/news.html 2009-12-06 The directors of training centre "Valkyrie" and "Strategic Communication Laboratory" of Great Britain met]", Training Centre Valkyrie, accessed April 27 2010</ref> The "news" section also gives details of an "Introductory PSYOPS course" given by Valkyrie to members of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian military at the Latvian Military Academy in Riga on the 27th-27th of November 2009 where "attendants were acquainted with the knowledge of psychological operations, cross cultural communications and crisis management".<ref>"[http://www.valkirija.lt/en/news.html 2009-11-29 The introductory PSYOPS courses in Riga]",Training Centre Valkyrie, accessed April 27 2010</ref>

====Known affiliates====
*Aušra Antanaitienė - Head of Training Centre Valkyrie
*Darius Antanaitis - Lithuanian PSYOPS officer and "Information Operations" employee at TC Valkyrie <ref>"[http://lt.linkedin.com/pub/darius-antanaitis/8/b71/60a Darius Antanaitis]", Linkedin, accessed April 27 2010</ref>

==Lobbying the Pentagon==
In April 2007 it was reported that:
<blockquote style="background-color:beige;border:1pt solid Darkgoldenrod;padding:1%">Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), has retained the lobbying firm [[Global Policy Group]] to help it win contracts with the American government, and specially from the Pentagon. The U.S. military already employs several psychological operations (psyops) consultants in Iraq and, to a lesser degree, in Afghanistan.<ref>British Psyops for Pentagon, ''Intelligence Online'', 20 April 2007</ref> </blockquote> Congressional filings indicate that SCL spent approximately $20,000 lobbying the Department of Defense, Congress and the Department of Labour on ‘defense’ and ‘foreign ops’.<ref>[[Media:Global Policy Partners Mid-Year-Report 2007.pdf|Global Policy Partners Mid-Year-Report 2007]]</ref>

==People==
===Board of Directors===
*The Rt Hon Sir [[Geoffrey Pattie]] Chairman
*[[Nigel Oakes]] Chief Executive Officer 
*[[Alex Oakes]] Director 
*[[Alexander Nix]] Director 
*[[Roger Gabb]] Director 
*[[Julian Wheatland]] Director 
*Rear Admiral [[John G Tolhurst]] CB FRAeS Advisory Board
*The Rt. Hon. Sir [[James Mitchell]] Advisory Board 
*[[John Bottomley]] FCIS Company Secretary 
*[[Ian Tunnicliffe]] Director of Information Operations: 'SCL's information director is colonel Ian Tunnicliffe, a former strategic communications expert at Britain's Defense ministry, who also served with the Office of Strategic Communications run by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad.'<ref>British Psyops for Pentagon Intelligence Online, April 20, 2007</ref>
*Dr [[Andrew Stewart]] Advisory Board 
*[[Lord Birdwood]] Advisory Board 
*[[Lord Ivar Mountbatten]]Advisory Board
*Professor [[Phil Taylor]] BA PhD – [[Behavioural Dynamics Institute]] Advisory Board 
*[[Gavin McNicoll]] Advisory Board <ref>[http://www.scl.cc/staff.php Strategic Communication Laboratories] </ref> SCL,[http://www.scl.cc/board/non-executive-board Non-executive board</ref>

===

====Former Directors====
*[[Peter Varnish]] was listed as a member of the Advisory board in December 2005.<ref>SCL [http://web.archive.org/web/20060508043854/www.scl.cc/staff.php Key Management], Retrieved from the Web archive dated 30 December 2005, accessed 9 January 2008</ref> 
===Known staff===
*[[Mark Broughton]], public affairs director (in 2005) <ref> Sharon Weinberger, [http://www.slate.com/id/2126479/ ‘You Can't Handle the Truth: Psy-ops propaganda goes mainstream’], ''Slate Magazine'' 19 September 2005</ref>
*[[Alexis Everington]], Marketing Manager.<ref>BDEC Online Company Details for [http://www.bdec-online.com/cfm/frame.cfm?src=http://www.bdec-online.com/bd-dets/bds16.htm STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION LABORATORIES], (accessed 23 June 2008)</ref>
*[[Scherzando Karasu]], Director of Political Affairs (as of January 2010)

===Shareholders===
Several of the company directors hold shares in the company and there are a number of non-executive shareholders. In early 2006 it was reported that the Iranian born London property tycoon [[Vincent Tchenguiz]] had acquired 23 per cent of Strategic Communications Laboratories,<ref>Jenny Davey 'Tchenguiz turns focus to green projects' The Times (London), 31 January 2006, Tuesday Pg. 45</ref> and in May that year the investment company [[Viatrade PLC]] bought a small stake. Conservative Party treasurer and venture capitalist [[Jonathan Marland]] also holds shares, as does his company [[Herriot Ltd]].

The company’s latest Annual Returns<ref>Strategic Communication Laboratories [[Media:SCL 363a made up to 20 July 2006.pdf|Annual Returns made up to 20 July 2006]]</ref> (made up to 20 July 2006) list the following shareholders. They are arranged in descending order according to their share allocation.

:Name: [[Consensus Business Group]], 18 Upper Grosvenor Street, London W1K 7PW :Shares held: 22,533
:Name: [[Nigel Oakes]] :Shares held: 14,849
:Name: [[Roger Gabb]] :Shares held: 11,266
:Name: R M Gabb, M A Gabb and M J Thompson as Trustees of the [[Glendower Settlement]] :Shares held: 11,266
:Name: Share Nominees Ltd on behalf of the Fund :Shares held: 9,013
:Name: [[Alex Oakes|Alexander Waddinton Oakes]] :Shares held: 7,429
:Name: [[CMTC Nominees BV]] (registered to an address in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles) :Shares held: 6,253
:Name: [[Paul Nix|Paul David Ashburner Nix]]:Shares held: 5,633
:Name: [[Alexander Nix|Alexander James Ashburner Nix]] :Shares held: 5,249
:Name: [[Jonathan Marland|Jonathan Peter Marland]] :Shares held: 563
:Name: [[Viatrade PLC]] :Shares held: 507
:Name: [[Herriot Ltd]] :Shares held: 338
:Name: S Marland & P Addington as Trustees of J P Marland’s child. :Shares held: 225
:Name: [[Harry Rollo Gabb]] Shares held: 10

==Subsidiaries==
===Election Campaign Services===
The website http://www.electioncampaignservices.com contains no information except a picture of a blond female model and a message stating that ‘Campaign Election Services is a subsidiary of Strategic Communication Laboratories’, followed by a link to SCL’s website. However there is no company ever registered at UK Companies House under that name. A Whois search<ref>[[Media:Whois search.pdf|Whois Record]] of electioncampaignservices.com retrieved from Domain Tools on 19 June 2008 at 10.44am</ref> reveals that the domain is registered to one [[Alexis Everington]], who gives [[Nigel Oakes|Nigel Oakes’s]] home address. Everington is known to have worked as an analyst at [[Beaver Westminster]]<ref>Beaver Westminster, [[Media:Beaver westminster news.pdf|News for September 2005 (PDF)]], (accessed 20 June 2008)</ref> the consultancy company run by ‘terrorism expert’ [[Paul Beaver]]. He was also formerly listed as a friend on [[Ian Tunnicliffe|Ian Tunnicliffe's]] Facebook page.<ref>Google [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:fp3EFMtiDzkJ:www.facebook.com/people/Ian_Tunnicliffe/753527169+Tunnicliffe+Alexis+Everington&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk Cache] of <http://www.facebook.com/people/Ian_Tunnicliffe/753527169> as retrieved on 24 May 2008 17:48:11 GMT, (Accessed 20 June 2008)</ref>

==Address==
SCL are based at 33 [[St James's Square]] London SW1Y 4JS, <ref>[http://www.scl.cc/contactscl.php Strategic Communication Laboratories]</ref> according to their website, this houses 18 separate companies. These include [[Anglo & International Corporate Finance Ltd]], [[Kobe Steel Europe Ltd]], and [[Scotland & Associates]]. <ref>[http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/addressfinder;jsessionid=MNZPRLEAXSAPSFB2IGFENZQUHRAYWQ2K?catId=400145&pageId=pcaf_a_ma_results&_requestid=106779&gear=postcode Postcode]</ref> The Website according to http://www.whois.net was registered by REGISTER.COM, INC. <ref>[http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=scl&tld=cc www.whois.net], accessed 14/02/07</ref> whose principal activity is to provide internet domain name registration and other online products and services such as web hosting, email, domain name forwarding and advertising.

==Affiliated Companies==
*[[Behavioural Dynamics Institute]]. associated research company
*[[Advanced Strategic Initiatives]], Inc, partner
*[[VT]], partner
* [[Wise Strategic Communication]]<ref>"[http://www.wisestrat.com/about_red_partners.html Partners]", Wise Strategic Communication, accessed April 19 2010</ref>

==notes==
<references/>
[[Category:Psychological Warfare]][[Category:Public relations firms]]