Aerial combat

Response to the article from the Foreign Office

By Steve Platt (Editor of the NSS)

The Foreign Office has Issued a statement contesting claims about British propaganda operations In the US made in David Miller’s article last week (“Aerial Combat�), and in his book, Don’t Mention the War, just published by Pluto. Miller reported how the Foreign Office-funded London Radio Service is in breach of US criminal law by falling to label its news bulletins, which are supplied free of charge to US radio stations, as emanating from the British government In response the Foreign Office has said:

“We refute strongly any suggestion that we are breaking US law or that the London Radio Service Is a ‘semi-covert operation’ No attempt is made to conceal the fact that this is a British government service. Indeed, British Information Services, New York, when offering the material to US radio stations, makes clear the service is provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office In London.�

David Miller accepts that the service Is “acknowledged by the government�, but insists that “the defining feature of the IRS is its semi-covert nature�. “Firstly,� he says, “according to sources in the Central Office of Information, many radio stations are not aware that the service is a government operation. Secondly, Internal COI documents obtained by me state explicitly that: ‘The distinguishing feature of COl radio as compared with other radio services is that material... Is broadcast by a station as if it were its own.’�

The Foreign Office also claims that, “British Information Services is not required to be registered under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act and thus is not required to submit its correspondence or information materials to the US authorities.�

Which is rather odd, really, since Miller has copies of BIS materials containing the claim that BIS is “registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act as an agent of the British government� and that its material is “filed with the Department of justice where the required registration statement is available for public Inspection�.

In fact, the Information Department of the Foreign Office, which directs the London Radio Service, Is only the latest incarnation of government “grey propaganda� services to journalists. It produces a large volume of background and off the record briefing materials, some of which it has been forced to alter or withdraw. In 1988, for example, NSS reported on its document “The Provisional IRA: International contacts outside the United States,,. This listed a string of organizations and Individuals as “supporters� of the IRA. After parts of the briefing were reproduced— verbatim but unacknowledged—In the Irish independent and the Daily telegraph, the Foreign Office was forced to remove Information about named individuals. Otherwise, its activities have continued unchallenged.