General Used ‘Psy-Ops’ on Senators

So maybe this explains Joe Lieberman's war enthusiasm? Lieberman is one of several U.S. senators who was the target of a special U.S. "psychological operations" unit in Afghanistan, according to Rolling Stone’s Michael Hastings—the reporter whose Stanley McChrystal profile led to the general’s resignation. Hastings says another U.S. commander, Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, directed a psy-ops unit in Afghanistan to target visiting senators and other politicians from the U.S. rather than Taliban fighters. Federal law prohibits this—Americans are protected against propaganda—but Caldwell nevertheless ordered the four-man team to target visitors like Lieberman John McCain, Jack Reed, and Al Franken, seeking to manipulate them into further supporting the war effort. "We called it Operation Fourth Star," says Lt. Colonel Michael Holmes, who led the unit and was eventually reprimanded for bucking orders. "Caldwell seemed far more focused on the Americans and the funding stream than he was on the Afghans. We were there to teach and train the Afghans. But for the first four months it was all about the U.S. Later he even started talking about targeting the NATO populations."