“The Information Battlespace” – Foreign Denial and Deception with Bill Parquette

Summary

Bill Parquette (LinkedIn; Website) joins Andrew (Twitter; LinkedIn) to discuss Denial and Deception. They discuss examples such as D-Day, the Yom Kippur War, and the Persian Gulf War.

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

• Denial and deception – what it is and why it matters
• Key examples of denial and deception
• Detecting denial and deception operations
• How to avoid seeing monsters everywhere

Reflections

• How to counter denial and deception in everyday life (children, salespeople, etc.) 
• Stumbling into new roles in new fields

And much, much more…

Episode Notes

Sun Tzu said, “all warfare is based on deception” and so much of the natural world is also based on denial and deception: camouflage, feigning, mimicry, distraction. It is also a feature of our daily 21^st century lives: spyware, trojan horses, catfishing, and spear phishing.

With this week’s guest we look at the Denial and Deception Committee, which aimed to discover and mitigate foreign denial and deception operations against the U.S. by coordinating efforts throughout the IC.

Bill Parquette was a former Chair of the Committee. He joined the Committee in 2002 and left in 2015. He was formerly a Lt. Col. In the U.S. Army, starting his career with 10 years in the 82^nd Airborne, and is currently Professor of Practice at Penn State University. 

And…

The episode looks at deceiving others but the human capacity for self-deception and denial is VAST – from head in the sand, plugging your ears, living in denial, willful ignorance, and cognitive dissonance through to doublethink. 

Quote of the Week

"If I have an audience of one or 100, I ask does anyone have children? And the hands get raised. And then I said, okay, did you teach your child deception or denial? And of course not. Do they conduct denial or deception? And they all said yeah, it's throughout nature, it's throughout society…it's a natural thing to deny. I didn't mom I didn't take that cookie." – Bill Parquette

Resources

Headline Resources

• Bill Parquette’s list of of acronyms and sources
• “Countering Foreign Denial & Deception – Rise of Fall of a Discipline” – J. Bruce, Studies in Intelligence, 64/1 (2020) 
• “Denial & Deception Issue,” American Intelligence, 32/2 (2015)

Andrew’s Recommendation

• “D-Day Would be Nearly Impossible to Pull Off Today,” D. Lupton, WaPo (2019)

*SpyCasts*

• “Deceiving the Iraqis in Operation Desert Storm” – with BGen Tom Draude (2013)
• “Agent Garbo” – with Stephan Talty (2012)
• “Identity, Espionage and Social Media” – with Thomas Ryan (2011)

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Beginner Resources

• Deception at D-Day, Army Uni. Press (2022) [video]
• The True Story of the D-Day Spies, BBC (2014) [video]
• Operation Bodyguard Map, Eisenhower Foundation (n.d.) [map]

Books

• History of the National Intelligence Council, Hutchings &. Treverton, eds. (OUP, 2019)
• Practice to Deceive, B. Whaley (NIP, 2016)
• The Watchman Fell Asleep, U. Bar-Joseph (SUNY, 2005)
• The Deceivers, T. Holt (Scribner, 2004)
• Deception 101, J. Caddell (Army War College, 2004)
• Strategic Denial and Deception, Godson & Wirtz eds. (Transaction, 2002)
• Deception in War, J. Latimer (Overlook, 2001)

Videos

• The War in October, Al Jazeera (2013)

Primary Sources 

• US-PLO Contacts During War, Oct 26, 1973
• Secretary’s Staff Meeting, Oct 23, 1973
• Sadat - Speech Calling for Arab-Israeli Peace Conference, Oct 16, 1973
• Arab-Israel Tensions – Quandt to Scowcroft, Oct 6, 1973
• Ultra – Marshall to Eisenhower, Mar 15, 1944
• Overall Deception Policy, Jan 22, 1944
• Deception Operations Around England, Dec 18, 1943
• Overlord Cover Operation, Nov 20, 1943

*Wildcard Resource*

• Movies to explore on deception include Deception (1946), The Sting (1973), The Usual Suspects (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Female Agents (2008) and Operation Mincemeat (2021).