Gary Webb on Military Penetration of Civilian Society

In Gary Webb's final weeks, The Sacramento News & Review published his piece on the U.S. military's devising and releasing some video games to recruit, profile its recruits, and generally penetrate civilian society.  http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2004-10-14/ cover.asp.  Released so far are the shooter games "America's Army," "Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror," and the more tightly targeted recruitment tool "Special Forces."

Some quotations from Webb's article: "If, like the U.S. Army, you need people who can become unflappable killers, there’s no better way of finding them."

"it appears clear that the gamers’ brains had the same reaction to computerized violence as they would to real violence."

'the game would help “create the wartime culture that is so desperately needed now”'

'“I have to laugh when someone says, ‘Oh, the people playing these games know it’s not real,’” said Dr. Peter Vorberer, a clinical psychologist and head of the University of Southern California’s computer game research group. “Of course they think it’s real!'

'A Miami attorney named Jack Thompson went on ABC News and threatened to seek an injunction, saying it wasn’t the government’s job to provide kill ’em games to youngsters. He was deluged with angry e-mail and allegedly received death threats.
'The Army and the Defense Department have a very long history of conducting unethical, illegal experiments upon soldiers and civilians,” Thompson angrily reminded players in a posting to the official Army Web site. “This 'game’ is yet another experiment upon the unsuspecting pawns who play it. You are the latest guinea pigs."'

And, while considering military penetration into civilian life, don't forget the clothing line:

"Also in the works, he said, are an America’s Army clothing line, comic books and toy action figures."