Week 1 Discussion Forum

Select two of the Questions to Ponder for this week for your posting. Please select only two and do a thorough job on them.  Do not attempt to respond to all of the questions.  We are looking at the basic concepts that we will continue to encounter through the rest of the course in many different time periods and situations.  In each one you may be surprised to find how these ideas continue to influence the outcome of events.

Questions to Ponder:

1. What is Denial, hiding the real?
2. What is Deception, showing the false?
3. How do the two relate to each other?
4. What are the roles of security, co-ordination and monitoring in Denial and Deception?
5. Why do Denial and Deception continue to succeed in spite of all that is known about them?
6. What are the roles of such factors as incomplete information, preconceived ideas and fears in Denial and Deception?

Instructions:

Your initial post should be at least 250-500 words in length (not including references listed at the end). Please respond to at least 2 other students and one follow up question. Responses should be a minimum of 150 words in length and include references to the material.

Student Response #1:

   According the Webster’s Dictionary defines deception as: “the act of making someone believe something that is not true: the act of deceiving someone: an act or statement intended to make people believe something that is not true.”  In many cases it is hard to actually tell a lie, as human beings, our physiology can make us sweat, tremble, stutter or even make us blush.  But deception is an art for those who cannot lie but are master of deflecting the truth to an unknown level. 

            There are very different times in human literature and history where deception plays an integral part to achieve a goal.  The Trojan horse has been in both history and fictional literature, in technology it has been used too to describe computer viruses that attack computer networks.  During the Holocaust, Oscar Schindler saved thousands of lives thru the use of his businesses after the Nazis massacre a whole town.  The Nazis also created extermination camps that were fronts for fabrication buildings for planes, weapons and ammunitions.  Mobster organizations maintained law enforcement officials at bay, behind hundreds and thousands of businesses while laundering money and committing bribes, extortions, and murder.  Some of the most famous serial killers maintained a dull life while hiding their crimes, serial killers like John Wayne Gacy volunteered for the children hospital as Pogo the Clown by day and at night he would kill young men.  How every single one of these men deceived hundreds of thousands of people is feat.

   Governments have to maintain a level secrecy when conducting clandestine operations.  There has been very few times when our government has worked clandestine operations that have become deceptive with help from other governments.  Last year the film Argo exaggerated what CIA operative Tony Mendez did to assist six Americans to escape Iran during it coup d eta of 1979.  The real story showed that the six Americans received assistance from Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor.  Mendez created a crazy and unusual plan to make a fake movie with the idea of making the six Americans part of a scouting location crew for a movie.  Mendez managed to extradite seven people including himself while eluding Iranian authorities.  It was the ultimate deception act, it was public and at the same time humiliating for the Iranians.

The art of deception is an incredible skill for anyone looking to avoid a major conflict.  Lying can create it shares of problems and it can (of course) be less credible than deception. 

Student Response #2:

Denial and deception are two different things that are often used together to complement one another. In metaphoric terms, denial is a stunning hit and deception is a knockout punch, or vice versa. Denial is concealing information and denying adversarial access to correct information concerning an intention or action. Denial often includes high security measures to prevent foreign adversaries or surveillance from discovering or revealing secret information on political or operational matters. It is basically keeping under wraps weaknesses or strengths, or anything you don’t want the adversary to know. By denying this information, there is an advantage gained over the adversary. An example of denial would be concealing dangerous weapons within a safe house or simply finding a safe place to hide.

Deception is intentional and is done to gain an advantage. Deception is the form of concealment and activity which is designed to mislead. Deception can be achieved in a few ways. Two ways are through fabrication and manipulation. Fabrication is the creation and presentation of false information as if it were in fact, true. Manipulation is the use of information which is technically true but is being presented out of its accurate context in order to create a false implication to the receiver. Deception can be achieved by omitting certain parts of information in order to create false assumptions and views on the information presented. Deception is actually human nature as denial is. Many kids learn to fabricate when they are young in order to tell the truth (technically), and still leave out key information to keep them clear of trouble. Operationally, blowing up fake models of air balloons in the shape of tanks or missiles is deception.