The ghost of Koko the Clown playing on a television set as it burns with fire is a welcome addition to any US military video promoting its psyops program.
Fort Bragg's 4th Psychological Operations Group-Airborne's three-minute, 40-second video also has quotes from SunTzu's The Art of War, a movie trailer style song, clips of special force operatives quietly approaching an expensive house at night with weapons drawn, empty urban streets, riderless subway trains, scenes of riots, and captions that read: "Have you ever wondered who's pulling the strings?" and "You'll find us in the shadows at the tip of the spear. … Anything we touch is a weapon. We can deceive, persuade, change, influence, inspire. We come in many forms. We are everywhere."
The News & Observer tried to get to the bottom of why the video was made and released, but their investigation only deepened the mystery.
"Here's the odd thing — clandestine Army units like this DON'T make recruiting material, because that material brings unwanted attention," The Pipeline reported. "Have you ever seen an official Delta Force recruiting video? Exactly."
Dylan Charles wrote in USSA News that public debate proves the video "effectively does what PSYOPS are supposed to do, which is to confuse, mislead, redirect, and occupy your mind."
"They want you to know that they are ghosts in the machine, watching and warping everything," he says.
However, a conspiracy site known as The Vigilant Citizen suggests the intent may be darker, and possibly related to the occult.
"These allusions to magic are not merely figurative. PSYOPS extensively researched occult and supernatural phenomenons such as ESP (extra-sensory perception) and remote viewing," Vigilant Citizen reports. "There was always a 'magical', supernatural element to PSYOPS."
