U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press

CUBA NEWS

U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press

Fri Dec 2, 2005 13:31

U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press
http://www.periodico26.cu/english/news_world/iraql120105.htm

Washington, December 1 (RHC)-- The U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by occupation troops as part of a propaganda campaign in the occupied Arab country. The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are reportedly presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written by independent journalists. The stories praise the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and paint bright pictures of U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

The Los Angeles Times says that although the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments. Records and interviews indicate that the U.S. has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles, with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism," since the effort began earlier this year.

The operation is reportedly designed to hide any connection with the U.S. military. The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.

The military's effort to disseminate propaganda in the Iraqi media is taking place even as U.S. officials are pledging to promote what they call "democratic principles" and "freedom of speech" in the occupied Arab country. It also comes as the State Department is training Iraqi reporters in basic journalism skills and Western media ethics, including one workshop titled "The Role of Press in a Democratic Society."

The military's information operations campaign has sparked a backlash among some senior military officers in Iraq and at the Pentagon who argue that attempts to subvert the news media could destroy the U.S. military's credibility in other nations and with the American public.

The Bush administration has previously come under criticism for distributing video and news stories in the United States without identifying the federal government as their source and for paying American journalists to promote administration policies, practices the Government Accountability Office itself has labeled "covert propaganda."

One military official told the Los Angeles Times that, as part of a psychological operations campaign that has intensified over the last year, the Pentagon task force also had purchased an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station -- using them to channel pro-American messages to the Iraqi public. The official refused to disclose which newspaper and radio station are under direct U.S. control.

U.S. law forbids the military from carrying out psychological operations or planting propaganda through American media outlets. Yet several officials said that given the globalization of media driven by the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, the Pentagon's efforts were carried out with the knowledge that coverage in the foreign press inevitably "bleeds" into the Western media and influences coverage in U.S. news outlets.

One senior military official who spent this year in Iraq said it was the strong pro-U.S. message in some news stories in Baghdad that first made him suspect that the American military was planting articles. The official said: "Stuff would show up in the Iraqi press, and I would ask, 'Where the hell did that come from?' It was clearly not something that indigenous Iraqi press would have conceived of on their own."

According to several sources, the process for placing the stories begins when soldiers write "storyboards" of events in Iraq, such as a joint U.S.-Iraqi raid on a suspected insurgent hide-out, or a suicide bomb that killed Iraqi civilians.

The storyboards, several of which were obtained by The Times, read more like press releases than news stories. They often contain anonymous quotes from U.S. military officials; it is unclear whether the quotes are authentic.

In 2002, the Pentagon was forced to shut down its Office of Strategic Influence, which had been created the previous year, after reports surfaced that it intended to plant false news stories in the international media.

Lincoln Group, formerly known as Iraqex, is one of several companies hired by the U.S. military to carry out "strategic communications" in countries where large numbers of U.S. troops are based. Some of Lincoln Group's work in Iraq is very public, such as an animated public service campaign on Iraqi television that spotlights the Iraqi civilians killed by roadside bombs planted by insurgents.

Besides its contract with the military in Iraq, Lincoln Group this year won a major contract with U.S. Special Operations Command, based in Tampa, Florida. The aim was to develop a strategic communications campaign in concert with special operations troops stationed around the globe. The contract is worth up to $100 million over five years.
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