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“The U.S. military plans to continue paying Iraqi newspapers to publish articles favorable to the United States after an inquiry found no fault with the controversial practice,” Army General George W. Casey, Jr. said March 3, 2006.
MNF Commander in Iraq, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. answers a reporter's question.
Casey said that “the internal review had concluded that the U.S. military was not violating U.S. Law or Pentagon guidelines with the information operations campaign, in which U.S. troops and a private contractor write pro-American articles and pay to have them planted without attribution in Iraqi media.” According to the Los Angeles Times.
“By and large, it found that we were operating within our authorities and responsibilities,” Casey said, adding he has no intention of shutting down the program.
The information program has been heavily criticized both inside and outside of the military as detrimental to U.S. credibility and contrary to the principles of a free press in a nascent, embattled democracy.
BAGHDAD (MediaSourceWatch) Nov. 30, 2005 — “The U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq. The articles, written by U.S. military ‘information operations’ troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers. … The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country. … 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 this year.
The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military. The Pentagon has a contract with … 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.”
● Military Says It Paid Iraq Papers for News
- “As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless.”
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 – (letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Hmmm … just found a new reference on today’s news!
ANKARA, Turkey (ABC/AP) March 23 — The top U.S. military officer called today for a formal Pentagon review of the policies that led to defense officials paying the Iraqi media to place favorable stories in their newspapers.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said people need to know whether they are reading an article by an independent reporter or by someone paid by the U.S. government.
“They need to know that, so they can make their own judgment about what they believe and don’t believe in the article,” said Pace in the interview aboard a military aircraft heading for Turkey. “The worst thing you can have is people feeling like somehow they’ve been snookered.”
Pace did not have details of how this review should be structured. But he said he would push for a full review by Pentagon staff.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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Did this little news fact slip by unnoticed in the MSM earlier this month?
In the Dutch media I read a tiny reference to the general’s opinion and figured it could use a bit more coverage.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Nobody believes anything they say anyway…
And the only credible press in the entire region is Al Jazeera, which the wingers might bomb but will never actually pay money to, so all they’re doing is making themselves look desperate, unhinged, and stupid…
I’d seen it, but that doesn’t say much.
Have you read much about the NED program for training foreign reporters? That, along with their cozy relationship with certain reporters (like Regine Alexandre), is if anything, even more insidious than the outright manufacture of propaganda.
A full review by Pentagon Staff? Sounds like this one is definitely going to be buried somewhere.
If this were all being done for free as a service… but in that it’s really expensive to plant phony stories… as Gen. Gardiner exposed… it comes under defrauding the American people… against which there are laws, and they are actionable via impeachment.
So yeah, propaganda is used as a tool of war… but that’s against the enemy… not meant to be used against the US people……
Nobody believes your stuff either.
But at least YOURS is both fun and harmless….
So you’re actually ahead of the game.
yeah, but I still remember my first bood abides getting acquainted experience, ha!
From a strictly legal point of view, Casey is correct. It is nothing new. As for propaganda against territorial USA, that violates the Smith-Mundt Act.
Reagan got around that by planting false stories in the foreign press which were recycled in the American press during the Iran Contras scam.
The same mechanism is used by this administration for selling not only propaganda to US citizens, but also bogus intelligence. As with most of the INC garbage as well as the Niger caper, information was recycled through foreign news sources or foreign intel service.
One mechanism is described by Robert Baer as “competitive intelligence.” This consists of funneling false info through several different sources that confirm each other, much in the way pickpockets use the technique of sensory overlaud to confuse their targets. By touching a person in several parts of his body, the person receives conflicting sensorial input while the thief takes the wallet.
Another mechanism is the use of the USIA or outsourced rackets in fabricating false foreign news. That news can be placed in the foreign press, picked up by national wires or the CIA/ FBIS and translated as raw intel.
The Smith-Mundt law is archaic. Wholesale deception is not.