The National Security Archives are the best source we have for knowing the secret crap that our government has done in our name over the years. Earlier this month they came out with the Iraq: The Media War Plan, which is the result of many FOIA requests. They have some (.pdf) reports that are well worth reading and investigating and doing diaries on. Below the fold I provide their Iraq Media Timeline, which demonstrates pretty clearly how our armed forces have targeted journalists, how the insurgents have targeted our journalists, and how the military-industrial-congressional-media complex operates at the highest levels. It’s depressing, but nothing could be more important than educating the public about this.
Iraq
Media Timeline
Before
(and during) the invasion of Iraq – The U.S.
government broadcasts psychological warfare programming
into Iraq from an EC-130E Commander Solo aircraft (a modified
C130 cargo plane). (Asia Times, 8/16/03)
January
16, 2003 – Defense Department offices for special
operations and low-intensity conflict and for Near Eastern
and South Asian affairs (special plans), issue a White
Paper/briefing calling for a “Rapid Reaction Media
Team” to set up an “Iraqi Free Media”
after the overthrow of the government in Baghdad.
February
2003 – C. Ryan Henry, corporate vice president
for strategic assessment and development for the San Diego-based
defense contractor Scientific Applications International
Corporation (SAIC), leaves to become deputy to Douglas
Feith, head of the Defense Department’s policy office.
(OUSD(P) Web site, Ryan
Henry biography)
March
5, 2003 – The Pentagon gives a no-bid $33 million
contract to SAIC for the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development
Council (IRDC), a group of exiles put together by Paul Wolfowitz.
(Acquisition,
3/18/04; San Diego Union-Tribune, 7/4/04)
March
11, 2003 – The Defense Department gives SAIC
a $15 million sole-source contract for the “Iraqi
Free Media” project. Though the company has worked
extensively with U.S. Special Forces, it has no media
experience. The contract is under Douglas Feith’s purview.
(SAIC’s
vice chairman, Admiral William Owens (Ret.), was a member
of the Defense Policy Board, advising Donald Rumsfeld.
The company’s board members include Gen. Wayne Downing
(Ret.), who also worked on domestic and international
business development for the company, and was a member
of the board of The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq.
Soon after SAIC hired him, according to The San Diego
Union-Tribune, “Downing became a vocal advocate
for overthrowing Saddam Hussein, becoming a part-time
lobbyist and military planner for Iraqi dissident Adnan
Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress.”)
(“In
1997, Downing drafted a detailed plan for invading Iraq,
spearheaded by Iraqi insurgents with the help of 5,000
or 6,000 special operations forces . . . . Gen. Anthony
Zinni [U.S. military commander for the Middle East] mocked
it as ‘the Bay of Goats’,” evoking the U.S. Bay of
Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961.)
(Until
mid-2002 Downing worked for the George W. Bush administration
as an NSC counterterrorism expert.) (Acquisition,
3/18/04; Asia Times, 8/16/03; Washington
Post, 10/16/03; Village Voice, 11/12/03; San
Diego Union-Tribune, 7/4/04)
Around
March 11, 2003 – Robert Reilly, former head of
the Voice of America, is hired to be project director
for the Iraqi Media Network (IMN). Reilly worked for the
Reagan administration as a liaison to Catholics, and as
a publicist for the Nicaraguan contras. He was a member
of the Center for Security Policy, whose credo was “peace
through American strength.” Other members included
Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Elliott Abrams,
Midge Dector, and Frank Gaffney. One of Reilly’s publications
posited an inherent incompatibility between Islamic theology
and Western values.
Mike
Furlong, who did military media work after the Kosovo
war, is hired as Reilly’s deputy and the Iraqi Media Network’s
program manager. (Reporters
Without Borders Web site,
7/22/03; Center
for Security Policy Web site)
March
20, 2003 – The U.S. invades Iraq.
March
21, 2003 – An email from a Defense Department contracting
specialist indicates that someone from the Office for Reconstruction
and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), the entity initially created
by the Pentagon to rule Iraq, wants SAIC to hire four named
individuals, including Shaha Ali Riza, as Subject Matter Experts
(SMEs) for advice regarding voter education, business development,
politics, women, and government reform. (Acquisition,
3/18/04; Contract
No. DASW01-03-F-0537)
March
27, 2003 – SAIC is awarded an $834,744 contract for
an “Advisor for Democracy and Governance Group,”
including Shaha Ali Riza. (In April 2007 it is revealed that
Paul Wolfowitz, in response to nepotism rules evoked when
he became director of the World Bank, arranged for Riza, his
significant other, to be posted to the State Department and
to be granted several large raises, increasing her salary
to more than $193,000.) (Acquisition,
3/18/04; Government
Accountability Project Web site,
4/5/07)
March
29, 2003 – British tanks fire on four al-Jazeera
journalists filming food distribution in Basra. (Reporters
Without Borders Web site,4/8/03)
March
30, 2003 – U.S. forces hit Iraq’s Ministry of
Information with a cruise missile, damaging the building
and destroying satellite dishes. (Central Command News
Release, 3/30/2003, Independent on Sunday (London),
3/30/03)
April
6, 2003 – American troops kill Qomran Abdul Razzaq,
a BBC translator, when they bomb a Kurdish convoy in northern
Iraq. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
April
7, 2003 – U.S. forces fire on an al-Jazeera
vehicle, prominently marked “press”, on a road
near Baghdad. (Reporters
Without Borders Web site,
4/8/03)
April
8, 2003 – A U.S. tank fires on Baghdad’s Palestine
Hotel and kills Reuters cameraman Taras Protsyuk and Spanish
Telecinco cameraman Jose Couso. (Associated
Press, 4/19/04)
April
8, 2003 – A U.S. missile hits al-Jazeera’s
Baghdad bureau and kills reporter Tariq Ayoub. The Pentagon
had been extensively briefed on the bureau’s location,
which was festooned with barriers marked “TV”.
(MEED Weekly Special Report, 2/20/04)
April
10, 2003 – Ahmed al-Rikaby, hired by SAIC to
be the Iraqi Media Network’s first television director,
broadcasts the announcement “Welcome to the new Iraq”
from a tent erected by U.S. soldiers. Five days later,
“The Voice of New Iraq” officially begins broadcasting
on AM radio. (Associated Press, 8/6/03; Christian
Science Monitor, 4/21/03)
May
13, 2003 – The Iraqi Media Network begins television
broadcasting from Baghdad, featuring cartoons, Egyptian
soap operas, folk singers, news, sports, and interviews
about Iraq’s lack of security and services. (Associated
Press, 5/25/03)
May
15, 2003 – PR Week reports SAIC’s launching
of the newspaper as-Sabah, with an initial run
of 50,000. Its “short-term goal is to quell unrest
among Iraqis by establishing America’s presence and control
over basic issues. The San Diego-based information-technology
firm holds a Pentagon-issued contract to set up a media
operation in post-war Iraq in coordination with Psychological
Operations and the White House communications staff.”
(PR Week (US), 5/19/03)
June
2003 – Administrator Paul Bremer of the Coalition
Provisional Authority (CPA), successor to ORHA, issues
Order No. 6, declaring that the Iraqi Media Network is
an interim entity replacing Iraq’s information ministry,
eliminated by occupation authorities in May. IMN is given
the ministry’s equipment and facilities. It retains a
few hundred reporters and other staff. More than 5,000
employees are fired.
Along
with the newspaper as-Sabah, the Iraqi Media
Network operates a television station and two radio stations.
The network’s chief editor, former Iraqi-Canadian exile
George Mansour, says its news bulletins are independent.
In reality they feature coalition activities and statements
by Bremer. Mansour insists his journalists are “genuine”
Iraqis, but some mock its reporters’ American and British
accents. (Reporters
Without Borders Web site, 4/26/07)
June
2003 – Independent press watchdog groups issue
a report calling for the Iraqi Media Network to be dismantled
because it is unclear whether it is to be an independent
media outlet or a propaganda tool. Controversies include
the hiring of Hero Talabani, wife of Kurdish leader/USG
ally Jalal Talabani, to oversee editing, and its daily
airing of a British program called “Toward Freedom.”
The latter issue has led five Iraqi Media Network officials
to write to managers installed by SAIC: “We respectfully
request to know whose political agenda is involved here.
Certainly, it is not a professionally sound programming
decision to use a mediocre propaganda program from abroad
to supercede our own news program. Following an exhausting
hour of ‘Toward Freedom,’ it is only the most dedicated
news junkies who could tolerate it without seeking another
channel.” (Baghdad
Bulletin,
July 21, 2003)
June
2003 – Iraqi Media Network staff are not paid
and go on strike. They strike again upon learning their
pay scale will be that of the former Ministry of Information
— $120 a month. A senior advisor to the IMN, former NBC
correspondent Don North, says, “For some reason CPA
have said we must adhere to the old pay scheme” despite
intense competition for competent staff. (U.S. contractors
hired for management positions are paid more than $200
per hour.) (Baghdad
Bulletin,
July 21, 2003)
June
2003 – Robert Reilly leaves the Iraqi Media Network,
suddenly. (Washington Post, 10/16/03)
June
2003 – Iraqi Media Network program manager Mike
Furlong is fired. (Baghdad
Bulletin,
July 21, 2003)
August
5, 2003 – Iraqi Media Network’s TV director,
Ahmed al-Rikaby, quits, saying the network is inadequately
funded and can’t compete with al-Jazeera and
other alternative news sources. Al-Rikaby’s one-year contract
to be television director and head of radio programs was
scheduled to end in April 2004. He says low pay has led
staff to leave the network. (Associated Press,
8/6/03)
August
10, 2003 – The Daily Telegraph, a conservative
British paper, reports that former colleagues of Ahmed
al-Rikaby say that Iraqi TV’s problems arose from incompetence
and nepotism, and that his claims of inadequate funding
“should not be taken seriously.” Al-Rikaby declares
that he’s been targeted by “a smear campaign,”
and says, “There was always an excuse as to why I
couldn’t get what I needed.” (The Daily Telegraph,
8/10/03)
August
17, 2003 – U.S. soldiers kill Mazen Dana, a Palestinian
journalist working for Reuters, while he is filming outside
Abu Ghraib prison. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September
2003 – Dorrance Smith becomes media consultant
to the CPA and head of the Iraqi Media Network. A childhood
friend of George Bush and former producer for This
Week with David Brinkley, he left ABC in
1989 to become media advisor to George H.W. Bush. He worked
at This Week again from 1995 to 1999, when he
was reportedly forced out, shortly before ABC
decided not to renew the contract of commentator William
Kristol. Kristol, a Smith colleague from the first Bush
White House, was a principal cheerleader for the invasion
of Iraq. (Media
Research Center Web site, 12/30/99)
September
23, 2003 – Iraq’s governing council bars leading
Arab satellite TV stations al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya from
its ministries and events. The Committee to Protect Journalists
and Reporters Without Borders condemn the decision. IPS
reports that the Iraqi Media Network has taken over a
number of Iraqi radio stations and effectively shut down
independent media outlets. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September
24, 2003 – U.S. soldiers open fire on AP
photographer Karim Kadhim and his driver Qassim as-Saidi,
and rake their car, prominently labeled “Press”,
with machine gunfire. The reporters escape death by leaping
from the car. (IPS, 9/25/03)
September
30, 2003 – According to the Defense Department’s
inspector general, SAIC’s initial $15 million contract
for the Iraqi Free Media Program is now valued at $82.3
million: “approximately 71 percent of the costs were
materials.” (Department
of Defense; Office of the Inspector General: Acquisition,
March 18, 2004, p. 10)
October
2003 – The Pentagon begins soliciting bids for
a new $200 million contract to run the Iraqi Media Network.
(Village Voice, 11/12/03)
October
16, 2003 – The Washington Post reports
that Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) wants to transfer $100
million meant to expand Iraq’s media network from the
Pentagon to the State Department; however, the DOD’s Office
for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (in
charge of psychological operations) retains control. (Washington
Post, 10/16/03; Village Voice, 11/12/03)
October
22, 2003 – Japan’s foreign ministry announces
that the 1980s TV drama “Oshin”, called a “tearjerker”
by some, will be broadcast by the Iraqi Media Network.
A Japanese official hopes that “the patience, enthusiasm
and forward-looking attitude of Oshin, the story’s heroine,
will send out a positive message to the Iraqi people.”
(Japan Economic Newswire, 10/22/03)
Early
November 2003 – George Mansour is removed as
the Iraqi Media Network’s news director. (Village
Voice, 11/12/03)
November
3, 2003 – U.S. troops seize al-Jazeera
cameraman Salah Hassan near Baquba, as he is interviewing
witnesses to a roadside bomb attack, and take him to a
U.S. military base, then to Abu Ghraib. He is eventually
released without charge. (Observer, 11/27/05;
Reporters
Without Borders Web site)
November
12, 2003 -The Village Voice reports
that a recent poll found that 67 percent of Iraqis with
satellite receivers prefer TV news from al-Arabiya
or al-Jazeera – not the Iraqi Media Network.
(Village Voice, 11/12/03)
November
13, 2003 – The New York Observer reports
that the CPA, dissatisfied with U.S. news coverage of
Iraq, is about to create its own 24-hour broadcast operation,
bypassing American networks. “It’s C-Span Baghdad”,
according to CPA media advisor Dorrance Smith.
The
article says that the U.S. military in Iraq and the CPA
press office, described by one news producer “as
staffed by political true believers, ‘neocons and evangelists’,”
were “‘apoplectic’ at the press for under-reporting
the ‘good news’ in Iraq.” (New York Observer,
11/13/03)
January
7, 2004 – The satellite broadcaster Arabsat,
based in U.S.-friendly Saudi Arabia, begins broadcasting
Iraqi Media Network’s al-Iraqiya TV programs.
According to Radio Netherlands, “After the
American attack on Iraq the management of both Arabsat
and Nilesat announced that they w[ould] not let the Iraqi
Media Network to be broadcast on both satellites but sounds
like they gave it a second thought . . .” (BBC
Monitoring International Reports, 1/7/04)
January
9, 2004 – After deciding not to renew SAIC’s
contract to run the Iraqi Media Network, the Defense Department
replaces it with the Harris Corp., a military contractor
based in Melbourne, Florida. The company announces, “the
Defense Contracting Command-Washington (DCC-W), on behalf
of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) currently
governing Iraq,” has given it a renewable $96 million
to develop Iraq’s “antiquated” media network.
The total value of the contract could be nearly $165 million.
Its “local teammates” will be the Christian-owned
Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. and telecommunications company
al-Fawares of Kuwait. (Harris
Corp. Web site, 4/27/2007)
January
20, 2004 – In his State of the Union speech,
President Bush says, “To cut through the barriers
of hateful propaganda, the Voice of America and other
broadcast services are expanding their programming in
Arabic and Persian – and soon, a new television service
will begin providing reliable news and information across
the region.” (White
House Web site, 1/20/04)
February
14, 2004 – With $62 million, the U.S. government
launches al-Hurra, a network intended to compete
with al-Jazeera, to broadcast news and entertainment
to Arab countries from a base in Springfield, Virginia.
According to the National Post (Canada), Washington
has allocated an additional $40 million for a specifically
Iraqi al-Hurra operation [which begins broadcasting
in April 2004.] Its programs are to be modeled after Radio
Sawa, a pop music outlet that the USG considers a
relative success.
According
to the Post, “The Pentagon-run Iraq Media
Network has flopped. Iraqis have not warmed to its broadcasts
of official statements by Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator,
and members of the Iraqi Governing Council.” (National
Post (Canada), 12/19/03)
February
14, 2004 – Former CPA contractor and Iraqi Media
Network senior advisor Don North says professional journalism
training was obviously needed in Iraq – “A brutal
form of training was delivered by the U.S. Army and CPA
officials when they found stories offensive. They visited
the offices of offending newspapers and often left them
padlocked and in ruins. No mediation, no appeal.”
He
says the Iraqi Media Network’s problems had many causes,
including the fact that, “A revolving door of officials
with no credible television or journalism experience dictated
plans and policy to IMN.”
Also,
“A surprising lack of operating capital, in spite
of IMN’s being the most expensive U.S. government media
project in history at an estimated $4 million a month,
forced the IMN to run on a shoestring and look like it.
There were no funds for basic equipment such as camera
batteries, tripods or editing equipment. A $500 request
for a satellite dish to downlink the Reuters news feed
was refused. A $200 request for printing my training manual
in Arabic for reporters was turned down.”
Also,
“Lack of planning for program production or acquisition
resulted in illegal airing of copyrighted European and
Hollywood film tapes confiscated from the mansion of Saddam’s
son Uday.”
Also,
“IMN staff were ordered to cover endless daily CPA
news conferences, interviews and photo opportunities,
leaving little time and few facilities to cover genuine
news stories initiated by IMN reporters on the street.”
Also,
“The right of ‘collective bargaining,’ another American
concept, was trashed by CPA management when IMN staff
twice went on strike for higher wages. IMN staff were
told in effect, ‘our way or the highway’.” (Senate
Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, 2/14/05; Don
North statement)
February
15, 2004 – Harris Corp. takes over the operation
of the Iraqi Media Network from SAIC. Eleven months after
SAIC was given a contract that was ultimately valued at
$82.3 million, an official from one of Harris’s two regional
subcontracters, Lebanese broadcasting Corporation International,
says, “We are practically starting from scratch.”
(MEED Weekly Special Report, 2/20/04)
March
3, 2004 – U.S. troops kill al-Jazeera
editor-in-chief Mahmood Awad Hamadi in Falluja. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
March
18, 2004 – Near a checkpoint, U.S. troops kill
correspondent Ali al-Khatib and cameraman Ali Abdel-Aziz
of the Dubai-based al-Arabiya news station. (Associated
Press, 4/19/04)
March
18, 2004 – Nadia Nasrat, announcer, Majeed Rasheed,
technician, and Mohammed Ahmad Sarhan, security agent
of the Iraqi Media Network, are killed by armed men in
Diyala (Baquba). (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
March
18, 2004 – The Defense Department’s inspector
general issues a report on CPA contracts. It says that
SAIC’s original program manager for the Iraqi Media Network
bought a H2 Hummer and a Ford pickup truck and chartered
a DC-10 cargo jet to fly them to Iraq for his personal
use “outside the scope of the contract.” When
the Pentagon’s contracting office refused to authorize
the purchases, SAIC “went around the authority of
this acquisition specialist to a different office within
the under secretary of defense for policy to gain approval
and succeeded.” The inspector general could not specifically
determine the cost but one category of expenses called
“Office & Vehicle” totaled $381,000.
Also,
when a subject specialist did not win a USAID contract,
the director of the ORHA arranged for him to be covered
by SAIC’s Iraqi Media Network contract. He “was first
placed in charge of determining how to dispose of garbage
in Iraq, and was then made Senior Ministry Advisor for
the Ministry of Youth and Sport. Neither of those roles
was within the scope of the Iraqi Free media contract.”
ORHA’s director wrote, “we anticipate . . . [the
subject matter expert] would be used on a variety of special
projects essentially outside of the Indigenous media contract’s
scope of work.”
The
inspector general concluded, “We could not determine
how the contracting officer obtained a fair and reasonable
price for the Iraqi Free Media contract.” (Department
of Defense; Office of the Inspector General: Acquisition,
March 18, 2004, pp. 18, 21)
March
26, 2004 – U.S. troops kill ABC cameraman Burhan
Mohammed Mazhoor in Falluja. (Brussels Tribunal Web
site)
April
6, 2004 – SAIC says “its revenue soared
to a record $6.7 billion” during the last fiscal
year, with “a surge in defense spending . . . . government
business accounted for 80 percent of its revenue, with
Pentagon contracts amounting to $3.7 billion.” (San
Diego Union-Tribune, 4/7/04)
April
15, 2004 – Donald Rumsfeld declares, “what
al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable.”
(Department
of Defense Transcripts,
4/15/04)
April
16, 2004 – According to a leaked memo, George
Bush discloses in a meeting with Tony Blair that he plans
to bomb al-Jazeera’s Qatar headquarters, but
Blair dissuades him. (The Mirror (U.K.), 11/22/05)
April
19, 2004 – The St. Petersburg Times
reports that development work on the Iraqi Media Network’s
al-Iraqiya and other media projects “has
come to a near halt in recent days as Harris and other
companies have been in lockdown because of the violence.
Even with armed guards and armored vehicles, [project
director David] Sedgley has been unable to move more than
a mile or so beyond the Green Zone . . .”
The
Times notes that Harris won the Pentagon contract
to run the Iraqi Media Network through its “one-man
Iraqi Initiatives project.” Because “it knew
nothing about programming,” it subcontracted “a
non-controversial Arab network,” and Newsweek’s
Kuwaiti printer. (St. Petersburg Times, 4/19/04)
April
19, 2004 – On a road leading to Samarra, U.S.
troops shoot and kill correspondent As’ad Kadhim and driver
Hussein Saleh, and wound cameraman Bassem Kamel, employees
of the Pentagon-funded al-Iraqiya TV station.
(Associated Press, 4/19/04)
May
15, 2004 – Shortly before the end of its rule
in Iraq, the CPA announces creation of a new framework
for Iraq’s broadcast media, turning it into a sort of
public broadcasting system. (Agence France Presse,
5/15/04)
Mid
2004 – A company called Iraqex, created to look
for business opportunities in occupied Iraq, forms a partnership
with the Rendon Group. (New York Times, 12/11/05)
[Rendon has a long history of propaganda activities on
behalf of conservative and Republican Party causes.]
August
7, 2004 – Iraqi interim prime minister Ayad Allawi
suspends al-Jazeera’s Baghdad bureau. (New
York Times, 8/8/04)
September
4, 2004 – The Iraqi interim government breaks
into al-Jazeera’s Baghdad bureau, searches it,
and closes it down indefinitely. (Agence France Presse,
9/6/04; Associated Press, 9/7/04)
Around
September 2004 – The U.S. military awards the
year-old Iraqex company a $6 million contract. The company
is to undertake “an aggressive advertising and PR
campaign.” It has “no background in public relations
or the media.” (Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter,
10/6/04; Haymarket Publishing Services, 11/19/04;
New York Times, 12/11/05)
October
7, 2004 – Ahmad Jasim, al-Iraqiya reporter,
is killed by unknown armed men. (Brussels Tribunal
Web site)
November
2004 – The CPA changes the Iraqi Media Network’s
name to Iraqia Network and hires J. Walter Thompson for
public relations work “to convince Iraqis that IMN
or Iraqia was credible.” [The network continues to
be referred to popularly as the Iraqi Media Network.]
(Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing, 2/14/05;
Don
North statement)
November
1, 2004 – Reuters cameraman Dhia Najim is shot
in the head and killed by a U.S. sniper while covering
fighting between armed men and American troops. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
January
20, 2005 – Harris Corp. announces it has been
awarded a second, three-month, $22 million contract by
the Iraqi Media Network, covering training, programming
support, systems, and deployment. (Harris
Corp. Web site, 1/20/05; 4/27/2007)
February
20, 2005 – When asked by the St. Petersburg
Times how Harris Corp. can “counter the perception
that the Iraqi Media Network’s TV station, al-Iraqiya,
is a mouthpiece for the U.S. government – especially during
the time the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority
was running the country,” project manager David Sedgley
says, “First, Harris Corp. has never received a dime
from the U.S. government – the Iraqi Media Network, including
al-Iraqiya, is totally funded by the Iraqi government
with Iraqi funds.”
He
also says one of Harris’s objectives is to develop “fair
and balanced” broadcasts, and that it has “reduced
the amount of pro-American subjects” being aired.
Regarding
security, he says, “If we knew it was going to deteriorate
to today’s situation, I would have recommended to my management
not to bid this program.” (St. Petersburg Times,
2/20/05)
February
28, 2005 – Raida al-Wazzan, al-Iraqiya
TV announcer, is killed by armed men in Mosul. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
March
2005 – Iraqex changes its name to the Lincoln
Group. (Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter, 3/23/05)
May
31, 2005 – Jerges Mohammed Sultan, al-Iraqiya
TV reporter, is killed near his house by armed men. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
June
2005 – The Defense Department’s Special Operations
Command awards three five-year contracts, totaling $300
million, for articles, broadcasts, advertisements, T-shirts,
bumper stickers, and other messages meant to win international
support for the U.S. government, including one to the
Lincoln Group, which claims “select relationships
in Congress, the Administration and the U.S. Department
of State.” According to the New York Times,
Lincoln becomes “the main civilian contractor for
carrying out an aggressive propaganda campaign in Anbar
Province, known as the Western Mission project. Over the
next several months,” records show, “the military
transfer[s] tens of millions of dollars to Lincoln for
the project.”
Another
contract goes to SAIC, despite “widespread criticism
for its handling of Iraq’s first TV and radio network.”
Its earlier contract was not renewed in December 2003
“amid complaints that the network was mainly a propaganda
tool for the occupying forces.” The third is given
to SYColeman Inc., headed by Lt. Gen. Jared Bates (Ret.),
formerly director of operations for ORHA.
Mike
Furlong, fired by the Iraqi Media Network in June 2003,
is deputy director of the Joint Psychological Operations
Support Element and one of the officers in charge of the
project. (USA Today, 12/13/05, 12/14/05, 12/23/05;
San Diego Union-Tribune, 6/18/05; New York
Times, 2/15/06)
June
1, 2005 – U.S. troops kill ad-Da’wa
newspaper reporter Haydar al-Jourani in Najaf. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
June
22, 2005 – Yassir as-Salihi, Knight-Ridder
reporter, is killed in his car by U.S. troops. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
June
28, 2005 – Ahmad Wa’il al-Bakri, ash-Sharqiya
TV director, is killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
July
1, 2005 – Khalid Sabih al-Attar, al-Iraqiya
producer/presenter is kidnapped and killed by armed men
in Mosul. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
July
3, 2005 – Editor-in-chief of Baghdad TV
Maha Ibrahim is shot and killed by U.S. troops in Baghdad.
(Brussels Tribunal Web site)
August
27, 2005 – Rafid Mahmood Said al-Anbagy, Diyala
radio presenter for the Iraqi Media Network, is killed
by armed men in al-Gatoon area. (Brussels Tribunal
Web site)
August
29, 2005 – Hayder Kadhim and Walid Khaled Ibrahim,
Reuters reporters, are killed by U.S. troops
in Baghdad while covering fighting. (Brussels Tribunal
Web site)
September
17, 2005 – Sabah Mohssin of al-Iraqiya
is killed. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
September
22, 2005 – Ahlam Yousif, TV engineer, and Bassem
al-Fadli, manager, al-Iraqiya, are killed by
armed men in Mosul. (Brussels Tribunal Web site)
October
2005 – The Lincoln Group presents a plan called
“Divide and Prosper” to the U.S. military’s
Special Operations Command in Florida. It recommends making
Sunni religious leaders one of the “target audiences”
for U.S. propaganda. (New York Times, 1/2/06)
November
2, 2005 – Defense Secretary Rumsfeld endorses
Dorrance Smith to be his chief spokesman, despite outrage
resulting from an April 25 Wall Street Journal
opinion piece in which Smith wrote that U.S. television
networks were “a tool of terrorist propaganda”
because they re-aired footage from al-Jazeera.
(Washington Post, 11/2/05)
November
28, 2005 – Akeel Abdul Ridha and Muqdad Muhsin
of al-Iraqiya are killed by armed men. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
November
30, 2005 – The Los Angeles Times reports,
“the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers
to publish stories by American troops in an effort to
burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.” The
operation is handled by the Lincoln Group, and “is
designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military.”
(Los Angeles Times, 11/30/05)
December
2005 – A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll indicates
that 72 percent of Americans think it is wrong for the
Pentagon to secretly pay the Iraqi media to publish pro-U.S.
stories. (USA Today, 12/23/05)
Early
January 2006 – Journalist Kamal Karim is sentenced
to 30 years in prison for defaming Kurdish regional leader
Masoud Barzani. His treatment is met by international
outrage and his sentence is later reduced; he is imprisoned
for six months. (Christian Science Monitor, 1/10/06)
January
1, 2006 – Mahmood Za’al, Baghdad TV
reporter, is killed by U.S. troops in Khaldiya. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
January
2, 2005 – The New York Times reports
that the Lincoln Group has been paying Sunni Iraqi religious
scholars for propaganda assistance. (New York Times,
1/2/06)
January
4, 2006 – Through a recess appointment by President
Bush, Dorrance Smith becomes assistant secretary of defense
for public affairs. [On April 7, he is confirmed for the
position by the Senate.] (Washington Post, 1/5/06;
4/8/06)
January
10, 2006 – The Christian Science Monitor
reports that nearly 50 percent of Iraqis watch al-Iraqiya.
However, according to its critics, “Iraq’s version
of America’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has simply
become a propaganda tool for the country’s leading Shiite
politicians. Al Iraqiya was meant to stand as
a model for a burgeoning independent press, but seems
to have instead become one more political spoil for its
competing factions . . . . The Iraqi Media Network is
another factor that is helping to turn Iraqi society into
a sectarian society.” (Christian Science Monitor,
1/10/06)
Mid-January
2006 – The Defense Department inspector general
begins an audit of the Pentagon’s use of the Lincoln Group
for “psychological operations.” (New York
Times, 2/15/06)
February
15, 2006 – The New York Times reports
that two years ago the two founders of the Lincoln Group,
recent Oxford University graduate Christian Bailey (né
Christian Jozefowicz) and Paige Craig (formerly a U.S.
Marines intelligence officer), “were living in a
half-renovated Washington group house, with a string of
failed startup companies behind them,” until winning
contracts from the Pentagon. “Now their company .
. . works out of elegant offices along Pennsylvania Avenue
and sponsors polo matches in Virginia horse country. Mr.
Bailey recently bought a million-dollar Georgetown row
house. Mr. Craig drives a Jaguar and shows up for interviews
accompanied by his ‘director of security’, a beefy bodyguard.”
(New York Times, 2/15/06)
February
20, 2006 – Raeda Wazzan, al-Iraqiya
news anchor, is kidnapped. Five days later she is found
dead on a roadside in Mosul, where she had lived and worked.
She had been shot repeatedly in the head. Her 10-year-old
son was also kidnapped but he was later released. (Brussels
Tribunal Web site)
March
5, 2006 – The Daily Yomiuri (Tokyo)
reports that the Japanese Foreign Ministry is providing
the animated series “Captain Tsubasa”, about
a soccer-playing boy, to the Iraqi Media Network for free.
Twenty-six Japan Ground Self-Defense Force water tankers
in southern Iraq have been decorated with giant decals
of Captain Tsubasa. A Foreign Ministry official predicts
Iraqi children
