Planted PR Stories Not News to Military

From LA Times: December 18, 2005


U.S. officials in Iraq knew that a contractor was paying local papers. Discretion was the key. U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories about the war, and made it clear that none of the stories should be traced to the United States, according to several current and former employees of Lincoln Group, the Washington-based contractor.

In contrast to assertions by military officials in Baghdad and Washington, interviews and Lincoln Group documents show that the information campaign waged over the last year was designed to cloak any connection to the U.S. military.

A number of workers who carried out Lincoln Group's offensive, including a $20-million two-month contract to influence public opinion in Iraq's restive Al Anbar province, describe a campaign that was unnecessarily costly, poorly run and largely ineffective at improving America's image in Iraq.Turns out Karen Hughes was just the public face of our propaganda efforts. And yes, it can be argued that influencing public opinion is intrinsic to fighting every war, but has it ever failed so completely as this. Undermining the Free Press in Iraq, paying these ridiculous amounts to Iraqi journalists further reinforce an inpenatratable cloud of suspicion we will not be able to clear for generations.