Controversy Builds Over Planted Stories in Iraqi Press

By: Demands for details from the White House and Congress built on Thursday over a military program whose contracts include money for paying Iraqi newspapers and journalists to plant favorable stories about the war and rebuilding effort.

The Senate Armed Services Committee summoned Defense Department officials for a briefing on Friday.

"I am concerned about any actions that may undermine the credibility of the United States as we help the Iraqi people stand up a democracy," said the committee's chairman, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., adding that he has no information to confirm or deny the reports. "A free and independent press is critical to the functioning of a democracy, and I am concerned about any actions which may erode the independence of the Iraqi media."

[In a lengthy piece today, Jonathan Landay of Knight Ridder disclosed that U.S. officials in Washington said the payments were made through the Baghdad Press Club, created more than a year ago by U.S. Army officers. Members of the Press Club are paid as much as $200 a month, depending on how many positive pieces they produce.

[Landay reported, "The payments to Iraqi journalists originally were intended to nurture a fledgling domestic press corps by rewarding Iraqi journalists who put their lives and the safety of their families at risk by attending U.S. military briefings in the high security Green Zone in Baghdad, where American officials live and work....The effort, however, 'has gotten out of hand,' said an American military official in Baghdad. 'The Iraqis learned that if they reported stuff we liked, they'd get paid, and our guys learned that if they paid the Iraqis, they'd report stuff we liked,' the former senior defense official said."]

One of the companies involved ? the Washington-based Lincoln Group ? has at least two contracts with the military to provide media and public relations services. One contract, for $6 million, was for public relations and advertising work in Iraq and involved planting favorable stories in the Iraqi media, according to a document.

The other Lincoln contract, which is with the Special Operations Command, is worth up to $100 million over five years for media operations with video, print and Web-based products. That contract is not related to the controversy over propaganda and was not for services in Iraq, according to command spokesman Ken McGraw.

The Lincoln Group shares that contract with SYColeman, a division of L-3 Communications, and Science Applications International Corp., a San Diego-based defense contractor.

The program came to light just as President Bush released his strategy for victory in Iraq. It includes the need to support a "free, independent and responsible Iraqi media" and a pledge to help the Iraqi government communicate in a "professional, effective and open manner."

"We're very concerned," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. "We are seeking more information from the Pentagon."

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., slammed the program as a scheme that "speaks volumes about the president's credibility gap. If Americans were truly welcomed in Iraq as liberators, we wouldn't have to doctor the news for the Iraqi people."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, as he did a day earlier in response to reporters' inquiries, that he was trying to get details from U.S. military officials in Baghdad. "I have very few facts," Whitman said.

"It's certainly an issue that's easy to get emotional about, and we need to understand the facts, and when we do I'll provide you as much information as I can," Whitman said.

A senior military spokesman in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, was asked whether he thought the program undercuts the credibility of either the American military or the new Iraqi news media. Lynch did not answer directly.

Instead, he quoted a senior al-Qaida leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as having told Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the main terrorist leader in Iraq, "Remember, half the battle is the battlefield of the media."

Lynch said Zarqawi lies to Iraqis and that the U.S. military does not.

"We do empower our operational commanders with the ability to inform the Iraqi public, but everything we do is based on fact, not based on fiction," Lynch said.

Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Iraq, said he was "not aware of any formal review of the program, although it is constantly being assessed for effectiveness."

Whitman said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was "aware of the issue." The spokesman he would not say whether Rumsfeld had expressed concern about it or whether the secretary had asked for additional information about it.

[Eight current and former military, defense and other U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington agreed to discuss with Knight the payments to Iraqi reporters and other American military information operations "because they fear that the efforts are promoting practices that are unacceptable for a democracy," Landay wrote today. "They requested anonymity to avoid retaliation. 'We are teaching them (Iraqi journalists) the wrong things,' one military officer said.

["Moreover, the defense and military officials said, the U.S. public is at risk of being influenced by the information operations because what's planted in the Iraqi media can be picked up by international news organizations and Internet bloggers....Finally, military and defense officials said, the more extensive the information operations, the more likely they'll be discovered, thereby undermining the credibility of the U.S. armed forces and the American government."]