Report: U.S. Planting Propaganda in Iraqi Press

By: E&P Staff In a lengthy article today, Los Angeles Times reporters Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi reveal that that the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops to improve the image of the U.S. occupation. Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press "as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists," the article reports.

Dozens have been published since the effort began earlier this year.

A senior Pentagon official who opposes the practice of planting stories in the Iraqi media said: "Here we are trying to create the principles of democracy in Iraq. Every speech we give in that country is about democracy. And we're breaking all the first principles of democracy when we're doing it."

The articles are composed by U.S. military "information operations" troops, translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a U.S.-based defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Times.

"The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military," the Times relates. "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 democratic principles, political transparency and freedom of speech in a country emerging from decades of dictatorship and corruption.

"It 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.' Standards vary widely at Iraqi newspapers, many of which are shoestring operations.

"Underscoring the importance U.S. officials place on development of a Western-style media, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday cited the proliferation of news organizations in Iraq as one of the country's great successes since the ouster of President Saddam Hussein.

"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."

In recent months, back home, the Bush administration has come under criticism for distributing video and news stories without identifying the federal government as their source and for paying American journalists, such as Armstrong Williams, to promote administration policies, practices the Government Accountability Office has labeled "covert propaganda."

The extensive article can be found here at www.latimes.com.