Faced with suicide bombings, claims of Iraqi death squads and kidnappings, the Pentagon has come up with an innovative solution to solving the problems in Iraq: buying good news. Using defence contractors or intermediaries posing as freelance reporters, the military has been paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by a military propaganda unit lauding the United States mission.
According to The Los Angeles Times, the articles are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers where they are often presented as unbiased accounts by independent journalists. Records obtained by the newspaper indicate the US has paid to publish dozens of articles since the operation began this year, with headlines such as ”Iraqis insist on living despite terrorism” and ”More money goes to Iraq’s development”.
One military official told the Times the military has also bought an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station, both used to channel pro-American messages. The propaganda offensive is said to have caused unease among some senior military officials at the Pentagon and in Iraq, especially when the US is promising to promote democratic principles.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the number of ”free” media organisations in Iraq is one of its great success stories, offering a ”relief valve” for the Iraqi public to debate the issues of the day.
A senior Pentagon official told the Times: ”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.”
At the heart of the operation is a contract the Pentagon has with a small Washington-based firm, Lincoln Group, whose Iraqi staff help translate and place the stories, posing as freelance reporters or advertising executives.
A spokesperson for the group did not return calls on Wednesday. On one occasion documented by The Los Angeles Times, a man with the same name as a Lincoln worker paid editors at the al-Mada newspaper $900 to publish an article headlined ”Terrorists attack Sunni volunteers”. He paid cash and left no calling card. Records obtained by the Times show the man told the Lincoln Group he gave the paper more than $1 200.
Iraqi editors apparently reacted with a mixture of shock and shrugs when told they were targets of a US military psychological operation. The editor of al-Mada, widely considered the most thoughtful and professional of Iraqi newspapers, said if his cash-strapped paper had known the story was from the US government, he would have ”charged much, much more”. — Guardian Unlimited Â