U.S. military plants stories in the Iraqi media

11/30/2005 8:00:00 PM GMT
Washington tries to spread propaganda in the Iraqi media

Numerous media outlets worldwide decided to self-censor their reporting on the conflict in Iraq out of concern about public reaction to graphic images and details about the war.

Several news agencies also are said to have used their websites to post material different from what was printed in newspapers or broadcast on TV or radio programs. Also it’s been reported that about one-third of media outlets use their internet sites to broadcast materials that were not published or broadcast elsewhere by the organization, and that reporters and editors in most of the cases post additional information online such as photographs, opinion articles, extended interviews and behind-the-scenes reporter accounts.

The Chicago Tribune revealed that the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an attempt to boost the image of the U.S. in Iraq, already tarnished by the repeated scandals involving the attitude and actions of the American forces in the war-torn country.

As part of an information offensive in Iraq, translated articles written by U.S. military "information operations" are being published in Iraqi newspapers with the help of defense contractors, U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times revealed.

And while the operation attempts to hide any connection with the U.S. military, it’s been revealed that the Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington, D.C., firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories.

Washington tries to spread propaganda in the Iraqi media as U.S. officials repeat claims the Army is staying in the country to ensure “democratic principles”, “political transparency” and “freedom of speech”, following decades of dictatorship under the toppled leader Saddam Hussein.

The articles are being presented as balanced reporting and unbiased accounts written and reported by independent journalists, condemning both rebels and resistance fighters, hailing the U.S. efforts in rebuilding the country, and repeating claims by the American government and the U.S. President that the occupying troops are in Iraq for a noble purpose, mainly to liberate it and bring “democracy” and “freedom”.

The U.S. paid Iraqi news agencies to run dozens of such articles — with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism" — since the effort began this year.

The articles, as expected, present only one side, the U.S. favored side of events, avoiding information that would negatively affect the U.S. or the puppet Iraqi government, officials said.

Also The Chicago Tribune stated that 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."

“There is no longer any way to separate foreign media from domestic media. Those neat lines don’t exist anymore,” said one private contractor who does information operations work for the Pentagon.

A senior military official who’s been in Iraq over the past year says he started suspecting some of news stories in Iraqi newspapers when he read some of the strong pro-U.S. message in some news reports in Baghdad. He says he started to believe allegations that the U.S. military was planting stories in the Iraqi media.

“Stuff would show up in the Iraqi press, and I would ask, ‘Where the hell did that come from?’ It was clearly not something that indigenous Iraqi press would have conceived of on their own,” the official said.

Hearing that they’re being targeted by a U.S. military psychological operation, Iraqi news editors reacted with a mixture of shock and shrugs, according to LA Times and The Financial Times.

According to the U.S. law, the military is prohibited from carrying out psychological operations or planting propaganda with American media outlets. But officials argue that with the present globalization of media driven by the Internet, the Pentagon’s agenda is being implemented with the knowledge that coverage in the foreign press inevitably “bleeds” into the Western media

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