Maurice Hinchey: “late last year a number of American news agencies blew the cover off a covert propaganda operation pursued by the…”

“late last year a number of American news agencies blew the cover off a covert propaganda operation pursued by the Department of Defense in Iraq. Through this operation, members of our Armed Forces write articles and have them planted in Iraqi newspapers. They also engage with private contractors to do that as well. DOD works with a contractor, the Lincoln Group, who actually pays off Iraqi journalists and publications to get their words printed in Iraqi newspapers and other media. According to a November 30 Los Angeles Times report, many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents, and tout U.S.- led efforts to rebuild the country. By December 2005, the Lincoln Group had paid to plant upwards of 1,000 of these articles in the Iraqi and Arab media. I was shocked by this revelation, which is completely antithetical to what we should really be doing in Iraq. In fact, it is completely antithetical to what other U.S. agencies are doing in Iraq. With one hand we are trying to develop a free, fair and independent news media in that country. But with the other, we are manipulating that media and breeding distrust among Iraqis of their democratic institutions and our efforts at reconstruction. That distrust is a direct threat to our troops in Iraq and a direct impediment to efforts to end our involvement in Iraq.…”