U.S. paid for Iraqi praise, paper says

[muchacho]

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military offered a mixed message Wednesday about whether it embraced one of its programs that reportedly paid a consulting firm and Iraqi newspapers to plant favorable stories about the war and the rebuilding effort.

Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman in Iraq, said the program is "an important part of countering misinformation in the news by insurgents." A spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, called a report detailing the program troubling if true and said he was looking into the matter.

"This is a military program initiated with the Multi-National Force to help get factual information about ongoing operations into Iraqi news," Johnson said in an e-mail.

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http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051201/NEWS07/512010490/1009

[Catch22Dem]

1. So you counter misinformation with misinformation, Barry?

Way to go :eyes:

[izzie]

2. Any one know who owns Lincoln Group?

Gee Maine could sure use that 5 million. Bush never gets his hands out of the tax payers pockets for things he wants. Guess we should add this to the Faith base hand outs. What a waste this war has been. Everyone was all better with Saddam and with us sort of watching what he did and we could have pushed him more if this crazy group did not want to ride around on their white horses like some type Knights of old. It would be cheaper if we just got Bush a tailor of military uniforms and let him have photo-ops wearing them.