Reply #2: 2004: Pentagon Iraqi Media Project = $96M Propaganda Project

[L. Coyote]

US Journalist Quit Pentagon Iraqi Media Project = $96M Propaganda Project

Wednesday, January 14th, 2004
U.S. Journalist Quits Pentagon Iraqi Media Project Calling it U.S. Propaganda
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/14/155...

Listen LINK

We talk to a longtime TV producer about the massive problems he saw in the new U.S.-funded Iraqi Media Network, which he said became an "irrelevant mouthpiece for Coalition Provisional Authority propaganda, managed news and mediocre programs." The U.S. has awarded a $96 million contract to a U.S. producer of communications equipment, Harris Corp., to create a U.S.-funded national media network in Iraq.

According to the head of Harris Corp, the Iraqi Media Network will have 30 TV and radio transmitters, three broadcast studios, and 12 bureaus around Iraq. .....

===================
BUSH's LIES: "federal agencies spent $1.6 billion on what some Democrats called 'spin.' "

Bush administration propaganda and disinformation
SourceWatch - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_propaganda_and_disinformation

The Bush administration "spent $1.4 billion in taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with advertising agencies over the past two-and-a-half years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released by House Democrats" on February 13, 2006, Richard Williamson reported for Adweek. "With spending on public relations and other media included, federal agencies spent $1.6 billion on what some Democrats called 'spin.'" ............

The GAO reported that the "six largest recipients of ad and PR dollars were" Leo Burnett USA, $536 million; Campbell-Ewald, $194 million; GSD&M, $179 million; J. Walter Thompson (JWT), $148 million; Frankel & Company, $133 million; and Ketchum, $78 million. "The agencies received more than $1.2 billion in media contracts, according to the report," according to Adweek. ........

==================
Pentagon OK's Propaganda for Iraq (and Possibly Elsewhere)

Pentagon OK's Propaganda for Iraq (and Possibly Elsewhere)
Source: Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2006 - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-infowar4mar04,0,1357115.story?coll=la-home-world
http://www.prwatch.org/node/4517

Declaring it "within our authorities and responsibilities," the top U.S. general in Iraq, George Casey, announced that the Lincoln Group program that covertly places stories written by U.S. troops in Iraqi newspapers will continue. Navy Admiral Scott Van Buskirk is also reviewing the Iraq propaganda program. His review was previously described as finished but not public .....

===================
The Sword Employs the Pen = "the military's practice of paying journalists"

Center for Media and Democracy » Spin of the Day » Feb 07, 2005

The Sword Employs the Pen
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3260

The Pentagon is investigating "the military's practice of paying journalists to write articles and commentary ... and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists," writes Associated Press. CNN reported on Pentagon involvement with two news websites, Southeast European Times (focused on the Balkans) and Magharebia (focused on North Africa). Some 50 journalists were paid by the Pentagon through a private contractor, Anteon Corporation, ..........

==============================
Pentagon Paid Reporters for Stories Overseas
February 06, 2005 - http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000789872

WASHINGTON (AP) The Pentagon’s chief investigator is looking into the military’s practice of paying journalists to write articles and commentary for a Web site aimed at influencing public opinion in the Balkans, officials said Friday.

At the request of Larry Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Pentagon’s inspector general, Joseph Schmitz, is reviewing that case and also looking more broadly at Pentagon activities that might involve inappropriate payments to journalists. ...............

==============================
Covert propaganda >> Instances of covert propaganda - http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Covert_propaganda

=======================
Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/25/hersh-qaeda

New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the “single most explosive” element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East (specifically the Iranian government and Hezbollah in Lebanon) by funding violent Sunni groups.

Hersh says the U.S. has been “pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight” for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to “stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence.” Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of “three Sunni jihadist groups” who are “connected to al Qaeda” but “want to take on Hezbollah.”

Hersh summed up his scoop in stark terms: “We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11.”

Watch it: VIDEO

Hersh added, “All of this should be investigated by Congress, by the way, and I trust it will be. In my talking to membership — members there, they are very upset that they know nothing about this. And they have great many suspicions.”

Digg It!

Transcript:

BLITZER: Near the end of your article, you have this explosive point ...........

=================
RHETORIC OF FEAR 1/22/05: Bush, Cheney Team Up to Soften Americans for War on Iran
The Iran rhetoric has been going on for years now. Is it just a smoke screen to keep the focus off the failures?

------------
Bush, Cheney Team Up to Soften Americans for War on Iran
by Jim Lobe
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=4522

Two very different messages about the future of U.S. foreign policy were broadcast to the world on Inaugural Day Thursday, and listeners everywhere could be forgiven for feeling confused about their import.

On the one hand, George W. Bush's lofty rhetoric about his administration's commitment to bring democracy, liberty and freedom to every country where tyrants rule naturally grabbed the most attention; after all, he is the president.

Even as the speech was much criticized by normally friendly critics – probably more than the White House had anticipated – as being hopelessly ambitious and unrealistic, the idealism that it expressed was widely praised and unquestioned.

On the other hand, Vice Pres. Dick Cheney's dark words of warning against Iran on MSNBC's "Imus in the Morning" television show conveyed something altogether different, both in tone and substance, even if they were relegated to the inside pages. .......

=====================
==========================
Hersh: Bush, Cheney Stovepiping Intelligence On Iran, Hiding Information From CIA
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/19/hersh-iran-agent /

... Seymour Hersh reported that a new CIA assessment concludes that “there’s no evidence Iran is doing anything that puts them close to a bomb.” ... Hersh reports that the White House is still aggressively moving ahead with preparations for a military conflict with Iran.

... Hersh says President Bush and Vice President Cheney are “stovepiping” intelligence and keeping information provided by the Israelis hidden from the CIA.

The Israelis are telling the White House, according to Hersh’s new article “The Next Act,” that they have a reliable agent inside Iran who reports that the nation is working on a trigger for a bomb. “Of course the people in the CIA want to know who is, obviously,” ....
.... the internecine fight that’s going on — the same fight, by the way, that we had before Iraq.”

Watch it: VIDEO

Prior to the Iraq war, the White House set up intelligence stovepipes to “get information they wanted .... with little prior evaluation by intelligence professionals.”


==============
FROM: Next STOP Iran? More BUSH LIES and Surging Toward War With Iran
May-27-07 - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x980363#981252