As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.
The articles, written by U.S. military “information operations” troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
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.
I wish I could say that I am surprised by this, but I am not. I don't know if anything that this administration did could suprise me, short of starting to tell me the truth.
Do we have an ounce of credibility left in the world?
I can almost visualize a "Brazil-like" Deptartment of Information Retrieval, where legions of low-level officers are busy rewriting world news headlines to make them suitable for Iraqi consumption.
ReplyDeleteWhat did they call it in 1984? The Ministry of Truth? Pravda for Iraq.
So I guess Judy and Woody and Armstrong Williams were paid off here...and Al Jeezera was almost eliminated thanks to Bush and Rummy ( yet saved by Blair), should Anything at all "shock& awe" us at this point ???
ReplyDelete