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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive articles by U.S. soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq for help with its propaganda work, The New York Times reported on Monday.Citing a former employee of the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based public relations firm, the Times reported that the Pentagon directed the company early in 2005 to identify religious leaders who could help produce messages that would persuade Sunnis in the violent Anbar Province to participate in national elections and reject the insurgency.The company then retained three or four Sunni religious scholars...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - A Pentagon contractor that paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written by American soldiers has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees. Since then, the company has retained three or four Sunni religious scholars to offer advice and write reports for military commanders on the content of propaganda campaigns, the former employee said. But documents and Lincoln executives say the company's ties to religious leaders and dozens of other prominent Iraqis is aimed also at enabling it to exercise influence...

BAGHDAD, Iraq – An Ansar al-Sunna of Mosul Media Emir and Administrator were captured by Coalition Forces during raids on suspected terrorist safe houses near Mosul. Muhammad ‘Amir Husayn Mar’I al-Sufi, known as Abu Naba, was an Ansar al-Sunna media emir in Mosul and ‘Adnan ‘Abd-al-Wahab ‘Abdallah Mahmud al-Badrani, known as Abu Hudayfah, an Ansar al-Sunna administrator, were captured Nov. 23 and Dec. 5, 2005 respectively. Abu Naba was responsible for disseminating propaganda - in this capacity, he produced propaganda fliers and compact disks focusing on military operations, anti-voting messages, Jihad messages and prayers. He also facilitated videos of attacks...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2005 – A preliminary investigation of alleged improprieties conducted by U.S. military information operations activities in Iraq hasn't found any wrongdoing, the top U.S. officer in Iraq said today. "We concluded that we were operating within our authorities and the appropriate legal procedures," Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. said from his headquarters in Iraq during a satellite news conference with Pentagon reporters. Casey, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, was responding to a reporter's question on the status of the two-week-old review Navy Rear Adm. Scott R. Van Buskirk is conducting into U.S. information operations practices in...

The Pentagon’s skill in fighting unconventional wars is being tested once again. The latest battle on the home front broke out a few days ago, over the revelation that military funds were being used to plant stories in Iraqi newspapers. The Los Angeles Times broke the news, followed with uncanny synchronicity by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Knight-Ridder, CNN, NPR, ABC, MSNBC, and the inevitable blogosphere. The commentaries poured in with titles such as “Secrets and Lies: The DoD’s Disgraceful Plot to Plant Rosy Stories in the Iraqi Press” and “When Press is Paid to Lie, the Truth...

Independent Talk Radio Is a Hit With Iraqis BY JAMES PALMER BAGHDAD, Iraq -- On a recent afternoon, two sheiks representing their Sunni and Shiite communities meet in the modest studio of Radio Dijla to discuss terrorism and why people are killing innocent civilians. Suhad Rabiat, 29, hosts the talk show "Service Period" on Radio Dijla in Baghdad, Iraq's first independent radio station. In the background is station manager Kareem Al-Yousif. (Photo by James Palmer) Moufaq Al-Alani, the host of the show, patiently waits for a caller to finish a thought before politely suggesting parents and teachers must instill a...

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the Bush administration did nothing wrong in the so-called "fake news" scandal, where the Pentagon paid Iraqi newspapers to carry reports that paint the U.S. liberation in a positive light - as long as the stories are true. "If these are accurate stories written by legitimate people then I don't think there's anything wrong with that," McCain told NBC's "Meet the Press." The Arizona Republican's answer clearly disappointed MTP moderator-turned-Leakgate prosecution witness Tim Russert, who asked incredulously: "But here we are trying to teach democracy and freedom of the press and the lack of...

Initially we CONTROLLED THE MEDIA in post-war Germany. Sort of like Kerry thing; only we "voted" to censor it before we "voted" to free it... The political and media hypocrisy being displayed kind of remind me of a scene in the film Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart; in which Captain Renault, the corrupt French police official, exclaims feigned surprise as an excuse to close down (At the behest of the Nazi Major Strasser) Ricks Café: Rick: "How can you close me up? On what grounds?" Captain Renault: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" [as croupier...

The American media is up in arms over reports that the Pentagon hired a public relations firm to write positive news stories about the Iraq war and get them printed in the Iraqi press. But Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, spokesman for U.S. forces in Baghdad, isn't letting journalists get away with their phony display of outrage. After the New York Times front-paged the "fake news" story Thursday under the headline: "U.S. Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers," Gen. Lynch defended the practice. "We don't lie. We don't need to lie," he told reporters in Baghdad. "We...

Just what sort of democratic principles are we exporting to Iraq? The Los Angeles Times reported this week that U.S. military officials are paying Iraqi newspapers to run canned, favorable "stories" that praise the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, laud the rebuilding efforts and denounce the insurgents. While the White House was busy distancing itself from the controversy -- "We are seeking more information from the Pentagon," said spokesman Scott McClellan -- a senior military spokesman in Baghdad struck a bit closer to the mark. Major Gen. Rick Lynch reminded reporters that terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had been...

CRITICS OF THE Iraq war are outraged over the revelation that the U.S. military has been paying millions of dollars to plant pro-American, Pentagon-written propaganda articles in Iraqi newspapers and to buy off Iraqi journalists with monthly stipends. But in my opinion, it's about time. Information is a critical part of any war, and the U.S. has for too long — to its own detriment — ignored this powerful and essential tool, a tool especially well-suited to the globalized Information Age. Even third-rate countries routinely use information and disinformation as an instrument of foreign policy, often against the United States....

The Pentagon's pay-for-press scheme impedes a clear-eyed view of the war. Credit the administration with this: It understands that the battles are fought in the media as surely as they are on the battlefield. That belief has led the Pentagon into a particularly odious form of media manipulation that will do more harm in the long run than good. The Los Angeles Times and other newspapers reported this week that the Pentagon pays a media consulting firm to plant stories in the Iraqi media. In addition, the consulting firm has paid Iraqi journalists who write pro-American news articles for the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key senator and the country's top military commander said Friday that a Pentagon propaganda program was part of an effort to "get the truth out" in Iraq.Leaving a Pentagon meeting with Defense Department officials, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., said the program, which pays to plant favorable stories with Iraqi journalists and newspapers, is a serious problem.But Warner told The Associated Press that, "Things like this happen. It's a war. The disinformation that's going on in that country is really affecting the effectiveness of what we're achieving, and we have no recourse but...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Demands for details from the White House and Congress were building Thursday over a U.S. military program whose multimillion-dollar contracts include money for paying Iraqi newspapers and journalists to plant favorable stories about the war and rebuilding effort. Citing increasing concerns about the matter, the Senate Armed Services Committee summoned Defense Department officials to Capitol Hill for a briefing Friday. ``I am concerned about any actions that may undermine the credibility of the United States as we help the Iraqi people stand up a democracy,'' said Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., adding that he has no information...

The White House on Thursday expressed concern about the U.S. military secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American articles, but the military said it was important to spread the truth while insurgents were "lying to the Iraqi people

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. military offered a mixed message Wednesday about whether it embraced one of its own 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...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's spokesman said Thursday "we're very concerned" about reports that the U.S. military is paying Iraqi newspapers and journalists to plant favorable stories about the war and the rebuilding effort.</p> <p>"We are seeking more information from the Pentagon," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (Nov. 30) - Titled "The Sands Are Blowing Toward a Democratic Iraq," an article written this week for publication in the Iraqi press was scornful of outsiders' pessimism about the country's future.</p> <p>A vendor shows newspapers for sale at his stall in Baghdad. The Pentagon is paying millions to a public-relations firm for work that appears to violate fundamental principles of Western journalism.</p>

KIRKUK, Iraq — Ever since Muntaha Akhras was a little girl, she’s wanted to be a reporter. The problem was, for the majority of her 36 years, free speech didn’t exist in Iraq. That void has quickly been filled by aspiring — albeit untrained, inexperienced and often openly biased — journalists like Akhras and her husband, Kaml Darwish, who often dodge death to do their jobs. Two months ago, the pair hatched an idea to start a military newspaper, the Kirkuk Messenger, a sort of Iraqi Stars and Stripes, in that the paper derives funding from the United States government...

Majda al-Juburi and Ruwayda al-Khafayie leading a [radio] talk show BAGHDAD - The two radio hosts, Majda and Majid, a chattering woman-and-man team, said the subject for the next hour would be childbearing and motherhood... The rest of the recent talk show, called "Cup of Tea," went much like that... The station broadcasting it, Radio Al Mahaba, on 96 FM here in central Iraq, could well be the only one in the Arab world devoted to women's issues, its founders say.... The station broadcasts programs about marriage, divorce, careers, religion, the constitution, physical abuse and dress codes, all from the...