The US Propaganda Machine: Oh, What a Lovely War

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The US Propaganda Machine: Oh, What a Lovely War

Post by Dardedar »

DAR
It's just amazing to me that this behavior is tolerated.

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The US Propaganda Machine: Oh, What a Lovely War
By Andrew Buncombe
The Independent UK

Thursday 30 March 2006

The Lincoln Group was tasked with presenting the US version of events in Iraq to counter adverse media coverage. Here we present examples of its work, and the reality behind its headlines.

This is the news from Iraq according to Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration.

A week after the US Defense Secretary criticized the media for " exaggerating" reports of violence in Iraq, The Independent has obtained examples of newspaper reports the Bush administration want Iraqis to read.

They were prepared by specially trained American "psy-ops" troops who paid thousands of dollars to Iraqi newspaper editors to run these un-attributed reports in their publications. In order to hide its involvement, the Pentagon hired the Lincoln Group to act as a liaison between troops and journalists. The Lincoln Group was at the centre of controversy last year when it was revealed the company was being paid more than $100m (£58m) for various contracts, including the planting of such stories.

The Pentagon - which recently announced that an internal investigation had cleared the Lincoln Group of breaching military rules by planting these stories - has claimed these new reports did not constitute propaganda because they were factually correct. But a military specialist has questioned some of the information contained within their reports while describing their rhetorical style as "comical". Furthermore, it has been alleged that quotations contained within these reports and others - attributed to anonymous Iraqi officials or citizens - were routinely made up by US troops who never went beyond the perimeter of the Green Zone.

What seems clear is that, taken by themselves, these reports would provide an unbalanced picture of the situation inside Iraq where ongoing violence wreaks daily chaos and horror. Three years since US and UK troops invaded, more than 2,500 coalition troops have been killed. How many Iraqi civilians have died is unclear. The Iraqi Body Count puts the minimum at 33,773, but this figure is based on media reports and the group admits "it is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media". An extrapolation published in The Lancet 18 months ago said more than 100,000 had been killed.

A former employee of the Lincoln Group, who spent last summer in Baghdad acting as a link between US troops who were part of the Information Operations Task Force and Iraqis contracted by the company to establish contact with Iraqi journalists, said his job was to ensure "there were no finger-prints".

"The Iraqis did not know who was writing the stories and the US troops did not know who the Iraqis were," said the former employee, who declined to be named. It is not known whether the stories included here were ever printed or simply prepared for publication, but he said it was normal for around 10 stories a week to be printed. He said US troops routinely fabricated their quotations.

The former employee said the Lincoln Group paid up to $2,000 for the publication of each article - a sum that had risen from when he started working, suggesting the Iraqi editors realized who was behind the articles and knew there was plenty of money. The Lincoln Group was paid $80,000 a week by the military to plant these stories.

The former employee said the stories - which often feature phrases such as " brave warriors" and "eager troops" - were designed to bolster the image and purported efficiency of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and their involvement in operations. The Bush administration says the ability of Iraqi security forces to deal with insurgents remains the key to a withdrawal of US troops.

In reality, while one article describes the ISF as a "potent fighting force", the training of Iraqi forces has been a slow and troubled process. The Pentagon recently said the only Iraqi battalion judged capable of fighting without US support had been downgraded, requiring it to fight with American troops.

John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based defense think-tank, who reviewed some of the Lincoln Group stories, said he found them unconvincing. "Anybody who knows about propaganda knows the first rule of propaganda is that it should not look like propaganda," he said. "It's embarrassing enough that [the US military] got caught ... but then for their product to be so cheesy ... It's just embarrassing."

He added: "Some of the vignettes are cartoonish. The ISF? Many of them are surely brave. But a potent fighting force? I think that's a little clearer than the truth. It's propaganda."

Another story mentions the Iraqi oil industry and calls it "unique in that it is the only sector in which every dollar invested, either directly or indirectly, provides direct revenue to Iraq for future reconstruction" .

Yet a report published last November by a group of aid agencies and NGOs claimed that production-sharing agreements (PSAs) proposed by the US State Department before the invasion and adopted by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), could see Iraqis lose $200bn in revenue if the plan comes into effect.

Data collated by the Brookings Institution says oil production in Iraq remains below the estimated pre-invasion levels. At the moment, Iraq annually spends $6bn to import oil.

The Lincoln Group is headed by Christian Bailey, a Briton with no experience in PR, and a former US Marine, Paige Craig. The company failed to respond to a call seeking comment yesterday.

...snip...

Criticizing the media last week, Mr. Rumsfeld said: "Much of the reporting in the US and abroad has exaggerated the situation... Interestingly, all of the exaggerations seem to be on one side.... The steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists."

The article and many specific examples of government purchase propaganda given here

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Post by Barbara Fitzpatrick »

And it's these "Lincoln Group" articles that keep showing up on NWA as proof of how much good we're doing over there. I haven't been into suckers since I was 8 years old.
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Post by Dardedar »

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Post by Barbara Fitzpatrick »

It's really sad that things are so bad we can look back on Viet Nam and Nixon with nostalgia. Molly Ivins says the first rule of holes is when you're in one, stop digging - but we've got almost 3 more years of this administration and maybe 20 of this Court. The closest to hope we've got is to take back Congress, and even then, it's going to take some doing to get us out of Iraq, rebalance the budget, get us off oil, put education back in schools... Sigh.
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Post by Hogeye »

Dream on. The US State will disband long before those things happen. And we will be better off for it.
"May the the last king be strangled in the guts of the last priest." - Diderot
With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny, every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty. - Ingersoll
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So soon?

Post by Doug »

BF wrote:
The closest to hope we've got is to take back Congress, and even then, it's going to take some doing to get us out of Iraq, rebalance the budget, get us off oil, put education back in schools... Sigh.
Hogeye wrote:Dream on. The US State will disband long before those things happen. And we will be better off for it.
DOUG
Those things can happen in less than 70 years, I'd say. The longest time would be getting off the oil. With a Democrat at the helm, the rest could be done quickly. I don't see any signs that the US would disappear within our lifetimes or those of our grandchildren.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
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Post by Dardedar »

This doesn't belong in the humor section because it's not funny:

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Post by Barbara Fitzpatrick »

Darrel, you're right - it isn't funny. Dems got the reputation for being big spenders with the public works programs during the 1930s Depression followed by WWII. MSM considered the spending during the Johnson years ("Great Society" + escalation in Vietnam) to confirm that view. It's one of those "everybody knows so nobody verifies" kinds of things that fascist propaganda loves so much.

Fortunately, Doug is also right - the death and destruction Hogeye looks forward to so gleefully is not likely - and, with honest elections (THAT's the catch), the problems we are seeing now can be reversed by the time my grandchildren could have adult grandchildren.
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Post by Hogeye »

I predict that the US State disbands in under 20 years. Perhaps a lot sooner. Most likely, the proximate trigger will be hyperinflation of the US$, but there could be other triggers, such as terrorist attacks. When it takes $1000 to buy a loaf of bread, people's blind faith in State will vanish amazingly fast.

Contrary to popular belief, I do not predict widespread "death and destruction." On the contrary, many/most places will have business as usual after only a few weeks/months transition. Statists tend to believe that people will suddenly go violently bonkers without a State, but in reality society can do quite well, thank you, without one.
Thomas Paine wrote:Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all the parts of civilised community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together. The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole. Common interest regulates their concerns, and forms their law; and the laws which common usage ordains, have a greater influence than the laws of government. In fine, society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government.
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The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
"May the the last king be strangled in the guts of the last priest." - Diderot
With every drop of my blood I hate and execrate every form of tyranny, every form of slavery. I hate dictation. I love liberty. - Ingersoll
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