Demands for details from the White House and Congress were building on Thursday over a US military program whose multi-million dollar contracts include money for paying Iraqi newspapers and journalists to plant favorable stories about the war and reconstruction.
Citing increasing misgivings about the matter, the Senate Armed Services Committee summoned Defense Department officials to Capitol Hill for a briefing yesterday.
"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 of Virginia.
He said he has no information to confirm or rebut the reports.
"A free and independent press is critical to the functioning of a democracy, and I am concerned about any actions which may erode the independence of the Iraqi media," Warner said.
Defense Department officials in Baghdad continued to defend the program, saying it is a necessary tool to provide factual information to the Iraqi people.
One company involved, the Washington-based Lincoln Group, has at least two contracts with the military to provide media and public relations services. One, for US$6 million, was for public relations and advertising work in Iraq and involved planting favorable stories in the Iraqi media, according to a document.
The other Lincoln contract, with the Special Operations Command, is worth up to US$100 million over five years for media operations with video, print and Web-based products. That contract is not related to the controversy over propaganda and was not for services in Iraq, according to Special Operations spokesman Ken McGraw.
The Lincoln Group shares that Special Operations contract with two other firms, SYColeman, a division of L-3 Communications; and Science Applications International Corp, a California-based defense contractor.
The program came to light as US President George W. Bush released his "Strategy for Victory in Iraq," which includes the need to support a "free, independent and responsible Iraqi media" and a vow to help the Iraqi government communicate in a "professional, effective and open manner."
Across the government on Thursday, officials said they were going after more information about the Iraq program.
"We're very concerned," said Bush's spokesman Scott McClellan. "We are seeking more information from the Pentagon."
Senator Edward Kennedy, of Massachusetts attacked the program as a devious scheme that "speaks volumes about the president's credibility gap. If Americans were truly welcomed in Iraq as liberators, we wouldn't have to doctor the news for the Iraqi people."
At the Pentagon, spokesman Bryan Whitman said, as he did a day earlier in response to inquiries about the reports, that he was seeking details from US military officials in Baghdad.
"I have very few facts," Whitman said, adding that he would not confirm the essence of the story until he had learned more from Baghdad.
"It's certainly an issue that's easy to get emotional about, and we need to understand the facts, and when we do I'll provide you as much information as I can," Whitman said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to