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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS