The US military confirmed on Friday that it paid to place stories in Iraqi newspapers, going through third parties to reduce the risk to publishers.
But the US-led Multi-National Force-Iraq insisted that such "information operations" were "an essential tool for commanders to ensure the Iraqi population has current, truthful and reliable information.
"As part of our operations, we have offered articles for publication to Iraqi newspapers, and in some cases articles have been accepted and published as function of buying advertising and opinion/editorial space, as is customary in Iraq," it said in a statement.
"Third parties have been employed in an effort to mitigate the risk to Iraq," it said. The statement said the procedures used to place the stories had undergone policy and legal review to ensure they complied with law and regulations.
The military said it was reviewing allegations raised in news reports about the program and will investigate any improprieties.
The disclosure of the practice of paying to plant favorable stories in the Iraqi press has been widely criticized here as a blow to US credibility and to the independence of the Iraqi media.
Senator John Warner, after being briefed by defense officials, said the Pentagon was still gathering information on the extent of the secret program and whether Iraqi journalists were paid by the military to write favorable stories.
Senior Pentagon officials confirmed that a private firm, the Lincoln Group, was contracted to pay Iraqi news organizations to run military-produced stories as paid advertisements, he said.
"Now it's been discovered in some areas there's an omission of that reference that it's been paid for. And they're looking into that," Warner told reporters.
He said the stories were put together by a group working directly under Lieutenant General John Vines, the second ranking commander in Iraq.
They were reviewed by a flag officer and cleared by military legal advisers before being turned over to the Lincoln Group, he said.
He said the material produced by the military was represented as originating with the coalition military.
"Lincoln Group is authorized to provide payment for placement of this material in Iraqi newspapers, similar to the way in which any advertiser, marketer or public relations firm would place advertisements," Warner said.
The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Lincoln Group staff in Iraq sometimes posed as freelance journalists or advertising executives when delivering stories to Iraqi news outlets, masking their connection to the military.
It said dozens of stories written by military "information operations" soldiers ran in Iraqi newspapers, many of them presented as unbiased news accounts by independent reporters.
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