The Pentagon's Sleight of Hand in Crafting War Propaganda

As an Internet Organizer for Progressive Future, I've been busily spreading the otherwise buried reports of the atrocities and abuses committed by military contractors in Iraq. As outraged as they made me, I had to wonder why these stories failed to reach the mainstream American public. Now I know why.

In an extensive article on the front page of Sunday's New York Times, David Bartow exposes how the Pentagon recruited, groomed, prepped and, one may go so far as to say, bribed a team of "military analysts." This team consisted of retired military men, defense lobbyists and private contractor representatives, who were then unleashed upon the mainstream media to deliver manipulated testimony on the war. Highlights of the detailed investigation of the Pentagon's highly strategized manipulation of war reporting are as follows:

-Well before the September 11th attacks, the Pentagon was already preparing a system for achieving what inside officials called "information dominance" to sell the case for an Iraq invasion.

-Participating analysts in the program were courted by Pentagon insiders through briefing sessions during which lavish treatment was extended upon the team; analysts were paid $500 to $1000 per television appearance on one condition: they were not to quote their briefers directly or disclose the extent of their contact with the Pentagon.

-Multiple "Iraq tours" were set up for the analysts to "see what the situation was really like." These trips were planned detail by detail, down to the minute, to ensure none of the war's negatives were exposed. Private contractor representatives took advantage of these tours to set up lucrative contracts for their companies' services in Iraq.

-Analysts who were quoted as giving testimony that could be construed as negative toward the administration were promptly fired.

-Further tactics used to sway public opinion included paying columnists to write favorably about the administration, distributing false news segments to local TV stations, and covertly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish coalition propaganda.

The Pentagon is doing more than just keeping taxpaying Americans and our troops in the dark about what's really going on in Iraq. They are deliberately distorting the information that reaches us to cover up the abysmal failures of the war.

Ironically, while the administration uses the claim of defending American security abroad as justification for the war, they have stripped the American people of our personal security. They are attacking our freedoms at home first by tapping our phones, and now by interfering with the free press that is foundational to a free society. Join Progressive Future's campaign to repair these breaches to our freedom of information by signing our Petition for an Open Press, targeting the news networks and calling for the removal of any "military analyst" whose conflicts of interest prevent him or her from unbiased reporting.