U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories about the war and made clear that none of the stories should be traced to the United States, according to several current and former employees of Lincoln Group, the Washington-based contractor.
In contrast with assertions by military officials in Baghdad and Washington, interviews and Lincoln Group documents show that the information campaign waged over the past year was designed to cloak any connection to the U.S. military.
“In clandestine parlance, Lincoln Group was a `cut-out’–a third party–that would provide the military with plausible deniability,” said a former Lincoln Group employee who worked on the operation. “To attribute products to [the military] would defeat the entire purpose.”
Workers who carried out Lincoln Group’s offensive, including a $20 million, two-month contract to influence public opinion in Iraq’s restive Anbar province, describe a campaign that was unnecessarily costly, poorly run and largely ineffective at improving America’s image in Iraq. The current and former employees spoke on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality restrictions.
“In my own estimation, this stuff has absolutely no effect and it’s a total waste of money,” said another former employee, echoing the sentiments of several colleagues.
Report expected soon
The Pentagon has ordered an investigation, led by Navy Rear Adm. Scott Van Buskirk. On Friday, Army Gen. George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said he expects a report from Van Buskirk “in a week or so.”
Casey said a preliminary assessment made shortly after the military’s information operations campaign was revealed in a Los Angeles Times article last month concluded that the Army was “operating within our authorities and the appropriate legal procedures.”
On Dec. 2, Pentagon officials told Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) that all the published materials were supposed to be identified as originating with the U.S. military but that identification was occasionally omitted by accident.
But Lincoln Group documents obtained by the Times, along with interviews with military officials and current and former Lincoln Group employees, show that those who worked on the campaign believed the media products would be far more credible if their origins were disguised.
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As the battles raged in Washington over the past two years about how the U.S. should get its message across in Iraq, the Pentagon quietly awarded huge contracts to companies such as Lincoln Group.
$18 million contract
Lincoln Group’s breakthrough came in late 2004, when it submitted a bid on a military public-affairs contract offering a three-year $18 million pact for an “aggressive advertising and public-relations campaign that will accurately inform the Iraqi people” about U.S. goals.
The U.S. military in Baghdad “was throwing money at people,” said one former Lincoln Group employee.
Lincoln Group employees worked closely with soldiers from the Information Operations Task Force in Baghdad to turn “storyboards” written by soldiers into Arabic news stories and advertisements. A high-ranking Army officer monitored the operation, and Lincoln Group documents show that military officials gave the company clear guidelines.
Editors were paid $50 to $2,000 for publication.
“IO was very aware that newspapers were paid to publish articles,” said a former Lincoln Group employee.
On one occasion, one of the storyboards was accidentally published in English in a Baghdad newspaper. Military officials in Baghdad dressed down Lincoln Group employees because the error revealed the material was American in origin.
Last summer, with the October constitutional referendum approaching, U.S. commanders in Iraq decided to ratchet up the information war in restive Anbar province. According to Lincoln Group documents, the company reported to the Army that more than $16 million was spent on advertisements on Iraqi television over two months.