Iraq

50 Lies To Tell the Public

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, a war gamer who has taught strategy and military operations at the National War College, has produced an analysis which suggests that the White House and Pentagon made up or distorted more than 50 news stories related to the war in Iraq. "It was not bad intelligence," Gardiner says. "It was much more. It was an orchestrated effort. It began before the war, was a major effort during the war and continues as post-conflict distortions. ... It was not just the Pentagon.

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Main Source: 
U.S. News & World Report, October 20, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Ethics
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Painting a Smiley Face on Iraq

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"The U.S. government has launched a 'good news' offensive in Iraq, and a couple of Baghdad street kids, peddlers of soda pop, have been recruited for the first wave of attack," reports Charles J. Hanley. "On a two-day visit, U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans said thousands of new businesses have sprung up here since the war, and gave an example of new entrepreneurship: two boys he spotted by the road selling soft drinks to Baghdad's parched drivers." As in past wars, "the government has unleashed a flood of news releases promoting the U.S.

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Main Source: 
Washington Post, October 17, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

"Nayirah" Handler Hypes Iraqi's Book on Lynch Rescue

Submitted by John Stauber on

Expect lots of media hype soon over the first Jessica Lynch-related book by Iraqi Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief. According to some reports he told U.S. Marines the location of the captured Private Lynch. He and his family were then HREF="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,85479,00.html" target="_blank">granted U.S. asylum. Along with the chance for U.S. citizenship, al-Rehaief received HREF="http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&artic

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Main Source: 
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/17/1530239
Topics: 
Iraq

Mind Games and Word Games

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The NATO Review has published an essay by Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Collins, the chief of PSYOPS (psychological operations) in NATO's Operations Division at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. Titled "Mind Games," the essay examines the use of "perception-management operations before, during and after Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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Main Source: 
NATO Review, Summer 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
Rhetoric
U.S. Government

Moran Fondly Remembered

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has aired a glowing memorial to Paul Moran, its cameraman who was killed in March by a suicide bomber while filming the war in Iraq. The broadcast features fond recollections from Moran's colleagues, friends and family, while glossing over and rationalizing Moran's work for the Rendon Group, the secretive PR firm that has worked behind the scenes to promote the U.S. foreign interventions in Iraq and elsewhere.

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Main Source: 
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, October 13, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Journalism
Public Relations

Letters Home From a Ghostwriter

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours," reports Ledyard King. "And all the letters are the same." A newspaper in Olympia, Washington noticed the pattern after receiving identically-worded letters from two different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment.

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Main Source: 
The Olympian (WA), October 11, 2003
Topics: 
Astroturf
Iraq
Media

White House Buffs Image (Again)

Submitted by Laura Miller on

Faced with falling poll numbers and domestic unease with the Iraq situation, the White House is again attempting to polish its image. "The Bush administration is undertaking a campaign to regenerate public support for its policies in Iraq, dispatching officials across the country to promote White House strategy and build momentum for its $87 billion proposal to rebuild the war-torn nation," Capitol Hill Blue reports.

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Main Source: 
Capitol Hill Blue, October 10, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

Bending Facts Until They Break

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

"The most obvious proof that Bush officials hyped and distorted evidence about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in the past is that they continue to hype and distort that evidence today, with a shamelessness that is stunning," writes Jay Bookman. "If you believe their version of the story, the fact that we have found no WMD in Iraq - and no WMD programs - is of little or no importance. ...

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Main Source: 
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 9, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
U.S. Government

The Spin War Trumps the War on Terror

Submitted by Sheldon Rampton on

The White House official who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame did more than attack a political enemy, writes Shaun Waterman. Plame worked for the CIA "on the very issue the Bush administration says was at the heart of its decision to go to war with Iraq: weapons of mass destruction. ... Plame's outing, whomever did it, has damaged the very effort the White House said it was pursuing in going to war in the first place. A very important line has been crossed here. The integrity of the policy goals - non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction - is now seen by at least some in the White House as less important than the integrity of the message - we didn't exaggerate the case against Iraq. ... The message seems to have trumped everything, even the need to get it right in the war on terror." And as Walter Shapiro notes in USA Today, the Plame flap is only one of several scandalous recent developments related to the war in Iraq. "In the past week, three major Iraq-related developments should have, in theory, caused lasting embarrassment to the Bush administration," Shapiro writes. "But because none of these flaps touched on illegality, they have been treated as one-day stories."

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Main Source: 
Capitol Hill Blue, October 6, 2003
Topics: 
Iraq
Ethics
Politics
Secrecy
U.S. Government

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