Pentagon Sets Up 24-hour-a-day, Seven-Day-a-Week Iraq Propaganda Department

[bigtree]

AP Scoop: Pentagon Readies New 'Info Desk' on War

August 24, 2007 11:55 PM ET

WASHINGTON As anticipation builds for September's progress report to Congress on the Iraq war, the Bush administration is getting more involved in shaping the character of the conflict to the American people.

For the Defense Department, getting out Iraq information now will include a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week Iraq Communications Desk to pump out data from Baghdad and while serving more or less as a campaign war room.

According to a memo circulated Thursday and obtained by The Associated Press, Dorrance Smith, assistant defense secretary for public affairs, is seeking personnel for what he called the high-priority effort to distribute Defense Department information about Iraq.

The move, requested by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, comes as administration officials are gearing up for a rash of reports on the status of the war and recommendations from the military on troop levels going into next year. The crucial report will come from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

Other reports are expected from the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace; retired Gen. James Jones, who will examine the progress of the Iraqi security forces; and the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, which will review whether the Iraqi government has satisfied security and political benchmarks outlined by Congress.

The Pentagon dismissed suggestions that the communications desk will be a message machine or propaganda tool and said it is being set up to gather and distribute information from eight time zones away in a more efficient and timely manner.

"I would not characterize it as a war room," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Friday. "It's far less sinister than that. It's more like a library."


more: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003631291

[spanone]

1. The RE-SELLING of the war.....hey, it's worked several times.

[Skidmore]

2. They are at war ...

with the citizens of the U.S.

[spanone]

4. amen, and using slick television ads to keep us at war....criminal

[mmonk]

3. I wonder how many "news" organizations they will use.

[MrScorpio]

5. Edward Bernays would be proud

Somehow, I'd think that both he and Walter Lippmann are hovering above them all in full Jedi-ghost mode... Giving them much needed inspiration, as it may.

Brings a tear to the eye of this old former denizen of the Pentagon

[tom_paine]

7. As would Goebbels, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao

There can be little doubt that, if there is an afterlife, the souls of History's Greatest Monsters are ALL cheering Bushler's Rapine and Carnage of Innocents (with a few guilty thrown in for 'plausible deniablity' "see, when we killed those 10,000 innocents we killed TWENTY terrorists!").

There can be little doubt, either, if one sits down and reads their writings, that the Founding fathers are part of the cheering section, undoubtedly smaller, for the triumph of democracy over the Bush Family.

[Sedona]

6. Its first mission...

to announce its existence in a Friday night news dump.

Why aren't I surprised?

[Tanuki]

8. Is this the same $20 million propaganda scheme they were proposing last year,

or a newer and more expensive version? It sure galls me to have my tax money spent on lying to me, instead of health care, education, bridges, mine safety, food safety, etc. etc.!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/30/AR2006083003011_pf.html

[Solly Mack]

9. not surprising..

disgusting

free your mind your ass will follow...but first you have to know your mind's enslaved...

think between the lines.....