Taxpayer $millions$ buying LIES = Pentagon aimed to control Iraqi media during war

[L. Coyote]

BUSH's LIES have a price---and not just in hundreds of thousands of lives after the LIES.
First, the taxpayers have to pay--up front--for the creation and propagation of the LIES.

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Pentagon aimed to control Iraqi media during war
By Jim Lobe - Updated May 25, 2007, 05:25 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3523.shtml

National Security Archive reveals Pentagon aimed to control Iraqi media during war

* Pentagon OK's Propaganda for Iraq (LA Times, 03-04-2006)- http://www.prwatch.org/node/4517
* Pentagon pays Iraqi papers to print its 'good news' stories (UK Guardian, 12-01-2005) - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1654661,00.html
* U.S. Journalist Quits Pentagon Iraqi Media Project (Democracy Now !, 01-14-2004) - http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/14/1555223
* Journalists: U.S. media censorship is ‘rampant’ (FCN, 07-17-2003) - http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_896.shtml

WASHINGTON, USA (IPS/GIN) - The Pentagon was strategizing about how to control the Iraqi media during the run-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to a document released May 8 by the National Security Archive.

The document advises the creation of a “Rapid Reaction Media Team” designed to ensure control over major Iraqi media while providing an Iraqi “face” for its efforts. The partially redacted, three-page document was accompanied by a longer PowerPoint presentation that included a proposed six-month, $51 million budget for the media-control operation, apparently the first phase in a one-to-two-year “strategic information campaign.”

Among other items, the budget called for the hiring of two U.S. “media consultants” who would be paid $140,000 each for six months’ work. An additional $800,000 was to be paid for six Iraqi consultants during the same period. Both the paper and the slide presentation were prepared in mid-January 2003, two months before the invasion, according to National Security Archive analyst Joyce Battle. They were prepared by two Pentagon offices—Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict—which, among other things, specialize in psychological warfare. ......

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ADD A LIE here too, to the BUSH LIES compilation thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x975882

[L. Coyote]

1. Taxpayer $$$ pay for the war profiteering bribes too!

Defense contractor Mitchell Wade bought Cunningham’s house for $1,675,000, put it on the market, and sold for $975,000. Wade gave Cunningham $700,000, a very apparently illegal gift. Wade's company, MZM Inc., got contracts worth over $100 million.

You do the math and keep in mind that juicy "no-competitive bidding, a-la-Halliburton" status!
The Culture of Corruption regime is playing with your $$$$$.

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MZM scandal illuminates defense contract tactics
Firm had a prime deal with the government
By Dean Calbreath
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
August 21, 2005
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/cunningham/20050821-87-mzmscand.html

When Diversa Corp. agreed to buy the assets of scandal-plagued MZM Inc. last week, it picked up a stable of 450 workers, about 85 percent of whom have security clearances -- a lucrative asset for a defense-related firm like Diversa.

But what Diversa could not buy was the $250 million "blanket purchase agreement" that helped MZM become one of the Pentagon's top 100 contractors.

That agreement, which allowed MZM to do business with the government without repeatedly undergoing the rigors of competitive bidding, was suspended not long after MZM founder Mitchell Wade became embroiled in the widening scandal involving his real-estate deals and boating arrangements with Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham. ...............

[L. Coyote]

2. Journalists: U.S. media censorship is ‘rampant’

Journalists: U.S. media censorship is ‘rampant’
By IPS/GIN - Jul 17, 2003
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_896.shtml

OSLO, Norway ..... self-censorship in the media has risen, not just since the Iraq war, but also since 9/11, agreed Robert Fisk of The Independent newspaper in Britain and John Pilger, an Australian broadcaster and film-maker.

..... "Propaganda is not found just in totalitarian states," Mr. Pilger says. "There, at least they know they are being lied to. We tend to assume it is the truth. In the U.S., censorship is rampant."

Self-censorship, that is. This kind of self-censorship is an increasing problem, and leads to one-dimensional coverage that journalists must learn to transcend, Mr. Pilger says.

"The most important soldiers in the Iraq war were not the troops, but the journalists and the broadcasters," he says. "Lies were transformed into themes for public debate. ......

[L. Coyote]

3. US Journalist Quit Pentagon Iraqi Media Project = $96M Propaganda Project

INSTALLING DEMOCRACY NOW! USG-seized IRAQ media run by defense contrasctor.

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Wednesday, January 14th, 2004
U.S. Journalist Quits Pentagon Iraqi Media Project Calling it U.S. Propaganda
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/01/14/155...

Listen LINK

We talk to a longtime TV producer about the massive problems he saw in the new U.S.-funded Iraqi Media Network, which he said became an "irrelevant mouthpiece for Coalition Provisional Authority propaganda, managed news and mediocre programs." The U.S. has awarded a $96 million contract to a U.S. producer of communications equipment, Harris Corp., to create a U.S.-funded national media network in Iraq.

According to the head of Harris Corp, the Iraqi Media Network will have 30 TV and radio transmitters, three broadcast studios, and 12 bureaus around Iraq.

After U.S.-led troops ousted Saddam Hussein's regime in April, the state-run broadcasters were seized. Since then, they have been run by a U.S. defense contractor, Science Applications International Corporation. .........

TRANSCRIPT w/ Amy Goodman ........ longtime TV producer, Don North, about the problems he saw ...

[L. Coyote]

4. Spinning off: Next STOP Iran? More BUSH LIES and Surging Toward War With Iran

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x980363