U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media
By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 3, 2008; A01
The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to "engage and inspire" the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government.
The new contracts -- awarded last week to four companies -- will expand and consolidate what the U.S. military calls "information/psychological operations" in Iraq far into the future, even as violence appears to be abating and U.S. troops have begun drawing down.
The military's role in the war of ideas has been fundamentally transformed in recent years, the result of both the Pentagon's outsized resources and a counterinsurgency doctrine in which information control is considered key to success. Uniformed communications specialists and contractors are now an integral part of U.S. military operations from Eastern Europe to Afghanistan and beyond.
Iraq, where hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on such contracts, has been the proving ground for the transformation. "The tools they're using, the means, the robustness of this activity has just skyrocketed since 2003. In the past, a lot of this stuff was just some guy's dreams," said a senior U.S. military official, one of several who discussed the sensitive defense program on the condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon still sometimes feels it is playing catch-up in a propaganda market dominated by al-Qaeda, whose media operations include sophisticated Web sites and professionally produced videos and audios featuring Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants. "We're being out-communicated by a guy in a cave," Secretary Robert M. Gates often remarks.
But Defense Department officials think their own products have become increasingly imaginative and competitive. Military and contractor-produced media campaigns, spotlighting killings by insurgents, "helped in developing attitudes" that led Iraqis to reject al-Qaeda in Iraq over the past two years, an official said. Now that the insurgency is in disarray, he said, the same tools "could potentially be helpful" in diminishing the influence of neighboring Iran.
U.S.-produced public service broadcasts and billboards have touted improvements in government services, promoted political reconciliation, praised the Iraqi military and encouraged Iraqi citizens to report criminal activity. When national euphoria broke out last year after an Iraqi singer won a talent contest in Lebanon, the U.S. military considered producing an Iraqi version of "American Idol" to help build nonsectarian nationalism. The idea was shelved as too expensive, an official said, but "we're trying to think out of the box on" reconciliation.
One official described how part of the program works: "There's a video piece produced by a contractor . . . showing a family being attacked by a group of bad guys, and their daughter being taken off. The message is: You've got to stand up against the enemy." The professionally produced vignette, he said, "is offered for airing on various [television] stations in Iraq. . . . They don't know that the originator of the content is the U.S. government. If they did, they would never run anything."
"If you asked most Iraqis," he said, "they would say, 'It came from the government, our own government.' "
The Pentagon's solicitation for bids on the contracts noted that media items produced "may or may not be non-attributable to coalition forces." "If they thought we were doing it, it would not be as effective," another official said of the Iraqis. "In the Middle East, they are so afraid they're going to be Westernized . . . that you have to be careful when you're trying to provide information to the population."
The Army's counterinsurgency manual, which Gen. David H. Petraeus co-wrote in 2006, describes information operations in detail, citing them among the "critical" military activities "that do not involve killing insurgents." Petraeus, who became the top U.S. commander in Iraq early last year, led a "surge" in combat troops and information warfare.
Some of the new doctrine emerged from Petraeus's own early experience in Iraq. As commander of the 101st Airborne Division in northern Nineveh province in 2003, he ensured that war-ravaged radio and television stations were brought rapidly back on line. At his urging, the first TV programs included "Nineveh Talent Search" and a radio call-in show hosted by his Arabic interpreter, Sadi Othman, a Palestinian American.
Othman, a former New York cabdriver employed by Reston-based SOS International, remained at Petraeus's side during the general's subsequent Iraq deployments; the company refers to him as a senior adviser to Petraeus.
SOSi has been one of the most prominent communications contractors working in Iraq, winning a two-year $200 million contract in 2006 to "assist in gathering information, conducting analysis and providing timely solutions and advice regarding cultural, religious, political, economic and public perceptions."
"We definitely believe this is a growth area in the DOD," said Julian Setian, SOSi's chief operating officer. "We are seeing more and more requests for professional assistance in media-related strategic communications efforts, specifically in gauging of perceptions in foreign media with regard to U.S. operations."
The four companies that will share in the new contract are SOSi, the Washington-based Lincoln Group, Alexandria-based MPRI and Leonie Industries, a Los Angeles contractor. All specialize in strategic communications and have done previous defense work.
Defense officials maintained that strict rules are enforced against disseminating false information. "Our enemies have the luxury of not having to tell the truth," Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman told a congressional hearing last month. "We pay an extremely high price if we ever even make a slight error in putting out the facts."
Contractors require security clearances, and proof that their teams possess sufficient linguistic abilities and knowledge of Iraqi culture. The Iraqi government has little input on U.S. operations, although U.S. officials say they have encouraged Iraqis to be more aggressive in molding public support.
The Pentagon is sensitive to criticism that it has sometimes blurred the lines between public-affairs activities and unattributed propaganda. As information operations in Iraq expanded, some senior officers warned that they risked a return to psychological and deception operations discredited during the Vietnam War.
In 2006, the Pentagon's inspector general found that media work that the Lincoln Group did in Iraq was improperly supervised but legal. The contractor had prepared news items considered favorable to the U.S. military and paid to place them in the Iraqi media without attribution. Then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters that his initial reaction to the anonymous pay-to-publish program was "Gee, that's not what we ought to be doing."
On Aug. 21, the day before bids on the new contract were closed, the solicitation was reissued to replace repeated references to information and psychological operations with the term "media services."
Senior military officials said that current media placement is done through Iraqi middlemen and that broadcast time is usually paid. But they said they knew of no recent instance of payment to place unattributed newspaper articles. The officials maintained that news items are now a minor part of the operation, which they said is focused on public service promotions and media monitoring.
But a lengthy list of "deliverables" under the new contract proposal includes "print columns, press statements, press releases, response-to-query, speeches and . . . opinion editorials"; radio broadcasts "in excess of 300 news stories" monthly and 150 each on sports and economic themes; and 30- and 60-minute broadcast documentary and entertainment series.
Contractors will also develop and maintain Web sites; assess news articles in the Iraqi, U.S. and international media; and determine ways to counter coverage deemed negative, according to the contract solicitation the government posted in May. Polls and focus groups will be used to monitor Iraqi attitudes under a separate three-year contract totaling up to $45 million.
While U.S. law prohibits the use of government money to direct propaganda at U.S. audiences, the "statement of work" included in the proposal, written by the U.S. Joint Contracting Command in Iraq, notes the need to "communicate effectively with our strategic audiences (i.e. Iraqi, pan-Arabic, International, and U.S. audiences) to gain widespread acceptance of [U.S. and Iraqi government] core themes and messages."
Lawmakers have often challenged the propriety of the military's information operations, even when they take place outside the United States. The Pentagon itself has frequently lamented the need to undertake duties beyond combat and peacekeeping, and Gates has publicly questioned the "creeping militarization" of tasks civilians traditionally perform.
In 2006, President Bush put the State Department in charge of the administration's worldwide "strategic communications," but the size of the military's efforts dwarf those of the diplomats. State estimates it will spend $5.6 million on public diplomacy in Iraq in fiscal 2008. A provision in the fiscal 2009 Defense Authorization Bill has called for a "close examination" of the State and defense communications programs "to better formulate a comprehensive strategy."
Some inside the military itself have questioned the effectiveness of the defense program. "I'm not a huge fan" of information operations, one military official said, adding that Iraqi opinions -- as for most people -- are formed more by what they experience than by what they read in a newspaper, hear on the radio or see on billboards.
"A lot of money is being thrown around," he said, "and I'm not sure it's all paying off as much as we think it is."
Iraq's presidency agrees on elections law
BAGHDAD (AP) — A spokesman says Iraq's presidential council has agreed on a law that paves the way for U.S.-backed provincial elections to be held by the end of January.
The spokesman for the panel, Nasser al-Ani, tells The Associated Press that the law has gained unanimous approval from the three-member panel and will be officially signed later Friday.
Al-Ani says the panel led by President Jalal Talabani decided to approve the law on Monday but did not sign it due to Islamic holidays.
The move is a breakthrough for U.S. efforts to promote national reconciliation after months of deadlock over power-sharing issues in northern Iraq.
Iraqi lawmakers set aside the divisive issues of the oil-rich region around Kirkuk and representation of minorities.
Suicide attackers strike Shiite mosques, kill 24
BAGHDAD (AP) — Suicide bombers struck two Shiite mosques in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 24 people and wounding dozens during celebrations marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
To the north, suspected Shiite militiamen gunned down six members of a Sunni family, including women and children, police reported.
Those attacks occurred four days after a series of explosions killed 32 people and wounded nearly 100 in Shiite areas of Baghdad, raising fears that al-Qaida in Iraq is trying to provoke Sunni-Shiite reprisal killings now that the last of the American "surge" troops have left the country.
In the deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber detonated his explosives about 20 yards from a mosque in Zafaraniyah in southeastern Baghdad. The blast killed 14 people, including three Iraqi soldiers, and wounded 28, police said.
The death toll would likelier have been higher, but Iraqi soldiers prevented the attacker from driving closer to the mosque, police said.
"Pools of blood and the smell of burned flesh were everywhere and I saw a man of about 70 bleeding and lying on the ground," said Ammar Hashim, 25, whose brother was also wounded by broken glass in his shop.
In the other attack in the capital, a suicide bomber who appeared to be in his late teens detonated his explosive belt as worshippers were leaving the Rasoul mosque in the eastern New Baghdad district.
Ten people died and 24 were wounded, police and officials at al-Kindi and Ibn al-Nasif hospitals said. The dead included a guard who blocked the attacker from entering the mosque, police said.
The Iraqi army said 17 people were killed in the two blasts. But area hospitals said that figure did not include victims who died later from their wounds.
The attack on the Sunni family occurred in Diyala, a heavily mixed province north of the capital. Police said gunmen sprayed the family's vehicle with automatic weapons fire as they traveled to the provincial capital of Baqouba to visit relatives.
The dead included two children, three women and a man, police said. Another woman and her small child were wounded.
Police said the area was controlled by mostly Shiite security forces and that they suspected Shiite militiamen were responsible for the attack.
The police officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Victims of the Baghdad attacks were attending prayers marking Eid al-Fitr, the religious holiday that comes at the end of Ramadan. Sunnis and other Shiite groups celebrated Eid al-Fitr earlier in the week.
Iraqi police and soldiers have been on alert for sectarian attacks around Ramadan, when devout Muslims fast from dawn until dusk and religious fervor runs high.
Last Sunday, five bombs exploded in Shiite areas of Baghdad, killing 32 people and wounding about 100. U.S. officials believed al-Qaida was behind the blasts.
Shiite cleric and lawmaker Jalaluddin al-Saghir blamed the mosque attacks on "the beasts of al-Qaida" that consider Shiites as religious heretics and collaborators with the Americans.
"After being weakened and isolated, the terrorists want to make a comeback in the capital and show that they are still powerful," al-Saghir told The Associated Press. "I think the al-Qaida efforts will fail because Iraqis now are more aware of the heavy price of any new round of sectarian violence."
The main Sunni political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, joined in condemning the mosque attacks and called on Iraqis to unite against "those who want to transfer political disputes into the language of violence."
Bloody assaults on Shiite civilians helped trigger the massive wave of sectarian fighting that led to President Bush's decision to dispatch nearly 30,000 reinforcements to Iraq in 2007.
The last of those "surge" troops left Iraq in July after violence in the capital dropped to its lowest level in four years.
U.S. commanders have acknowledged a small increase in attacks recently in the Baghdad area as Iraqi forces assume a greater role in security. Late Thursday, a rocket or mortar shell exploded in the Green Zone, causing no injuries, the U.S. military said. It was the first known attack against the U.S.-protected area in weeks.
In a statement Thursday, U.N. special representative Staffan de Mistura expressed concern over the "recent spike in violence," urging Iraqis to maintain unity "in foiling the aims of those who want to push them back into the murderous cycle of sectarian violence."
Also Thursday, a bomb wounded four American soldiers in western Baghdad, according to U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Steven Stover. He gave no other details, but Baghdad police said the attacker detonated an explosive-laden car alongside a U.S. convoy.
Two Iraqi civilians were also wounded, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was also not authorized to speak to the press.
Associated Press writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.
Another US soldier dies in Iraq
Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:37:07 GMT
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The incident occurred on Thursday when a bomb exploded near the deceased soldier's vehicle south of Amarah, a city 320 km (200 miles) southeast of the Iraqi capital.
The statement which was released on Friday said the soldier's name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The Thursday blast comes shortly after a spate of violence rocked the Iraqi capital where multiple explosions on last Sunday left 33 people killed and 107 others injured.
One blast hit the capital's western Shurta neighborhood while minutes later a second shook Hai al-Ami neighborhood.
The deadliest of the attacks, however, targeted central Baghdad's busy Karrada shopping district where a car bomb a long with a roadside bomb went off within less than two hours after the first two explosions, claiming scores of lives and wounding another 72.
Iraqi official said the attacks sought to disturb the celebrations of Eid al-Fitr, a holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
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