Community | October 03, 2008 | 13 comments

U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/02/AR2008100204223.html?wpisrc=...

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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."



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13 comments // U.S. to Fund Pro-American Publicity in Iraqi Media

  • WisconsinNorm
    • 0
      WisconsinNorm  

    • Fortunately for me my office is next to a liquor store. Let's see, I hardly drink, but tonight I will go home with Chatreuse(whatever that is), mescal, and absinthe...

      Alas, alone listening to the debate on the radio, perhaps I will pick up an issue of National Geographic ...

      Four ounces absinthe, some sugar and ice water, add three ounces mescal...Honey, I think this Chatreuse is for my Prius battery...Honey, who did they say is going to buy my home and business? Honey...Honey...you're not the battery...

    • 3 years ago
  • AveryMoore
    • 0
      AveryMoore  

    • WisconsinNorm,

      "Perception of reality exceeds reality."

      For that level of delirium I suggest lots of Chatreuse followed by multiple mescal chasers.

      It's that, or join those possessed by messianic certainty of personal omniscience which can be seen rising on a tide of hubris during the election cycle.

      Either way, reality doesn't stand a chance.

    • 3 years ago
  • WisconsinNorm
  • AveryMoore
  • extremepain
  • chris50
    • 0
      chris50  

    • People, people, people, they have learn much since the times of old. They must brainwash them as they have brainwashed us. And we are the most brainwashed people on this planet so far.

    • 3 years ago
  • AveryMoore
  • Dmitri_Molotov
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • They've done it before, with no success at all. Why? Because American publicity and other firms which do that kind of work are trained to influence American minds, American psychology, American culture exclusively. This doesn't work on other cultures, especially on other cultures and mindsets and psychologies which are so radically different from American ones and which have first-hand and highly negative experiences of all things American (like attacks, invasions, occupations, destruction, pillage, rape, and slaughter). This is just more waste of money.

    • 3 years ago
  • plusaf
  • AveryMoore
    • 0
      AveryMoore  
    • plusaf:

      "y'know why Reagan ran up such a big deficit? so that his Democratic successor would be handcuffed from implementing his spendthrift programs.... :)"

      That I believe, but let's add some depth to that horizon...

      It's been an open secret for years that by declawing legislation and bankrupting government the corporations become the new Feudal Lords. They will have and now do have - total control over the population including their treasury.

      The model for this?

      The Soviet Union and the Politburo State.

      Back in the US -
      Back in the US -
      Back in the USSR!

    • 3 years ago
  • AveryMoore
    • 0
      AveryMoore  

    • plusaf....

      Unless your history books have been written by psych ward inmates - wars are lost precisely by not supplying the military with enough weapons.

      The one exception was the Russian brigades who charged the Nazis during winter. The lead assault members got as far as they could before being cut down and those who followed grabbed their weapons and continued onwards.

      There may never have been a more desperate conflict and were it not for winter - with German troops equipped and armed for a summer campaign and with supply lines cut off - Putin would be speaking German today.

      Weapons includes body armor for outnumbered troops, adequate medical facilities for casualties in country and first rate care at home - not like WALTER REED. Great for morale wasn't it? And what problem caused Walter Reed? Not enough money! But hey, $300 million for more propaganda - no problem!

      Add to the growing infamy the various inhuman post combat health care clawbacks which further discourage recruitment when people see ex-grunts sleeping in the streets, while Wall Street retires to luxury.

      Compare the end of WW2 and today.

      Sufficient force, rationing at home, prosecution of profiteers, and full focus on winning - not scamming the system.

      Too bad. You really don't get it.

    • 3 years ago
  • AveryMoore
    • 0
      AveryMoore  

    • How much body armor could $300 million buy?

      But no. Can't get the troops what they need, the economy may be in the dumpster for a decade (if it ever recovers) the politicians are running around like headless-chickens - but there's always money for covert offshore Propaganda?

      Hell, why not hire ex-writers from Pravda and Izvestia - they know the game and you could pay them in Rubles?

      Who makes up these priorities?

    • 3 years ago
  • kadugen
  • zman14u
    • 0
      zman14u  

    • I thought funds being given in the past for Pro American publicity. If you can not win the popularity on your merits than you did not earn their respect.

    • 3 years ago
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