Dear George:

Middle Eastern journalists are the target of a lavish Pentagon campaign to get them to write favorable articles about the U.S. invasion of Iraq. By one estimate, $300-million has been earmarked for the scheme.

The journalists may expect to be contacted by any of three U.S. public relations(PR) firms picked for this delicate assignment: the Washington-based Lincoln Group; San Diego-based Science Application International Corp., and SYColeman Inc., of Arlington, Va.

The three firms appear to be relatively new operators, not known for previous PR chores, but are linked to the Pentagon. Some of their assignments appear to have been obtained without competitive bidding.

President Bush’s attempts to influence foreign journalists first surfaced in 2002 when the Pentagon announced an Office of Strategic Influence(OSI) to spread “rumors and untruths.” A storm of protest sidetracked the scheme.

Now it’s back in a new guise. The Pentagon awarded five-year contracts last June to the above-cited firms to create slogans, ads, newspaper articles, radio spots, and TV shows to plug U.S. policies overseas, “USA Today” reported.

The New York Times (Jan. 2nd,) said Lincoln has “paid Iraqi newspapers to print positive articles written by American soldiers (and) has also been compensating Sunni religious scholars in Iraq in return for assistance with its propaganda work, according to current and former employees.”

Lincoln's action is not the first time the U.S. has paid off Muslim clergy. When President Jimmy Carter, according to “Politics Today” magazine, learned in 1977 the CIA had been buying off hundreds of mullahs and ayatollahs in Iran, he put a stop to it.

It was also revealed the CIA was making “a worldwide pattern of payments to key figures, in a system of institutionalized bribery circling the globe,” author Darrell Garwood wrote in “Under Cover: Thirty-Five Years of CIA Deception.”(Grove Press).

If Middle Eastern readers find their reporters pocket Pentagon money funneled through PR firms, it could undermine their trust in the free press, critics of the Pentagon initiative say.

America’s founders strongly believed government should keep its hands off the press. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, wrote, “The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.”

There is substantial international precedent for despotic governments’ bribing reporters. In the 1930s, according to historian John Weitz, ("Hitler's Diplomat"), Nazi propaganda boss Dr. Joseph Goebbels “made strenuous efforts to assure good reports in the foreign press. Certain British free-lance journalists were paid to write enthusiastic articles.”

Soviet dictator Josef Stalin also rewarded editors who parroted the Communist line with fat salaries, dachas, and the pleasure of his company at Kremlin drinking bouts that extended into the wee hours. And Cuban dictator Fidel Castro is known to have bought off Mexican journalists.

The U.S. is already in trouble with the Middle East press corps. A US Air Force fighter plane in April, 2003, targeted and killed Al Jazeera reporter Tariq Ayoub on the roof of his Baghdad office. About the same time, the U.S. military also killed Taras Protsyuk of Reuters and Josê Couso of Spanish TV network Telecinco, according to “The Nation” magazine.

These hostile actions apparently have been a factor in the slide of America’s image as free press booster. United Press International reported the U.S. has plunged to 44th place on the list of 167 nations in terms of press freedom.

At home, President Bush’s regime has been blasted for paying off American reporters. TV show host Armstrong Williams got $240,000 to plug a Bush educational scheme. After it was learned in January, 2005, that columnist Maggie Gallagher got $21,500, Bush said the payoffs would stop because “our (domestic) agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet.”

Since the payoffs to foreign reporters will continue, does this mean the Iraq war can’t stand on its own two feet? If so, maybe somebody should tell the Pentagon good PR flows from good policies. An outfit like the Peace Corps doesn't need any puffing. Bribing friendly reporters and shooting unfriendly ones doesn't fit into the category of good policy, at least not in the America Thomas Jefferson founded.

- Sherwood Ross (electronic mail, January 10, 2006)