CAIRO, December 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – An American media expert blasted a US military program to secretly pay Iraqi newspapers to print stories written by US soldiers to polish the tarnished image of the US occupation of the oil-rich country.

"I think it's absolutely wrong for the government to do this," Patrick Butler, vice president of the International Center for Journalists in Washington, was quoted as saying by the New York Times on Thursday, December 1.

"Ethically, it's indefensible," he added.

The Los Angeles Times said on Wednesday, November 30, that articles have been written in English, translated into Arabic, by US military "information operation" troops and then given to Baghdad newspapers to print in return for money.

The stories denounce "insurgents" – the US term for Iraqi resistance fighters – and tout the work of US and Iraqi troops, said the American daily, citing documents and unnamed US military officials.

The stories were said to be "basically factual," but omitted information that might not reflect well upon the United States or the US-backed Iraqi government, it added.

A defense contractor and a Washington-based public relations firm called Lincoln Group helped translate the stories and used staff or subcontractors posing as freelance journalists or advertising executives to bring them to Iraqi media outlets.

Butler, whose center conducts ethics training for journalists from countries without a history of independent news media, said the Bush administration paid for many programs that taught foreign journalists not to accept payments from interested parties to write articles and not to print government propaganda disguised as news.

"You show the world you're not living by the principles you profess to believe in, and you lose all credibility," he averred.

On Tuesday, November 28, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld touted what he called the "free media" in Iraq, calling it "a relief valve".

"They're debating things and talking and arguing and discussing," Rumsfeld added.

In 2000, the Pentagon closed its Office of Strategic Influence after reports that it planned to plant false news stories with foreign media outlets.

This year, the Bush administration was found to have tried to influence domestic media, including having federal agencies distribute video packages to US TV stations that could be broadcast as news stories.

It was also found paying media commentator Armstrong Williams to tout Bush education policies in television appearances and in his column.

No US law, however, prohibits the use of such covert propaganda abroad.

Rumsfeld recently touted the "free media" in Iraq as "a relief valve". (Reuters).

Steven A. Boylan, a US military spokesman, said the Pentagon's contract with the Lincoln Group was an attempt to "try to get stories out to publications that normally don't have access to those kind of stories."

The contract with the US forces in Iraq has rankled US military and civilian officials and contractors.

The Lincoln Group, whose principals include some businessmen and former military officials, was hired last year after military officials concluded that the US was failing to win over Muslim public opinion.

The Pentagon's first public relations contract with Lincoln was awarded in 2004 for about $5 million with the stated purpose of accurately informing the Iraqi people of American goals and gaining their support.

Last June, the Special Operations Command in Tampa awarded Lincoln and two other companies a multimillion-dollar contract to support psychological operations.

The planned products include three- to five- minute news programs.

None of the Iraqi dailies that published stories revealed their connection to the US military, although some identified the articles as "advertising" or took other steps to distinguish them from normal news, the Times said.

Muhammad Abdul Jabbar, 57, the editor of Al Sabah, a major Iraqi newspaper that has been the target of many of the US military's articles, said he had no idea that the American military was supplying such material.

He stressed that he did not know if his newspaper had printed any of it, whether labeled as advertising or not.

Jabbar said he received financial support from the Iraqi government but was editorially independent, adding that his daily accepted advertisements from virtually any source if they were not inflammatory.

He said any such material would be labeled as advertising but would not necessarily identify the sponsor.

Sometimes, he said, the paper got the text from an advertising agency and did not know its origins.