Pentagon Moved to Fix Iraqi Media Before Invasion

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/09/1074/

Pentagon Moved to Fix Iraqi Media Before Invasion
by Jim Lobe

In the run-up to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon planned to create a ‘Rapid Reaction Media Team’ (RRMT) designed to ensure control over major Iraqi media while providing an Iraqi ‘face’ for its efforts, according to a ‘White Paper’ obtained by the independent National Security Archive (NSA) which released it Tuesday.0509 06

The partially redacted, three-page document was accompanied by a longer power point presentation that included a proposed six-month, 51 million-dollar budget for the RRMT 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 were to be paid 140,000 dollars each for six months’ work. A further 800,000 dollars were to be paid for six Iraqi ‘’media consultants over the same period.

Both the paper and the slide presentation were prepared by two Pentagon offices — Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, which, among other things, specialize in psychological warfare, and the Office of Special Plans under then Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Douglas Feith — in mid-January, 2003, two months before the invasion, according to NSA analyst Joyce Battle.

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than they do to us through the main stream media.