F. de Marzipan
04-21-2008, 10:13 AM
Yesterday's New York Times reported that many U.S. military analysts have been groomed by the Pentagon to produce favorable TV news reports on the situation in Iraq, by examining ties between the Bush administration and former senior officers who acted as paid TV analysts. The paid analysts got private briefings, trips, and access to classified intelligence meant to influence their comments.
"Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse -- an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks," the newspaper said.
Many of the commentators also have ties to military contractors who are vested in U.S. war efforts, but those business links are seldom disclosed to viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks on which they appear, the newspaper said.
One case cited by the Times was in the summer of 2005, when accusations were rife over human rights violations at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba, where foreign terrorism suspects are held.
The Times said administration communications officials flew a group of retired military officers to the camp on a jet normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney to give their side of the case. Many in the group have subsequently appeared as commentators on the TV networks.
The Times quoted Robert Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, as saying, "It was them (the Bush administration) saying, 'We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.'"
Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who taught information warfare at the National Defense University, told the Times the campaign amounted to a "coherent, active," sophisticated information operation.
As the situation in Iraq deteriorated, he saw a gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequently was revealed in inquiries and books. "Night and day," he told the Times. "I felt we'd been hosed."
Some analysts said they had suppressed doubts about the situation in Iraq for fear of jeopardizing their access.--Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN19354225)
Last Thursday, the National Defense University's National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center, issued a report about Mr. Bush's War on Iraq, calling it "a major debacle."
"Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle," the report says. "No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans' benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel."
The report concludes that the United States' standing in the world has been seriously diminished and that the war has put a severe strain on U.S. armed forces, McClatchy said. --UPI (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/18/pentagon_report_iraq_war_major_debacle/1077/)
The report lays much of the blame for what went wrong in Iraq after the initial U.S. victory at the feet of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
In part because "long, costly, manpower-intensive post-combat operations were anathema to Rumsfeld," the report says, the U.S. was unprepared to fight what Mr. Collins calls "War B," the battle against insurgents and sectarian violence that began in mid-2003, shortly after "War A," the fight against Saddam Hussein's forces, ended. --Dallas News (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-iraqstudy_19int.ART.State.Edition1.4655566.html)
George and Barbara Bush must be so proud.
"Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse -- an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks," the newspaper said.
Many of the commentators also have ties to military contractors who are vested in U.S. war efforts, but those business links are seldom disclosed to viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks on which they appear, the newspaper said.
One case cited by the Times was in the summer of 2005, when accusations were rife over human rights violations at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba, where foreign terrorism suspects are held.
The Times said administration communications officials flew a group of retired military officers to the camp on a jet normally used by Vice President Dick Cheney to give their side of the case. Many in the group have subsequently appeared as commentators on the TV networks.
The Times quoted Robert Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and former Fox News analyst, as saying, "It was them (the Bush administration) saying, 'We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.'"
Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst who taught information warfare at the National Defense University, told the Times the campaign amounted to a "coherent, active," sophisticated information operation.
As the situation in Iraq deteriorated, he saw a gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequently was revealed in inquiries and books. "Night and day," he told the Times. "I felt we'd been hosed."
Some analysts said they had suppressed doubts about the situation in Iraq for fear of jeopardizing their access.--Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN19354225)
Last Thursday, the National Defense University's National Institute for Strategic Studies, a Defense Department research center, issued a report about Mr. Bush's War on Iraq, calling it "a major debacle."
"Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle," the report says. "No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans' benefits or the total impact on service personnel and materiel."
The report concludes that the United States' standing in the world has been seriously diminished and that the war has put a severe strain on U.S. armed forces, McClatchy said. --UPI (http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/18/pentagon_report_iraq_war_major_debacle/1077/)
The report lays much of the blame for what went wrong in Iraq after the initial U.S. victory at the feet of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
In part because "long, costly, manpower-intensive post-combat operations were anathema to Rumsfeld," the report says, the U.S. was unprepared to fight what Mr. Collins calls "War B," the battle against insurgents and sectarian violence that began in mid-2003, shortly after "War A," the fight against Saddam Hussein's forces, ended. --Dallas News (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/DN-iraqstudy_19int.ART.State.Edition1.4655566.html)
George and Barbara Bush must be so proud.