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Well this is one piece of good news for that stupid bunch going to lie
to the newsmedia, all around the world - and some few loyal Pentagon
Officials told the press what they planned to do.
that is all we need, to become known as a nation of liars.
Now get Wolfowitz and that stupid whats his name, the ones who think
they are running the State Department and give them the schick and the
boot.
Saba
Pent
Pentagon may end information officeRumsfeld questions need for it; Bush
hints at displeasure
NBC, MSNBC AND NEWS SERVICES
WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 — As new details of U.S. proposals to spread false
information in foreign news reports emerged, Pentagon officials said
Monday that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was considering closing
the agency created to sway public opinion overseas after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks. President Bush hinted his displeasure with the idea
Monday, vowing that "we'll tell the American people the truth."
Feb. 25 — President Bush all but ordered the new Office of Strategic
Influence shut. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.
RUMSFELD HAS ASKED a top Pentagon official in charge of
the new agency, the Office of Strategic Influence, "to take a very, very
hard look at it" and determine "should it even exist," Pentagon
spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters.
"I am always very, very concerned about our credibility,"
she said.
Strong criticism erupted abroad and in Congress last week
after The New York Times reported that the new office might be used to
spread false information among overseas reporters, civic leaders and
others in both friendly and unfriendly countries.
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Rumsfeld has stressed since then that neither he nor the
Defense Department had any intention of lying to anybody, saying Sunday
on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the department was reconsidering whether
the new office "should even exist in its current form, given all the
misinformation and adverse publicity that it's received."
Bush added his voice to the chorus of concerns Monday,
telling reporters at the White House, "I told Secretary Rumsfeld ...
that we'll tell the American people the truth."
Asked whether he had ordered Rumsfeld to dismantle the
agency, Bush replied: "I didn't even need to tell him this. He knows how
I feel about this."
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
THE WAR • Rockets fired at Kandahar airbase • U.S. remains
unsure of bin Laden's location • Newsweek: Pearl suspect was
indicted • Complete coverage THE HOME FRONT • WashPost:
Tracking of visas overwhelms Feds • Air Force adopts 'Let's roll'
slogan • Complete coverage White House spokesman
Ari Fleischer told reporters that Bush did not even hear about plans for
the new office, which was formed in November, until he was in China last
week.
"I think it's fair to say that the president would be
troubled by any office that does not as a matter of public policy
disseminate the truth and the facts," Fleischer said.
PROPOSALS WOULD REACH INSIDE U.S. 'I told Secretary Rumsfeld ... that
we'll tell the American people the truth.'
— PRESIDENT BUSH
NBC News reported last week that the Office of Strategic
Influence had circulated classified proposals to disseminate explicitly
false information in overseas news reports about U.S. activities. The
Times reported that the proposals also would have involved e-mailing
messages promoting U.S. views to journalists, civic leaders and foreign
leaders from addresses that hid their military origins.
Few details of the agency have been made public,
including its budget, which was included in emergency Pentagon spending
authorized by Congress in October. Defense officials told NBC News on
condition of anonymity Monday that some of the proposals went much
further than had been previously reported.
The officials, who said they opposed the program and
described it as disturbing and dangerous, told NBC's Jim Miklaszewski
that the plan was a detailed proposal that would have included a
sweeping campaign of disinformation not only overseas but also in the
United States itself.
The officials said the plan called for a campaign of
lies, coercion and "influence" against clerics, schools and news
organizations. Some of the propaganda would have been aimed at Muslims
inside the country, they said.
News organizations that did not "follow the Pentagon
line" would be punished in unspecified ways, the officials said.
TRIAL BALLOON
The Pentagon last week described the proposals as
preliminary ideas being considered among a range of possible options
that had not reached Rumsfeld's desk. Rumsfeld said on "Meet the Press"
that he had never seen the charter setting up the new office.
• War coverage • The home front • Video, photos
• Newsweek coverage • Behind the headlines • Coverage for
kids
But that characterization of Rumsfeld's limited knowledge
was called into question Monday, when the Times reported that Thomas
Timmes, the new office's assistant for operations, said at a recent
industry conference that Rumsfeld had been briefed on the office's
purpose and goals at least twice and had given his general support.
"We're into the frustrating part of ironing out
differences within our family," Timmes, a former Army colonel and
psychological operations officer, said Feb. 8 in Arlington, Va.
MSNBC.com's Alex Johnson, NBC's Jim Miklaszewski, The
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
U.S. mulls charges in Pearl death War's cost pegged at $30
billion U.S. general defends January raid Newsweek: U.S. had
indicted man linked to Pearl case U.S. officials to probe Rome
tunnel U.S. unsure of bin Laden's location
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