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 So Who is Behind Planting Stories in Iraqi Press?

By E&P Staff

Published: December 01, 2005 12:15 PM ET

NEW YORK So what, exactly, is this Lincoln Group that helped plant 
pro-American propaganda in the Iraqi press, a phenomenon that has made 
front-page news this week and has now been denounced by everyone from top 
military leaders to journalism ethicists? And what about its sub-contractor, 
BKSH & Associates?

The story starts with the Washington D.C.-based Lincoln Alliance 
Corporation, a "business intelligence company" that also handles services 
related to commercial real estate in Iraq. It set up an offshoot called 
Iraqex last year, but its name was later changed to Lincoln Group.

It now has four offices, including ones in Baghdad and Basra, and it 
develops video, podcasts, and print publications, purchases TV and radio 
time, and has a three-year contract to oversee public affairs and 
advertising for the Multi-National Corps-Iraq (MNC-I), all aimed at backing 
the U.S. effort there.

The Lincoln Group's Web site says it "brings a unique combination of 
expertise in collecting and exploiting information; structuring 
transactions; and mitigating risks through due diligence and legal 
strategies."

A June 11, 2005, Washington Post article reported that the Pentagon had just 
awarded three contracts, potentially worth up to $300 million over five 
years (if the effort panned out), to three companies to handle 
"psychological operations" to improve foreign public opinion about the 
United States, particularly the military. The contract winners: Lincoln 
Group, Science Applications International Corporation, and SYColeman, Inc., 
a subsidiary of L-3 Communications.

O'Dwyer's, a leading trade publication in the public relations field, 
reported in July that BKSH & Associates, one part of the giant 
communications company, Burson-Marsteller's, had been hired by The Lincoln 
Group, "one of three firms selected last month by the U.S. Special 
Operations Command to wage psychological warfare on behalf of the Pentagon 
in Iraq and other hot spots. BKSH has experience on the Iraqi front earned 
from work for Ahmed Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress. Col. James 
Treadwell, director of the Joint Psychological Operations Support Element, 
said TLG was selected to develop 'cutting-edge types of media,' including 
radio/TV ads, documentaries, text messages, Internet spots and podcasts for 
the U.S. military."

BKSH & Associates is a Washington-based firm that provides government 
relations services for domestic and international clients. It's headed by 
Charles R. Black Jr., a leading Republican political strategist and former 
advisor to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

The New Yorker magazine reported as long ago as February 2004 that Black was 
considering setting up an office in Baghdad. "One week you go to Baghdad, 
and they say the decisions are being made at the Pentagon," he said. "Then 
you go to the Pentagon, and they say the decisions are being made in 
Baghdad. Only Halliburton is making money now!" He added: "Is there too much 
cronyism? I just wish I could find the cronies."

In September 2005, O'Dwyer's reported that the Lincoln Group was looking to 
hire "senior media and PR professionals to guide an advertising and PR 
campaign to inform the Iraqi people of "the Coalition's goals and to gain 
their support."

There it stood, until earlier this week when the Los Angeles Times was first 
to report that the Lincoln Group was helping the Pentagon covertly place 
pro-United States stories in Iraqi news outlets. Dozens of articles written 
by U.S. military "information operations" troops were placed during 2005, 
according to the paper. "The operation is designed to mask any connection 
with the U.S. military," the Times reported. The Lincoln Group "helps 
translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its 
subcontractors, sometimes poses as freelance reporters or advertising 
executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets."

The New York Times reported today: "In addition to paying newspapers to 
print government propaganda, Lincoln has paid about a dozen Iraqi 
journalists each several hundred dollars a month, a person who had been told 
of the transactions said..

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

"Citing a 'fundamental problem of credibility' and foreign opposition to 
American policies, a Pentagon advisory panel last year called for the 
government to reinvent and expand its information programs..

"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. But while 
meant to provide reliable information, the effort was also intended to use 
deceptive techniques, like payments to sympathetic 'temporary spokespersons' 
who would not necessarily be identified as working for the coalition, 
according to a contract document and a military official.

"Laurie Adler, a spokeswoman for the Lincoln Group, said the terms of the 
contract did not permit her to discuss it and referred a reporter to the 
Pentagon. But others defended the practice."


		
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