Friday, December 02, 2005

Bush Concerned about US Propaganda in Iraq

The BBC reports that "The White House has expressed concern over reports that the US military is planting favourable stories about Iraq in the Baghdad press." I'm a little confused about the issue.

"The Los Angeles Times alleged that stories about Iraq were written by US soldiers, and translated into Arabic by a defence contractor which helps place them in Baghdad papers." This sounds okay to me. I'd think you'd want an occupying army to communicate with the citizens.

"Although many are basically factual, they only present one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the US or Iraqi government, the newspaper said." Well this is clearly more troubling. Given this level of info I think it could go either way if it's legit or if it crossed the line to propaganda. But if I had to place a bet...

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