<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> WorldTribune.com: Mobile — Pentagon will pay up to $300 million to tweak U.S. image in Iraq

Pentagon will pay up to $300 million to tweak U.S. image in Iraq

Monday, October 13, 2008 Free Headline Alerts

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is willing to pay $300 million for pro-U.S. messages in Iraq in a plan backed by Gen. David Petraeus.

Officials said the Pentagon has begun awarding contracts to sway public opinion to support pro-U.S. policies in Iraq. They said the contracts stipulated the production of news and entertainment that would enable the U.S. military to remain in the Arab country.

"The project is mostly about making Iraqis understand the need for a democratic and free society free of Al Qaida and foreign influence," an official said.

In September 2008, the Pentagon awarded contracts to four companies to produce media messages in Iraq. Officials said the pro-U.S. messages would be contained in everything from news stories to public service advertisements on Iraqi radio and television and Internet.

"The contractors would not be identified with the ads," the official said. "They would be offered to the Iraqi media via local agents."

Officials said the effort was promoted by Central Command chief Gen. David Petraeus, who for two years served as commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. They said Petraeus introduced pro-U.S. radio and television program with help from his aide, Sadi Othman.

A key contractor in the Pentagon effort has been SOS International, based in Reston, Va. In 2006, SOS won a $200 million contract to provide guidance on influencing the Iraqi media.

SOS was also awarded one of the latest Pentagon contracts, which require security clearance and Arabic-language skills. The other companies were identified as Lincoln Group, MPRI and Leonie Industries, all of them veterans in defense projects. Lincoln was criticized in a Pentagon report in 2006.

Congress has expressed opposition to the latest Pentagon contracts and the Senate Armed Services Committee could hold hearings. In early October, Sen. James Webb, a Virginia Democrat and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, demanded that Defense Secretary Robert Gates suspend the contracts.

"At a time when this country is facing such a grave economic crisis it makes little sense for the Department of Defense to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to propagandize the Iraqi people," Webb wrote.

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