WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has hired a public relations
firm to improve media coverage of the U.S. military in Iraq.
The U.S. Army awarded a two-year contract to the Washington-based
Lincoln Group. Under the contract,
Lincoln would monitor English and Arab media outlets and write material
and speeches for military commanders.
"You can complain about access, or you can change how you operate," Gen.
Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
[The contract was awarded as Congress has determined major failures in
projects in Iraq conducted by U.S. firms. The special inspector general for
Iraq reconstruction, an independent office created by Congress, said
construction of a $75 million police academy in Iraq was grossly
mismanaged and could be demolished, Middle East Newsline reported. The project was headed by Parsons Corp.]
Officials said Lincoln would receive $6.2 million per year over a
two-year period. They said the company would seek to "build support" in
Iraqi, Arabic, international and American audiences for the U.S. military
goal to forge democracy and destroy the insurgency in Iraq.
"We need to find more opportunities at every level in the department to
make ourselves available to the American people so that we can in fact get
more of the story out here so that the American people — whose center of
gravity is really very, very, solid — have the opportunity to digest all
that information and judge for themselves what's really going on," Pace
said.
The contract stipulated that Lincoln monitor such media outlets as the
New York Times, Fox Television and the Saudi-owned satellite channel,
Al-Arabiya.
"Lincoln Group is proud to be trusted to assist the multinational forces
in Iraq with communicating news about their vital work," Lincoln Group
spokesman Bill Dixon said.
In 2005, Lincoln was identified as having paid Iraqi newspapers and
editors for stories favorable to coalition forces. At the time, the company
and Pentagon came under severe criticism for seeking to manipulate the Iraqi
media.
Democrats in Congress said they would question the Pentagon regarding
the contract to Lincoln. They said the Pentagon should be working to improve
stabilization efforts in Iraq rather than the military's image.
"I wish that our problem in Iraq was that the military wasn't getting
good PR," said Rep. Robert Andrews, a New Jersey Democrat and a member of
the House Armed Services Committee. "The problem seems to be that the
country is sliding into civil war."
Officials said the award to Lincoln was a standard contract that did not
stipulate paying journalists for favorable coverage. They said the contract
did not represent new activity by the U.S. military in Iraq.
The Multi-National Forces-Iraq has been contracting the Washington-based
Rendon Group to monitor the media for the U.S. military in Iraq. Rendon's
one-year contract had been extended from September to Oct. 27 until Lincoln
could assume the project.
The U.S. Army also plans to sponsor secret polls in Iraq to assess the
effectiveness of military operations. Officials said the Multi-National
Command in Baghdad wants to hire a private company to determine support for
insurgency groups in Iraq. So far, polls have shown that Iraqis support
attacks on the U.S.-led coalition.
"Since the end of major combat operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom,
Coalition Forces have sought to build robust and positive relations with the
people of Iraq and to assist the Iraqi people in forming a new government,"
a notice on the FBODaily.com government contracting website said.
