Internal investigation clears Pentagon of propaganda violations

Internal investigation clears Pentagon of propaganda violations

rawstory.com

An internal investigation has cleared the Pentagon of violating a ban on domestic propaganda by using retired military officers to comment positively about the war in Iraq in the US media.

In a report posted on its website Friday, the Pentagon's inspector general said "we found the evidence insufficient to conclude that RMA (retired military analysts) outreach activities were improper."

The report said the controversy, which erupted in April following an expose in the New York Times, warranted no further investigation.

The Times found that the Pentagon laid on special briefings and conference calls for the retired officers, many of whom then repeated the talking points as military experts on television news shows.

It also found that many of the media analysts also worked as consultants or served on the boards of defense contracting companies, but that those ties often went undisclosed to the public.

US law bars government agencies from using funds for domestic propaganda, but the inspector general's report said the definition of propaganda is unclear.

The report said historically it has been interpreted to mean publicity for the sake of self aggrandizement, partisanship, or covert communications, and that by those standards the evidence did not show a violation of the ban.

"Further, we found insufficient basis to conclude that (the office of the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs) conceived of or undertook a disciplined effort to assemble a contingent of influential RMAs who could be depended on to comment favorably on DoD (Department of Defense) programs," it said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Uh... are you kidding me? Didn't the DOD tell us that Iraq had nuclear weapons and that we must fear Saddam because he was a dictator? And shouldn't there be an external investigation as well? Come on... this is ridiculous!

We need to try the DOD for war crimes. They are admitting here of doing wrong because they deny that they mislead us into the Iraq war.

They honestly expect us to believe that they didn't push for propaganda?

What makes them think they can clear themselves of any wrong doing?

I demand a full investigation a trial by jury on the DOD.

rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

As far as I know, every single internal investigation done by government has always sided with themselves....and why shouldnt they? After all, when you do the crime, and are assigned to investigate that crime, it makes sense to declare yourself innocent of all charges.


Cheers!!!!

Internal investigation. Hahahahah. Yeah we didn't do anything wrong. We checked ourselves. What a joke. Screw you Pentagon.

That is like asking a committee of mosquito's about who is responsible for any outbreaks in malaria .

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edit : add line 2 : edit end

[edit on 17-1-2009 by Drexl]

Here is the report:

Examination of Allegations Involving DoD Office of Public Affairs Outreach Program

Thank goodness a report was issued! Now I'm sure this issue will be all cleared up!

The winners write the history books...:shk:

I still contend that the level of propaganda in our media and military is rampant and caters to the majority of uninformed in our population. Kind of a duh statement for ATS'ers but indecipherable for them...

Oh this report is full of fun. Here's the particular hair they decided to split, and balance their rhetoric upon:

GAO states that “as with most of the publicity and propaganda statutes over the years, there is no definition of either term. Thus, the statutes [relating to propaganda] have been applied through administrative interpretation....

The Department of Justice... agrees that Government communications which are “purely informational”—even if the communication does not inform the audience that the information is government-produced—are not propaganda and, hence, are “legitimate.”

And they obviously brought down the hammer with a no-holds-barred grilling!

In May 2001, Ms. Victoria Clarke was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and appointed as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs....

Ms. Clarke declined the IG team’s request for an interview.

Fortunately, they had her honest, sworn and complete testimony available, in the form of the book she kindly had published:

As described in her book*, Ms. Clarke identified several considerations for managing the outreach program. First, she determined that traditional public affairs practices were no longer sufficient to meet the department’s evolving communications challenges....

Consequently, she explained that “flooding the zone with information” and achieving “information dominance” were central to winning the information war in the new information age.

* “Lipstick on a Pig: Winning in the No-Spin Era by Someone Who Knows the Game,” Ms. Victoria “Torie” Clarke, Simon and Schuster, New York, 2006.

Fun reading, indeed.

Thanks Judge I would like to say that I have investigated myself and am clear of any speeding and reckless driving charges I am accused of!

reply to post by bubbabuddha


So could we, then, based on what the DOD decided to do, clear ourselves of any crimes that we commit in the future if we commit a crime by investigating ourselves?

reply to post by Frankidealist35


The report is a response to a request/demand from Congress. The letters are in Appendix B. So I guess it's now up to Congress to do something more, if they want. Or the courts, I guess, if there's "controlling legal authority" (a phrase actually used in the report!) there, at all.

Basically, I suppose you could consider the request from Congress to say "CYA, or we'll have to hold more hearings." *shrug*

somehow i'm not shocked

and even if wrongdoing is found,,,, by the time they figure that out is so long ago that everyone forgot all about it anyway and they just keep it hush hush and move on

"The Pentagon Clears the Pentagon of Any Wrong Doing"

That is what the title of the article should be!

"Checks and Balance" at its best!

reply to post by Frankidealist35


As most of the posters here, there is the "Uncanny" ability for these accusation's and "Propaganda" events to be a rather "One Sided" analogy of "Guilty or Not Guilty" but only when it involves the public scrutiny towards the US spending and military actions.

This quote from the OP's post sums it up:

US law bars government agencies from using funds for domestic propaganda, but the inspector general's report said the definition of propaganda is unclear.

And, "That's That!!"

isnt that a great racket they got going on? you can do whatever you want, then when questioned clear yourself of any wrongdoing.
where do i sign up? haha