So, just who is Christian Bailey?
A 30-year-old Oxford graduate with no public relations experience has been handed a $100m contract by the Pentagon - to plant false stories in Iraqi papers.

the Lincoln Group, a previously little-known "business intelligence" company headed by a heretofore little known young Briton, Christian Bailey, an Oxford graduate and consummate net worker. He is at the centre of a mounting storm of controversy surrounding the Bush administration's covert propaganda war in Iraq.

It was recently revealed that Bailey's company was the recipient of a $100m (£56m) contract from Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defence for buying space in Iraqi newspapers to place deliberately one-sided stories written by US "psy-ops" troops, at a time when the chaos of Iraq makes genuine journalism all but impossible and when journalists risk their lives on a daily basis to report the truth.

As part of the project - in which the US military hid its involvement - Lincoln Group staff paid Iraqi journalists to write similarly misleading stories about US forces and the Iraqi government that ignored anything negative about the occupation. One headline read: "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism."

The company gained notoriety last November after the Los Angeles Times first revealed it was being paid by the Pentagon to plant stories in the Iraqi press as part of a secret military propaganda campaign

The Lincoln Group was one of three companies also offered — also contracted for up to $100 million for a contract with the Psychological Operations Joint Task Force, I think it’s called, down in Florida. And that $100 million was dependent on pictures they made, ideas they came up with and could then sell to the military. That contract, with Lincoln Group at least, has been canceled, I think as recently as this month. I think I saw a piece in the Washington Post reporting that. So that $100 million, very little of it was ever given to the company, I think, and it was certainly touted by them as one of their major crowning achievements. But these are $20 million over two months, the $10 million a month for media placement in Iraq, was a separate contract with the military in Iraq.

The Lincoln Group (formerly known as Iraqex) is a Washington, D.C. contractor with operations in Iraq hired by the United States military to perform public relations. They operate from the Green Zone at Sector 222, 34th St, Bldg 5 Karatet Mariam, Baghdad, Iraq and 1130 17th St. NW Suite 400 Washington, DC.On November 30, 2005, the Los Angeles Times revealed the company had been paying for news stories in Iraqi newspapers. Prior to that report, Lincoln Group of Washington, DC was awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract, with a potential maximum value of $100,000,000, for media approach planning, prototype product development, commercial quality product development, product distribution and dissemination, and media effects analysis for the Joint Psychological Operations Support element and other government agencies. The work will be performed CONUS and OCONUS and task orders may be issued from June 7, 2005 - June 6, 2010. This contract was awarded on a competitive basis pursuant to FAR 6.102. The contract number is H92222-05-D-1010.

The company serves customers in Iraq, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Jordan, and Pakistan. Lincoln Group LLC was formerly known as Iraqex and changed its name in 2004. The company was founded in 2003 and is based in Arlington, Virginia.

Lincoln Group Wins $5.69 Million Federal Contract
10/5/2010
Lincoln Group LLC was awarded a $5,692,940 federal contract by the U.S. Army's Rock Island Contracting Center, Rock Island, Ill., for television and newsprint messages to encourage democracy in Iraq. Place of performance will be in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military 'information operations' troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers. ... The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country. ... Records and interviews indicate that the U.S. has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles, with headlines such as 'Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism,' since the effort began this year. The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military. The Pentagon has a contract with ... Lincoln Group which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets."

In August 2008, the Lincoln Group won a six month, $14.3 million U.S. Army contract, to promote the Army's "Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization campaign" in Afghanistan. The campaign is designed to separate the "bomb makers and users from the support of the populace," and to encourage Afghans to "take responsibility for their communities and report suspicious activities." The contract involves developing "a broad-based information campaign about IEDs using billboards, radio messages, hour-long TV programming, video compact discs, posters, flyers and newspaper ads." An Afghanistan-based firm, CentenaGroup, received higher marks for its proposal, but Lincoln Group won the contract because it bid in at a lower price, according to O'Dwyer's. [10]

In March 2006, O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported[14] the Lincoln Group "is working to boost economic development in Pakistan." Lincoln is working with former U.S. diplomat Carol Fleming to increase "investments in the country's textile, energy, technology and telecom" industries. The firm produced "a documentary" of areas devastated by the October 2005 earthquake, "to remind countries to honor their pledges to support the victims." Lincoln has also "expressed interest" in a contract to help the U.S. Army Reserve communicate its "vision of the future." The contract includes "speech writing, research, development of a comprehensive ... communications plan," support for "national outreach programs," and media outreach for Army Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. James Helmly. Other firms seeking the Army contract include CorpComm Group, MyMic, Polestar Applied Technology and ICOR Partners.

"Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Congress yesterday to provide $75 million in emergency funding to step up pressure on the Iranian government." If granted, the request would increase to $85 million the 2006 budget "to promote political change inside Iran," up from $3.5 million last year. $50 million would be used to "significantly increase Farsi broadcasts into Iran, mainly satellite television broadcasting by the federal government and broadcasts of the U.S.-funded Radio Farda." Another $5 million "will be aimed at reaching the Iranian public through the Internet and building independent Farsi television and radio stations." $15 million "would go to Iranian labor groups, human rights activists and other groups, generally via ... groups such as the National Endowment for Democracy."

In their recently published book, The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned Lies, and the Mess in Iraq (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006), co-authors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber document how Pentagon money was “thrown” at the Lincoln Group and other public relations outfits to promote the war in Iraq: “In September 2004, the U.S. military awarded a $5.4 million contract to Iraqex—which soon after changed its name to The Lincoln Group—a ‘newly formed’ Washington, DC-based company ‘set up specifically to provide services in Iraq.’” A year later, the New York Times’ Jeff Gerth reported that Iraqex’s winning of the contract was “something of a mystery” given the fact that the “two men who ran the small business [Christian Bailey, a young businessperson from England, and Paige Craig, a young former marine intelligence officer] had no background in public relations or the media.”

Lincoln Group, the Pentagon contractor recently outed for planting stories in Iraqi newspapers, is boosting its own PR efforts. The firm hired Bill Dixon, "a veteran PR executive," as its new director of media relations. Dixon previously headed media relations for "the powerful DC-area investment ban Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group," and has also managed PR for Google and The Motley Fool. He's also worked on political campaigns, "in D.C., Wisconsin, Colorado, California and Virginia."

The Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) at the National Endowment for
Democracy commissioned this study of the U.S. Department of Defense’s activity in
international media. The report examines what effect the DoD’s multi-front information war—
both to support U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and to counter enemy propaganda—has
had on local news media in the areas where the U.S. military is operating.

Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) who worked as a Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq during the first George W. Bush administration. An outspoken and controversial proponent of hardline U.S. foreign policies, Rubin is closely associated with neoconservatism. His track record includes working for a number of groups associated with the U.S. “Israel lobby” (including AEI, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and the Middle East Forum), championing the U.S. invasion of Iraq, suggesting assassinating foreign leaders like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, allegedly misrepresenting translations of statements by Iranian officials,[1] serving as a consultant to the heavily criticized Pentagon Office of Special Plans, and consulting for the PR firm the Lincoln Group, which was accused of planting propaganda in the Iraqi press

Rubin has been a leading hawk on Iran policy. However, he has at times appeared to be a bit overzealous in his efforts. In early 2009, for example, a number of commentators—including Paul Kerr, an arms control expert, and Farideh Farhi, an Iranian scholar—accused Rubin of providing misleading translations of comments from Iranian officials in an effort to push his anti-Iran agenda.[14] In one case, Rubin wrote in a National Review blog entry criticizing New York Times writer Roger Cohen, "One of Cohen’s interlocutors, at least according to his February 5, 2009 column, was former IRGC Chief Mohsen Rezai. Here is Rezai in today’s Iranian press: ‘Our enmity with the U.S. has no end.’ Cohen painted him as a bit more reasonable." However, according to Farhi, “Rezai in fact said exactly the opposite, using a double negative. He said: ‘Our enmity with the U.S. is not without end.’”[15]

"The executive branch expects NSA to collect political,economical and military information as part of its foreign intelligence mission 8.The internal politics of a nation also play a role in setting requirements for foreign Intel, the domestic economic situation, an upcoming political program etc etc.

At least three Canadian companies are set to watch potentially damaging documents released online to the world, part of the latest dump of secret files obtained by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks.

The website lists three Canadian companies it claims are part of a global industry that helps governments spy on citizens through Internet monitoring and one through phone monitoring.

The industry, WikiLeaks says, numbers about 160 companies in 25 countries. Companies in the unregulated industry develop technologies that allow governments, law enforcement and intelligence services to track and monitor citizens through their mobile phones, email accounts and web browser history, it says.

The industry is worth more than $5 billion annually, according to WikiLeaks.

The three companies listed on the Spy Files website are Vineyard Networks, AdvancedIO and Sandvine. None has been named in any documents WikiLeaks released in its first batch of documents that were posted Thursday.

WikiLeaks didn't indicate on its website just when the Canadian information would be made public.

Of the companies listed by Wikileaks, 86 sell Internet monitoring products, 62 focus on telephone surveillance and 20 have products for capturing text messages.

There are also 14 that do GPS tracking, WikiLeaks says on its website.

Seven of the companies allegedly are involved in what WikiLeaks describes as "cyber-war offensives," by selling programs and tools that allow a user to take control of computers remotely without the owner's knowledge by bypassing regular anti-virus programs.

All three Canadian companies on their websites tout products they say make networks safer, or help people to communicate, play or make financial transactions online.

AdvancedIO also lists security surveillance systems as part of its product list. The company is also listed on the federal government's Controlled Goods Directorate as an organization that imports, exports or handles controlled goods or technology.

The document release, whenever it happens, could be as damaging to the companies as was the release of classified American diplomatic cables was to foreign governments, including Canada. The release of more than 260,000 cables gave the world a look into the sometimes secret dealings between countries, angering U.S. government officials in Washington.

SYColeman, a unit of L-3 Communications, is a government-services company with about 1,100 employees, most in the region. According to its Web site, Lincoln Group provides communications services and strategic planning. San Diego-based SAIC, which has 16,000 employees in the Washington region, is among the Pentagon's largest contractors. Its work includes playing a major role in the Army's $100 billion modernization effort and a failed program to create a computerized case-management system for the FBI.