WASHINGTON — The White House demanded Thursday that the Pentagon hand over information about a secret U.S. military operation to plant news stories in the Iraqi news media, and senators plan to meet behind closed doors with military commanders to learn about the information offensive underway in Iraq.
Press Secretary Scott McClellan said the White House was "very concerned" about reports that a defense contractor in Iraq, working with U.S. forces, was paying newspapers in Baghdad to run stories written by American troops.
"We are seeking more information from the Pentagon," McClellan told reporters.
Pentagon officials said they were scrambling to get information from commanders in Baghdad about the U.S. military's arrangement with Lincoln Group, a Washington-based firm that specializes in "strategic communications" in combat zones.
Since early this year, the military's "Information Operations Task Force" in Baghdad has used Lincoln Group to plant stories in the Iraqi media that trumpet such things as the successes of U.S. and Iraqi troops against insurgents, U.S.-led reconstruction efforts, and rising anti-insurgent sentiment among the Iraqi people, according to senior military officials and documents obtained by The Times.
Troops with the information task force write articles, called "storyboards," which are then delivered to the Iraqi staff of Lincoln Group. After that, Lincoln Group staffers translate the storyboards into Arabic and pay newspaper editors in Baghdad to run the stories, the documents and sources indicated.
Documents revealed that the articles also often were accompanied by Associated Press and Reuters photos that information operations troops downloaded from websites, a practice that could violate copyright rules. The photos that run with the stories do not necessarily depict the events described.
Jack Stokes, a spokesman for Associated Press, said the news service was investigating whether any U.S. official involved in the operation might have improperly used its photos.
Senior Pentagon officials, including Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said they had no knowledge about the secret campaign before news articles this week.
"There's pressure to get the answers, but it's frustrating because here we are two days into this and we still haven't heard anything back" from Iraq, a senior Pentagon official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
