PROPAGANDA WATCH

LA Times: CUTOUTS SPEAK OUT

"U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon
contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive
stories about the war, and made it clear that none of the stories
should be traced to the United States, according to several current
and former employees of Lincoln Group," report Mark Mazzetti and
Kevin Sack. Military officials have claimed that they didn't know
what the Lincoln Group was up to, but leaked documents and company
employees say otherwise. "In clandestine parlance, Lincoln Group was
a 'cutout' - a third party - that would provide the military with
plausible deniability," said a former Lincoln Group employee. "To
attribute products to [the military] would defeat the entire
purpose. Hence, no product by Lincoln Group ever said 'Made in the
U.S.A.'" Another employee said that Lincoln's $20 million, two-month
contract in Iraq had them doing work that was largely ineffective.
"It's a total waste of money," said another former Lincoln employee.
"Every Iraqi can read right through it."