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DeLauro Calls on Congress to Investigate U.S.-Packaged Iraqi News

Date: Dec. 2, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs


Friday, December 2, 2005

DeLauro Calls on Congress to Investigate U.S.-Packaged Iraqi News

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) today called on Congress to investigate reports that the U.S. has pre-packaged news articles for the Iraqi media. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has ruled three times that similar news packages created by the Bush administration for domestic issues were "covert propaganda." In January, DeLauro introduced the Federal Propaganda Prohibition Act of 2005 to prohibit on covert propaganda.

"The news that the Pentagon has contracted with a Washington-based firm to place news articles and sometimes pose as freelance reporters in the Iraqi news media is eerily similar to contracts the Bush administration obtained to tout controversial domestic initiatives. Congress has an obligation to investigate whether these news stories about the Iraq war constitute the same sort of ‘covert propaganda' that have been pushed upon the American people here at home.

"Freedom of the press is at the heart of democracy. If the Bush Administration is truly committed to success in Iraq, it would not resort to tactics that so fundamentally undermine our soliders' efforts there."

http://www.house.gov/delauro/press2005.html

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