House members press Pentagon for propaganda investigation.
House members press Pentagon for propaganda investigation.
Yesterday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and 40 other lawmakers sent a letter to the Pentagon’s Inspector General demanding an investigation into the department’s propaganda program, which was first revealed by The New York Times on April 20. From their letter:
We write to express our deep concern over an extremely troubling report recently published in The New York Times detailing a high-level, well thought out and extensive program within the Department of Defense to use military analysts to generate positive news coverage of the war in Iraq, conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention center and other activities associated with the Global War on Terror. We believe that this unethical, and potentially illegal, propaganda campaign aimed at deliberately misleading the American public should have been disclosed long ago by your office, and not by a newspaper that needed to resort to suing the DoD for the information.
Earlier this week, Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office asking the agency to determine whether the Pentagon’s program broke the law, and in an interview with ThinkProgress, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) said that the Bush administration had “dishonored” the military with all its “untruths.”
Sort Comments By: Top Rated | Date
23 Responses to “House members press Pentagon for propaganda investigation.”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Think ProgressContact Us
Donate
“Yesterday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and 40 other lawmakers sent a letter…”
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:04 pmA sternly-worded letter no doubt.
Where the hell is the outrage? Where the hell is the action taken against the malefactors? What the fu__ing hell had the Congress done to redress any of the blatantly unconstitutional power grabs, violation of US criminal law and international war crimes? How did Hitler come to power? From God damned cowards in the government and legislative branches that failed to stand up to a little shit just as we happening now with King George.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:13 pmI love the work that the GAO does on behalf of the American people, but is there any more ignored department in the government right now? Time and time again their investigations find evidence of malfeasance and incompetence on behalf of the Bush administration, but nothing ever comes of it.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:13 pmOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH……A STERN LETTER DEMANDING THE PENTAGON INVESTIGATE ITSELF…I’M SURE THEY’LL GET RIGHT ON THAT.
BOY I BET HITLER AND THE NAZI PROPAGANDA MACHINE WOULD HAVE TREMBLED IN THEIR BOOTS TOO.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:17 pmRemember how King George came in and made a big deal of changing the name of GAO from Government Accounting Office to Government Accountability Office with the aid of his congressional lackeys. They are now working to change the name to more accurately reflect the agency as the: God Awful Office
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:20 pmOnly 41 out of how many who are supposed to be looking out for our best interests…..we need more unity. 100% of Democrats should be 100% behind this…..
I am sick of moderate meaning they are part democrat and part republican. I want democrats to be 100% democratic.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:21 pmA soon to be ignored letter no doubt.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:28 pmThe Bush Administration is filled with people who are actually of the belief, even though they are public servants, that there is nothing wrong with lying to make your point. Therefore, they will never understand why this is wrong.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 pmGood Morning Fred, On reading your post #6 i was remembering old pirate movies of my youth, way back when….The pirate’s would pull their flag down and hoist a banner to fool the enemy so they could move in close enough to fire on them…
What we have now is a huge number of representative’s that don’t give a rat’s ass about the constitution, we the people or anything but their own self intrests..To bad we can’t demand they fly their short’s on the mast for all to see..Case in point there are a lot of Lieberman type’s and they are blocking and creating one hell of a mess..They arent Dem’s and none on the reich are true conservative’s..We need to boot all the pirate’s out on both side’s no matter what flag they try to fly…Blessings
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:41 pmhttp://www.counterpunch.org/farsetta05032008.html
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:46 pmOf the 27 Pentagon pundits named publicly to date, six are registered as federal lobbyists. -Diane Farsetta
I am not holding my breath.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:41 pmIsn’t it truly amazing that right before election time they decide ..gee, I better start doing my job. I’ve got to improve my record for all my sound bites ads.
There should be a law for term limits in Congress. No more career politicians. Time and time again we see that absolute power corrupts absolutely. They are bought and paid for by lobbyists their 5th or 6th year in office.
May 3rd, 2008 at 3:53 pm# 2 JMOHR
I agree!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From domestic spying to lying about TORTURE, from military propaganda to acts of TREASON, this administration should be behind barrs a long time ago! With some of their members already waiting for EXECUTION FOR WAR CRIMES! As Congress does nothing, the USA’s image keeps sinkng to new lows! WHERE IS ACCOUNTABILITY?????? WHERE IS THE RULE OF LAW????? If these criminals do not get to be hold accountable using the same principals of the NUREMBERG TRIALS, the USA can forget the idea of restoring its credibilty abroad. And worse, it will never heal!
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 pmIs this ever going to make national news?
David Walker is the head of the GAO and his agency has repeatedly informed of government abuse and misuse, but rarely is anything ever done.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:55 pmCongress is paralyzed while Lil Bush continues to flaut laws, appoint cronies and continue his corrupt administration.
AS much as I want Obama for president, I will vote for Hillary if I have to because we desperately need a government of checks and balances, a restoration of the Constitution, and a non-partisan Supreme Court.
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:57 pmHere’s a great article about GAO restrictions on government propaganda:
http://uspolitics.about.com/ od/ electionissues/ a/ 01_propaganda.htm
This is what Feingold referred to yesterday. And I think these laws need to be reinforced. As well as the Smith-Mundt Act.
There need to be very clear laws prohibiting the kind of lying the Bush/Cheney folks have been doing all these years.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:09 pmNow now - they’re not propagandists, they’re Message Force Multipliers. Get it right, TP!
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:18 pmThe Dems are a bunch of Cowards
nothing will ever come of it.
THe Dems are the Silent Partners of the Oligarchy - American is already lost. Get use to it
May 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 pmI disagree. At the very least we’re having a discussion about government propaganda. Many Americans don’t know about the legalities.
May 4th, 2008 at 2:48 amOk, I agree it’s another letter. Share my fantasy…Humor me…
Waxman knows that nothing is going to happen to these traitors while the Child King is still on his throne. If they charge anyone Bush will just give them some form of a pardon and tell the conservatives it is patriotic for him to do so. The conservatives will eat that turd like all the turds they have been conditioned to eat over the last 25 years.
Remember Bush and all the leaders of the right know they can tell their followers anything. Just give them the thought for the day and they run with it. These are people who cast aspersions on all Purple Heart recipients to train their movement. Bush can pardon them all and they will praise him like the trained dogs they have become.
So why charge them with anything until after the traitors leave the WH and then perp walk them all? If McCain gets the DB (the Diebold Bump) and ends up in the WH we”ll have to face that then. But fact is folks, the USA does not exist as it did.
In too many ways, we are a lawless nation, especially when it comes to our governance. Even if the dems take the WH and the gavel stays in Henry’s hand, we will still have to hope the dem prez does not do as Clinton did when his administration dropped or did not pursue the crimes of Reagan Bush. As Robert Parry has pointed out, not prosecuting them left the nation with a false view of the Reagan and Bush years. As is well documented now, it was beyond absurd for this nation to even consider the Child King for the presidency let alone actually give him the keys to the WH. Not exposing the Reagan Bush sins left the nation open to the Child King’s reign.
Of course the corporate media made sure our road to hell had a good layer of asphalt.
America is not who she was.
May 4th, 2008 at 3:18 amFUD…. It’s what’s for breakfast…
What I find so surprising about this “revelation” is that it’s being treated as if it were something we haven’t been talking about directly for YEARS now.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:24 pmPerhaps those feisty Dems are hoping that upon reading the letter the Rethugicans will choke while ROTFLTAO!
Helen Thomas if she could get recognized for the first question in The Chimp in Chief’s next press conference:
Mr. President, please tell us, if you would sir,is there any endeavor or task for which you alone were responsible that not ended up FUBAR? And yes, I have a follow up.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:29 pmPeople, rejoice! Our great leaders have sent letters, letters, letters and then more letters! Let the peasants know that the letters have gone out! Rejoice! Hail the letter writers!
Why don’t they quit with the letters and put some some those thugs in jail?
May 6th, 2008 at 1:09 am