Military Propaganda Tied to the UK
Company creation appears opportunistic. From its web site homepage code: "Lincoln Group formed to pursue private sector opportunities in Iraq." It is also a very small scale operation, compared with the two other firms with propaganda contracts.
The Pentagon plans to spend $300 million on propaganda efforts abroad over the next five years. Two groups have contracts in addition to the Lincoln Group: Science Applications International Corp (SAIC) and SYColeman. SAIC -- the largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the country, according to its web site -- "won a no-bid Pentagon contract in 2003 to run an Iraqi media network that Defense Department investigators later said was mismanaged," according to USA Today. In addition, SYColeman "is led by a retired general who was a top official in the Defense Department agency that gave SAIC its Iraqi media contract."
The founder of SAIC formerly worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1950s. Annual revenues exceed $7.2 billion. SYColeman is a wholly owned subsidiary of L-3 Communications and was formed in 2002 by merging two defense businesses. Its president since 2004 is Lt. General Jared L. Bates, U.S. Army (retired). He was recalled to service from January to June 2003 "to help establish and deploy the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance to Baghdad as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom." Ostensibly, the US did not decide to go to war until March 2003.
Prior coverage: Military Admits Planting News, US Military Plants "News" in Iraqi Papers. Tip: MediaBistro
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