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Strength of Iraqi Forces Promoted by Influential P.R. Firm, Document Shows
ABC News
Dec. 14, 2005
ABC News has obtained a strategy document called "The Making of Heroes:
Lincoln Group and the Fight for Fallujah" — part of the Pentagon's
multi-million dollar public relations campaign to sell the American war
effort to the Iraqis.
The Lincoln Group is the influential Washington D.C. public relations
firm, which produced positive news stories that the U.S. government
paid Iraqi publishers and journalists to print.
A PowerPoint presentation shows how the Lincoln Group sells an idea the
U.S. government wants promoted — in this case, according to the
document, the capability of Iraqi forces.
A small number of Iraqi forces were with the U.S. troops in Fallujah in
November of 2004, but some Marines and reporters said the Iraqis were
only minimally involved.
But under the heading "The Concept," the document shows, the Lincoln
Group seeks to promote "the strength, integrity and reliability of
Iraqi Forces during the fight for Fallujah."
Under the heading "Rumor Control," according to the document, the
Lincoln Group strives to dispel the notion that the war is "America's
fight" or that Iraqi forces were defecting.
"It's a little strange to see because even the Pentagon's own estimates
and the administration's own estimates of the state of the Iraqi forces
in 2004 when these fights for Fallujah occurred were never very
glowing," said Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow in foreign policy
studies at the Brookings Institution.
The Lincoln Group said it could not provide a comment about this report under the terms of the Pentagon contract.
ABC News' Martha Raddatz filed this report for "World News Tonight."
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