Muslim Scholars Enlisted in Lincoln Group Propaganda Program

The Lincoln Group, a Washington-based PR firm, has been paying Muslim scholars in Iraq to produce propaganda favorable to the occupiers.

Today's New York Times reports that The Lincoln Group, which had been previously identified as paying to plant propaganda in the Iraqi press, has a parallel effort to sway Sunnis on religious grounds away from supporting the insurgency.

Each of the religious scholars underwent vetting before being brought into the program to ensure that they were not involved in the insurgency, said a former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Lincoln's Pentagon contract prohibits workers from discussing their activities. The identities of the Sunni scholars have been kept secret to prevent insurgent reprisals, and they were never taken to Camp Victory, the American base outside Baghdad where Lincoln employees work with military personnel.

I wonder who did the vetting.

Payments to the scholars were originally part of Lincoln's contract to aid the military with information warfare in Anbar Province. Known as the "Western Missions" contract, it also called for producing radio and television advertisements, Web sites, posters, and for placing advertisements and opinion articles in Iraqi publications. In October, Lincoln was awarded a new contract by the Pentagon for work in Iraq, including continued contact with Muslim scholars.

Propaganda overseas is traditionally a covert action conducted (legally) by the Central Intelligence Agency. Washington wonks are viewing the contracting out of war-related activities as being normal, and the wave of the future. I'm not so sure of the legality of this effort.

It looks like someone else may be unsure of the propriety of this program:

Lincoln has also turned to American scholars and political consultants for advice on the content of the propaganda campaign in Iraq, records indicate. Michael Rubin, a Middle East scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington research organization, said he had reviewed materials produced by the company during two trips to Iraq within the past two years.

"I visited Camp Victory and looked over some of their proposals or products and commented on their ideas," Mr. Rubin said in an e-mailed response to questions about his links to Lincoln. "I am not nor have I been an employee of the Lincoln Group. I do not receive a salary from them."

He added: "Normally, when I travel, I receive reimbursement of expenses including a per diem and/or honorarium." But Mr. Rubin would not comment further on how much in such payments he may have received from Lincoln.

Mr. Rubin was quoted last month in The New York Times about Lincoln's work for the Pentagon placing articles in Iraqi publications: "I'm not surprised this goes on," he said, without disclosing his work for Lincoln. "Especially in an atmosphere where terrorists and insurgents - replete with oil boom cash - do the same. We need an even playing field, but cannot fight with both hands tied behind our backs."

The outsourcing of parts of the war effort is not entirely new. Contractors were all over South Vietnam, but they were doing construction projects that had formerly been done by SeaBee (CB) units, not getting into conducting operations.

On a related note, I have been told that the NSA has outsourced many SIGINT and COMINT activities to defense contractors, probably including some of the extra-legal shenanigans that have recently occupied our interest.