Pentagon's PR Offensive to be Probed

The inspector general's office at the Defense Department said Friday that it would investigate a Pentagon public-affairs program that sought to transform retired military officers who work as television and radio analysts into "message force multipliers" who could be counted on to echo Bush administration talking points about Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and terrorism.

The announcement came a day after the House passed an amendment to the annual military-authorization bill that would mandate investigations of the program by the inspector general's office and Congress' investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The GAO said it had begun looking into the program and would give a legal opinion on whether it violated long-standing prohibitions against spending government money to spread propaganda to audiences in the United States.

The Defense Department suspended the program last month, days after it was the focus of a New York Times article. The article described a Pentagon campaign to cultivate dozens of military analysts as "surrogates" to generate favorable coverage of the administration's wartime performance. The analysts, many with undisclosed ties to military contractors, were wooed by private briefings with senior government officials.

The inspector general's office said its inquiry would look at whether special access to Pentagon leaders "may have given the contractors a competitive advantage."

The House amendment, adopted by voice vote Thursday night, would make permanent a domestic-propaganda ban that until now has been enacted annually in the military-authorization bill; the Senate is working on its version of the bill.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., objected to the amendment, saying that retired officers working as military analysts were a "great asset" for the country.