The BBC made me do it--hapless Iranians "confess"

Whitewash

The New York Times and Harper's magazine have both published reports on how the Pentagon used senior retired military officers as surrogates to not only shape the news with seemingly authoritative commentary but to "flood the zone with information” and achieve “information dominance.” Particularly after the above-the-fold New York Times story, criticism of the Pentagon program grew and the Pentagon was compelled to investigate. The Department of Defense Inspector General has published its examination of the charges on January 14th. While the report reflects a significant amount of work, the result is what government officials often understand as C.Y.A. At every turn, intentions and practice are interpreted favorably. The reports dismisses the idea that the program amounted to a "propaganda" campaign, and makes the far-fetched claim that the high-level briefings and privileged access offered to the retired brass only provided info that the retired officers could have readily have garnered by asking friends still in uniform. (Fair disclosure: I know and respect several of the retired senior officers involved in the stories. The problem with this program, which did entail doses of propaganda, is not just that the Pentagon provided privileged access to those who would "carry its water," as one Public Affairs official noted, but that the media was tacitly complicit in turning air space over to "approved" experts.)

See the Jan. 14, 2009, report.

"We consider unlikely the possibility that an RMA obtained some type of competitive advantage for a DoD contractor simply by participating in the briefings arranged as part of the Pentagon outreach program. With rare exception, information was unclassified and available for release in the public domain. It was provided openly to numerous outreach communities, not selectively to the RMAs. In our view, any “inside information” that RMAs might obtain would reasonably have been provided to them as a result of their senior rank or continuing liaison with former military associates, rather than through OASD(PA).

Similarly, any influence in the DoD acquisition process that RMAs might seek to exercise on behalf of private entities would largely depend on their expertise, entree conveyed by rank, standing in the DoD community, and continuing associations—not on the information or access obtained during a periodic OASD(PA) outreach meeting."

Pressroom

Los Angeles Times: What gives? [Updated]

The thesis of this piece is that the Gaza war is really a campaign against Iran. Moreover, Israel is taking extraordinary steps to protect civilians. What is quite extraordinary is that one of the authors is on-duty in Gaza as an IDF reserve officer according to As'ad AbuKhalil. If this is true, it is important for readers of the LAT to know this fact, but the byline says nothing of the sort. I consider this deceptive, and readers deserve to know who is responsible for this significant omission.
[Update: Michael Oren's own words verify the claim made by AbuKhalil, which I traced to Mondoweiss. Oren notes that he has volunteered to serve in the IDF reserves although he is not required to do so by virtue of his age. He notes that he knew officially of the call-up by January 3rd, and, based of my knowledge of how military bureaucracies usually work, I surmise that he would have been alerted before then. This means he had plenty of time to contact the LAT by email and advise them of his change of status, which is highly relevant in that he would be doing PR or propaganda work for the IDF.
And this: "A mainstream Western correspondent in Israel sent me this. I will not reveal his/her name so that he/she can keep his/her job. "My stomach turns at this massacre. It's a struggle to cover given that we're shut out of Gaza--I'm glad you highlighted the absurdity of Michael Oren's role in this bloodbath. I saw him in uniform, m-16 dangling at his side, whoring himself to the media on what we...where the media is camped overlooking Gaza. Needless to say, I declined his services." ]

In Gaza, the real enemy is Iran - Los Angeles Times: "Though civilians have, tragically, been hurt, about three-quarters of the 400 Palestinians killed so far have been gunmen -- an impressive achievement given that Hamas fires rockets from apartments, mosques and schools and uses hospitals as hide-outs.

"Israel has recently allowed nearly 200 truckloads of food and medicine to enter Gaza, even under shellfire. It is in Israel's urgent interest to minimize civilian suffering and forestall international criticism. For that same reason, Hamas welcomes the suffering of Palestinian civilians. According to a BBC report on Dec. 30, dozens of ambulances were dispatched by Egypt to its border with Gaza, only to remain empty because, according to Egyptian authorities, Hamas wasn't allowing wounded Palestinians to leave.

"The international community must not be duped again. If Hamas is successful in manipulating world opinion into the imposition of a premature cease-fire, it will proclaim victory and continue to stockpile long-range missiles for the next round of fighting. That would mean another triumph for Iran.

"The international community must not be duped again. If Hamas is successful in manipulating world opinion into the imposition of a premature cease-fire, it will proclaim victory and continue to stockpile long-range missiles for the next round of fighting. That would mean another triumph for Iran.

"No less crucially, the international community must not allow the Gaza crisis to divert its attention from the imminent -- and ultimate -- threat of a nuclear Iran. Intelligence sources now measure that threat in months rather than years.

"President-elect Barack Obama has declared his intention to confront Iran through diplomacy. Ideally, that process should begin in the aftermath of an Iranian defeat. If Israel is allowed to achieve its goals in Gaza, the Obama administration will be better poised to achieve its goals in Iran.

"Yossi Klein Halevi is a senior fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. Michael B. Oren is a distinguished fellow at the Shalem Center and a professor at the foreign service school of Georgetown University."