Rumsfeld says U.S. constrained in information war

[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Will Dunham]
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday the Pentagon had not done a good job in the information war against enemies like al Qaeda, saying U.S. personnel felt constrained partly due to fear of criticism in the media. "How do we compete in this struggle in a way that can counter the ability of the enemy to lie, which we can't do, (and) the ability of the enemy to not have a free media criticizing them? You don't see much criticizing of them," said Sec Rumsfeld. A debate is under way in America over what is permissible for the U.S. government to do to spread its message to foreign audiences as it engages in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in what it calls a global war against terrorism. The U.S. military command in Iraq is investigating a military program that funneled money to some Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American articles. The Pentagon in 2002 closed its Office of Strategic Influence after reports that it planned to plant false news stories with foreign media outlets. "We're not going to lose wars or battles out there. The only place we can lose is if the country loses its will. And the determinant of that is what is played in the media," Sec Rumsfeld said.
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