How to Crack the Pentagon Pundits' Code

By Diane Farsetta, Center for Media and Democracy. Posted August 12, 2008.

As reporters and researchers know all too well, releasing information isn't necessarily the same thing as releasing useful information.

Case in point: the Pentagon's military analyst program. In early 2002, the Defense Department began cultivating "key influentials" -- retired military officers who are frequent media commentators -- to help the Bush administration make the case for invading Iraq. The program expanded over the years, briefing more participants on a wider range of Bush administration talking points, occasionally taking them overseas on the government's dime.

In April 2006, the group was used to counter criticism of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The apparent coordination between the Pentagon and the pundits piqued the interest of New York Times reporters. Two years later -- after wresting some 8,000 pages of internal documents from the Defense Department -- the Times exposed the Pentagon's covert attempts to shape public opinion through its so-called "message force multipliers." A few weeks later, the Defense Department posted the same documents publicly.

It wasn't the high-octane data dump it first appeared to be. Sure, paging through the emails, slides and briefing papers is interesting, and occasionally you come across something noteworthy. But the documents are formatted in such a way that systematically exploring them via keyword searches is impossible. A cynic (or realist) might think the Pentagon was doing damage control by putting the documents out in the open, while making it near-impossible to find crucial needles in a very large, chaotically-compiled haystack.

Luckily, the Center for Media and Democracy has top-notch tech staff. Thanks to them (especially Blake Hall), we are making searchable versions of the Pentagon pundit documents available, on our SourceWatch website, here (a few sections remain unsearchable, because the image quality of the original pages is so poor).

To see what lurks in the emails of the Pentagon's top PR staff, I searched for a few of the usual suspects.

Move America Forward

"I know they are overloaded in theater," reads a June 2006 email from Pentagon pundit Thomas McInerney to Defense Department press secretary Eric Ruff. But "Melanie appears to be very determined to do this with or without DOD support so I think it is worthwhile to work with her."

Melanie in this case is Melanie Morgan, a conservative columnist, former San Francisco talk show host and the head of Move America Forward (MAF). MAF describes itself as a non-partisan pro-troop organization, but since its founding in 2004, it's been an enthusiastic cheerleader for the "war on terror" and other Bush administration policies. That's not surprising, as the group was co-founded by, and continues to receive significant support from, the Republican-linked public relations firm Russo Marsh & Rogers. Indeed, some of MAF's most reviled targets have been Democrats; they've called Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi a "domestic enemy" and the 2004 Democratic National Convention "a 'Blame America First' pep rally."

In July 2005, MAF helped bring six conservative talk radio hosts to Iraq, including Morgan and then-MAF board member Buzz Patterson. Dubbed the "'Voices of Soldiers' Truth Tour," the trip sought to "get the story straight from [the troops] without the filter of the liberal media," as Morgan explained to the San Francisco Chronicle.

MAF's 2005 Iraq trip is mentioned in the Pentagon pundit documents, as part of a long list of "intelligence briefings to very important persons (VIPs) and senior officers." Also on that list are Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, multiple executives of the Booz Allen Hamilton lobbying firm, participants in the WHINSEC / School of the Americas Officers Course, the Spanish Ambassador to the United States and Congressman Pete Hoekstra.

The following year, MAF wanted to return to Iraq, this time with people who had lost family members in the war. But it seems like the Pentagon wasn't too hot on the idea at first.

"Any help would be very much appreciated," Morgan emailed to McInerney, as recorded in the Pentagon pundit files. "In the attachment, you will find the letter of response to Centcom [U.S. Central Command] about our Gold Star Family member trip to Iraq."

It's not clear how Morgan knew McInerney had high-level Pentagon access -- an interesting question -- but he did his best to help. McInerney highly recommended MAF's proposed trip to the Pentagon's Ruff, writing that it "sounds like a good idea" and "would get very good play in the media and tell our story with these dedicated families of our deceased members." Ruff quickly responded that he would "check into it." A few months later, MAF's Gold Star families group was in Iraq.

"Under the cover of utmost secrecy, the parents of U.S. troops who died in Iraq have made a surprising and historic visit to Iraq," opens a MAF press release from November 4, 2006, announcing their arrival. "The trip will allow these parents to see the newly liberated Iraq that their children gave their lives for."

America Supports You

See more stories tagged with: pentagon, pundits, database

Diane Farsetta is senior researcher at the Center for Media and Democracy.

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from War on Iraq! Sign up now »