WASHINGTON, Nov 30: The US military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to print stories written by US soldiers in an effort to polish the image of the American mission in Iraq, a US newspaper reported on Wednesday.

In Washington, the Pentagon said it was looking into the newspaper report. “If all of the elements in that story were accurate, there are some things in there that I find troubling, and that’s why I’ve asked for the facts,” said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman.

“It was news to me,” he said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, US military ‘information operations’ troops have written the articles, which are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of the Lincoln Group, a Washington-based defence contractor.

Many articles are presented to Iraqi newspapers as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists, the daily said, citing documents it obtained and unnamed US military officials.

The stories denounce guerillas and tout the work of US and Iraqi troops and the US-led effort to rebuild Iraq.

The United States has paid Iraqi newspapers to publish dozens of articles, the LA Times said.

“The operation is designed to mask any connection with the US military,” it said.

The Lincoln Group helps translate and place the stories. The contractor’s Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance journalists or advertising executives to hand the stories to Iraqi papers.

Some senior US military officers in Iraq and at the Pentagon have criticized the operation, saying it could ruin the US military’s credibility in other countries and with the US public.

“Here we are trying to create the principles of democracy in Iraq. Every speech we give in that country is about democracy. And we’re breaking all the first principles of democracy when we’re doing it,” a senior Pentagon official who opposes the planting of stories was quoted as saying.

The task force has even bought an Iraqi newspaper and taken control of a radio station, a military official said, refusing to name the outlets to protect their staff from attacks. —AFP