BAGHDAD, Dec 1: The US military on Thursday defended its policy of feeding articles to the Iraqi press as part of a campaign to counter what it said were lies spread by Al Qaeda militants. On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times revealed that the US military has been paying the fledgling Iraqi press to run articles which US troops have written that focus on the positive aspects of the occupation and reconstruction.

“We don’t lie, we don’t need to lie, we do empower our operational commanders with the ability to inform the Iraqi public,” said US military spokesman Maj Gen Rick Lynch.

“What Zarqawi is doing continuously is lying to the Iraqi people, lying to the international community,” he said at a press briefing, referring to Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi.

What the general and his assistants would not comment on, however, was whether they paid these newspapers to run the material, saying they would not comment on the specific mechanics of the process.

The Times report relies largely on leaks from members of the military establishment who say they fear that US attempts to influence the Iraqi media may actually be subverting a free press.

Colonel Barry Johnson, head of the US military’s press department, countered that the Iraqi press has travelled a long hard road from total control under Saddam Hussein to the current period characterized by a lethal insurgency.

“There’s outright intimidation and many murders and other ways of manipulating the press, so it was felt operationally that it was necessary to make sure the facts were out,” he said.

Several Iraqi journalists said that a number of the country’s dozens of newspapers were known to publish articles given to them by US institutions. —AFP