WASHINGTON, Feb 26: A Pentagon office that proposed to influence public opinion about the war on terrorism by possibly planting false news items in foreign media will be closed, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday.

“I met with Undersecretary Doug Feith this morning and he indicated to me that he’s decided to close down the Office of Strategic Influence,” Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference.

Rumsfeld said “inaccurate speculations and assertions” about the office, created after the September 11 terrorist attacks, had irrevocably damaged it.

“There have been so many stories about this office and commentary, some portions of which has contained inaccurate speculations and assertions that the office could become involved in activities that the department has in fact not done, is not doing and would not condone,” he said.

“I guess notwithstanding the fact that much of the thrust of the criticism and the cartoons and the editorial comment has been off the mark, the office has clearly been so damaged that ... it could not function effectively, so it’s being closed down.”

Other Pentagon offices will continue with strategic influence and “information operations” activities such as advertising humanitarian assistance, Rumsfeld said.

Feith told reporters last week that the office was conceived to manage and coordinate all information being put out for military operations, such as leaflets and radio broadcasts and reward information, as well as to counter enemy propaganda and deception.—AFP