Continuation of blog series on the lead-up to the
Western
expressions of suspicion about
The CIA
and the
Again
the restrictions placed on
Same day – Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chief of Staff Richard Myers brief reporters at the Pentagon. Rumsfeld announces that the Office of Strategic Information is being closed.
Rumsfeld: I was -- I met with Undersecretary Doug Feith
this morning, and he indicated to me that he has decided to close down the Office of Strategic
Influence.
Q: Why? Could you tell us why?
Rumsfeld: Well, you know, there have been so many stories
about this office, and commentary, some portion of which has contained
inaccurate speculation and assertions that the office would -- could become
involved in activities that the department has in fact not done, is not doing,
and would not condone. 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's unclear to me -- it's
pretty clear to me that it could not function effectively. So it's being closed
down.
Q: Mr. Secretary, from the outset, though, within days
after September 11th, I think you were one of the first in the administration
to stand here and say it's imperative for the United States to reach out and in
fact educate the rest of the world, if not the Muslim world --
Rumsfeld: Yeah.
Q: in terms of what the
Rumsfeld: We –
Q: So how can the Pentagon do that effectively, or is it
going to be --
Rumsfeld: We'll just have to do it with the offices that
existed previously. There's no question but that we do have an obligation, as
you remind us all, to -- we had to tell the world that this was not an effort
against the Afghan people.
Note that Rumsfeld blames the media here. Also
note the friendly question from a sympathetic reporter not identified in the transcript.
Later, the White House will augment its usual help from Fox News and Washington Times reporters, etc., in
press briefings, by bringing in at least one individual even more dependable in
asking sympathetic questions.
Rumsfeld becomes more defensive when the
questioning becomes less sympathetic:
Q: Mr. Rumsfeld, you said that some of the reporting
about the Office of
Strategic Influence has been off the mark. But isn't it in fact the case
that at least some of the proposed activities of this office, even if they
weren't things that were approved, included discussion of planting false
information in foreign news media? Wasn't that one of the things that was
discussed as a possible activity for this office?
Rumsfeld: You know, it's -- if we think about this, this
office was, I think, established sometime shortly after September 11th for the
reason that was discussed earlier, because of the need -- there already was an
office, as I understand it, in the Joint Staff called Information Operations. And
that office was serving as the linkage with the White House and the Department
of State and the rest of the government on the subject of information. And Doug
Feith properly decided that he felt that there ought to be an office of the
Secretary of Defense, a civilian office, that monitored that activity. And
that's when that office was -- began to be stood up, and people started being
brought in to do it. It's my understanding that they have even to this day not
developed a charter, that it has been under discussion within the office. I've
not seen such a charter. So what it was to do was an open question, even today
as it ends its very short, prominent life. (Laughter.)
I don't have -- I can't say to you with assurance exactly
what was discussed by people in that office or by other people with that
office. What I do know is exactly what I have said; that regardless if
something may or may not have been discussed down at a lower level, this
department is not going to do what you said. It was not, it has not done it. We
had -- we will not do it, we are not doing it now, and we will not in the
future.
Q: Well, it just seemed that you were saying that the
office -- that you were closing this office because it had been essentially
tainted by inaccurate press reporting.
Rumsfeld: I said some of the press has been off the mark,
and that is a fact.
Q: But that was --
Rumsfeld: Some of the editorial comment and some of the
cartoons. But that's life. We get up in the morning and we live with the world
like we find it. Therefore, the office is done. (Laughter.) It's over. What do
you want, blood?! (Laughter.)
This mini-incident of the Office of Strategic
Information, headed by Air Force Brigadier Gen. Simon P. Worden, contains
several lessons. 1) This single public relations disaster of the ill-fated
Office of Strategic Information probably does as much as any other single
factor to derail the White House public relations campaign set up for
In retrospect, it is regrettable that the New York Times did not follow up on its
reporting on the Office of Strategic Information by revealing that functions of
the office continued to be fulfilled, in effect, by at least one reporter at the Times.
Stumble It!