Pentagon Investigation
Regarding the news reports about the military planting news stories, United States Department of State spokesman Sean McCormack said in his November 30, 2005, daily press briefing that his "colleagues over at the Pentagon" were "looking in" and were "probably in the best position to address those news reports." A reporter then commented: "Why would they have to look into the news reports if it's -- if it's happening, wouldn't they know they did it."
On the November 30, 2005, Hardball, Senator John Warner (R-Virginia) told Chris Matthews "I saw that for the first time today. And as chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, we'll look into that because I'm concerned that our credibility abroad is very important. And if we're manufacturing things or taking our wonderful troops and trying to translate their ideas into something that's more our idea, rather than the trooper's idea, then I think we should be looking at it."
In his December 1, 2005, press gaggle, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that "the Los Angeles Times was the first place" the White House had heard about "the military using this Lincoln Group to plant stories in Iraqi newspapers" and that "We have asked the Department of Defense for more information. General Pace has asked people to look into the matter and get the facts, and so we want to see what those facts are."
On December 3, the U.S. military command in Baghdad acknowledged for the first time that it had paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, but officials characterized the payments as part of a legitimate campaign to counter insurgents' misinformation.
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