Freedom of the Press

AP CEO: Bush Turned Military Into Propaganda Machine

JOHN HANNA | February 6, 2009 07:09 PM EST |

Tom Curley, president and chief executive of The Associated Press,
speaks during the William Allen White Day program at the University
of Kansas in Lawrence, Kan., Friday, Feb. 6, 2009. Curley came to
the University of Kansas to receive this year's national citation for
journalistic excellence from the William Allen White Foundation.
(AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

LAWRENCE, Kan.

The Bush administration turned the U.S. military into a global
propaganda machine while imposing tough restrictions on
journalists seeking to give the public truthful reports about
the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Associated Press chief
executive Tom Curley said Friday.

Curley, speaking to journalists at the University of Kansas,
said the news industry must immediately negotiate a new
set of rules for covering war because "we are the only
force out there to keep the government in check and
to hold it accountable."

Much like in Vietnam, "civilian policymakers and soldiers
alike have cracked down on independent reporting from
the battlefield" when the news has been unflattering,
Curley said. "Top commanders have told me that if I
stood and the AP stood by its journalistic principles, the
AP and I would be ruined."

Curley said in a brief interview that he didn't take the
commanders' words as a threat but as "an expression
of anger." Late in 2007, Curley wrote an editorial about
the detention of AP photographer Bilal Hussein, held by
the military for more than two years.

Eleven of AP's journalists have been detained in Iraq for
more than 24 hours since 2003. Last year, according to
cases AP is tracking, news organizations had eight
employees detained for more than 48 hours.

AP, the world's largest newsgathering operation, is
a not-for-profit cooperative that began in 1846 to
communicate news from the Mexican War. Curley
has been the company's president and CEO since 2003.

Before his speech, Curley met for about a half-hour
with Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, a former spokesman
for the U.S. military in Iraq. Caldwell is commander at
Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where military doctrines are
drafted and a staff college trains both American and
foreign officers.

"It's important for us to be very transparent," Caldwell
said during an interview after Curley's speech. "If we do
those things, ultimately, we're both trying to do the same
thing." Curley came to the University of Kansas to receive
this year's national citation for journalistic excellence from
the William Allen White Foundation. Curley also won national
awards in 2007 and 2008 for his work on First Amendment
and open records issues.

Answering questions from his audience of about 160 people,
Curley said AP remains concerned about journalists' detentions.
He said most appear to occur when someone else, often a
competitor, "trashes" the journalist.

"There is a procedure that takes place which sounds an
awful lot like torture to us," Curley said. "If people agree
to trash other people, they are freed. If they don't
immediately agree to trash other people, they are kept for
some period of time two or three weeks and they are put
through additional questioning."

His remarks came a day after an AP investigation disclosed
that the Pentagon is spending at least $4.7 billion this year
on "influence operations" and has more than 27,000
employees devoted to such activities. At the same time,
Curley said, the military has grown more aggressive in
withholding information and hindering reporters.

Curley said a military program to embed reporters with
battlefield units in Iraq was successful in 2003, the war's
first year. But afterward, the military expanded its rules
from one to four pages, and Curley said they're now
so vague, a journalist can be expelled on a whim if a
commander doesn't like what's being reported.

"Americans understand hardships and setbacks," he said.
"They expect honest answers about what's happening to
their sons and daughters."

Caldwell now requires officers who attend Fort Leavenworth's
staff college to blog and "engage" the media. "Not only when
it's good stuff, but when it's challenging," Caldwell said.

Curley acknowledged that upon taking office, President
Barack Obama rolled back many of the policies instituted
by George W. Bush. But he said when the Pentagon faces
difficulties again _ perhaps in Afghanistan, with the new
administration's focus on it _ experience has shown,
"the military gets tough on the journalists."

"So now is the time to re-negotiate the rules of
engagement between the military and the media," he
said. "Now is the time to insist that the First Amendment
does apply to the battlefield."

He added: "Now is the time to resist the propaganda
the Pentagon produces and live up to our obligation
to question authority and thereby help protect our
democracy."

Curley said examining the Defense Department's
spending on its public relations efforts and psychological
operations is difficult because many of the budgets are
classified.

He said the Pentagon has kept secret some information
that used to be available to the public, and its public
affairs officers at the Pentagon gather intelligence on
reporters' work rather than serve as sources.

Curley traced the propaganda efforts to former
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. He cited
a 2003 operations "road map" signed by Rumsfeld,
declaring that psychological operations had been
neglected for too long. Curley also noted that the
current secretary, Robert Gates, has defended
such efforts, including in a speech at Kansas State
University in 2007.

"But does America need to resort to al-Qaida
tactics?" Curley said. "Should the U.S. government
be running Web sites that appear to be independent
news organizations?" Should the military be planting
stories in foreign newspapers? Should the United
States be trying to influence public opinion through
subterfuge, both here and abroad?"

He also said the Bush administration had stripped
hundreds of people, including reporters, of their human
rights. He noted that when an Iraqi judicial panel
reviewed the evidence gathered by the military against
Hussein, the AP photographer, it ordered his release.
He declined in an interview to say who said AP could
be "ruined" for sticking to its principles, but "I knew
that they were angry."

"This is how you improve the standing of America
around the world, by taking the universal human
rights we enjoy as Americans and ensuring them
for everyone," Curley said in his speech.

Both the award Curley received at the University
of Kansas and its journalism school are named for
White, who was publisher of the Emporia Gazette
until 1944. A Pulitzer Prize winning editorial writer,
White's commentary and friendships with prominent
Americans made him a national figure.

"There's no doubt that White would have been
angered by the last eight years," Curley said.
"The right to access information and the ability
to know the source of that information were diminished."

___

Associated Press writer John Milburn also contributed
to this report.