US military groomed TV analysts

NEW YORK: Many US military analysts used as commentators on Iraq by television networks have been groomed by the Pentagon, leaving some feeling they were manipulated to report favourably on the Bush administration, The New York Times said in Sunday editions.   

A Times report examining ties between the Bush administration and former senior officers who acted as paid TV analysts said they got private briefings, trips and access to classified intelligence meant to influence their comments.   

“Records and interviews show how the Bush administration has used its control over access and information in an effort to transform the analysts into a kind of media Trojan horse — an instrument intended to shape terrorism coverage from inside the major TV and radio networks,” the newspaper said.   

The Pentagon defended its work, saying analysts were given only accurate information. Many of the commentators also have ties to military contractors who are vested in US war efforts, but those business links are seldom disclosed to viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks on which they appear, the newspaper said.   

President George W Bush has been engaged in a long struggle to halt a drain in public support for the Iraq war and to boost support for his post Sept. 11 war against terrorism. One case cited by the Times was in the summer of 2005, when accusations were rife over human rights violations at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba, where foreign terrorism suspects are held.   

The Times said administration communications officials flew a group of retired military officers to the camp on a jet normally used by Vice-President Dick Cheney to give their side of the case. Many in the group have appeared as commentators on the TV networks.

The Times quoted Robert Bevelacqua, a former Fox News analyst, as saying, “It was the Bush administration saying, ‘’We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you.”

Kenneth Allard, a former NBC military analyst, told the Times the campaign amounted to a “coherent, active,” sophisticated information operation. As the situation in Iraq deteriorated, he saw a gap between what analysts were told in private briefings and what subsequently was revealed in inquiries and books. “Night and day,” he told the Times. “I felt we’d been hosed.”

The Times said it based much of its report on 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts and records it secured by suing the Defence Department and called it “an extensive Pentagon talking points operation.” Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman defended the work with military analysts, saying they were given only factual information about the war.