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Strategic Influence Office Shut Down
Wednesday, February 27, 2002
By Matt Kelley
Associated Press Writer

Rumsfeld said he met Tuesday morning with Feith, and the undersecretary said he decided to close the office.

WASHINGTON -- AP
The Pentagon has shut down a short-lived office that reportedly considered planting false news stories abroad in support of the U.S. war on terrorism.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld denied Tuesday that the Office of Strategic Influence would have spread misinformation. It was closed, he said, because the criticism had made its job impossible.

"The office has clearly been so damaged that it's pretty clear to me that it could not function effectively," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon news briefing.

The Defense Department created the office after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rumsfeld said it was designed to help get out the United States' side of the story to counter views of opponents such as the Taliban, now-ousted rulers of Afghanistan, and the al-Qaida terrorist network sheltered by the Taliban.

Last week, reports surfaced that the office had circulated classified proposals to spread information through foreign journalists and the Internet to further the U.S. war against terrorism.

Critics welcomed the office's demise.
(More: The Tallahassee Democrat News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

He-he-he...

And of course you know none of this is true -- right?

Dan