Office of Strategic Influence

[Nic Name]

The back of the Department of Defense leaflets
shows Osama bin Laden in Western-style dress.

[UT could do better Photoshop.]

Some analysts say the altered photograph will not play well in some parts of the Muslim world, where there is already suspicion of the United States.

Asked whether the leaflet could be used by some to say the United States is willing to doctor or make up things -- as has been alleged about the videotape found in Afghanistan by the United States -- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had not thought about the possibility.

Rumsfeld, speaking at Thursday's Pentagon media briefing, said there was "nothing much" the United States could do about what others might claim about the leaflets.

"The whole premise of bin Laden's activities in the world are premised on lies and the fact that people will say things, like you just said they might say, is true," he said.

Was Rumsfeld fibbing when he said he hadn't thought about the possibility?

Would the OSI lie to the American public?

A new Defense Department office created to try to influence public opinion abroad will not lie to the public or plant disinformation in the foreign or U.S. media, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.

"The Department of Defense, this secretary and the people that work with me tell the American people and the people of the world the truth," Rumsfeld told reporters in Salt Lake City, where he was attending the Winter Olympics.

Both Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney drew distinctions yesterday between lying to the public and engaging in tactical deception on the battlefield, which Cheney called a practice that has "historically been important" in past wars.

Would it be lying or tactical deception for the purpose of maintaining support and funding for the war on terrorism to put out information that bin Laden were still alive and a risk to national security, after the CIA and the DoD knew he was dead?

"Clearly there is nothing more important than our credibility when discussing military matters with the public, media, allies or anyone else," a defense official told United Press International.

The Defense Department's own "Principles of Information" the guiding document for public affairs officers, prohibits censorship or propaganda.

"It is Department of Defense policy to make available timely and accurate information so that the public, the Congress, and the news media may assess and understand the facts about national security and defense strategy," states the document. "Propaganda has no place in DOD public affairs programs."

We'll see. Or maybe, we won't.