Rumsfeld: Pentagons Office of Strategic Influence to be Shut Down

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, February 27, 2002

Rumsfeld: Pentagons Office of Strategic Influence to be Shut Down

The Pentagon will close a new office that reportedly had proposed spreading false information abroad, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

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The Pentagon will close a new office that reportedly had proposed spreading false information abroad, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday.

Rumsfeld denied that the Office of Strategic Influence would have spread misinformation but said news reports and commentary have made it impossible for the agency to do its job.

"While much of the thrust of the criticism and the cartoons and comment has been off the mark," Rumsfeld told reporters, "the office has been damaged so much that it could not operate effectively."

The Defense Department created the office after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rumsfeld said the office was supposed to help get out the United States' side of the story to counter the views of the Taliban and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Last week, reports surfaced that the office had proposed giving false information to foreign journalists as a means of furthering the U.S. war against terrorism.

The New York Times reported that the office, headed by Air Force Brig. Gen. Simon Worden, had begun circulating classified proposals calling for using the Internet and clandestine operations to spread such disinformation.

Rumsfeld said the Pentagon has not spread lies and would never do so in the future. President Bush pledged on Monday that "we'll tell the American people the truth."

The Pentagon will continue trying to get its message across overseas, just not through the Office of Strategic Influence, Rumsfeld said.

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