http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6573369&cKey=1143166908000WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will review whether it is proper for the military to pay news organisations to publish positive stories secretly written by U.S. forces, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday.
During a briefing, Rumsfeld refused to give his opinion on the propriety of the practice.
Asked if he agreed with comments by Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the military should disclose when it pays for a story, Rumsfeld said, "No, I said we would take it under advisement and take a look at it. I'm not going to make a judgement off the top of my head."
Following a report in the Los Angeles Times in November, the U.S. military acknowledged that troops in an "information operations" task force were writing articles with positive messages about the mission in Iraq that were translated into Arabic and planted in Iraqi newspapers in return for money.
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