More Propaganda, Ahoy

Ever wonder what happened to the Office of Strategic Influence? Well, apparently it just got a new name: the Office of Global Communications...

The Bush Administration is to launch a multimillion-dollar PR blitz against Saddam Hussein, using advertising techniques to persuade crucial target groups that the Iraqi leader must be ousted.

The campaign will consist of dossiers of evidence detailing Saddam’s breaches of UN resolutions, and will be launched this week at American and foreign audiences, particularly in Arab nations sceptical of US policy in the region.

The White House is aware that it lacks substantial new intelligence on Saddam’s nuclear programme or evidence directly linking Baghdad to the September 11 attacks. But it will build on the contents of President’s Bush’s speech made to the UN General Assembly last week, in which he listed Saddam’s violations of UN resolutions.

The campaign, which will initially receive over $200 million (£130 million), will be overseen by the Office of Global Communications, whose existence will not be formally announced until next month.

At a certain level, you have to look at all these recent machinations as being entirely comical. I mean, the Bush administration is basically saying - to our face, even - that they're going to hit the public with propaganda until they support an attack on Iraq. Take, for example, today's offering.