Disinformation, pt. 2

Caught for paying Iraqi papers to run PR for the US forces, the military has now unleashed its explanation: we're not as bad as Al Qaeda.

"We don't lie, we don't need to lie, we do empower our operational commanders with the ability to inform the Iraqi public," said US military spokesman Major General Rick Lynch. "What Zarqawi is doing continuously is lying to the Iraqi people, lying to the international community," he said at a press briefing, referring to Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Colonel Barry Johnson, head of the US military's press department, countered that the Iraqi press has traveled a long hard road from total control under Saddam Hussein to the current period characterized by a lethal insurgency. "There's outright intimidation and many murders and other ways of manipulating the press, so it was felt operationally that it was necessary to make sure the facts were out," he said.

Translation:

"Empower our operational commanders with the ability to inform the Iraqi public" = give officers money to pay to plant stories
"it was felt operationally that it was necessary to make sure the facts were out" = we needed to pay to plant stories