Manipulation of the Blogging World on Iraq?

Juan Cole brings us a piece from Martini Republic on blog trolling and the Iraq war.

Maybe you�ve wondered: What kind of operations does the U.S. Government conduct in the line of pumping �favorable� propaganda regarding Iraq?

And, more importantly, since this is such an unpopular War: Would the runaway Republican Government dare conduct below-board ops and psy-ops not just in Iraq, but right here in the U.S?
.......[snip]........
All kinds of blogs have attracted suspicion of being bloated beyond their due influence by blog trolling efforts here in the US. IraqTheModel is one of these.
Rightwingers have been chortling with glee all week that two of three brothers who write IraqTheModel from Baghdad are on their "Spirit of America" tour in the U.S., garnering an audience with the President, Wolfowitz, New York, the Wall Street Journal, and today with emphatic war supporter RogerLSimon. Simon, a friend of Michael Ledeen--will play host the brothers today, as of this posting right in Simon�s own home. (Simon, has, in fact, linked to the bloggers at IraqTheModel 21 times since July�and rightwing extremist Little Green Footballs� Charles Johnson has mentioned the brother�s blog 150 times, both men winning the brothers thousands of readers).

Though the brothers have already met many rightwing luminaries, their arrival in the land of the free and the home of the brave will not expose them to many questions from objective, disinterested mainstream media.


There are certainly a few questions worth asking them.


It would be worthwhile to hear from the brothers, for instance, the story on how they decided to alight on a company near Abilene, Texas as their Internet Service Provider when they commenced their blog, six months after the initial "fall" of Baghdad.

MSM might also be able to confirm if the blog was facilitated in any way by the 490th Army Civil Reserve Unit, also based in Abilene,TX, which serviced Baghdad in 2003 at the same time the brothers started the blog.

The U.S. Government, as an NPR commentator recently wrote to Martini Republic, can be �one hell of a press agent.� Does the Government, or people closely connected to Pentagon strategists, have a shadow role in promoting this particular �Spirit of America� tour? Why is the Wall Street Journal so interested in these particular Iraqi bloggers, and not, say, Riverbend?

Other questions are not likely to be addressed by the blogging bros this weekend:

--Were these bloggers prompted by invasion forces to start their blog?

--Who was their contact for their unlikely Abiline, Texas domain host?

--Are the brothers now or have they ever been in any kind of American pay (beyond the largesse of their rightwing PayPal contributors)?

--And most importantly: why are We, the People of the United States, being invited (by our President, no less!) to care so much about what these particular brothers think, when polls out of Iraq indicate that their blog has historically run far, far outside of Iraqi mainstream thinking?

I have no doubt that representatives of the neo-cons in the administration would use such tactics. Most of what comes out of this administration can only be described as propaganda. I suggest you read Juan Coles post for some good insight on the dangers.