The Office of Strategic Influence started as the brainchild of the Defense Department and ended as an embarrassment for the Bush administration--all within a matter of months.

The Pentagon planned to use the office to feed false reports to foreign journalists. By doing so, the government hoped to influence public sentiment abroad among allies and enemies alike. But when the story broke in mid-February 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went on NBC's "Meet the Press" to deny accusations about misinforming the foreign press.

"The Pentagon does not lie to the American people. Nor does it lie to foreign audiences.

U.S. Constitution

The Department of Defense was to fund the Office of Strategic Influence from the emergency $10 billion Congress provided in October to fight the war on terrorism.

The office closed in late March 2002 because of a backlash from American citizens and the media. "The problem is that misleading information comes back to the United States," said Seth Amgott,in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Amgott, a spokesman for the government watchdog agency Common Cause, added that it was a Lebanese newspaper that broke the Iran Contra story. "Any misleading news reports released abroad result in false propaganda for American citizens too."

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