Glenn Greenwald and others (NOT NBC, CNN and the rest) have been wonderful in covering the Military Analyst Propaganda Program, so I hardly mean to steal their thunder.
It is, however worth passing on Greenwald's latest scoop in the case. Karl Rove looks to have been involved in major decisions on how to use these generals to toe the party line on "progress" in Iraq:
On April 30, 2008 -- ten days after David Barstow's "military analyst" story was first published in the New York Times -- The Raw Story's Eric Brewer, at the daily White House briefing with Dana Perino, became the first reporter to ask the White House about it and, specifically, whether White House officials had any involvement with, or were aware of, the DoD's program.
...
In reply to Brewer's question -- "did the White House know about and approve of this operation?" -- Perino gave an utterly non-responsive and rather incoherent answer, during which she said that she "do[esn't] think that that should be against the law" ...
[A]s Perino was walking out, she replied after Brewer asked the question the second time ("Did the White House know about the operation?") by saying: "I just said: no."
But of course, Perino - and by extension, the White House - is lying. The recent document dump on this matter by the DOD contains the following wonderful nuggets:
"we (you) wont (sic) find yourself having to explain why it didn't happen after he briefed it to karl (sic) at the weekly meeting":
...
I'd love to see if we could get them [the military analysts] in with potus as well (I think that was submitted to karl and compancy from [Asst. Defense Secretary] dorrance smith last week).
As Greenwald says in closing:
So in the process of discussing how to keep "their" TV military analysts "on message" regarding claims about the Iraq war, they talked about efforts to have both Stephen Hadely and Bush himself speak with the analysts -- proposals that had been discussed with "karl" (which, clearly, in this case, means Rove). That means Perino's denial was false and that the White House had at least some knowledge of and involvement in this propaganda program.
I know the reaction of many here may be to file this under "Big freakin' surprise", but it is important - if only as a matter of principle - to bring this program to light. We've allowed this administration in general and President in particular to engage in a widespread and illegal propaganda program to bolster support for a war they lied us into.
And, like always, Karl Rove was almost certainly at the heart of it.