Letters to the Editor
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@karrsic Re: Propaganda laws
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There's the "Anti-Lobbying Act" (18 U.S. Code Sec. 1913).
As of yet, in the decades since that law was enacted, no Administration has ever prosecuted itself under the Anti-Lobbying Act.
But that doesn't mean that law has had no effect -- all federal agencies have guidelines and rules to avoid breaking that law, and those guidelines and rules do have *some* effect.
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Another law is the Smith-Mundt Act (22 USC 1461), which prohibits domestic distribution of U.S. government-produced information and/or propaganda which is targeted at foreigners.
But does this apply if the Pengagon was targeting only the USA?
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The annual appropriations bills, which authorize funding of U.S. government agencies, generally contain anti-propaganda restrictions. For instance, from a GAO decision in 2004:
http://gao.gov/decisions/appro/302710.htm
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’s (CMS) use of appropriated funds to pay for the production and distribution of story packages that were not attributed to CMS violated the restriction on using appropriated funds for publicity or propaganda purposes in the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution of 2003, Pub. L. No. 108-7, Div. J, Tit. VI, § 626, 117 Stat. 11, 470 (2003).
http://gao.gov/decisions/appro/302710.htmSo, if a retired general is a "message multiplier" then might he also be, for legal purposes, an "unattributed story package"?
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And there's the issue of whether any contracts were awarded - - or denied - - based not on proper contracting criteris but instead based on good performances or bad performances by the "military analysts".
Remember, according the NYTimes story, the "analysts" were getting briefed not only by intelligence specialists and public information specialists, but also by contracting specialists, and it's hard to imagine a legitimate reason for that.
*** 5 ***
And I'm sure there are other legal issues.