"The Office of Global Communications, a controversial agency created by President Bush in January, has blossomed into a huge production company, issuing daily scripts on the Iraq war to U.S. spokesmen around the world, auditioning generals to give media briefings and booking administration stars on foreign news shows," the Chicago Tribune's Bob Kemper reports. "The communications office helps devise and coordinate each day's talking points on the war. Civilian and military personnel, for example, are told to refer to the invasion of Iraq as a 'war of liberation.' Iraqi paramilitary forces are to be called 'death squads.'" According to Kemper, "Critics are questioning the veracity of some of the stories being circulated by the office and deriding it as a propaganda arm of the White House." Administration officials rebut the charges, saying they "serves a crucial purpose."
The Tribune reports that OGC chief Tucker Eskew told Washington Foreign Press Center journalists, "Our executive order, insists that we deal with the truth."