In "his most specific comments thus far about the information operations [3] program," U.S. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld [4] told interviewer Charlie Rose [5] that his reaction to reports that the Lincoln Group [6] paid Iraqi newspapers to run Pentagon-written stories [7] was, "Gee, that's not what we ought to be doing." Rumsfeld said "he had not been initially aware of the clandestine program [8], and ordered it shut down" after the Los Angeles Times report. However, "Army Gen. George W. Casey [9], the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said during a Dec. 16 news conference -- more than two weeks after the existence of the operation was revealed -- that it had not been shut down." An anonymous source told the LA Times that "the program in Iraq was still active as of a week ago." In a separate talk [10], Rumsfeld said negative media coverage of the Iraq propaganda [11] has a "chilling effect" on U.S. troops' "innovation" to win hearts and minds.