Lincoln Group [3], the PR firm that covertly placed [4] U.S. military-written stories in Iraqi newspapers and has been called "amateurish" by former associates, has won a new two-year, $6.2 million Pentagon contract. Additional requests from Washington DC could increase the value of the contract up to $20 million total. The work includes establishing "a unit of 12-18 communicators to support military PR efforts in Iraq and throughout the Middle East from media training to pitching stories and providing content for government-backed news sites." The Rendon Group [5] previously handled similar work for the U.S.-led military force in Iraq [6]. The request for proposals for the new contract "cited the emboldened insurgency bent on civil war as a key obstacle to the U.S. force's military and communications mission in Iraq." U.S. Senator Robert Menendez [7] has introduced an amendment to halt the PR blitz, according to O'Dwyer's.