Friday 2 December 2005

Paid News Scandal Widens; CIA Said To Run Network Of "Blue Hole" Newspapers

Detainees Forced To Work As Copy Editors Or Write Stories In Isolation; Old Typewriters With No Wite-Out Used

Following yesterday's screeching news that the Pentagon has awarded a contract to a public relations firm to plant news stories in Iraqi newspapers, and the White House confusing materials that allowed President Bush to give one of this faux news stories as his "National Strategy for Victory In Iraq", The Garlic learned this morning the CIA has maintained a covert and secret network of "Blue Holes", or newspapers, run by detainees in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

Last month, the Washington Post uncovered that the CIA was running a secret, "Black Hole" prison system for captured terrorists.

The high-level government official, who doesn't have the approval to speak on record, indicated that, at times, detainees are moved from the "Black Holes" to the "Blue Holes". Typically, the source indicated, this is based on either the intellect of the prisoner, combined with his or her involvement in terror or level of crime, and, at other times, it is considered "a form of psychological torture to have these people write news copy praising American and the Iraq war effort".

These "Blue Hole" newspapers are said to be in Iraqi, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Romania, a site that was formerly in East Germany and up to three, or four other locations in provinces of the former Soviet Union.

'Conditions", said the government official, " in the blue holes are, generally, alittle better then the secret prisons, but they aren't someplace you or I would want to spend any time in".

After being captured, prisoners that are sent to the "Blue Holes" are indoctrinated, forced to read newspapers, books on newspapers and watching movies for days and nights on-end without sleep, such as 'His Girl Friday', 'Deadline USA',
'Ace in the Hole' (also known as 'The Big Carnival'), 'Meet John Doe', 'Parallax View' and others.

Detainees are said to then be forced into positions that many are not qualified for, yet expected to produce favorable results.

"At times, some of these people are put in isolation cells and forced to write or edit the news stories there, with no resources like a style book or, even a dictionary".

The equipment in these "Blue Holes" are, at best, antiquated. Detainees write with old, manual typewriters and, until a level of trust is developed, Wite-Out is withheld, meaning the prisoners are forced to rewrite stories hundreds of times before they are error-free.

There are unconfirmed rumors that Judith Miller, the former New York Times reporter who was jailed for 85-days in the CIA Leak Case, may have spent some of her prison time working in one of the "Blue Holes".

The White House had no comment on the news of the secret CIA newspaper, as the President's staff is still busy untangling the snafu that occurred yesterday.

When leaving to give his speech at the Naval Academy, President Bush was given the wrong folder, the "National Strategy for Victory In Iraq", that was actually intended for the 'Paid News" program run by the Lincoln Group, a Washington, D.C. public relations firm hired by the Pentagon. Lincoln has been writing, and translating into Arabic, news stories written by the U.S. Military and planting them in Iraqi newspapers.

As President Bush delivered the "National Strategy for Victory In Iraq", to a live audience, as well as the speech being carried by cable news outlets, the President alluded that anyone could "download the document from www.whitehouse.gov".

In Iraq, the Al Sabah newspaper ended up printing as a news story what was supposed to be the President's speech, a critical diatribe against the Democratic Party for "undermining the war effort" and directly personal attacks against Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)

A spokesperson for the Central Intelligence Agency would neither confirm or deny if the CIA was running "Blue Hole" newspapers, indicating that, if they were, "that would be classified information" and, if they are not, "then there's nothing to comment on".

Washington Post reporter and author Bob Woodward said that he's known of the CIA "just about my whole life", but only recently admitted that knowledge to his colleagues and editor.