The Bush administration is facing a new furor involving the war in Iraq that has prompted the Pentagon to temporarily suspend a secret operation to release propaganda favoring the war effort.

The New York Times reported last week on a covert program to train scores of retired military officers as media manipulators to "sell" the Iraq war to the American public. The Pentagon recruited the officers and gave them talking points and even special briefings by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to feed biased information to the networks and cable channels, the Times reported.

Several days after the story was published, the Department of Defense suspended the program pending further review according to a statement by Robert Hastings, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

The newspaper said the group of retired admirals, generals and colonels were presented by the media as "military analysts" because their long careers in the armed services made them uniquely qualified to give authoritative judgments about military matters. But the media were never told of the Pentagon relationships that the administration used to rebut war critics, the newspaper wrote.

In addition to analyst fees up to $1,000 or more per appearance paid by the media outlets, many retired officers had financial ties to defense contractors who competed for billions of dollars in war spending. The media and viewers seldom knew of the conflict of interests.

According to the Times, select groups of retired officers were given inside information on war operations and often were flown on "fact-finding" trips. On one trip to Iraq, two of the analysts were the chief executive officer and vice president of a new military firm, WVC3, which was seeking contracts worth tens of millions to supply body armor and counterintelligence services in Iraq.

Reaction to the Times article varies from "shock" to a "ho-hum" attitude from interviews conducted by "The News Hour" on PBS, including one view that Americans were "duped" by the Bush administration, said John Stauber of the Center for Media and Democracy.

"What happened here was a psych-ops campaign, an incredible propaganda campaign," said Stauber who said at least 75 former officers, most of them now lobbyists or consultants to military contractors, were inserted into the major media even before the war was launched. Their job was to manage the news and media coverage of the war to influence public opinion.

The program began in 2002 when the Pentagon came under fire for operating the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, and continues today, Stauber added. He also noted various laws dating back to the 1920s prohibit such activities.

"In my opinion, this war could never have been sold if it were not for this sophisticated propaganda campaign," he said, calling for a congressional investigation.

On the same PBS program, a former ABC television correspondent at the Pentagon said he "wasn't surprised" by the report. Robert Zelnick, now a university professor, said retired officers weren't sought out by the media for their neutrality on issues, but because they were well informed.

Zelnick said retired officers often kept close contact with Pentagon colleagues, both professionally and socially. He said after a lifetime of military service it's only natural for them to become consultants and analysts, but any business connections should be disclosed.

He also said it was the media's job to "weed out" any overly biased analysts who presented dubious information.

With 70 percent of the American public now saying the war in Iraq was a mistake, the Times reported that the Pentagon is hiring consultants to evaluate the effectiveness of its public relations program.

If Americans feel bamboozled over the Bush administration citing weapons of mass destruction as the major cause for the war in Iraq, they may have more reasons to distrust the government as more details of this story are reported. Read the story at nytimes.com

Carthage resident John D. Foster, former editor of the Panola Watchman, is a regular contributor to the Saturday Forum. Email: jandmfoster@yahoo.com.