Coalition Information Center
The Coalition Information Center (CIC) was the Bush administration's "'rapid response' team", "created to wage the propaganda war" against Osama bin Laden, Martha Brant reported in Newsweek, November 12, 2001.
- After the September 11, 2001 attack, Karen P. Hughes, counselor to President George W. Bush, "launched a quick-response war room at the White House to counter the Taliban's anti-American propaganda." [1]
- "When it became apparent that the United States and Britain were not winning the public relations battle in the Middle East, the White House established the Coalition Information Center, with offices in Washington, London and Pakistan, to react in real time to breaking news and present the American side of the conflict to Mideast viewers." [2]
Controlling the Story
"A little-noticed but critical component of the war on terrorism operates beneath lamp-bearing cherubs in a building next door to the White House. There, amid message boards that list upcoming events and clocks that display the time in Washington, London, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Coalition Information Center has a mission nearly as important as winning the war: controlling the story," Judy Keen reported December 18, 2001, in USA Today.
"The public-relations operation stretches from downtown Washington to London, Islamabad and Kabul, where people are stationed to help choreograph foreign reporters' perspectives on the war. 'We've learned that you either start the news wave or you're swamped by it,' says Jim Wilkinson, a White House communications aide who runs the center," Keen wrote.
About CIC
- Three Coalition Information Centers: Washington, DC; London; and Islamabad, Pakistan, working together to "help serve the President and coalition partners in their efforts to communicate to the world about the war on terrorism." [3]
- Washington: Jim Wilkinson
- London: Tucker Eskew, White House Director of Media Affairs
- Pakiston: Greg Jenkins, White House representative
- "The State Department works closely with Al Jazeera and other middle east media outlets. We are working to get as many US officials on these outlets to help tell our story about the war against terrorism." [4]
SourceWatch Resources
External Links
- "Winds of War Sweep Into White House," Associated Press, September 19, 2001.
- Martha Brant, "Bush's New War Room," Newsweek, November 12, 2001.
- Jim Wilkinson, "America At War: The White House," Washington Post, December 10, 2001.
- Judy Keen, "Information ' war room' deploys its own troops," USA Today, December 18, 2001.
- James Carney and John F. Dickerson, "Inside The War Room. Relying on instinct, and trusting his team, George W. Bush unleashed a new kind of war against a new kind of enemy--and faster than you might have guessed," CNN Inside Politics, December 24, 2001.
- John Hughes, "Why America's story needs to be sent overseas," Christian Science Monitor, April 3, 2003.
