Lying not an option

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon will close a new office that reportedly has proposed spreading false information abroad, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday. \nRumsfeld denied that the Office of Strategic Influence would have spread misinformation but said news reports and commentary have made it impossible for the agency to do its job. \n"While much of the thrust of the criticism and the cartoons and comment has been off the mark," Rumsfeld told reporters, "the office has been damaged so much that it could not operate effectively." \nThe Defense Department created the office after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Rumsfeld said the office was supposed to help get the United States' side of the story out to counter the views of opponents such as the Taliban and the al Qaeda terrorist network. \nLast week, reports surfaced that the office had proposed giving false information to foreign journalists as a means of furthering the U.S. war against terrorism. \nThe New York Times reported that the office, headed by Air Force Brig. Gen. Simon P. Worden, had begun circulating classified proposals calling for using the Internet and clandestine operations to spread such misinformation. \nRumsfeld said the Pentagon has not spread lies and would never do so in the future. President Bush pledged Monday that "we'll tell the American people the truth." \nThe Pentagon will continue trying to get its message across overseas, Rumsfeld said. \n"The office is done. What do you want, blood?" he asked at a Pentagon news conference. \nRumsfeld said last week that the Pentagon might engage in what he called strategic or tactical deception, as it has in the past.