House fails to kill Pentagon's foreign websites

• California Republican said the sites were poorly managed
• GAO report said the sites are not well coordinated with other efforts
• Pentagon propaganda efforts often lack clear measures of effectiveness

WASHINGTON -- The House has failed to kill funding for websites the Pentagon uses to try to influence foreign audiences, an initiative criticized in a recent undisclosed government report.

Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Calif., introduced a measure that would have slashed $19.7 million in funding for the Trans Regional Web Initiative. The legislation failed by a vote of 238-185.

The 10 websites are run by U.S. Special Operations Command and are intended to "highlight the positive aspects of region and host nation counterterrorism efforts that as well as highlighting the negative aspects of adversaries actions'," according to a report on Pentagon propaganda by the Government Accountability Office.

The report, completed in April, was circulated only to select members of Congress and government agencies. USA TODAY obtained a copy. The report concluded the websites are not well coordinated with such government agencies as the State Department, or even the Pentagon's other propaganda programs.

Denham believes the websites are too costly, questions their effectiveness and the Pentagon's ability to measure their performance, according to his press secretary, Jordan Langdon.

"In a budget environment where the Department of Defense is reducing the size of the force, delaying critical training, canceling deployments and furloughing civilian staff, there is no justification for operating news websites of dubious utility," Langdon said in an e-mail. "To put $20 million in perspective, it is equivalent to the amount of money saved by the Army National Guard when it reduced its end strength by 2,000 soldiers."

The automatic budget-cutting process known as sequestration has forced the Pentagon to trim $45 billion from its budget this year. That has resulted in furloughs of civilian employees, cancellation of training missions and delayed maintenance. The result is decreased readiness to fight, according to Pentagon leaders, including Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Pentagon spending on propaganda programs mushroomed in the middle of the last decade, coinciding with surge in troops and resources sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 2005, the Pentagon has spent hundreds of million of dollars on what it refers to as Military Information Support Operations (MISO). These propaganda efforts include websites, leaflets and broadcasts intended to change foreigners' "attitudes and behaviors in support of U.S. Government" objectives, according to the GAO.

Some of them, such as the Trans Regional Web Initiative, disclose the U.S. military as the source, although discreetly. Some broadcasts in Afghanistan, on the other hand, are silent about their U.S. funding.

The GAO determined that the Pentagon had "taken some steps to coordinate the websites with some State Department regional bureaus." But some State Department Public Diplomacy officials and senior embassy officials told investigators "that such websites have the potential to unintentionally skew U.S. policy positions or be out of step with U.S. government efforts in a particular country."

Denham had hoped to kill the program so that the Pentagon "would be able to more effectively resource its core mission: building a force that can fight and win our nation's wars," Langdon said.