Last Updated: 2:34am GMT 02/11/2007
Telegraph
Donald Rumsfeld, the former United States defence secretary, tried to maintain an atmosphere of fear in America as part of the Iraq war propaganda campaign, a series of leaked memos has shown.
One memo, written in April 2006, contained a list of instructions to Pentagon staff including "Keep elevating the threat" and "Talk about Somalia, the Philippines etc. Make the American people realise they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists".
Another said "link Iraq to Iran. Iran is the concern of the American people, and if we fail in Iraq, it will advantage Iran".
He also urged staff to produce "bumper sticker statements" to rally the public around the war.
The memos, written between 2002 until shortly after his resignation in 2006, were leaked by undisclosed sources to the Washington Post...
The newspaper reported that his emails were so numerous they were called "snowflakes".
He would send between 20 and 60 a day, often instructing his team to refute negative news stories in the media.
One note will please Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
It said: "We are getting run out of Central Asia by the Russians. They are doing a considerably better job at bullying those countries than the US is doing to counter their bullying."
Rumsfeld also managed belatedly to embarrass Bush administration's attempts to win hearts and minds in the Arab world.
In one memo he said: “Too often Muslims are against physical labour” because oil wealth had detached them from “the reality of work”...
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