US army ropes in Hollywood director for propaganda war

GONE are the easel and chart, the dusty schoolroom blackboard, the solitary television and the bungalow-sized video player with which General 'Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf showed fuzzy images of smart-bomb raids during the 1991 Gulf War.

This time round, in scenes reminiscent of the political satire Wag The Dog, the media armoury of the US generals will include five 50-inch plasma screens and two 70-inch projectors.

By contrast, President Saddam Hussein's generals are likely to present their updates at a very low-tech table in front of their national flag.

Recognising that when you're bombing Baghdad you need to look good in Boston, the Pentagon has enlisted Hollywood to help present its daily briefings to the world.

Fresh from the latest Michael Douglas film, George Allison, one of Tinseltown's top art directors has been hired to create a $200,000 set for General Tommy Franks and other American commanders to give daily updates.

President Bush's war cabinet is determined to win the battle for the hearts and minds of the world's TV viewers and is not afraid to use satellite television as a weapon of mass destruction.

On a set that will become instantly recognisable, generals will present updates from two podiums at the front of a stage which will be adorned with ready-to-show maps, graphics and videos of action.

Behind them will be a soft-focus elongated map of the globe, as if to suggest that the world is united behind them.

Allison, 43, who has designed White House backdrops for President Bush and worked with the illusionist David Blaine, has been flown into the US Central Command base in Qatar as part of a $1m conversion of a storage hangar into a hi-tech hub for the international media.

Allison's credits include the set for ABC's Good Morning America as well as Hollywood productions for MGM and Disney such as the Kirk and Michael Douglas film, It Runs in the Family, due for release next month.

His work in Qatar reflects the Pentagon's realisation that it needs to look good on prime-time television, especially given public disquiet about the war, which is being led by Hollywood personalities such as Martin Sheen, Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon.

Allison said: "This is about bringing the level of technology up from the flipchart to the modern age. It is trying to send a clear message about the technology and our use of it."

That sounds just like the Hollywood producer and the Washington spin doctor in Wag The Dog. They could make you believe anything.

It's also a bit like what a henchman of Richard Nixon once declared: "grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow."