Exhibit 855

Department of Defense - Retired Military Officers as Media Analysts, B-316443

Exhibit 855 · Legal opinion

Department of Defense - Retired Military Officers as Media Analysts, B-316443

Clearly, DOD attempted to favorably influence public opinion with respect to the Administration's war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan through the RMOs.

Legal opinion required by Pub. L. 110-417 sec. 1056. GAO finds DOD attempted to favorably influence public opinion on war policy through the analysts, but finds no evidence that DOD concealed its role, contracted with or paid the analysts for positive commentary, so the publicity-or-propaganda prohibition was not violated. Footnote 3 records that the DOD IG withdrew its January 2009 report on 5 May 2009 because its method would not reasonably yield evidence about financial advantage.

Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office
Date: 21 July 2009
Quoted from: Opinion, p. 2
Grade: Primary record
Document: https://www.gao.gov/products/b-316443
Archived: https://web.archive.org/web/2020/https://www.gao.gov/assets/b-316443.pdf
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding POL-7.7: Primary record GAO wrote on 21 July 2009 that "Clearly, DOD attempted to favorably influence public opinion with respect to the Administration's war policies in Iraq and Afghanistan through the RMOs," held that the program did not violate the publicity-or-propaganda prohibition, and recorded that the DOD Inspector General withdrew its first report on the program on 5 May 2009.