Last December, some Democrats and some in the media were up in arms about a Pentagon operation that “paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq.” The Washington Post added:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to the Defense Department's inspector general asking for an investigation into the program and the Lincoln Group contract. Kennedy called it "a devious scheme to place favorable propaganda in Iraqi newspapers."

And Tim Russert brought the issue up on Meet the Press. Well, one nugget from the purported text of the al Qaeda document released today suggests that our wartime media operation hit its target:

3. By undertaking a media campaign against the resistance resulting in weakening its influence inside the country and presenting its work as harmful to the population rather than being beneficial to the population.