Bush admin found involved in illegal 'covert propaganda'; what can be the penalty?

Great Debates
1

Bush administration found involved in illegal 'covert propaganda’
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051001/pl_afp/usmediapropaganda_051001201306;_ylt=ApTE68x0pkzf4knT6Ce9V.kKO7gF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--

Previous threads on the subject:

My primary question here is, what penalties can/should there be for this? The first thread from the list above is one I previously started referring to a new bill, but asked what the existing penalties there are for covert propaganda. The thread didn’t get very far, though. And the new article is also no help.

2

Make them give $1M to John Stewart to make counter-ads.

3

I think the issue is using government funds for political purposes. I’m not sure if this is a criminal offense. Maybe a violation of laws regarding how government funds are spent?

4

Here’s a NYTimes article about it (registration required) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/01/politics/01educ.html?oref=login that also makes no mention of any penalities.

The article ends with

which sounds like a reference to S.266 : “A bill to stop taxpayer funded Government propaganda”, discussed a bit in the first previous thread I linked to in the OP.

5

Well, there can’t be any penalties levied, legally, on the “Administration” as such. Maybe particular officials could be indicted. Impeaching the president, of course, is a political, not a legal decision, and one Congress as now constituted will never make. If the Dems gain strength in 2006 – then they still won’t do it, because then we would have President . . . I can’t even type it! :eek:

6

Here’s the law: Public Law 108-7. Section 626 (search for propaganda). It’s a really huge appropriations bill so watch out.

Good luck trying to figure out what the penalties are.

7

Thanks SmackFu. It’ll be some time before I get a chance to search that, though.

8

Well, I read all the parts that mention ‘propaganda’, and it just seems to say that using the money for propaganda is prohibited, but makes no mention of any penalties for doing so.

9

Yeah, I seriously doubt this would get up to the level of president. I’d like to see whoever did this stuff get punished, though. It’s deceptive and immoral, and it galls me that my tax money was used for it.

10

I’m not clear from the article when the violation occured. It appears that the report of those ads came out recently, but if the ads were produced before the antipropaganda law went into effect, I’m not sure that any law was violated.

However, if the ads were produced while the antipropaganda law was in effect, it would be a violation of the Antideficiency Act. 31 USC 1350 says that a government official who knowingly and willfully spent funds on something for which the Congress has prohibited expenditures is subject to criminal penalties, namely fines up to $5,000 and up to 2 years in the slammer.