Robert L. Maginnis

Robert L. Maginnis was a member of the Pentagon military analyst program and a Fox News analyst who's also appeared on MSNBC. Maginnis "works in the Pentagon for a military contractor," BCP International Ltd

According to the New York Times, "Maginnis, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who ... attended the same (Iraq pre-invasion) briefing and recalled feeling 'very disappointed' after being shown satellite photographs purporting to show bunkers associated with a hidden weapons program. Mr. Maginnis said he concluded that the analysts were being 'manipulated' to convey a false sense of certainty about the evidence of the weapons. Yet he and Mr. Bevelacqua and the other analysts who attended the briefing did not share any misgivings with the American public."

The Pentagon's military analyst program
In April 2008 documents obtained by New York Times reporter David Barstow revealed that Maginnis had been recruited as one of over 75 retired military officers involved in the Pentagon military analyst program. Participants appeared on television and radio news shows as military analysts, and/or penned newspaper op/ed columns. The program was launched in early 2002 by then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria Clarke. The idea was to recruit "key influentials" to help sell a wary public on "a possible Iraq invasion."

Quotes
On Fox's "On the Record" show of January 30, 2003, Maginnis "responded to a Gallup poll indicating that a majority of Americans said 'they expected thousands of deaths' from the war, claiming that while 'we can't dismiss' the possibility that thousands of deaths would occur, 'the reality is that we're not going to see that.'"

SourceWatch resources

 * Covert propaganda
 * Donald H. Rumsfeld
 * Pentagon military analyst program
 * Psyops
 * U.S. Department of Defense
 * Victoria Clarke