When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, 570-750 journalists were 'embedded' with military units. When asked why, Lt. Col. Rick Long of the US Marine Corps stated: 'Frankly, our job is to win the war. Part of that is information warfare. So we are going to attempt to dominate the information environment.' Reporters signed contracts promising not to report compromising information. 90% of embedded articles used soldiers as sources. The program emphasized military successes while blocking coverage of Iraqi civilian casualties. Additionally, the Pentagon secretly paid Iraqi media to publish pro-US articles, and paid Bell Pottinger for fake news content.