'War on terror' being deleted from lexicon

WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- A tiff is surfacing between the Pentagon and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget over whether excising phrases such "global war on terror" was ordered.

In a memo distributed to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's Office of Security Review said "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'long war' or 'global war on terror'. Please use 'overseas contingency operation,'" The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The memo said the directive came from the OMB, the executive branch agency that reviews public testimony of administration officials before it is delivered.

OMB spokesman Kenneth Baer says there was no directive.

"There was no memo, no guidance," Baer said Tuesday. "This is the opinion of a career civil servant."

The Pentagon e-mail distributed Monday advised Pentagon personnel to "please pass this onto your speechwriters and try to catch this change before statements make it to OMB."

Baer told the Post, "I have no reason to believe that (the phrase 'global war on terror') would be stricken" from future congressional testimony.

Former President George W. Bush adopted the phrase soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States to help embody the breadth of the threat it perceived and the military operations needed to confront it.