-Caveat Lector-
PR makes the war grow fonder
By Tom Flocco
� 1999 WorldNetDaily.com
Dec. 28, 1999
Since President Clinton has used his war powers to order U.S. men and
women into harm's way under controversial circumstances, Americans may
have interest in whether current presidential candidates would permit
foreign infusion of cash to influence public opinion regarding future
decisions to order military action.
Moreover, in light of findings receiving sparse media coverage during
the Gulf War in 1990-91, U.S. citizens might specifically want to hear
presidential candidate George W. Bush weigh in on
the subject.
MANUFACTURING CONSENT
According to an article by 20-year public relations expert Jack O'Dwyer
("Hill & Knowlton leads PR charge in behalf of Kuwaiti cause," published
in the January 1991 issue of O'Dwyer's PR Services Report) the
government of Kuwait funded as many as 20 public relations, law and
lobby firms in its campaign to mobilize U.S. opinion and force against
Saddam Hussein. And according to O'Dwyer's Foreign Agents Registration
Act Report from October 1991, the Hill & Knowlton PR firm served as the
mastermind for the Kuwaiti campaign.
H&K's activities alone could have been considered the largest
foreign-funded publicity operation ever designed to manipulate American
public opinion -- $11.9 million funneled to Citizens for a Free Kuwait
(CFK) by the Kuwaiti government. Even the controversial pre-invasion
statements at a meeting with Saddam by U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, April
Glaspie, expressing sympathy toward Iraq while pointing out that the
president himself "had his administration reject trade sanctions" might
have to take a back seat regarding war encouragement.
Money, after all, does a lot of talking.
According to John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, writing in the May-June
1996 edition of Blazing Tattles, the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration
Act should have exposed the use of foreign cash for propaganda purposes
to the American people; however, the Bush Justice Department chose not
to enforce the foreign-agents law. Nine days after Iraq initiated the
Gulf War, the Kuwaiti government contracted Hill & Knowlton to represent
CFK.
The January 1991 issue of O'Dwyer's FARA Report indicates that the Bush
administration was closely tied to the Kuwaiti plan to manipulate and
sway U.S. public opinion toward sending troops into the Gulf. That issue
of O'Dwyer's, published before the fighting began, reported that "Craig
L. Fuller, chief of staff to Bush when he was vice president, has been
on the Kuwaiti account at Hill & Knowlton since the first day. He and
(Bob) Dilenschneider at one point made a trip to Saudi Arabia, observing
the production of some 20 videotapes. ..."
Voters might want information regarding Craig Fuller's role and
relationship to George W. Bush regarding meetings and/or communications
with President Bush concerning the funding of the foreign public
relations campaign, since both Fuller and George W. had served the
president as key confidants. USA Today reported on Sept. 8, 1998, that
"George W. Bush was an advisor to (his father) President George H.W.
Bush from 1987 to 1992." Given that, it seems only natural that at some
point during the current election cycle, the electorate may want to know
if a George W. Bush presidential administration would allow foreign
entities to infuse cash into the U.S. to achieve certain military ends
-- as apparently happened during his father's administration.
SELLING A WAR
For the Gulf War, according to Arthur E. Rowse in his May 1991 piece in
The Progressive, "Flacking for the Emir," the Rendon Group received a
retainer of $100,000 per month for media work and Neill & Co. received
$50,000 per month for lobbying Congress. As for Hill & Knowlton,
according to O'Dwyer, H&K vice-chairman Frank Mankiewicz, former press
secretary and advisor to Robert F. Kennedy and George McGovern, arranged
hundreds of meetings, briefings, calls and mailings directed toward the
editors of daily newspapers and other media outlets.
O'Dwyer was awed by the rapid and expansive work of H&K on behalf of
Citizens for a Free Kuwait. He noted in his January 1991 FARA Report
that "Hill & Knowlton ... has assumed a role in world affairs
unprecedented for a PR firm. H&K has employed a stunning variety of
opinion-forming devices and techniques to help keep U.S. opinion on the
side of the Kuwaitis. ... The techniques range from full-scale press
conferences showing torture and other abuses by the Iraqis to the
distribution of tens of thousands of 'Free Kuwait' T-shirts and bumper
stickers at college campuses across the U.S."
Rowse also reported that U.S. Department of Justice documents show that
fully 119 H&K executives in 12 offices across the U.S. were overseeing
the Kuwait PR effort in the U.S., and the firm's report to the Justice
Department listed activities which included arranging media interviews
for visiting Kuwaitis and observances such as National Free Kuwait Day,
National Prayer Day For Kuwait and National Student Information Day.
Also listed were public rallies organized by H&K along with releasing
hostage letters to the media, distributing news releases and information
kits, contacting politicians at all levels and even producing a nightly
radio show in Arabic from Saudi Arabia.
Hill & Knowlton produced dozens of "video news releases" at a cost of
well over half a million dollars which resulted in tens of millions of
dollars worth of free air time as TV news directors broadcast them,
while rarely (if ever) noting the Kuwaiti public relations firm as the
source of the footage.
As Martin A. Lee and Norman Solomon note in their book, "Unreliable
Sources: A Guide to Detecting Bias in New Media," U.S. citizens assumed
they were watching American-reported journalism -- not the efforts of
Bush administration advisors and Kuwaiti-hired American PR firms.
John R. MacArthur's book, "Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in
the Gulf War," reported that a secret Pentagon memo outlined a plan to
constrain and control journalists. A massive babysitting operation would
ensure that no truly independent or uncensored reporting reached back to
the U.S. public. "News media representatives will be escorted at all
times," the memo stated. "Repeat, at all times."
After the Gulf War ended, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced
an Emmy award-winning TV documentary concerning Kuwait's use of cash to
promote military action entitled, "To Sell a War." The show featured an
interview with H&K-contracted pollster, Wirthlin Group executive Dee
Alsop, who stated on camera that Wirthlin's job was "to identify the
messages that really resonate emotionally with the American people."
Both Arthur Rowse and Jack O'Dwyer reported in May and October of 1991
in previously cited articles immediately following the war that Sam
Zakhem, a former U.S. ambassador to the oil-rich gulf state of Bahrain,
funneled another $7.7 million in advertising and lobbying dollars
through two front groups: Coalition for Americans at Risk (a former
front group for the contras in Nicaragua) and Freedom Task Force. Both
also reported that Coalition for Americans at Risk prepared and placed
TV and newspaper ads and had 50 speakers available for pro-war rallies
and publicity events; however, neither related the source of the money
laundered through the two organizations.
BEATING AROUND THE BUSH
During the time period surrounding the Gulf War, George W. Bush had dual
roles as presidential advisor and also oil executive/director of Harken
Energy Corporation, where it was reported in the company's proxy
statement filed with the SEC and various news sources that he was
Harken's second largest non-institutional shareholder. (President Bush's
GOP "Team 100" contributors, political acquaintances and friends also
maintained substantial positions in Harken.)
George W.'s dual-role is important because Harken had acquired
potentially lucrative drilling rights to offshore oil and gas reserves
in Bahrain, a small Arab island emirate off the coast of Saudi Arabia
and about 200 miles southeast of Kuwait, just seven months prior to the
Iraqi invasion.
And while George W.'s advisory role regarding his father may not have
had anything to do with the $20 million spent by Kuwait and sources
connected to Bahrain with whom both George W. and presidential
contributors had a business relationship, Americans who care about the
fate of their sons and daughters may not want foreign governments and
purse strings to influence the U.S. population regarding future war
decisions.
The facts indicate that millions of dollars were spent by foreign
interests during the Bush administration to influence U.S. participation
in the Gulf War; moreover, presidential advisor George W. Bush and
contributor-friends of both Bushes had substantial Harken Energy stock
holdings during this time period. (A side note: The American people may
also want to know more about the large contracts awarded to U.S. firms
to extinguish Kuwaiti oil well fires and for oil field reconstruction.)
However, in the final analysis, only U.S. citizens, especially those of
military age, can decide. Hiring PR firms, shelling out millions to
inflame patriotic passions, possibly while high-level financial
interests are on the line -- is this any way to run a war?
Tom Flocco is a teacher and free-lance writer who lives in Pennsylvania.
His associate, Robin Akers, contributed additional research.
� 1999 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
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