Dave Johnson: 'Behind the front: The creation of Vets for Freedom'

Dave Johnson, Seeing The Forest

This piece originally appeared on The Patriot Project. Please help support
their work.

If there is one underlying belief of modern conservatives, it is that the
truth is not as important as what you can get people to think is true.
Hence, the importance of a good PR strategy.

Since launching the Iraq war, the White House has frequently complained that
the mainstream news media is not reporting enough "good news from Iraq." In
the fall of 2005 the approach of the 2000th military fatality brought with
it a new round of conservative complaints about the treasonous American
media. With remarkably coincident timing the far-right, Republican-aligned
Media Research Center (MRC) released in October a study of war coverage
that, surprisingly, echoed and amplified the White House's complaints,
claiming that "the three commercial network nightly news broadcasts have
been overwhelmingly biased in their coverage of Iraq". MRC claimed in their
summary that:

". Network coverage has been overwhelmingly pessimistic.
. News about the war has grown increasingly negative.
. Terrorist attacks are the centerpiece of TV's war news.
. Even coverage of the Iraqi political process has been negative.
. Few stories focused on the heroism or generous actions of American
soldiers.
. It's not as if there was no "good news" to report"
Columbia Journalism Review commented at the time on the MRC study:
"Our biggest caveat about MRC's numbers is this: Balance does not require
reporting an equal number of good acts and bad acts if you are in an arena
where bad acts prevail."
As public approval of the Iraq occupation - and of President Bush and
Republican candidates in the upcoming elections - declined, the White House
grew more adamant on this, and finally began to take steps to turn things
around. (Not to turn around the war effort itself, mind you, only public
perception of how it is going.) One component of the White House turnaround
effort came to light in November of 2005, when the Los Angeles Times
reported that the Defense Department was paying a defense contractor to
"place" "good news" stories in Iraqi newspapers:
"As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the US military is secretly
paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an
effort to burnish the image of the US mission in Iraq.

... The stories trumpet the work of US and Iraqi troops, denounce
insurgents and tout US-led efforts to rebuild the country.

... Records and interviews indicate that the US has paid Iraqi newspapers
to run dozens of such articles, with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on
Living Despite Terrorism," since the effort began this year.

The operation is designed to mask any connection with the US military. The
Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln
Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's
Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or
advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media
outlets.

[. . .] The arrangement with Lincoln Group is evidence of how far the
Pentagon has moved to blur the traditional boundaries between military
public affairs - the dissemination of factual information to the media - and
psychological and information operations, which use propaganda and sometimes
misleading information to advance the objectives of a military campaign."
A quick look at the Lincoln Group shows that it was co-founded in 2003 by
Christian Bailey and unknown partners, a 30-year-old with "a reputation as a
socialite with ties to young Republicans," according to England's Sunday
Times. The Times goes on to say:
"In America, he linked up with fashionable young Republicans and became a
co-chair of Lead 21, an organisation linking business and politics, which he
once described as "the big supporters, the big donors to the Republican
party in five years' time". Public relations firms with warfare information
experience - some of which have come under uncomfortable scrutiny
themselves - were amazed when Bailey's fledgling firm leap-frogged over
theirs to win huge defence department deals."
So here we have a mysterious, recently-formed, politically-connected PR firm
that is formed to set up a stealth campaign effort to use soldiers as fronts
to put "good news" stories into the press.

And as this PR effort was being undertaken in Iraq, it appears that a very
similar White House-promoted PR effort was getting underway here at home.

First, Some Background

The Herald Group PR firm was formed in September, 2005, by former White
House spokesmen Taylor Gross, who had, according to SourceWatch,
"coordinated Republican media coverage during the 2000 presidential election
ballot recount in Florida," Matt Well, who "resigned his position as
Director of Public Affairs with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
June 30, 2005," and had "also headed field operations for the American Tort
Reform Association" (for more information on how this relates to the
conservative movement see the Commonweal Institute report, The Attack on
Trial Lawyers and Tort Law), and Doug McGinn, another Republican
Party-connected conservative movement operative including a stint with
Empower America (see this, this and this.)

In the story, PR Group to Strive for a 'Campaign Mentality', the Washington
Post wrote:
"Three communications and political veterans have launched a strategic
communications and public affairs shop, the Herald Group . The principals
are Matt Well , director of public affairs for the Securities and Exchange
Commission; Taylor Gross, a Bush White House spokesman; and Doug McGinn, who
worked at Dittus Communications and earlier at Empower America.

Well says they want to bring "a campaign mentality" to strategic
communications and public affairs by integrating communications, lobbying,
grass-roots mobilization and other disciplines to influence public policy."
An early Herald Group client was Wal-Mart, or, more accurately, Working
Families for Wal-Mart (WFFWM), a stealth front-group for Wal-Mart. From the
story Dec 22, 2005 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette story, Wal-Mart chipping in for
advocate:
"Washington, D. C., team of professionals behind Working Families make up
the media campaign's stealth bombers.

They include a former White House spokesman Taylor Gross, 30, who
coordinated Republican media coverage during the 2000 presidential ballot
battle in Florida, when street fights flared over who won the presidency.

Gross's public relations firm, The Herald Group, opened in September. It
includes Matt Well, another veteran of the turbulent 2000 campaign as the
Republican Leadership Council's director of issues advocacy. Well also
headed field operations for the American Tort Reform Association, which
advocates caps to punitive damages awarded by courts."
Illustrating the stealth front-group nature of WFFWM, the article, Secret
Wal-Mart Memo Exposes Wal-Mart Front Group:
"The truth is Working Families for Wal-Mart is nothing more than
Wal-Mart's own personal right-wing front group. Many of its board members
are either paid by Wal-Mart directly or have business relationships with the
company, and the group has contracted with two right-wing firms, The Herald
Group and Crosslink Strategies."
In Wal-Mart Tries to Enlist Image Help, the NY Times writes:
"As a result of the close relationship between the company and the Working
Families for Wal-Mart, some current and former suppliers say, the advocacy
group's membership drive amounts to Wal-Mart's leaning on its suppliers to
help burnish the company's image - a request many said would be hard to turn
down, given the company's importance to their business. ... The Working
Families for Wal-Mart representative who made the Texas presentation in late
April is Terry Nelson, the former political director of the 2004 Bush
presidential campaign, whose firm, Crosslink Strategy, consults for both
Wal-Mart and Working Families for Wal-Mart."
Pay close attention to the modus operandi operating here: Just as with the
Swift Boat Vets for Truth, what we have here is conservative, party-aligned
political operative PR firms setting up well-funded front-groups to attack
opponents. Using a front group provides the real backers a degree of
separation, insulating them from criticism for the nature of the attacks and
smears.

(Incidentally, one of the first projects of The Herald Group was The
Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund, beginning September, 2005, which
promoted former Republican Party Chairman and Mississippi Governor Haley
Barbour. See also, 8 months later, Storm aid donations still await
disbursing. Was this yet another Republican operation that leaves people
asking where all the money went?)

Enter Vets for Freedom

Almost immediately following the The Herald Group's formation (September),
client-organization Vets for Freedom was launched (January), describing
itself as:
"...a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote the unbiased,
nonpartisan truth of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to educate
the public and mobilize public support for the Global War on Terror."
This "non-partisan" organization's website was designed by The Donatelli
Group/Campaign Solutions, which previously had worked with the infamous
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, as well as the White House-associated
Judicial Confirmation Network, yet another well-financed, party-affiliated
front group. Other Donatelli Group/Campaign Solutions clients include
Bush-Cheney 2004, The Republican National Committee, the 2004 Republican
National Convention, several state Republican Party organizations, the
Republican Attorneys General Association, the National Republican
Congressional Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee,
Citizens for a Sound Economy and Tom DeLay. (To really get the picture go
see the whole list. Really.)

The "non-partisan" Vets for Freedom originally had a privacy statement on
their website that read, "We may from time to time share the information our
visitors provide with other Republican candidates and other like-minded
organizations."

The "non-partisan" Vets for Freedom included William Denman "Wade" Zirkle,
who had helped run Republican Jerry Kilgore's 2005 campaign for governor of
Virginia, and was campaign manager for Republican Todd Gilbert's 2005 race
for the Virginia House of Delegates.

The "non-partisan" Vets for Freedom also included Vice-Chairman David
Bellavia, a former Army Staff Sergeant, who shortly before the announcement
of Vets for Freedon, which is supposedly "...a nonprofit organization whose
mission is to promote the unbiased, nonpartisan truth..." had published an
anti-Democrat article, The Party of Defeat at David Horowitz's
FrontPageMagazine.com, writing:
"...I am at a loss to understand what Representative John Murtha (D-PA)
was thinking when he recently delivered his defeatist comments about our
military efforts.

... Rather than acknowledging the vital mission being carried out by the
troops, the Democratic leadership prefers to disparage our efforts.

... Former administrations ignored the present danger in this region for
years before 9/11, and today we in the trenches pay the price for our past
inability to confront our enemies.

... The actions of Kerry, Kennedy, Dean, et al.- voting against the
immediate pullout of the troops and then supporting Murtha's ignorant
remarks on every television program that offers an invitation - constitute a
political attack on the troops, an attack that is aiding our enemy.

. dissent will embolden our desperate Islamofascist enemy... Instead of
supporting our cause, they stoke the fires of the Islamist faithful...

[...] Not only does the Democratic leadership deny the transparent fact
that Iraq is indeed the front line in the War on Terror, but it feels the
need to apologize for our nation's ability to deliver unrelenting, but
prudent lethality onto our deserving enemies. .. Against this strategy of
defeat, the president has called for staying the course."
But though Vets for Freedom repeatedly claimed to be "non-partisan" it
turned up recently that "Vets for Freedom Action Fund" is a "527'
organization. (This information only became available after the IRS released
July 31 filing data.) So-called "527" groups are named after section 527 of
the tax code, and are created primarily to influence the nomination,
election, appointment or defeat of candidates for public office. For
example, Swift Boat Vets For Truth and Club for Growth are 527 groups.
Opensecrets.org writes:
"527 groups are tax-exempt organizations that engage in political
activities, often through unlimited soft money contributions. Most 527s on
this list are advocacy groups trying to influence federal elections through
voter mobilization efforts and so-called issue ads that tout or criticize a
candidate's record."
And Common Cause writes:
"In the 2004 election, 527 groups influencing federal elections spent an
estimated $400 million. About 25 individuals alone gave $146 million to
these groups, some of which were staffed by political operatives who had
close ties to the national political parties. The fear was that 527 groups
would be a backdoor route for parties to once again collect soft money, and
to evade Federal laws on the books for more than 50 years that have
prohibited labor unions and corporations from using their treasury funds to
influence federal elections."
So there are questions about whether Vets for Freedom is really an
"unbiased," independent organization. Adding to these questions, on June 25,
The Buffalo News published a ground-breaking expose of Vets for Freedom,
titled, Former vets with GOP ties boost war effort in blogs, (reprinted
here) exposing how Vets for Freedom was yet another
Republican-Party-affiliated front-group, along with organizations like Swift
Boat Vets for Freedom:
"A former spokesman for President Bush recently offered to several
newspapers supposedly objective freelance stories from Iraq by two combat
veterans who lead a pro-war group with deep Republican ties.

Several months after revelations that a Pentagon contractor was paying
Iraqi news outlets for favorable war coverage, former White House spokesman
Taylor Gross approached at least four major newspapers, including The
Buffalo News, with the offer.

Gross' pitch to The News said the two highly decorated veterans could
serve as embedded correspondents and "offer balanced and credible viewpoints
gained directly from those closest to and most affected by the Iraq War."
One of the reporters, former Marine Lt. Wade Zirkle, helped run Republican
Jerry Kilgore's 2005 campaign for governor of Virginia."
The Lieberman Wedge

An August 9 Vets for Freedom Action Fund solicitation letter from Wade
Zirkle directly aligns the organization with current White House PR efforts,
stating their mission as being, "To stand in opposition to any candidates
that calls for the irresponsible, immediate withdrawal of our troops in Iraq
or Afghanistan." Echoing an August 9 White House statement that "the extreme
left in their party" defeated Joe Lieberman, for example, the Zirkle letter
says "the radical left ousted Joe Lieberman." A clue to why the messages
were so similar arrived in the following day's LA Times story, Partisan
Crevasse May Be Widening, which explained:
"The Republican response Wednesday was highly coordinated, tightly
matching a set of GOP talking points distributed to activists and
strategists. The effort also paralleled an internal strategy memo ... that
laid out the party's intent to mobilize its base for the election by
highlighting Bush's actions in Iraq and the notion that Democrats were weak
in their approach to "foreign threats."
The Zirkle letter went on to say of Vets for Freedom's mission, "To reject
the notion of preset timetables to dictate troop withdrawal, which is a
signal of defeat to our enemies." The letter echoed the White House claim
that "the majority of the mainstream media is only focusing on the bad
news,' and joins in the coordinated campaign to attack Congressman John
Murtha for criticizing the White House Iraq strategy, nearly accusing him of
treason, saying "John Murtha's words are detrimental to our Nation's fight
against global terror."

In the last few days Vets for Freedom has directly entered Connecticut
politics, taking out full-page ads supporting primary-loser Joe Lieberman
against the Democratic nominee. (Patriot Project will have more on this
development in the near future.) Clearly intending to drive a wedge into the
Democratic Party, the modus operandi looks to be part of a larger election
strategy with Vets for Freedom operating as yet another front-group set up
to advance the conservative agenda and attack Democrats.

Is truth really only what people can be made to think it is? Will there
someday be consequences to our democracy from this use of professional
"perception management?" Over and over again we see well-financed,
politically-connected front-groups, posing as something they're not,
insulating their real backers from exposure and criticism. They hire a PR
firm -- make that "strategic communications specialists" -- to set up a
front-group to plant stories in the press and manipulate the public. The
planted stories typically evolve into smears, and good people are hurt. But
it seems to work, over and over again.

The Patriot Project is working to expose this tactic and to thereby diminish
its effectiveness.

Source: Seeing The Forest
http://www.seeingtheforest.com/archives/2006/08/behind_the_fron_1.htm

--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107

"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson