[R-G] From Freedom Watch to Petraeus, A Look at the Bush Administration's Iraq War PR Campaign

[Anthony Fenton]

Thursday, September 13th, 2007
 From Freedom Watch to Petraeus, A Look at the Bush Administration's  
Iraq War PR Campaign
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/13/1445214

President Bush's scheduled prime time address tonight culminates a  
carefully orchestrated public relations campaign to win support for  
the continuation of the war in Iraq. The campaign began in August  
when a group called Freedom's Watch headed by President Bush's former  
spokesperson Ari Fleischer began airing pro-war television  
commercials. We speak with John Stauber of of the Center for Media &  
Democracy and PR Watch. [includes rush transcript] President Bush's  
prime time address before the nation tonight culminates a carefully  
orchestrated public relations campaign to win support for the  
continuation of the war in Iraq.

The campaign began in August when a group called Freedom's Watch  
headed by President Bush's former spokesperson Ari Fleischer began  
airing pro-war television commercials. Then, President Bush flew to  
Iraq for an unannounced visit where he met with Iraqi leaders at a  
U.S. military base in Anbar province.

On the eve of Sept. 11th, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan  
Crocker testified before Congress. Then they appeared exclusively on  
Fox News in what the network described as a "briefing for America."

To talk more about the Bush administration's public relations  
campaign, John Stauber, founder of the Center for Media & Democracy  
and PR Watch, joins us in Madison Wisconsin.

     * John Stauber, founder of the Center for Media & Democracy and  
PR Watch. He is author of several books, including "The Best War  
Ever: Lies, Damned Lies and the Mess in Iraq."

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

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JUAN GONZALEZ: President Bush's prime time address before the nation  
tonight culminates a carefully orchestrated public relations campaign  
to win support for the continuation of the war in Iraq.

The campaign began in August, when a group called Freedom's Watch,  
headed by President Bush's former spokesperson Ari Fleischer, began  
airing pro-war television commercials. Then, President Bush flew to  
Iraq for an unannounced visit where he met with Iraqi leaders at a US  
military base in Anbar province.

On the eve of September 11th, General David Petraeus and Ambassador  
Ryan Crocker testified before Congress. Then they appeared  
exclusively on Fox News in what the network dubbed as a "briefing for  
America."

AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about the Bush administration's public  
relations campaign, John Stauber joins us now in Madison, Wisconsin,  
founder of the Center for Media and Democracy and PR Watch. He’s  
author of several books, including The Best War Ever: Lies, Damned  
Lies and the Mess in Iraq.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, John. Talk about the President’s pro-war  
PR campaign.

JOHN STAUBER: Well, it was, of course, five years ago that President  
Bush launched his real pre-war pro-war PR campaign on the anniversary  
of 9/11. And what we’ve seen over the last two months is another  
brilliant campaign using deception and nonexistent links between Iraq  
and 9/11, and now, something new, raising the specter of American  
defeat in Vietnam and the carnage that he says resulted from leaving  
Vietnam, to really hold his Republican supporters in the Congress  
behind his policy, a policy that’s been quite transparent from day  
one: the President intends to keep US troops in Iraq for as long as  
he's in office.

What we’ve seen over the last month is the emergence of a new White  
House front group called Freedom's Watch, headed up, as you  
mentioned, by Ari Fleischer, the former White House PR flak, who was  
on duty in the White House in the selling of the war in 2002, 2003.  
He jumped ship when things were starting to go badly in June of ’03,  
but he’s back with a vengeance lending his name to this Freedom’s  
Watch. They’re sort of the latest of a number of Republican front  
groups, along with Vets for Freedom, Move America Forward. These are  
organizations that are holding pro-war rallies. They’re running TV  
advertisements. Freedom's Watch alone is going to spend $10 million  
to $20 million over a month's time running pro-war ads that use  
wounded Iraq veterans and equate winning the war in Iraq with the  
terror attacks of 9/11. And this is, in effect --

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to a clip. John, we’re going to go to a clip of  
one of those ads right now.

       FREEDOM’S WATCH AD: Congress was right to vote to fight  
terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. I reenlisted after 9/11, because I  
don’t want my sons to see what I saw. I want them to be free and  
safe. I know what I lost. I also know that if we pull out now,  
everything I’ve given in sacrifice will mean nothing. They attacked  
us, and they will again. They won't stop in Iraq. We are winning on  
the ground and making real progress. It's no time to quit. It's no  
time for politics.

AMY GOODMAN: An excerpt of the ad that Ari Fleischer, the former Bush  
White House spokesperson, is working with. Juan?

JUAN GONZALEZ: John, this ad, once again, the repeated attempt to  
link the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to Iraq,  
and this generic “they” attacked us; could you comment on that?

JOHN STAUBER: Well, Juan, of course, anyone who is watching the  
broadcast saw the video and saw the image of jets hitting the Twin  
Towers, but they also saw the speaker's lack of lower legs. This is a  
severely wounded Iraq vet. And this ploy of linking Saddam Hussein  
and Iraq to 9/11 has worked as one of the three really big lies that  
originally sold this war. Of course, there is absolutely no truth to  
that and no truth to the other two big lies, that Saddam had weapons  
of mass destruction or that Saddam was in league with Osama bin Laden  
and al-Qaeda.

And yet, as recently as this Monday, the New York Times/CBS poll  
showed that one of three Americans believe today that Saddam was  
personally behind the 9/11 attacks. 27% of Democrats, 40% of  
Republicans believe Saddam did 9/11. And just over a year ago, a  
Harris survey showed that half of all Americans believe that the  
weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. Huge falsehoods. And  
yet, this is what Americans are believing. And this, I think, is  
really the card that the President and the pro-war lobby plays so  
well: we have to stay in Iraq because these are the guys who did 9/11.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And how is it possible, in your estimation, given the  
enormous amount of news media that exists in this country, that these  
myths continue to prevail in people's minds, in so many people's minds?

JOHN STAUBER: Well, we’ve got to blame the mainstream news media. Of  
course, at the Center for Media and Democracy and on your program and  
in your reporting, we knew before the March 20, 2003 attack on Iraq  
that there was no connection between Saddam and 9/11 or Saddam and al- 
Qaeda and almost certainly there were no weapons of mass destruction.  
And yet, this information was censored out of the mainstream media.  
The mainstream media really delivered the big lie by censoring out  
the opponents and critics of the war and repeating over and over  
these falsehoods.

And then what happened was this. Most Americans get most of their  
news from television. And in April of 2003 and early May of 2003,  
Americans literally saw the weapons of mass destruction being  
discovered, because these embedded reporters, whether we’re talking  
Judith Miller at the New York Times, other major print media, the  
three networks, PBS, all wanted to be the first to break the story  
that the troops they were with discovered the weapons of mass  
destruction. So, as we point out in The Best War Ever, Americans  
actually saw the weapons discovered. They read about the discovery of  
the weapons. Of course, every one of those stories was 100% wrong,  
but Americans were promised by the President, the Vice President,  
that they were there, the media delivered them, and the media has  
never corrected or fixed this big lie that’s fixed in the minds of  
Americans.

AMY GOODMAN: John, can you talk about the Petraeus hearings?

JOHN STAUBER: The Petraeus hearings really are a dog and pony show.  
Unfortunately, it’s pretty easy to predict what’s going to happen.  
Not much has changed in Congress or in the White House. It's really  
been a game of chicken, with the Democrats gambling that by lighting  
a fire under select Republicans they could break enough of them free  
that they would vote with Harry Reid and Pelosi on beginning some  
sort of withdrawal from Iraq. But that clearly hasn't happened.

And General Petraeus has been the perfect person for the Bush  
administration, because that same New York Times/CBS survey showed  
that overwhelmingly six of ten Americans look to Petraeus and other  
commanders to take charge of Iraq, and those are the people who they  
think are best equipped to end the war.

Now, who is General Petraeus? He’s an employee of the White House.  
The White House is really hiding behind not just Petraeus and the  
commanders, but these front groups they’ve created, like Vets for  
Freedom and like Freedom's Watch, that push forth pro-war  
neoconservative Iraq vets.

AMY GOODMAN: As we talk about the Petraeus hearings, I wanted to clay  
a clip from Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Harper’s  
magazine’s Ken Silverstein credited Stewart with providing far away  
the best analysis of what Petraeus said.

       JON STEWART: The general raises a key point. We keep hearing  
from President Bush how the surge is meeting its military objectives,  
but we need more time. Well, yesterday, the good general was  
whistling a different tune.

       GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS: The military objectives of the surge are,  
in large measure, being met. It will take time.

       JON STEWART: My god! The President’s been right the whole  
time! Even down to the details.

       PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: US Marines and Special Operation  
forces have been striking terrible blows against al-Qaeda.

       GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS: Coalition and Iraqi forces have dealt  
significant blows to al-Qaeda.

       PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Anbar province was al-Qaeda's base  
in Iraq and was written off by many as lost.

       GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS: A year ago the province was assessed as  
lost.

       PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The consequences of withdrawal would  
be disastrous.

       GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS: A premature drawdown of our forces would  
likely have devastating consequences.

       JON STEWART: Wow! I bet they’re friends on MySpace.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s right. Jon Stewart, Daily Show. Petraeus, Bush,  
Petraeus, Bush. Last comment, John Stauber, even the language.

JOHN STAUBER: Yeah. I mean, this, again, is quite transparent, and  
the White House understands that by putting its message in the mouth  
of Petraeus, that's going to best resonate with the American public.  
That’s its lobby campaign, and unfortunately it appears to be working  
within Congress.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, John Stauber, I want to thank you very much for  
being with us. John Stauber, who heads up prwatch.org and the Center  
for Media and Democracy.