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How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf
http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.htmlDate Written: 2002-07-01 Publisher: prwatch.org Year Published: 2002 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX22227 This excpert from "Toxic Sludge Is Good For You" (chapter 10), looks at the PR players behind the war in the Persian Gulf and how a foreign-funded campaign manipulated American public opinion. Abstract: -- Excerpt: Hill & Knowlton, then the world's largest PR firm, served as mastermind for the Kuwaiti campaign. Its activities alone would have constituted the largest foreign-funded campaign ever aimed at manipulating American public opinion. By law, the Foreign Agents Registration Act should have exposed this propaganda campaign to the American people, but the Justice Department chose not to enforce it. Nine days after Saddam's army marched into Kuwait, the Emir's government agreed to fund a contract under which Hill & Knowlton would represent "Citizens for a Free Kuwait," a classic PR front group designed to hide the real role of the Kuwaiti government and its collusion with the Bush administration. Over the next six months, the Kuwaiti government channeled $11.9 million dollars to Citizens for a Free Kuwait, whose only other funding totalled $17,861 from 78 individuals. Virtually all of CFK's budget -- $10.8 million -- went to Hill & Knowlton in the form of fees. |