Today's Stories

December 8, 2008

Steve Early
Is Obama Backing Off a Crucial Pledge to Labor?

Michael Hudson
Obama's Favoritism: Wall Street, Not the Auto Industry

Patrick Cockburn
Talking to a Lashkar Militant

December 5 / 7, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Honeymoans From the Left

Brian Cloughley
Shambles in Afghanistan

Paul Craig Roberts
Muslim Revolution: How Washington Arrogance Helped Drive the Mumbai Attacks

Liaquat Ali Khan
Mumbai and the Kashmir Tinderbox

Farzana Versey
Mumbai's Charge of the Lightweight Brigade

Peter Lee
Pakistan Nears the Breaking Point

Peter Morici
Slouching Toward a Depression?

Ralph Nader /
Toby Heaps
Junk Cap-and-Trade

Yinon Cohen /
Neve Gordon
Obama Could End the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Will He Meet the Challenge?

Wajahat Ali
Perverse Justice: the Holy Land Foundation Convictions

Johnny Barber
Aswad's Story: Illegal Detention and the Declaration of Human Rights

Alan Farago
Fallout from the Pass-Through Economy

Jeremy Scahill
Obama Doesn't Plan to End Occupation of Iraq

Mike Whitney
Powergrab in Ottawa

Ranjit Hoskote
Jahiliyya Versus Jihad

Carl Finamore
Thank God I'm an Atheist! (Or Boy is Bill O'Reilly in for a Big Surprise)

Marjorie Cohn
Obama and Women's Rights

Norm Kent
Tommy Chong, the Unanticipated Warrior

Missy Beattie
What Lies Ahead

Binoy Kampmark
Committing Suicide On-Line: the Briggs Case

David Macaray
The Best and the Brightest Redux: Too Many Brains, Not Enough Humility

Nancy Stohlman
Relational Activism

Ron Jacobs
Irreverent Politics Then and Now

David Yearsley
Thematics From the Golden Past

Lorenzo Wolff
Troubled Songs of Home and War

Poets' Basement
Orloski: The Door Opener

Website of the Weekend
In Prison My Whole Life

December 4, 2008

Ece Temelkuran
Inside the Ergenekon Case

Ralph Nader
Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Who Will Seize the Moment?

Harry Browne
The Bush-Obama National Security Strategy

Eamonn Fingleton
The American Car Industry: a Riposte to the Knockers

Conn Hallinan
The Syria Attack

Mike Whitney
Fiasco in Somalia: Another CIA Cock-Up

Stewart J. Lawrence
Obama and Latinos: Richardson, Alone, is Not Enough

Paul Fitzgerald /
Elizabeth Gould
Message to Obama: Stop Killing Afghanis

Karyn Strickler
Show Us the Green, Before We Show You the Money

Jennifer Matsui
Obama-Cola: the Great National Temperance Beverage

Website of the Day
"He Ain't Got Laid in a Month of Sundays..."

December 3, 2008

Andrew Cockburn
What's Wrong with the U.S. Military

Sheldon Rampton
Mormon Homophobia: Up Close and Personal

Robert Weissman
Nationalize GM

Yifat Susskind
From Mumbai to Washington

William Blum
The Obama Bummer: Vote First, Ask Questions Later

Alan Singer
The Ghost of the Defunct Economist

David Macaray
Trampled Under Foot at Wal-Mart

Martha Rosenberg
Born With a Statin Deficiency? Line Forms to the Left!

Mats Svensson
The Crimes Have No Period of Limitations

Website of the Day
Why Bill Richardson's Nomination Should be Opposed

December 2, 2008

Jeremy Scahill
Obama's Kettle of Hawks

Paul Craig Roberts
The New Arms Race

Ayesha Ijaz Khan
The Mumbai Terror Attacks: Is Pakistan to Blame?

Sarah Anderson /
John Cavanagh
Skewed Priorities: How the Bailout Dwarfs Spending on Other Global Crises

William Blum
The Mythology of the War on Terrorism

John Ross
Mexico's Drug War Goes Down in Flames

Dave Lindorff
A Tale of Two Terror Attacks

Nicola Nasser
A Peace Process That Makes Peace Impossible

Steve Conn
Operation Redskin Removal

Robert Bryce
Coal Hard Facts

Website of the Day
Country, Funk, Soul

December 1, 2008

Patrick Cockburn
From Baghdad to Mumbai, by Way of Pakistan

Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
Obama's Economic Team: Records of Failure

Vijay Prashad
The Fires in South Asia

Deepak Tripathi
Obama's Foreign Crises

Joshua Frank
Madam Secretary Clinton and the Middle East

P. Sainath
The Unlikely Martyrdom of Free Market Jihad

Alan Farago
The Right's War on Regulators

Binoy Kampmark
Sydney's Ball and Chain

Chris Genovali
Silent Fall

David Michael Green
Hope You Die Before You Get Old

Stephen Martin
The Chinese are Coming, the Chinese are Coming!

Website of the Day
Robert Rubin: Coward, Liar or Both?

November 28-30, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
In Time of Trouble

Mike Whitney
The Obama "Dream Team": Rubin Clones and Other Fakers

Ted Honderich
What is the Meaning of Obama's Election?

Tom Kerr
Preserving Filthy Lucre (Or Becoming My Dad)

Mike Ely
The Conquest of New England

David Yearsley
Hymns of the Conquest

Deepak Tripathi
Uproar in Police-State Britain

Sonja Karkar
Gaza's Death Throes

Ramzy Baroud
Salvation in a News Broadcast

Robert Weitzel
Israel's Settlement on Capitol Hill

Robert Roth
Can We Create a Movement for Change?

Carlos Fierro
Obama and the End of Racism?

David Macaray
How to Kill a Union

David Rosen
A New Sexual Agenda

James Cockcroft
Indigenous People Rising

Stan Cox
The Most Disappointing Gift

Steve Conn
Talking Turkey About College Basketball

Stephen Martin
The Electromagnetic Pulse and Economic Warfare

Richard Rhames
Busty Bimbettes, Bombs and Brand Obama

Kim Nicolini
Women as Products and Cannibalistic Achievers

Lorenzo Wolff
A Battle Cry for the Confused and Vulnerable

Poets' Basement
Woods, Harrison and Corseri

November 27, 2008

Tariq Ali
The Assault on Mumbai

Steve Hendricks
Thanksgiving We Can Believe In: Justice in Indian Country

Ralph Nader
Open Up Those Corporate Tax Returns

John Walsh
The Root Cause of the Crisis of 2008

Dave Lindorff
The Department of Homeland Lunacy

Christopher Brauchli
Thanks A Lot, Mr. Meese: How Alberto Gonzales Learned to Get You to Pay for His Legal Bills

Matthew Koehler
Giving Thanks for Burned Forests

Website of the Day
John Trudell: "Crazy Horse We Hear What You Say"

November 26, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Obama Letdown

Alan Farago
Bailouts and the New Math

Stanley Heller
Don't Bail Them Out, Take Them Over

Kevin Zeese
The Real Cost of the Bailout

Steve Conn
Now It Can Be Told (Except in North Carolina)

Ray McGovern
Kafka and Uighurs at Guantánamo

Ron Jacobs
King George is Gone: Now It's Time to Organize

Eric Walberg
Obama's Odious Entourage

Martha Rosenberg
Pay No Attention to That Turkey Being Slaughtered (Or How Sarah Palin Created a Whole New Generation of Vegetarians)

Matt Siegfried
Back to the Future With Barack

Website of the Day
"Every Time I've Compromised, I've Lost"

November 25, 2008

James Abourezk
Of Arrogance, Bailouts and the Big Three

Ralph Nader
Don't Suppress Carter

Patrick Irelan
PBS Reports for Big Oil on Venezuela

John Ross
Obama in Bedlam

Fred Gardner
Dr. Goodwin and the Infinite Con

Dan LaBotz
The Auto Crisis: a Big Caravan to Washington?

Tom Barry
Napolitano and Immigration Policy

Norman Solomon
The Ideology of No Ideology

Richard Morse
Memo From Haiti: Where the Culture of Corruption Meets the Corruption of Culture

Chris Strohm
The Missing Rules of Engagement in Cyberwar

Website of the Day
Green vs. Green?

November 24, 2008

Mike Whitney
You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

Pam Martens
The Rise and Fall of Citigroup

Laray Polk
Bush's Library: the Kurds, Oil and Missing Records

David Ker Thomson
American Friends: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Canadians?

Uri Avnery
Likud Rising

Joe Mowrey
Deprivation and Desperation in Gaza

Ramzi Kysia
An Administration in Search of a Progressive: the Team Obama Should Have Picked

Kevin Zeese
The Causes of the Auto Crisis

Dave Lindorff
Rescuing the Blob: Idiots and Bailouts

David Macaray
Seven Reasons You Should Join a Union

Howard Lisnoff
Inaugurations Past and Present

Website of the Day
I Hate the Beatles

November 21 / 23, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
The Honeymoon is Looking a Bit Wan

Michael Hudson
Paulson's Cascade of Lies

Mike Whitney
Time to Move to Plan B ... If There is One

Barbara Rose Johnston /
Holly M. Barker
Cautionary Tales From a Nuclear War Zone

Serge Halimi
The Gloom of Empire: Downhill All the Way

Alan Farago
The Suburbs March On

Ralph Nader
Changing With Retreads: the Third Clinton Administration

Saul Landau
When Old Axioms Don't Apply

Robert Bryce
From LBJ to Obama: the End of Texas Dominance

Shannon May
Ecological Crisis and Eco-Villages in China

Binoy Kampmark
The End of the Yugo

Jack Ely
The Fate of the West's Wild Horses

Ramzy Baroud
The Rights of Women in War Zones

Missy Beattie
Why Vote, Anyway?

Larry Portis
Women Soldiers Serving in (and Barely Surviving) the Israeli Army

James McEnteer
Colombia's Laboratory of Failure

Christopher Brauchli
A Tale of Two Whales

David Yearsley
Real Swords, Fire and Don Giovanni

Adam Engel
Power Down

Ron Jacobs
The Continuing Saga of the White Album

Lorenzo Wolff
Honky Tonk Heroes: When Country Got Real

Poets' Basement
Raza Ali Hasan

Website of the Weekend
Lips and Fingers

November 20, 2008

P. Sainath
The Jurassic Auto and Idea Park

Brian McKenna
How Dow Chemical Defies Homeland Security and Risks Another 9/11

Paul Craig Roberts
What Uncle Sam Has to Say to His Creditors

Andy Worthington
How Guanántamo Can be Closed

Peter Lee
India Doubles Down in Afghanistan ... Maybe

Dr. Eyad al-Serraj
At the Erez Crossing

Sen. Russ Feingold
The Bush Pardons

Lance Selfa
Who Made the New Deal?

Ray McGovern
Keeping Gates

Benjamin G. Davis
Ending Torture; Prosecuting the Torturers

Tracy McLellan
Obama's Crony Democracy: the Return of Tom Daschle

Website of the Day
Finally, a Victory for Palestinians

November 19, 2008

M. Shahid Alam
Obama and the Politics of Race and Religion in America

Mario A. Murillo
Holder, Chiquita and Colombian Death Squads

Martine Boulard
Escaping the Dollar's Shadow

Robin D. G. Kelley
Will Obama be the First "Freedom" Democrat?

Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Obama and the Iron Cage

Jonathan Cook
Who Will Stop the Settlers?

Steve Conn
Spare Change or No Change at All

George Wuerthner
The NYT and the Beetles of Mass Destruction

Michael Winship
This Just in From Middle Earth

Stephen Martin
The Other Side of the Pleasure-Dome

Website of the Day
An Important Holiday Message From Kristen Johnston

November 18, 2008

Chellis Glendinning
Cheering for Morgan Stanley

George C. Wilson
Perils of Pakistan: Will It Prove to be Obama's Cambodia?

Franklin Lamb
Who Will Evict Israel from Lebanon: Hezbollah or the UN?

Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Irresponsibility of Appointing Hillary Clinton Secretary of State

Roger Burbach
Orchestrating a Civic Coup in Bolivia: How Bush Tried to Bring Down Morales

John Ross
Drilling vs. Direct Democracy in Mexico

Wajahat Ali
Is Obama the Muslim World's Superman?

Damien Millet /
Eric Toussaint
What Really Happened in Washington? The G20 and the Inconsistent Script

Marc Gardner
When Mooning is a Sex Crime

Eric Walberg
Courting the Bear: a New Era for Russian/Western Relations?

Wendy Williams
The Bottled Water Con

Website of the Day
Where's Zappa When We Need Him?

November 17, 2008

Michael Hudson
Bankers Shake Down Congress and the G-20

Paul Craig Roberts
When It's a Clear Day and You Can't See GM

Mike Whitney
Busted in Washington

Steve Conn
Where is Nader Country 2008? Mapping the Nader Votes

Andy Worthington
Closing Guantánamo: Advice for Obama

Jonathan Cook
The Real Goal of Israel's Blockade of Gaza: "They Are All Hamas"

Rannie Amiri
Dual Loyalties Will Doom Obama

David Macaray
Bailing Out the Automakers

David Michael Green
Twelve Victories

Charles Modiano
Sports Illustrated and Sexism: Tokenism or a New Day?

Website of the Day
The South Sea Bubble

November 14 / 16, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Heading for the First Hundred Days

Jeffrey St. Clair
How Bill Clinton Doomed the Spotted Owl: a Cautionary Tale for Greens in the Age of Obama

Mike Whitney
Paulson the Bungler

Sasan Fayazmanesh
RIP: the Experts, 1929-2008

Moshe Adler
Keynes: China's Greatest Export?

Anthony DiMaggio
Transcending Race?

Jean Bricmont
Cats, Dogs and Creationism

Sheldon Rampton
The Eisenstadt Hoax: a Real Life Example of a "Fake Fake"

Douglas Valentine
Let the Trials Begin!

Joseph Nevins /
Timothy Dunn
Barricading the Border

Tom Barry
Rahm Emanuel's Political Pragmatism on Immigration

Ron Jacobs
Che Guevara Meets Trashman: the Genius of Spain Rodriguez

Larry Portis
The State of the Israeli State

Mary Lynn Cramer Obama's Brain Trust: Seems Like Old Times

Sherry Wolf
The Myth of the Black/Gay Divide

Peter Cervantes-Gautschi
Secretary of Greed: How Larry Summers Championed Wall Street by Impoverishing the Mexican People

Jacob Hornberger
The Conservative Malaise: Hey, Brother, Can You Spare Some Habeas Corpus?

Lance Selfa
The Center-Right Nation Con

Benjamin Dangl
Vermont Against General Dynamics

Seth Sandronsky
Lifelines in Hard Times

Russell Mokhiber
Time to Give the Friends of Big Coal the Boot

Allan Stellar
Nuke a Gay Whale for the Navy

Kelly Overton
Get Thee to a Shelter: the Obamas and the Million-Mutt March

Martha Rosenberg
Why Mink are Cheering the Economic Crisis

Richard Rhames
Palling Around with Ray the Plumber

David Yearsley
How I Played Hooky from "High School Musical 3"

Lorenzo Wolff
Zach is Back: Songs of Hurt, Rage and Resistance

Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Ford and Buknatski

Website of the Weekend
The Eyes Have It

November 13, 2008

Pam Martens
The Two Trillion DollarBlack Hole

Vijay Prashad
Guilt by Participation: Sonal Shah's Membership Has Expired

Patrick Cockburn
Who is Paying for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service?

Jonathan Cook
The Withering Palestinian Economy

Ralph Nader
Obama and the Rogue Regime

Bill Quigley
McCain Owes America an Apology

Lee Sustar
Bailing Out the Big Three

Omar Barghouti
Boycotting Israeli Settlement Products

Steve Conn
More Alaska Fun

Howard Lisnoff
The Last Bastion of Hate

Jeff Cohen
What Indy Media Heroes Can Teach Us

Website of the Day
Who are the Obamagelicals?

November 12, 2008

Johanna Berrigan
Scattered Families: the Iraq Refugee Crisis

Steve Conn
The Big Mystery Election in Alaska

Patrick Bond
Against Volcker

Bokar Ture /
Dedrick Muhammad
Remembering a Black Radical in a Barack Obama America

Alan Farago
The Hispanic Vote in South Florida: Not Dyed Blue Yet

Dave Lindorff
Rescuing Joe Lieberman

Karl Grossman
Break Up Big Oil: Tyranny in the Tank

David Macaray
An Obama Litmus Test: Will Labor Have a Seat at the Table?

George Wuerthner
Act Now to Save America's Public Forests

Susie Day
Heavy Weather

Website of the Day
Does the Planet Have a Future? an Interview with Derrick Jensen

December 8, 2008

McCaffery, the Pentagon and Fleishman-Hillard

An Officer and a Conflicted Man

By DIANE FARSETTA

What will it take, for the Defense Department officials involved to be held responsible for an illegal government propaganda campaign? Why don't news professionals realize that they need to vet their commentators and disclose any potential conflicts of interest to their audiences? When will the cable and network television stations that featured the Pentagon's pundits tell viewers that their war commentary was anything but independent?

An in-depth article on one of 75 retired military officers covertly cultivated by the Pentagon to be its "message force multipliers" recently raised these questions yet again. Retired general, NBC News analyst and industry consultant Barry McCaffrey is a prime example of "a deeply opaque world," where "privileged access to senior government officials" and "war commentary can fit hand in glove with undisclosed commercial interests," writes New York Times reporter David Barstow. It was Barstow who first reported on the Pentagon pundit program, which was launched in early 2002 to help sell the Iraq war and later expanded to promote Bush administration talking points on such controversial issues as Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and warrantless wiretapping.

In his follow-up to his April 2008 expose, Barstow focuses on McCaffrey as a one-man "military-industrial-media complex." Barstow carefully documents how McCaffrey's high-level contacts -- his contentious relationship with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld notwithstanding -- along with his media access and his role as a consultant for military and security contractors afforded McCaffrey opportunities to advance the interests of his clients, while profiting handsomely himself. For example, McCaffrey used insider information, obtained on Pentagon-funded trips to Iraq, to help the company Defense Solutions refine its proposal to supply Iraq with 5,000 armored vehicles. McCaffrey then promoted the Defense Solutions proposal directly to Iraq forces commander General David Petraeus, and made comments supportive of it during media appearances, as well as in testimony before Congress and in correspondence with policymakers and Defense Department officials -- all while failing to disclose that Defense Solutions was his client.

It's regrettable, but perhaps not surprising, that a military man wouldn't appreciate the need to disclose such conflicts of interest in his media appearances. McCaffrey's response to Barstow's article, posted on the website of his consulting firm, BR McCaffrey Associates, does not address the issue of disclosure. "When he sees a concept that would support military interests," the statement reads, "he does of course recommend it to national defense leaders. ... General McCaffrey is an expert on national security. He is not a reporter."

However, the reporters at NBC News also failed to understand the importance of disclosure. NBC News president Steve Capus claimed that while McCaffrey is not held to the network's conflict-of-interest rules because of his status as a consultant, he is an "independent voice" whose business interests simply don't impact his commentary. According to emails obtained by Glenn Greenwald, NBC coordinated its response to Barstow's article with McCaffrey. Worse, NBC has yet to report on the Pentagon pundit scandal -- or even respond to the commenters on its "Daily Nightly" blog who have asked about McCaffrey.

In addition to documenting how easily military uniforms and medals have masked hidden interests and shaped coverage of the most important issues of the past several years, Barstow's new article further shows the journalistic bankruptcy of war commentary. In the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, McCaffrey had "significant doubts" about the size of the U.S. invasion force and the lack of post-invasion planning. Yet, in his appearances on NBC and its cable affiliates, McCaffrey was a cheerleader for the imminent war. Days before the invasion, McCaffrey told Tom Brokaw that he had no "real serious" concerns about invading Iraq. When McCaffrey belatedly admitted some doubts, Rumsfeld cut him out of the Pentagon's pundit briefings and calls. Yet, the Pentagon continued to cultivate McCaffrey and monitor his public statements, arguably paying more attention to him than to their stable of more compliant pundits.

How the Pentagon managed McCaffrey

The 8,000 pages of Pentagon pundit documents -- which the New York Times obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request (backed up by lawsuits) and the Defense Department later made public -- provide more information about McCaffrey and his complex relationship with the Pentagon's PR machine. (The Center for Media and Democracy has converted the Pentagon pundit documents to text-searchable form.)

McCaffrey was one of the earliest participants in the Pentagon pundit program. He attended pundit meetings with Rumsfeld on October 31, 2002, and January 10, 2003, and was on a pundit conference call discussing Iraq on April 1, 2003. McCaffrey's name also appears on a roster of 14 Pentagon pundits, dated February 12, 2003.

According to Barstow, Rumsfeld exiled McCaffrey from the pundit program in 2003. Yet the Pentagon continued to include McCaffrey in its media tracking and analysis, and went to significant lengths to influence what he was saying. In a November 2006 email exchange among Pentagon officials involved in the pundit program, one explained that McCaffrey's "audience reach is significant, and his observations will continue to shape popular opinion as we transition to a new SECDEF [Secretary of Defense] and continue to look hard at the GWOT [Global War on Terror] way ahead."

One way in which the Pentagon sought to sway McCaffrey was by organizing and funding overseas trips for him. "Other military analysts were invited on trips, but only in groups. General McCaffrey went by himself," reports Barstow. "The stated purpose was for General McCaffrey to provide an outside assessment in his role as a part-time professor at West Point. But his trips were also an important public relations tool, meticulously planned to arm him with anecdotes of progress."

The Pentagon pundit documents detail four of McCaffrey's freebie trips: to Afghanistan and Pakistan in August 2005, to Saudi Arabia in January and February 2007, a return to Pakistan and Afghanistan in February 2007, and to Kuwait and Iraq in March 2007. The documents specify that most of these trips were requested by the U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, the rest of the Middle East, Egypt and Central Asia. The exception is McCaffrey's Saudi Arabia visit, which was "at the invitation of Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki Al Faisal." According to Barstow, McCaffrey also traveled to Iraq on the Pentagon's dime in the summer of 2005, December 2007 and October 2008.

The Pentagon also attempted to shape McCaffrey's commentary by ensuring that he talked to high-level officials before his major media appearances. On Friday, August 26, 2005, Pentagon PR staffer Larry Di Rita emailed his colleagues that McCaffrey (along with Pentagon pundits Montgomery Meigs and Wayne Downing) were scheduled to appear on influential political talk shows that Sunday. "Would it make sense to see if general petreaus [sic] were willing to speak with them between now and then?" DiRita asked. "YES," responded Captain Frank Thorp, the PR assistant to then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers. "Not a bad idea," responded another Pentagon PR staffer, Bryan Whitman, who was heavily involved with the pundit program.

On Saturday, August 27, Whitman emailed Petraeus, asking him to call McCaffrey and the other two pundits. "If past experience is any indication, it really helps their commentary if they have the opportunity to spend a few minutes to hear from somebody who is actually out there doing it," Whitman explained. Di Rita then asked Petraeus to keep in mind that the pundits "want to be extremely critical of the policy, of the secdef and his supposed bad plans, but very supportive of their fellow generals. ... It's b.s., and you might want to help these guys better understand the situation in this regard."

Petraeus talked to McCaffrey that same day and emailed back a report to the group of Pentagon PR staffers. "GEN McC," he wrote, "frankly, has some bomb chucker ideas that I tried to temper, but I'm not sure I succeeded. (Told him for ex that we got $5.7B this year!)"

The pundit documents also describe attempts to counter or neutralize McCaffrey's criticism of Rumsfeld. On December 7, 2005, McCaffrey said on NBC's "Today" show, referring to Iraq, "Clearly bad judgments were made by the civilian leadership and the Pentagon going into this war. ... It didn't have to be this way. One would think Secretary Rumsfeld and others would be held accountable. ... I'm surprised, to be honest, [Rumsfeld's] still there [as Secretary of Defense]. ... I think it's up to the Senate to act. You know, we've got Senator John Warner, Chuck Hagel, John McCain, Jack Reid ... who understand national security. About time for them to step in and make their views known."

McCaffrey's comments caused a flurry of emails among Pentagon PR staffers. One suggested, "We ought to get this to warner. He should know mccaffrey is using his name and tagging him to reed [sic], et al."

In an August 2006 email exchange included in the Pentagon pundit documents, think tank hawk and former Defense Department official Frank Gaffney complained about McCaffrey to one of Rumsfeld's assistants. "I am spending a lot of time defending Don," Gaffney emailed, "for example at 9:00 a.m. this morning on MSNBC against Barry McCaffrey."

The Fleishman-Hillard connection

McCaffrey's punditry was frequently critical of Rumsfeld -- with the notable exception, described by Barstow, of McCaffrey's attempts to ingratiate himself to the Administration, following his expulsion from the Pentagon pundit program. However, his commentary consistently aligned with -- and sometimes directly promoted -- the interests of his clients. McCaffrey's publicist told Barstow that the retired general "worked with clients 'to get your mission achieved in the media'" and often spoke "with the twin goals of shaping policy and generating favorable coverage for clients with worthy products or ideas."

McCaffrey might have learned his media skills from Fleishman-Hillard, a PR firm whose clients have included the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline, AT&T, the Biotechnology Industry Organization and Election Systems & Software.

Since 2003, McCaffrey has advised Fleishman-Hillard's government relations unit. He's also on the firm's international advisory board, which Fleishman-Hillard touts as "a powerful client resource" whose members offer advice, write op/eds and give speeches. McCaffrey also helped launch Fleishman-Hillard's homeland security practice in 2003, which one Fleishman executive described at the time as a way to meet the "tremendous need ... to communicate" with the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "whether it is to sell something or whether to lobby for some particular position."

But, as it turns out, McCaffrey's association with Fleishman-Hillard goes back a decade. In 1998, the firm won a major PR contract from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), which McCaffrey then headed. The ONDCP contract brought Fleishman-Hillard $9.4 million in 1999.

While Fleishman-Hillard still works for ONDCP, there were two controversies of note under McCaffrey's tenure. One was ONDCP's allowing television networks to avoid airing anti-drug public service announcements -- which left them more airtime to sell to advertisers -- by incorporating anti-drug messages into their programming. (The deal was exposed by Salon.com; Fleishman-Hillard was responsible for the "outreach to and collaboration with the entertainment industry.")

The other controversy involved an unflattering article in the New Yorker, by Seymour Hersh. The May 2000 article was titled, "Overwhelming Force." It cited evidence that a military action by McCaffrey's unit in Iraq, as part of the first Gulf War, occurred "two days into a ceasefire" and "was not so much a counterattack provoked by enemy fire," as McCaffrey later described it, "as a systematic destruction of Iraqis who were generally fulfilling the requirements of the retreat."

Before the New Yorker article appeared in print, McCaffrey contacted Paul Johnson, who was the head of Fleishman-Hillard's Washington DC office and worked on the ONDCP account. McCaffrey asked Johnson for advice on how to handle the damaging New Yorker piece. Johnson -- who later worked with McCaffrey at Fleishman-Hillard's homeland security practice -- gave him free PR advice, as a "personal favor," stressing that "it never even occurred to" him to bill ONDCP for the time.

The experience might have helped McCaffrey formulate a response to Barstow's Pentagon pundit investigations. McCaffrey apparently discussed a coordinated response with NBC News officials, more than a week before Barstow's latest article appeared. NBC shared with McCaffrey the protests it lodged with Barstow, which called the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter's work "a gross distortion of the truth."

"Very balanced, objective response," McCaffrey emailed back to three NBC contacts, including anchor Brian Williams. "Underscores my view of NBC as an enterprise based on journalistics [sic] ethics--- and courage."

Diane Farsetta is the Center for Media and Democracy's senior researcher. She participated in the "stridently anti-American" National Conference on Media Reform in Minneapolis, on a panel titled, "The Changing Role of Media Critics." She can be reached at: diane@prwatch.org

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