Ari Fleischer and Freedom's Watch $200 Million PR Campaign to "Attack Iran"

[T.Ruth2power]

Ari Fleischer To Run $200 Million "Attack Iran" PR Push
by Troutfishing
Wed Oct 17, 2007 at 09:07:32 AM PDT

If I had bothered to label Freedom's Watch an "extremist political group" that would have raised all sorts of problems, because that term might apply to an entire menagerie of organizations working to build up a PR climate conducive to a US military attack on Iran :
"Christians United Israel", AIPAC, Focus On The Family, The Institute On Religion and Democracy, The Trinity Broadcasting Network, The DayStar Broadcasting Network, The Family Research Council...

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But $200 million dollars , the fund raising target of Freedom's Watch, is nothing to sneeze at given the fact that that pot of money will be dedicated to promoting one goal:

A US attack on Iran or, to put it blackly, more - and better ( or worse, depending on one's perspective ) - war in the Middle East.

Guess who is running the operation ? Ari Fleischer, the man who helped sell the US invasion of Iraq.

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Here is Berkowitz's lead in (sans links):

If the U.S. undertakes military action against Iran, you can credit such longtime neoconservatives as Norman Podhoretz, William Kristol, Michael Ledeen and the swarm of ideologues buzzing about Washington's right wing think tanks. You can also credit Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United for Israel, a Christian Zionist outfit with unbending support for Israel. And credit also the billionaire and multimillionaire founders of Freedom's Watch for helping smooth the way....

Later this month, Freedom's Watch will sponsor a forum of some 20 experts on "radical Islam" that, according to a front page story in the New York Times, "is expected to make the case that Iran poses a direct threat to the security of the United States."

The forum is being "organized with the American Enterprise Institute"

Berkowitz quotes PR Watch's John Stauber on the new group's top shelf PR managerial talent:

"It should be remembered that Freedom's Watch is run by a White House PR flack who was key to selling that last war. It is the same script, same images, same messages, and same players. And it is likely to provoke the same response from the mainstream media."

Freedom's Watch is no paper tiger. The group already has run a $15 million dollar ad campaign to rally American public support for the Bush Administration's (now failed) "Surge" in Iraq, and those ads features the same sort of shamelessly deceptive propagandistic TV ads that make a strong case for new legislation that would prevent nonprofit groups ( Freedom's Watch is a 501c(4) from promoting blatant lies ) ;

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--Michael Ledeen

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/17/111311/39