Reply #18: Robertson and North have an interesting history... [View All]

[MinM]

dating back to Nicaraguan 'Death Squads' and PsyOps:

"Nicaragua Freedom Fund"

Following this advice to the letter, the White House brought together a coalition of "retired" military men and right-wing millionaires to support the "Nicaragua Freedom Fund," chaired by Wall Street investment executive William Simon. Contributors included famlllar rlght-wing figures like TV evangelist Pat Robertson, Colorado beer baron Joseph Coors, oil magnate Nelson Bunker Hunt, singer Pat Boone, and Soldier of Fortune magazine. The Fund claimed to raise over $20 million through activities such as a $250-a-plate "Nlcaraguan refugee" dinner in April 1985 attended by Casey and Slmon and featuring a speech by Reagan. In reality, the Fund was a propaganda front, spending almost as much money as it raised. An audit of the "refugee dinner" showed it had raised $219,525 but costs totaled $218,376, including $116,938 in "consulting fees."

The main purpose of the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund was to divert attention from the covert channels through which real money flowed to the contras in violation of the Boland Amendment. One of those channels was a specialized PR firm, International Business Communications, which pleaded guilty in 1987 to fraud by using a tax-exempt foundation to raise funds to arm the contras. It had been a profitable business, according to the Iran/Contra congressional investigating committee, which concluded that IBC had kept about $1.7 million of the $5 million it channeled to the contras.
The other part of the PR plan-setting up a "communications function within the White House"-put Raymond at the head of a newly created "Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America and the Caribbean.'' "Public diplomacy" was simply another synonym for public relations. In its first year alone, reported Parry and Kornbluh the activities of the OPD included "booking more than 1,500 speak mg engagements, including radio, television, and editorial board interviews; publishing three booklets on Nicaragua, and distributing materials to 1,600 college libraries, 520 political science faculties, 122 editorial writers, and 107 religious organizations. Special attention was given to prominent journalists." In 1985, for example, a memo by OPD staffer Otto Reich described using a "cut-out" (someone whose tie to the OPD was concealed) to set up visits by contra leader Alfonso Robelo to news organizations including Hearst Newspapers Newsweek, Scripps-Howard Newspapers, the editorial board of the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN, the "MacNeil-Lehrer Report," the "Today Show" and CBS Morning News.

In private memos to the National Security Council, the OPD boasted also of having "killed" news stories that contradicted the Reagan administration's public position on Nicaragua, using tactics that included intimidation and character assassination of journalists. Using $400,000 raised from private donors, the OPD funded organizations such as Accuracy In Media, a right-wing organization that vigorously attacked journalists who criticized Reagan's foreign policy. In July 1985, the OPD itself helped spread a scurrilous story that some American reporters had received sexual favors from Sandinista prostitutes in return for writing slanted stories...

*Toxic Sludge is Good for You* -about PR in Media - Democratic Underground

Know your BFEE: The Fellowship ‘Preys’ for America - Democratic Underground