Godalming geek made millions running the Pentagon's propaganda war in Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

December 24, 2005

Godalming geek made millions running the Pentagon's propaganda war in Iraq
By Patrick Foster and Tim Reid in Washington


IT WAS astounding enough for Washington’s political elite: last month they discovered that the man at the heart of a scandal over the planting of US propaganda in Iraqi newspapers was a dapper but unknown 30-year-old Oxford graduate who had somehow managed to land a $100 million Pentagon contract.

What is even more remarkable however, after an investigation by The Times, is that just ten years ago Christian Bailey, whose US company is under investigation for planting fake news stories in Iraqi newspapers, was a nerdy, socially awkward English school-leaver called Jozefowicz.

The transformation of the geeky but ambitious Christian Jozefowicz, who just a few years ago was growing up in a modest terraced house in Godalming, Surrey, to the charming, baby-faced multimillionaire Christian Bailey now rubbing shoulders with some of the most powerful figures in Washington — and who next year will probably face questions on Capitol Hill about his company — is one of the more extraordinary stories to have emerged from the Iraq war.

This month it was revealed that Mr Bailey’s US company, the Lincoln Group, was the recipient of a Pentagon contract to help to fight the information war in Iraq. It then emerged that the company was paying Iraqi journalists to plant optimistic news “stories” in Iraqi papers that had been written by the US military.
(snip/...)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1958479,00.html

[EST]

1. So many crooks, so little time.

The needed scorecard gets bigger and bigger.

[fishnfla]

2. From Godalming geek to war profiteer

pedalling lies about the Iraq war. So the liars pay the liar to spread their lies.

Good work, if you can get it.

[Jane Austin]

12. And with our money, not theirs.

Nice.

[MisterP]

3. by "geek," do they mean a nerd or someone who eats the heads off animals?

or both?

[EuroObserver]

24. Means

what we usually call in the UK a (public (ie. private) schoolboy) pathetic wanker.

n/t

[leftchick]

4. do you have any photos of him Judi Lynn?

I have seen him in video but no stills.

[Tanuki]

5. Here's his pic

courtesy of indymedia:

[Judi Lynn]

6. Thanks for posting his image, Tanuki!

It really looks familiar, doesn't it?

Welcome to D.U.! :hi: :hi: :hi:

On edit:

I looked after seeing the one you found, and found one other. Not so many around, yet:



It was posted with his "credentials" here:
http://www.terrapinn.com/2005/peme/SpeakerList.stm

Mr Christian Bailey,
Executive Vice President,
Lincoln Group

As Executive Vice President, Christian Bailey is responsible for evaluating and structuring investment transactions in Iraq, as well as the development of key partner and co-investor relationships. Investments completed to date range across several sectors including steel reprocessing at six sites near Basra, property in Baghdad, and two brick factories near Erbil.

Lincoln Group also supports DOD in a number of strategic communications campaigns, including the contract for all PR and public outreach for Coalition Forces across Iraq.

Mr. Bailey formerly served as Managing Director at Lincoln Assent Management Group where he led the defense technology private equity group. Previously, Mr. Bailey founded Akaru, an international trade logistics provider which became the largest worldwide in automating customs clearance and settlement and was ultimately acquired by NewChannel in 2001. He subsequently served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at AVF Ventures in Palo Alto, CA where he advised portfolio companies and identified, evaluated and developed emerging technology investments, including sourcing an nurturing spin-outs from Raytheon and Kodak.

Mr. Bailey serves on the boards of DonorsChoose and the Oxonian Society, and as Co-Chairman of Lead21 in New York. He holds a Bachelors and a Masters in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford.
(snip/)

Republicans would be miserably lost without their professional liars.

[UpInArms]

22. more info: US: The Hazy Story of the Lincoln Group

http://www.corpwatch.org/print_article.php?id=12840

It's tough to follow the history of Lincoln Group, a contractor that won a $100 million contract with the Special Operations Command to assist with psychological operations. The common denominator to the firm's history is Christian Bailey, listed on its Web site as executive vice president, capital markets. After graduating from Oxford University in England in the 1990s, Bailey moved to the San Francisco area around 1998, and in 1999, founded Express Action, an e-commerce company he apparently later sold. In the Nov. 15, 2002, issue of HedgeWorld Daily News, Bailey was identified as the founder and chairman of a New York-based hedge fund called Lincoln Asset Management. On March 1, 2003, the Alternative Investment News reported that Lincoln Asset Management had an initial $100 million in commitments to underwrite a leveraged buyout fund to acquire defense and intelligence companies.

<snip>

While the group's current Web site does list noteworthy examples of successful endeavors apparently part of its MNC-I work, some find it curious that a firm set up by two thirty-something guys has come so far so fast. Also giving pause has been the company's apparent tendency to solicit staff by way of internships. And it is curious that records of Bailey's Republican affiliations have disappeared from certain Web sites since the JPSE contract was announced.

Bailey was a founder and active participant in Lead21, a fund-raising and networking operation for affluent young Republicans, some of whom have gone on to serve in the Bush administration. Click on the links to Lead21's site today and no mention of Bailey is to be found. But on a subscriber business and social networking site, there's an archived e-mail of Bailey discussing setting up a New York branch of Lead21, and his "personal network," which lists a half-dozen members of the organization's current board, including the chairman of the California Republican Party and the senior policy adviser to the Justice Department's chief information officer. "These are going to be the big supporters, the big donors to the Republican Party in five years' time," Bailey told The New York Times in an Aug. 31, 2004, video interview during a Lead21 party at the Republican convention in New York.

Neither JPSE nor Lincoln Group responded to verbal or written requests for interviews, but the Project on Government Oversight has reservations. "Any time we see leaders who cultivate political influence for a particular party suddenly receive major government contracts, it sends up red flags," says POGO spokeswoman Beth Daley.

...more at link...

So, just who is Christian Bailey?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article333629.ece

The office building situated at 1420 K Street NW has nothing obvious to commend it other than its prime location. Just a couple of streets from the north-west gates of the White House, it sits in the heart of lobbying land - the K Street corridor that represents one of the most crucial centres of power, influence and money in the United States.

This grey building, neighboured to one side by an off-licence and to the other by a travel agent, is home to the Lincoln Group, a previously little-known "business intelligence" company headed by a heretofore little known young Briton, Christian Bailey, an Oxford graduate and consummate net worker. He is at the centre of a mounting storm of controversy surrounding the Bush administration's covert propaganda war in Iraq.

...more for subscribers only... :(

[EuroObserver]

25. Hmm. MI6 contacts? n/t

ed. O shit, now I'm in trouble :hi:

[UpInArms]

23. interesting info re Iraqex from 2004

http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=8741

Monday, September 27, 2004

excerpt:

Paige Craig, executive vice president of Iraqex, a U.S. firm involved in a range of activities from manufacturing construction materials to "providing logistics" for U.S. forces, disagreed with the general view that the security situation was deteriorating.

"People think it's getting worse because they only pay attention to foreigners (who are being taken hostage and often executed). But it's definitely more secure now than it was" a year ago, he said.

Craig said that in addition to using security guards, his firm's staff engaged in a series of diversionary tactics to ward off potential attackers.

"We keep a low profile, both in dressing and in acting. We change vehicles, switch locations," and run front offices staffed only by Iraqis, he said.

...more...

[SharonAnn]

27. The "Assent Management Group"??? Managing assent??

Or is that a typo???

"Mr. Bailey formerly served as Managing Director at Lincoln Assent Management Group ..."


I just think that's funny. "Managing Assent" reminds me of "Manufacturing Consent".

[leftchick]

8. you should have seen the video I saw of him in DC

it was amazing. I wish there were more photos of this guy. Thank you for posting this because this guy does not want to be seen. For a reason.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Thanks for the news he may be seen on tv. I want to see that video now. nt

[thebigidea]

7. pretty fucking weird to see "geek" used in a newspaper headline

pretty fucking stupid, too. "Dork Set to Lead GM in 4th Quarter."
"Big Schmo Found Guilty of Mail Fraud."
"Former Dickweed in Calliope Shock-Horror."

[Judi Lynn]

9. Seems too casual for my taste! n/t

[stevedeshazer]

11. And not just any geek

A Godalming geek.

[nookiemonster]

17. That's nothing but a Godalming shame.

Sorry, you know it was coming.

:)

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. "Idiot Bastard Son of 41st US President Screws the Pooch Again"

;)

[saigon68]

21. Here he IS

[anotherdrew]

13. so - I wonder which Repigs are screwing this guy?

he's clearly a "made" man, with some nasty behind the scenes helpers. What do you suppose he brings to the table?

[leftchick]

20. I thought you mean't literally, like the boy toy Jeff Gannon

This Bailey character seems to be another Jeff.

[anotherdrew]

28. I did

but upon more investigation it looks like he might have gotten where he is mostly by his own work. The deal is still crooked - I'd love to see how much of that 100million dollars, of which they probably spent so far less than 1 (not like they were paying a lot to the iraqi newspapers), how much of that money got donated to rethuglicans? Still, I wouldn't be surprised to find he had a 'chaperon' thru the bidding process...

[Botany]

14. Fun Facts about Mr. Bailey and his Lincoln Group

They just happened to get their offices @ 1130 17th St. NW Washington, D.C. 20036 which is next
door to American Enterprise Institute @ 1150 17th St NW Washington, D.C. 20036 which in Suite
510 of 1150 17th St NW Washington, D.C. 20036 happens to be the home of Project for a New
American Century http://www.newamericancentury.org/

Also the Lincoln Group turns out to be a very successful little money laundering organization
for the repugs "They" get a 100 million $ contract from the DOD and in turn the principals
of the company turn around a give large chunks of money to the RNC, bush/cheney 04, PACs,
Congressional Races, and right wing "organizations." So tax money goes to the Lincoln Group
and comes back all clean and into republican coffers.

He and his organization were set up and planned out a long time ago ...... Mr. Bailey is just
the front man.

BTW we are paying money so as to the Iraqis about Iraq?

[teryang]

18. this is how the Pentagon channels money directly to the party

it's straight corruption and direct military interference in the electoral process.

[leftchick]

30. no such thing as a coincidence with this crew

Can you imagine if we had plain old fashioned investigative reporting left in this country?

[Miss Chybil]

16. Meanwhile people are getting cold in Chicago... nt

[Peace Patriot]

19. If John Cleese can rescind the Declaraton of Independence, due to the

fact that we have not become responsible adults, then I think we should start considering rescinding free speech rights for most Republicans. Really, I'm just about ready for a Demcratic dictator to come in and strip them all of their citizenship rights, and render them to Guantanamo Bay. So just shutting them up--forbidding them speech, and amending the Constitution for the lily-livered among us who want everything to be nice and legal--would be a mild measure, considering what they deserve.

We need a special category for these people--like "enemy combatant." Enemy Republican? Make them wear a red letter "E." And ban their party.

(Not that our own isn't collusive and corrupt. It damn well is. What say--after we've restored our right to vote, that our Dem Party leaders gave away to Bushite corporations to tabulate our votes with "trade secret," proprietary programming code--we outlaw both parties, and start over?)

[thebigidea]

26. John Cleese never wrote that unfunny drivel, by the way

[0007]

29. When are the people of this country going say, "I've had enough"

Will this story every make the buzz in our media? I doubt it!

I'm more than pissed. Everyday it is something new.