What the Pentagon Pundits Were Selling on the Side

[FourScore]

What the Pentagon Pundits Were Selling on the Side: Propaganda Meets Corporate Lobbying
by Diane Farsetta

The Pentagon launched its covert media analyst program in 2002, to sell the Iraq war. Later, it was used to sell an image of progress in Afghanistan, whitewash the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and defend the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping, as David Barstow reported in his New York Times expose.

But the pundits weren’t just selling government talking points. As Robert Bevelacqua, William Cowan and Carlton Sherwood enjoyed high-level Pentagon access through the analyst program, their WVC3 Group sought “contracts worth tens of millions to supply body armor and counterintelligence services in Iraq,” reported Barstow. Cowan admitted to “push hard” on a WVC3 contract, during a Pentagon-funded trip to Iraq.

Then there’s Pentagon pundit Robert H. Scales Jr. The military firm he co-founded in 2003, Colgen, has an interesting range of clients, from the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations Command, to Pfizer and Syracuse University, to Fox News and National Public Radio.

Of the 27 Pentagon pundits named publicly to date, six are registered as federal lobbyists. That’s in addition to the less formal — and less transparent — boardroom to war-room influence peddling described above. (There are “more than 75 retired officers” who took part in the Pentagon program overall, according to Barstow.)

The Pentagon pundits’ lobbying disclosure forms help chart what can only be called a military-industrial-media complex. They also make clear that war is very good for at least some kinds of business.

Some Disclosures We Would Have Liked to See

Fox News analyst Timur J. Eads works for the military contractor Blackbird Technologies. His job title there, “vice-president of government relations,” is often used to describe someone who crafts lobbying strategies but may not take part in lobbying meetings. So, it’s not surprising that Eads isn’t listed on Blackbird’s lobbying disclosure forms. (In 2007 and 2008, Blackbird lobbied Congress on “communications technologies” and the National Guard on “information systems.”)

SNIP

...Fellow CBS commentator Joseph W. Ralston is the last publicly named Pentagon pundit with a significant stack of of lobbying disclosure forms. “Soon after signing with CBS, General Ralston was named vice chairman of the Cohen Group, a consulting firm headed by a former defense secretary, William Cohen, himself now a ‘world affairs’ analyst for CNN,” reported Barstow.

Not surprisingly, Ralston’s lobbying clients include major military contractors. In 2006, he lobbied the Defense Department on “issues related to export of tactical fighter aircraft and defense technology,” for Lockheed Martin; and the State Department on “federal funding of demilitarization efforts abroad,” for General Dynamics. In 2006 and 2007, Ralston helped Fischer Properties identify “military family housing opportunities,” and Pratt & Whitney find “market opportunities for military aircraft engines...”

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/03/8685/

[blm]

1. They were crucial to the 2004 campaign to protect Bush, too. A key attack for Kerry was on ToraBora

and Bush's major league blunders there. Also concerning Kerry's military strategies to stabilize Iraq and bring in NATO and UN to takeover the mission of restoring it to the Iraqi people was constantly attacked by these 'analysts' who treated his startegy as unrealistic.

[rainy]

2. This is blatant criminal behavior. nt

[fascisthunter]

3. Everyone on that List Should Be Indicted

And yes, we should first have a MASSIVE investigation.....


I will be posting this elsewhere.

[rucky]

4. It's about time we looked into these shills. n/t

[htuttle]

5. This is classic Mussolini-style facism

The current DC crowd is operating like a huge, fantastically rich Mafia.

These generals are like made men.