Fear Campaign Timed to Support Iraq War
Dear friends,
WantToKnow.info received the below email last week from Dan Forbes, an excellent journalist who has appeared in many key publications. As the information he shared in this email was most informative and interesting, I'm passing it on to you. Have a great day!
With best wishes,
Fred
Dear Folks:
Just encountered your site. Any link,
dissemination, discussion is much appreciated.
First, a bit on myself, just FYI: I've
testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives at two
of the four congressional hearings which my award-winning journalism directly
caused. And I've published in Slate, MSNBC, Salon, The Village Voice, Rolling
Stone, Reason, The Nation.com, TomPaine.com, Newsday, Alternet, Wired News,
New York Press and The Progressive Review. Though I'm a freelancer,
I ended up appearing on ABC, FOX, CNN, the BBC and NPR, and actually helping
to curtail a covert, federal propaganda program.
This followed my disclosure in Salon
that the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) provided
hundreds of thousands of dollars of financial incentives per episode to the
TV networks for government-dictated anti-drug scripts. The networks' total haul
was over $22 million. I quoted named consultants who promulgated specific
changes in specific shows at the government's behest. My disclosures prompted
more than 100 articles and broadcasts, including next-day, front-page
coverage nationwide, and editorials condemning the practice I outlined.
Below are the initial few paragraphs and
URL to a national scoop I hope you can feature on your site. This proves that
the Dept. of Homeland Security delayed launching $226 million in advertising
until a month before bombs fell on Baghdad. Shrouded in a public health
message, the campaign was four times bigger than its largest non-government,
non-state security competitor for donated time and space. It featured Tom
Ridge instructing the public that every family in the land is at risk of
attack, and that every American needs to be engaged in supporting the coming
war on terrorism. Though Americans were at risk throughout 2002, the ads only
appeared just before the Iraq invasion.
This article can be found at: http://www.antiwar.com/forbes/?articleid=2679
$226 Million in Govt Ads Helped Pave the Way
for War
by Daniel
Forbes
"To ultimately be the victor in the war against terrorism, we need
all Americans to be engaged."– DHS Secretary, Tom Ridge
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge found
this exhortation so fine, he used it in two of the radio and television ads
that American broadcasters donated in 2003 to DHS for its ostensible
terrorism preparedness campaign. Curiously, though the threat to America had
been manifest for some 17 months, the government didn't launch its social
marketing campaign until February 2003, less than a month before bombs
started falling on Baghdad.
Whether tardy or oh so timely, at $226 million last year, this bellicose DHS
campaign received more than twice as much donated time and space as the
largest nonprofit ad campaign the year before.
Bellicose? Wasn't this the "Ready" campaign much beloved by Leno
and Letterman for pushing duct tape on a scornful public? Yet, consider
another line that Ridge liked so much he repeated it in two of the ads:
"Terrorism forces us to make a choice: We can be afraid, or we can be
ready." One short ad featuring this statement from Ridge included
little else. Stock up on water and batteries sure. But don't just stand there
quivering in fear, somebody do something – something preemptive.
Ridge also informed us that, "Every family in America should prepare
itself for terrorist attack." If indeed every family is vulnerable –
and if Saddam was linked to the terrorists, as the administration maintained
– then surely our government must do something proactive, something involving
jets and tanks. Well, wait a scant month America, for as Bush's designated
terror czar promised: "We're asking America to be ready – and we will
be ready."
Be ready, for time was short. Though the ads were planned as far back as at
least May 2002 – and they employed simple public health maxims of
long-standing – there was no perceived need to rush them out despite every
reason to fear another attack throughout 2002. Instead, under the overall
direction of Bush cabinet official Tom Ridge, the ads were always scheduled
for early 2003, as was, apparently, the start of the war on Iraq.
Two private entities and an agency George W. Bush created in the Executive
Office of the President joined forces creating the campaign. The Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation contributed both advice and between $3 and $4 million to the
effort. The Ad Council helped shepherd it on to the nations' airwaves, as
it's done for nonprofit advertising campaigns since WWII.
Sloan's president, Ralph Gomory, said that OHS (Office of Homeland Security –
predecessor to the DHS), Sloan and the Ad Council agreed to the effort in May
2002 and planned to hit the airwaves in January 2003. Regarding the actual
launch in February, Gomory said, "We slipped by one month."
Given the broadcasters' huge donation, this information was obviously deemed
important to the public's well-being. So why the many month delay? There
was no perceived need to immediately push something on to the nation's
airwaves, however rushed and therefore aesthetically less than pristine. No.
Dilly and dally until the time was deemed right – some 17 months after 9/11.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Many thanks for your time and consideration,
Daniel Forbes
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