I just started reading Weapons of Mass Deception, by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, of the Center for Media & Democracy. For those who don’t know who these guys are, they’re two of the few watchdogs of the PR industry, and their latest book looks at the PR campaign to sell the Iraq war to the American people and the world. Through meticulous documentation and witty verbiage, Stauber and Rampton — unlike Ann Coulter — document instance after instance in which the drive to oust Saddam Hussein was packaged, marketed and sold. With no return policy.
I’m still early into the book, but in the second chapter, I came across a startling revelation.
Who remembers Paul Moran, a television cameraman on assignment for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in northern Iraq? He was killed March 22, 2003 by a suicide car bomb at a PUK checkpoint by an alleged member of Ansar al-Islam.
It seems there may have been more to Moran than meets the eye. In addition to his work as a cameraman, he was also “a self-described crusader for the Kurdish people in northern Iraq.” He helped an Iraqi scientist and his family defect. And most important, as the obituary in his hometown paper, the Adelaide Advertiser, notes, he was also involved in work for the Rendon Group, an American public relations firm.
Who is the Rendon Group? Stauber and Rampton reveal that in October 2001, the Pentagon awarded the Rendon Group a $397,000 contract “to handle PR aspects of the U.S. military strike in Afghanistan.” They further write that in February 2002, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon was using the Rendon Group to help it with the Office of Strategic Influence (OSI). You remember that office, don’t you? It was the the office the DoD hastily — and noisily — disbanded after the Times reported that it would provide foreign reporters with “news items, possibly even false ones.” The Office was met with outrage by journalistic organizations around the world.
Why the outrage? Because it would have endangered journalists by tainting them with Pentagon disinformation; it would have undermined the fledgling media in other countries; because it was almost a foregone conclusion that the American media would have picked up a false story intended for the foreign press; and because it’s just damn undemocratic.
Rendon’s contract wasn’t cancelled, however, the authors say. “Let me just say that we have a confidentiality/nondisclosure agreement in place” with the DoD, said company spokeswoman Jeanne Sklarz.
Getting back to Moran, the Advertiser points out that “Company founder John Rendon flew from the US to attend Mr Moran’s funeral in Adelaide.”
“A close friend, Rob Buchan, said the presence of Mr Rendon — an adviser to the US National Security Council — illustrated the regard in which Mr. Moran was held in U.S. political circles, including the Congress.”
Oh, and another, minor, point that Stauber and Rampton point out: In 1992, the Rendon Group helped organize the Iraqi National Congress. The PR firm, in fact, came up with the name and channeled $12 million in CIA funds to the group between 1992 and 1996. In October 1992, John Rendon chose one of his protégés, Ahmed Chalabi, to head the group.
Just to be clear: Paul Moran, a “journalist” who was killed in northern Iraq was working for the same people who helped found the INC and an office of disinformation that was “disbanded” but apparently kept contracts going long enough to hire Moran and get him into northern Iraq — more than a year after the Office was officially shuttered.
My point is not to disparage Moran or to somehow insinuate he deserved to die. I’m not at all. But I have to admit that I cast a very skeptical glance at his connections to Rendon and his activism for the Kurds — so much that PUK Prime Minister Barham Salih said in a letter that a statue would be erected in Moran’s honor. I have to wonder why a serious journalistic organization such as the Australian Broadcasting Corp. would hire someone with ties to any PR firm, much less one with such tight ties to the U.S. government and the war effort. (Interestingly, the ABC story on Moran makes no mention of his involvement with Rendon.)
I have to wonder why the founder of the Rendon Group would come to a freelancer’s funeral — in the middle of a war, no less. But most of all, if Moran was working for Rendon Group at the time of his death, as John Rendon’s visit strongly suggests, does that mean the suspicions held by many in the blogosphere that the OSI was never shut down at all were right? And if that’s true, who else in the field might be working for that “disbanded” Office of Strategic Influence?
UPDATE: Hm. Found this transcript from the DoD dated Nov. 18, 2002. It was made while Rumsfeld was en route to Chile for a hemisphere defense meeting. The section that pertains to this issue reads thusly:
And then there was the office of strategic influence. You may recall that. And “oh my goodness gracious isn’t that terrible, Henny Penny the sky is going to fall.” I went down that next day and said fine, if you want to savage this thing fine I’ll give you the corpse. There’s the name. You can have the name, but I’m gonna keep doing every single thing that needs to be done and I have.
That was intended to be done by that office is being done by that office, NOT by that office in other ways.
Now, that certainly sounds like Rumsfeld just admitted that the OSI was still alive in function if not in its old office. And it means Moran was likely not acting as a journalist when he died, but in some other function. I don’t know what it was, but if he was presenting himself as a journalist while working in some other capacity, he was endangering every other journalist in Iraq. This was — and is — a central argument to making it illegal for the CIA to recruit journalists as spies. Terry Anderson, former Beirut bureau chief for the Associated Press, was held hostage in Lebanon for nearly seven years because Islamic militants falsely accused him of being a spy.
This cynical use of journalists is wrong. Journalists, when they’re doing their job, are not only agents of their readers, wriggling their way into situations like Iraq where their readers can’t or won’t go, but they’re also agents of the body politic when they demand answers of the policy makers. Truth matters. Lying to a journalist or using journalists as spies or disinformation conduits is wrong and it subverts democracy because it clogs the media outlets — the circulatory system of the body politic — with crap.
But journalists aren’t off the hook either. Moran should not have worked for Rendon and ABC at the same time. He should have chosen whether to be a Rendon employee and a Kurdish activist or a journalist. The ABC should not have hired him, frankly. At the very least, the broadcaster should have made his ties to Rendon Group public so his viewers could make up their own mind as to his credibility. Journalists should flatly refuse to accept money or work for any group that could lead sources to suspect the reporter is not what he or she seems. It’s one thing for a reporter and a CIA bureau chief to swap information — that happens all the time and it’s probably not so bad. It’s quite another to be on the CIA’s or the Pentagon’s payroll.
Damn. That is strong stuff. I wouldn’t be surprised at all, NOT at all, that there are many such distasteful things going on behind the scenes. Power is dangerous - always has been, always will be…
I would be not really surprised about the further existence of the OSI. It seems to be of major strategic interest to have such a “desinformation” office in operation. Not hard to believe but hard to stand.
I’m from Adelaide — in fact, my brother-in-law went to school with Moran. His story, and the story of his connection to Rendon, were on the front page of The Advertiser (repulsive Murdoch rag).
Yes! That’s Adelaide SA, where Rupe’s Daddy gave him his first newspaper to play with!
Yay!
The first time I heard of Rendon and Iraq was about two months ago on Dutch or Belgian TV. An English or American documentary stated without any preservation that the toppling of Saddam’s statue and the ‘mistake’ of the American soldiers putting an American flag on Saddam’s head was all orchestrated by Rendon.
Thanks for the story. It was a good read. Sadly, the blogosphere is the only place we will see this. I highly doubt that any American media outlet would pick this up.
This thing just stinks worse by the day, don’t you think? Seems like everyone touched by the current US high level officials turns rotten. I would love to read more of Rummy’s insider comments on the stuff he and the Bush regime have been pulling, possibly a diary. Wonder if he keeps one? (Given the high regard in which he holds his every move and thought, I would expect him to have meticulous and complete journals from the age of 3 or so.) I also wonder how much more of the Bush admin’s shady, lying antics the American public can ignore. Thanks for the update.
This is very dangerous stuff. The press and it’s freedom are one of the mainstays of democracy. Maybe democracy does not exist anymore at all. Maybe.
Einstein said to beware of the mass meida, [not press freedom.]…in the 1930’s.
Very scary.
There is this abundance of information demanding the attention of so many.
Perhaps I am jumping over the edge with the following statement. But I see the day when those presenting the news (I don’t think I would refer to them as journalists at that point.) are live from the battle field with their Pepsi hats and covered head to toe in corporte crests like a nascar driver.
Even MediaWatch, presented by anti-Iraq-war host David Marr, claims Paul was the subject of half-baked allegations.
What exactly has been proven about Paul?
Just to be clear: Paul Moran, a “journalist” who was killed in northern Iraq was working for the same people who helped found the INC and an office of disinformation
An alleged office involving alleged disinformation.
The government helped found the INC and attempted to create the OSI. So Paul would be in the same category as your average government employee.
My point is not to disparage Moran or to somehow insinuate he deserved to die. I’m not at all.
Then shut the hell up until you have solid evidence. Do not speak ill of the dead.
The only things that have been proven is that he is sympathetic to the Kurds, and has had more than one job.
Why is this a capital crime when CNN can get away with deciding not to report the torture of their own employees in order not to offend Saddam?
Oh, the link to the mediawatch story was http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s832032.htm
Agree 100% with Andjam’s last statement. There is bias and deception on both sides of the issue in spades.
Oh, and I love the sense of “personal responsibility.” IF the allegations are true, at worst, this suggests Moran was a corruptible journalist. That’s it. Moran alone is responsible for his ethics.
And, I might add, I am not 100% sure that his choices were bad. Journalism is an extraordinarily important service to the free world - true enough. But it is not the only service, or the highest service one can hope to offer. Perhaps Moran believed that his abilities were better served in the capacity he chose.
Just for the record: I think CNN compromised itself irrevocably when it held back stories of Saddam’s brutality. However, I stand by my statement that journalists should not to try to serve two masters.
By the way, were you trying to imply or insinuate that Paul Moran is a liar or is into misinformation Chris? (I think I found that a bit hurtful).
I don’t think I was “insinuating” anything — I said it flat out. If Moran was working for Rendon but passing himself off as a journalist, then yeah, he was lying and he was engaging in misinformation. You don’t think it the least bit curious that John Rendon, president of the Rendon Group — which still lists the DoD as a client on its Web site — attended a freelance subcontractor’s funeral while one of his biggest clients was fighting a war?
And you don’t think it curious that Moran’s friend Rob Buchan said this to the Advertiser?
‘A close friend, Rob Buchan, said the presence of Mr Rendon — an adviser to the US National Security Council — illustrated the regard in which Mr Moran was held in US political circles, including the Congress.
‘“The fact that Mr Rendon took the time to fly out here during what must be an incredibly busy time for him shows just how highly Paul was regarded,” he said.’
So I don’t think I need to connect too many dots to come to the reasonable conclusion that Moran was not the simple cameraman for ABC as he was presented in the press.
Right now, most journalists who are killed in war zones are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. They’re usually not targeted for being journalists. But if it’s OK for Moran to call himself a journalist while working for the Rendon Group or the U.S. government, then they will be targeted, because serving two masters like that endangers every journalist covering a war. Soldiers could assume every journalist is a spy or something similar.
Regardless of what role Moran was playing northern Iraq, I don’t think he was targeted. I think it was tragic, bad luck to be at that checkpoint when the car bomb went off. And I’m sorry for it. Like I said, he didn’t deserve to die for what his job was. No one does.
But if he wanted to be a Kurdish activist or support the war effort, he shouldn’t have done it posing as a journalist. He could have chosen some other profession as a cover. It’s better for him and for the other journalists, like myself.
I listen to the ABC’s Radio National most of my waking hours & so far as I recall the coverage of the Moran story there claimed that the ABC had no knowledge at all of Moran’s involvement with the Rendon group until the Adelaide Advertiser story. Perhaps I’m wrong, perhaps the ABC should have checked Moran’s background more thoroughly. I believe the ABC places a very high value on journolistic credibility & that leads me to believe they probably would not have employed him if those connections were known to them.
I don’t think I was “insinuating” anything — I said it flat out. If Moran was working for Rendon but passing himself off as a journalist, then yeah, he was lying and he was engaging in misinformation.
I meant in my question whether you alleged he was sending out false coverage, not whether he was being honest with who he worked for.
So I don’t think I need to connect too many dots to come to the reasonable conclusion that Moran was not the simple cameraman for ABC as he was presented in the press.
Foreign correspondent had an article on Paul Moran, including the following
“The only people who want journalists there are the Kurds themselves, a largely forgotten people who are grateful to have journalists there and were particularly grateful to have Paul there because Paul had been there a number of times during the nineties when the rest of the world wasn’t interested in what the Kurds were doing. He is remembered by the Kurdish people as a martyr, he was very widely known, he had a passion for the place and he went back there despite the dangers because he really felt that that was a story that needed to be told and he wanted to be there at the end if this was going to be the end of the oppression of the Kurds by Saddam Hussein.”
and later
“Paul was there because he really believed in this story and really wanted it told and I think of all the journalists who were there, he was in a way in a special category”
and
“ERIC CAMPBELL: The whole time, the whole time. I mean I’ve worked with some wonderful cameramen, I had a wonderful cameramen in China where I’m based, Sebastian Phua who died two days before I left on this trip and Paul was very similar to Sebastian; a very bright, sunny, enthusiastic, tireless, dedicated person who had, like Sebastian Phua, a great affinity for people and cared for people more than for the politics, more than the drama – he really cared about the ordinary people and that was his love of this story to be able to see what was happening to Kurds, not what was happening in the Pentagon and the briefings, but to actually be on the ground with people and that’s where he got his great joy and that’s where it was reciprocated and that’s why he is remembered by the Kurds, not just as a foreign journalist who was there, but as someone who had cared enough to be there so many times over the past decade and had cared enough to go there and risk his life to tell the story again.”
The media didn’t describe him as your average journalist. Because he isn’t your average journalist, in that he was a veteran reporter of what was happening in Iraqi Kurdistan.
If he’s some bought and paid for propagandist who doesn’t care about the Kurds then he’s pulled off one of the most convincing con acts in modern time.
Soldiers could assume every journalist is a spy or something similar.
Someone providing journalism that is unfavourable to Saddam? Yes. A journalist possibly biased against Saddam? Perhaps. A spy? No way.
But if he wanted to be a Kurdish activist or support the war effort, he shouldn’t have done it posing as a journalist.
John Pilger and Robert Fisk are described as journalists, aren’t they?
False news? Completely made up information? PR firms paid to set up lies?
So, the iraki soldiers didn’t killed 312 babys in a Kowait hospital just before the Gulf War?
Read this nov 2002 Asia Times article:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DK13Ak01.html
I am the ABC reporter who was working with Paul Moran when he was killed. The immense grief his family is suffering has been compounded by the unending repetition of false claims about him on the internet.
It is probably too late to repair the damage, but in the interests of decency, people should recognise the following:
Paul’s assignment for the ABC in northern Iraq Iraq was as my cameraman. He was not the reporter. It is absurd and wrong to say there was a conflict of interest.
Paul was not working for the Rendon Group at the same time. He was never any employee of the Rendon Group. Like many freelance journalists, he did occasional audio visual production work Rendon and other PR companies.
His work was never propaganda. It was corporate videos, news webs-sites, and in the case of his original work in Kurdistan, production and training work to help the Kurds set up a TV station.
He rightly felt sympathy for the plight of Kurdish civilians after seeing the suffering they had been through under Saddam Hussein. He felt the media should do more to report this, as well as many other issues he felt strongly about such as the plight of refugees and asylum seekers. There is no contradiction between that and his work as a cameraman or reporter for such broadcasters as the BBC and ABC.
He obtained the interview with an Iraqi defector through a contact at the INC he had worked with in Kurdistan. That is not sinister. It is how journalists get stories.
Paul never made any secret about his freelance production work. He simply did it to pay the bills betwen broadcast assignments, like any other freelancer.
He was a man of great integrity who was widely loved. The fact that John Rendon came to his funeral in Adelaide, along with dozens of others from around the world who had worked with him, is simply a reflection of that.
Go ahead and criticise the INC, the CIA, the Pentagon, whoever. But do not make Paul the villain, because he wasn’t.
He took on a risky assignment to work for the ABC during the war Kurdistan because he believed the Kurds were an important part of the story. He was disdainful of journalists who just got news from press briefings, believing they should always go to where the story was. He paid for this with his life.
Eric Campbell
Reporter
ABC TV