The Man Who Sold the War

Submitted by Laura Miller on

While the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence drags its feet on discovering how the White House sold the Iraq war, journalist James Bamford has written a major expose on one of the key players: John Rendon. In his Rolling Stone story "The Man Who Sold the War," Bamford traces the development of Rendon and his firm The Rendon Group (TRG) from Democratic Party organizer to Kuwaiti liberator to secretive Pentagon propagandist-for-hire. In a rare interview, Rendon "boasted openly" to Bamford of "the sweep and importance of his firm's efforts as a for-profit spy." One example of TRG's work is the story of Iraqi exile Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, who claimed Saddam Hussein had tons of biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. The fact that al-Haideri failed CIA polygraph tests didn't stop TRG from giving Judith Miller the print exclusive interview. "Her front-page story, which hit the stands on December 20th, 2001, was exactly the kind of exposure Rendon had been hired to provide," Bamford writes.

Main Source: 
Rolling Stone, November 17, 2005
Topics: 
Iraq
Propaganda
Public Relations
U.S. Government

Comments

Laura Miller replied on

The Rendon Groups posted a [http://www.rendon.com/letter.php letter-to-the-editor] on its website claiming the firm had "no role whatsoever in making the case for the Iraq war, here at home or internationally." The firm also lists several bullet points of "corrections" to Bamford's story. Bullet point number two states, "... Mr. Bamford incorrectly writes that TRG worked for the controversial Defense Department Office of Strategic Influence. The former director of that office himself has publicly confirmed in the Chicago Tribune that the Rendon Group had nothing to do with the Office of Strategic Influence as Mr. Bamford falsely asserts."

[http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/003117.html War and Piece]'s Laura Rozen writes, "In fact, if you read that bolded line closely, you'll see, this is not a denial at all. It is a statement that someone else has issued a denial. (Hey, Rendon doesn't get paid $300 an hour for nothing). It's also worth noting that that someone else who issued a denial, [[Douglas Feith]], no longer works at the Pentagon and his office's activities are now the subject of a DoD Inspector General investigation."

rmstock replied on

As all the info coming to us is mostly in online articles and videos, The White House outsourced propaganda to company's like The Rendon Group. As no-one is able to visit the place of terrorist attacks to make a independent report, faking news is a easy task. Add the fact that Bush & Co. are a fascist group, propagating false propaganda using forged documents like the yellow cake stuff becomes a evil nightmare. James Bamford wrote a couple of articles about the Rendon Group. John Rendon and the U.S. propoganda . I think this goes even further, like the ultimate "1984" scenario, The Infowar Techniques of the Rendon Group: a possible theory : http://crashrecovery.org/rendon/

Paul Rouse replied on

Anybody who has taken an interest in Ahmad Chalabi, John Rendon, Judith Miller and their links to Paul Moran, the Australian news cameraman killed in Iraq, may be interested in my interpretation of the story – a screenplay based on the life of Paul Moran.

For more details see http://acharmedlifemovie.blogspot.com

I have also written a background article on Paul Moran’s involvement with the WMD affair. If this is of interest, email me at paulrouse@bluebottle.com for a copy.

I am a freelance journalist who has spent a considerable amount of time in the Middle East, and knew Paul Moran well.