PR Watch editors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber have written a new book, titled Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq. Available in bookstores on July 28, Weapons of Mass Deception will be the first book to expose the aggressive public relations campaign used to sell the American public on the war with Iraq. Journalists and book reviewers should email our office to request a review copy.

The Rendon Group, a secretive PR firm whose government clients have included the Pentagon, the CIA, and USAID, has gone to work for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, trade publication O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. The Washington D.C.-based firm is providing "strategic communications counsel, media analysis and consultation support services" to the Joint Chiefs, combatant commanders and top military advisors.

Columnist Paul Krugman writes that "the public was told that Saddam posed an imminent threat. If that claim was fraudulent, the selling of the war is arguably the worst scandal in American political history - worse than Watergate, worse than Iran-contra. Indeed, the idea that we were deceived into war makes many commentators so uncomfortable that they refuse to admit the possibility. But here's the thought that should make those commentators really uncomfortable. Suppose that this administration did con us into war. And suppose that it is not held accountable for its deceptions, so Mr.