Stealth Campaign for Stealth Fighter Jets [1]
Submitted by Diane Farsetta [2] on
From PreserveRaptorJobs.com [3]PreserveRaptorJobs.com [3] is "a one-page site that urges visitors to write President Obama [4] in support" of the F-22 Raptor, a $340 million stealth fighter jet Defense Secretary Gates [5] has said is not useful in the so-called war on terror [6]. PreserveRaptorJobs.com disagrees. "American jobs, national security, and billions of dollars [are] at stake," warns the website, which is promoted on banner ads on WashingtonPost.com "and other DC-oriented websites." The website doesn't say who's behind it, but it "sits on the servers of DC-area public relations firm Democracy Data & Communications [7]," writes Noah Shachtman. The firm, a member of the Public Affairs Council [8], sets up "grassroots [9]" campaigns for corporate clients, including Ford [10], Microsoft [11] and Fannie Mae [12]. In 2006, the PR firm conducted an international conference on "the role of technology" in "expanding and strengthening democracy," which staffers from the U.S. government-funded International Republican Institute [13] and National Democratic Institute for International Affairs [14] addressed by satellite hook-up, live from Baghdad, Iraq [15].