Bin Laden's Kin Still Looking for a PR Firm

PR Week reported on October 1 that family members of Osama bin Laden went shopping for a PR firm shortly after September 11 to help distance themselves from their terrorist relative, whom they claim to have disinherited several years ago. Steven Goldstein and his firm, Attention America, was approached by one of bin Laden's brothers in late September. Goldstein, who is Jewish and pro-Israel, thinks he was approached by the bin Laden family because of his religious and political stance. On November 19, PR Week reported that family members (who spell their name Binladin to differentiate themselves from Osama) had abandoned the search for a new flack, deciding instead to stick with their current PR firm, Hullin Metz. Now it appears that the search is still on. Family members are reportedly close to a hiring London's WMC Communications--headed by former Hill & Knowlton chairman David Wynne-Morgan--to launch an international public relations effort. "We have checked them out and they have no links with terrorism," says Wynne-Morgan. However, some sources say that Osama may not be the only terrorist in the family.