Public Relations

"Burson-Marsteller is working to enhance the credibility of the Iraqi National Congress as it seeks to establish
itself as a legitimate force in postinvasion Iraq," writes The Holmes Report, a PR trade publication. "B-M has been working with the Congress, led by highprofile
Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, since 1999, under a state department contract. Chalabi and the Congress have close ties with the Bush administration,

Paul Krugman notes that, " 'We were not lying,' a Bush administration official told ABC News. 'But it was just a matter of emphasis.' ... Does it matter that we were misled into war? Some people say that it doesn't: we won, and the Iraqi people have been freed. But we ought to ask some hard questions - not just about Iraq, but about ourselves. ... Thanks to this pattern of loud assertions and muted or suppressed retractions, the American public probably believes that we went to war to avert an immediate threat --just as it believes that Saddam had something to do with Sept.

"The second Persian Gulf war was not only a runaway victory for the United States military, but for another aggressive force that fired off round-the-clock verbal cruise missiles: the White House communications operation. That is the assessment of the Bush administration's wartime public relations campaign by both its supporters and critics, who say the spin operation was extraordinarily successful in shaping a positive battlefield narrative, at least for American audiences. ... White House officials acknowledge that the communications effort in the Arab world largely failed...

"Burson-Marsteller is working to buff the image of the Iraqi National Congress," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports. BKSH & Associates, Burson-Marsteller's lobbying wing is working for the Iraqi National Congress Support Foundation. With the assistance of the Pentagon, INC head Ahmad Chalabi and 'free Iraqi forces' arrived in Bagdad last week. Chalabi and the INC hope to be part of a new government in Iraq.