What The Pentagon Pundits Were Selling On The Side: Propaganda Meets Corporate Lobbying, page 1

What The Pentagon Pundits Were Selling On The Side: Propaganda Meets Corporate Lobbying

www.commondreams.org

The Pentagon launched its covert media analyst program in 2002, to sell the Iraq war. Later, it was used to sell an image of progress in Afghanistan, whitewash the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and defend the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping, as David Barstow reported in his New York Times expose.

But the pundits weren’t just selling government talking points. As Robert Bevelacqua, William Cowan and Carlton Sherwood enjoyed high-level Pentagon access through the analyst program, their WVC3 Group sought “contracts worth tens of millions to supply body armor and counterintelligence services in Iraq,” reported Barstow. Cowan admitted to “push[ing] hard” on a WVC3 contract, during a Pentagon-funded trip to Iraq.

My, my, My....How deep the Rabbit hole of corruption goes. So not only were these people Paid for shills of the Pentagon, but they were also LOBBYISTS...Can you get any more crooked?!? We have been SUCKERED by slick SALESMEN into these wars, and these people are PROFITEERING OFF THE DEATH OF OUR SOLDIERS!!

And this same, Pinnochio-like Pentagon is now churning out the same rhetoric to get us into a war with IRAN!

PAY ATTENTION PEOPLE! These guys are pushing these agendas out of PURE GREED---And we are ALL suffering to make them richer!

Of the 27 Pentagon pundits named publicly to date, six are registered as federal lobbyists. That’s in addition to the less formal — and less transparent — boardroom to war-room influence peddling described above. (There are “more than 75 retired officers” who took part in the Pentagon program overall, according to Barstow.)

The Pentagon pundits’ lobbying disclosure forms help chart what can only be called a military-industrial-media complex. They also make clear that war is very good for at least some kinds of business.

www.commondreams.org
(visit the link for the full news article)