INC Seeks Enhanced Credibility
"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. Chababi and the Congress have close ties with the Bush administration, but some critics are concerned that their support within Iraq is shallow. "We've been the communication vehicle on the outside as the INC moved into northern Iraq, then to Nasiriya, and to Bagdad,' K. Riva Levinson, who heads the INC account for Burson out of Washington, told reporters. 'We are helping the INC get out statements and videos that made clear that the exiled opposition was coonsolidating and moving. It's been a tremendous ride for them and for us.'"
More on Burson-Marsteller
Corpwatch UK writes, "Burson-Marsteller is one of the largest public relations agencies in the world and also the most reviled due to its mercenary attitude in choosing clients and contracts, and its frequent run ins with activists for enviromental and other progressive causes. When helping escape enviromental legislation or sprucing up the image of some of the most repressive governments on Earth, B-M brings to bear state of the art techniques in manipulating the mass media, legislators and public opinion."
The company has represented deposed despot Nicolae Ceaucescu, the repressive Indonesian and Nigerian governments, Union Carbide after the Bhopal disaster, Monsanto, Phillip Morris and GlaxoSmithKline.
B-M was hired by the Saudi government immediately following 9/11 to spin that country's complicity in the terrorist act. PR Watch's Sheldon Rampon writes, "ODwyer's PR Daily reported that Saudi Arabia hired PR giant Burson-Marsteller on September 14 to provide "issues counseling and crisis management" and to place ads in The New York Times expressing Saudi support for the U.S. in its time of crisis.
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