The Reagan administration had built a domestic covert propaganda apparatus managed by a CIA propaganda and disinformation specialist working out of the National Security Council. It is and was illegal for the CIA to engage in propaganda directed at the American people.
Documents obtained by the Select (Iran/Contra) Committees established an inter-governmental network to promote and manage a public diplomacy plan designed to create support for Reagan Administration policies at home and abroad."
Robert Perry has found in congressional files, a chapter in the 84-page draft Iran/Contra Report , entitled "Launching the Network" http://www.consortiumnews.com/lostchapter.pdf which was censored from the final report.
At the time, the Contras were earning a gruesome reputation as human rights violators and terrorists. To change this negative perception of the Contras, the Reagan administration created a full-blown, clandestine propaganda operation.
"An elaborate system of inter-agency committees was eventually formed and charged with the task of working closely with private groups and individuals involved in fundraising, lobbying campaigns and propagandistic activities aimed at influencing public opinion and governmental action," the deleted/censored chapter said.
Heading this operation was CIA officer named Walter Raymond Jr., who was recruited by another CIA officer, Donald Gregg, before Gregg shifted from his job as chief of the NSC's Intelligence Directorate to become national security adviser to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.
A veteran CIA officer, Raymond Jr was recruited for the NSC job as the Director of the Intelligence Staff of the NSC. Raymond had served as Director of the Covert Action Staff at the CIA from 1978 to 1982 and was a "specialist in propaganda and disinformation.
In line with its clandestine nature, Raymond also suggested routing the "funding via Freedom House or some other structure that has credibility in the political center." Raymond's reference to Rupert Murdoch possibly drawing down "added funds" suggests that the right-wing media mogul was already part of the covert propaganda operation.
In other words, although Raymond was shifted to the NSC staff in part to evade prohibitions on the CIA influencing U.S. public opinion, his intelligence and propaganda duties overlapped for a time as he was retiring from the spy agency.
Office of Public Diplomacy and Otto J. Reich
The "public diplomacy" campaign was conceived at an August 1983 meeting between then CIA director William Casey and a small group of PR industry executives. The meeting, whose purpose was to create a propaganda strategy for the Nicaraguan contras, was attended by Burson-Marsteller (B-M) senior vice- president Kenneth D. Huszar, and Philip Morris publicist James Bowling, who later moved to B-M. (see below about B-M). Their advice to Casey included the creation of a communications function within the White House, a recommendation that led to the creation of the Office of Public Diplomacy( OPD).
Editor's note: To read the full article, click this link just below. When you see Lee Hamilton's support for Barack Obama, remember that Lee Hamilton is an original member of David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission. See
http://www.truedemocracy.net/w01/3.html
(Source: Robert Perry http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/062908.html)
http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/bm.htm
http://www.pd.org/topos/perforations/perf2/disinformation.html
http://www.webcom.com/~lpease/collections/conspiracies/parryspeech.htm