A report by the
Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that the United States
government paid a UK-based public relations firm, $500 million to run a
top secret propaganda programme in Iraq.
Bell Pottinger, a controversial PR firm,
known for representing unsavory characters was paid half a billion by
the Pentagon for work which included creating fake terrorist videos.
Bell Pottinger’s output included short
TV segments made in the style of Arabic news networks and fake insurgent
videos which could be used to track the people who watched them,
according to a former employee.
The agency’s staff worked alongside
high-ranking U.S. military officers in their Baghdad Camp Victory
headquarters as the insurgency raged outside.
Bell Pottinger’s former chairman Lord Tim Bell confirmed to the Sunday Times,
which has worked with the Bureau on this story, that his firm had
worked on a “covert” military operation “covered by various secrecy
documents.”
Bell Pottinger reported to the Pentagon, the CIA and the National Security Council on its work in Iraq, he said.
Bell, one of Britain’s most successful
public relations executives, is credited with honing Margaret Thatcher’s
steely image and helping the Conservative party win three elections.
The agency he co-founded has had a roster of clients including
repressive regimes and Asma al-Assad, the wife of the Syrian president.
In the first media interview any Bell
Pottinger employee has given about the work for the U.S. military in
Iraq, video editor Martin Wells told the Bureau his time in Camp Victory
was “shocking, eye-opening, life-changing.”
The firm’s output was signed off by
former General David Petraeus – then commander of the coalition forces
in Iraq – and on occasion by the White House, he said.
Read the full report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism at Daily Beast
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