| Illuminati News | Into the Rabbit Hole

In this age of government cover-up and corporate scandal, propaganda andmisinformation, one man among many seeks truth. His alias is “Joe Public.” He lives with the notion that the American government, in liaison with corporate interests, is carrying out a plan unintended for the general public to be privy of (Public). In light of information concerning how propaganda has been, and is being used to psychologically manipulate the American population, coupled with legislation born of propaganda and the current economic situation; it seems that conditions are being created for a Perfect Storm. Given that propaganda has played an important role in shaping the American population’s opinion concerning war, from the Committee on Public Information in World War I to the White House Iraq Group in the current Middle Eastern occupation, Joe humbly seeks to learn the purposes of these deceptions, and more importantly, how to overcome these manipulative powers (Public).

The art of using propaganda during wartime played a critical role in World War I. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) (Faragher et al. 433). George Creel, the civilian at the head of the CPI, used the committee to manipulate the American population into accepting the United States’ entrance into the war. More than 150,000 people were employed for the CPI and its various committees. These people were responsible for producing more than 100 million pieces of literature, along with motion pictures, posters, and newspapers that promoted American involvement in the war (433). The famous poster which portrayed Uncle Sam with the phrase, “I Want You!” was a creation of the CPI (Rampton). A group of 75,000 “Four Minute Men” were used to deliver short patriotic speeches before movies and stage shows (Faragher et al. 433).

The CPI used various techniques designed to stir anti-German feelings into the hearts of Americans. War-time posters pictured German soldiers as literal monsters. German books, music, and even the German language were targeted as being anti-American. The CPI encouraged ethnic Americans to forget their cultural heritage and to become “unhyphenated Americans” (433).

One member of the CPI was famed psychologist Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays (“Bernays”). Bernays became known as the “Father of Public Relations” for his work in the CPI, as well as a laundry list of other accomplishments he achieved in the field of public relations (“Bernays”). Bernays wrote several books on the topic of public relations, including Crystallizing Public Opinion, The Engineering of Consent, and Propaganda. In Propaganda, Bernays describes the magnitude to which public relations are utilized.

If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, [we can] control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it. … Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. … This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons… who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind (qtd. in Rampton).

American Tobacco was drawn to Bernays’ work in public relations. In the 1920’s, it was largely considered socially unacceptable for women to smoke in public (“Torches”). Bernays organized for a group of young ladies who were marching in the 1929 New York Easter Day parade to light up cigarettes and begin smoking them while they were marching (Rampton). Bernays also organized for photographers from leading newspapers to capture the rebellion on film. The resulting photos appeared on the front page of the New York Times with stories about how women had gained suffrage earlier in the decade, and how they continued their climb to gender equality by smoking “Torches of Freedom” (Rampton).

Ann Bernays, daughter of the Father of Public Relations, said that her father knew how to tap into the deepest desires and fears of the public mind and use it for his purposes (Curtis). Using psychological techniques in the field of public relations allowed the conscious mind of the masses to be bypassed, and left the unconscious mind vulnerable to manipulation by those who Edward Bernays called, the “Invisible Government.”

In June of 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of War Information (OWI) (Faragher et al. 485). Just as it was the CPI’s duty to sell World War I, it was the OWI’s job to sell World War II (485). The OWI issued strict guidelines to Hollywood filmmakers to ensure that conformity to the OWI’s propaganda campaign was adhered to (Soroka). Little Tokyo, U.S.A. was one film among other anti-Japanese pictures adhering to OWI guidelines, released after the bombing of Pearl Harbor (Soroka).

In June of 2008, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) submitted 35 articles of impeachment to the House of Representatives concerning George W. Bush and his administration. In the first article, Kucinich accuses Bush, his agents, his subordinates, and the Vice President, of “Creating a secret propaganda campaign to manufacture a false case for war against Iraq” (Kucinich 1).

In August of 2002, the propaganda campaign, created by the Department of Defense, fell under control of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), whose members included Karl Rove, I. Lewis Libby, Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Stephen Hadley, Nicholas E. Calio, and James R. Wilkinson. The purpose of the WHIG was to sell the U.S. invasion of Iraq to the American public (1). The WHIG engaged in “covert attempts to mold opinion through the undisclosed use of third parties” (2). Under the direction of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 75 retired military officers were used as carriers to deliver propaganda themes and messages that were created by the Pentagon, to third party media outlets such as FOX, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and MSNBC.

“It was them saying, ‘We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you…” reported Fox News military analyst Robert S. Bevelacqua (2).

Ironically, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, under pressure from President Bush and Vice President Cheney to avoid addressing the circumstances of the September 11 attacks, withdrew his promise he made on September 23 that a statement concerning the circumstances of the attack would be published. Powell then said that Americans would have to find alternate ways of finding out what happened on September 11, 2001, such as “information coming out in the press…” (35).

Kucinich accuses President Bush, and those acting with him, of executing a “calculated and wide-ranging strategy to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States into believing that there was and is a connection between Iraq and Saddam Hussein on the one hand, and the attacks of September 11, 2001, and al Qaeda, on the other hand…” (3).

Richard Clarke, terrorism advisor, personally reported to President Bush that the attacks on September 11were not connected to Saddam Hussein or Iraq. Among Clarke’s report are a host of other reports delivered by top intelligence agencies declaring that Iraq was not connected with the attacks of September 11 (3). Despite these intelligence findings, President Bush and his subordinates have made repeated claims linking the attacks of September 11 and Iraq. In a June 28, 2007 speech at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, President Bush stated:

Now we’re in a new and unprecedented war against violent Islamic extremists. This is an ideological conflict we face against murderers and killers who try to impose their will. These are the people that attacked us on September the 11^th and killed nearly 3,000 people. The stakes are high, and once again, we have had to change our strategic thinking. The major battleground in this war is Iraq (qtd. in Kucinich 4).

The WHIG had also produced papers stating that Iraq posed a nuclear threat; papers which were proved to be fraudulent (1). These papers were written by the same people that prepared speeches for President Bush, and provided talking points for his staff (1).

President Bush used manufactured evidence that was contrary to that of top intelligence to deceive Congress into warranting an invasion of Iraq, which has led to the death of over 4,000 American service members, over 1,000,000 Iraqi civilians, and over half a trillion dollars in war costs (4).

The method of using a third party to relay a message to the masses is known in the public relations field as the “third party technique” (Rampton & Stauber 331). Merrill Rose, former Executive Vice-President of the Porter/Novelli PR firm, says the third party technique is used to “put your words in someone else’s mouth” (331). The Pentagon’s use of 75 retired military officers to deliver propaganda to major news networks was an example of the third party technique in action. The retired military officers were instructed by the Pentagon to deliver the propaganda “in the form of their own opinions” (Kucinich 2). They were also “instructed not to quote their briefers directly or otherwise describe their contacts with the Pentagon” (2).

The Department of Defense is one of at least 20 federal agencies to manufacture video news releases (VNRs) and distribute them to TV news stations to be presented as independently reported news (Barstow & Stein 1). Reporters in these government sponsored video news releases are oftentimes paid actors reporting under false names. “Suggested” lead-ins are also prepared by the VNR manufacturer for the newsroom anchor to introduce the VNR (1).

Medialink Worldwide Inc. produces over 1,000 VNRs a year for customers like FOX and CNN (3). One VNR company, TVA Productions, said that “90 percent of TV newsrooms now rely on VNRs” (qtd. in Barstow & Stein 3).

A Government Accountability Office report, released by Congressman Henry Waxman, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, and other Democratic leaders, contained findings that the Bush administration has spent over $1.6 billion on public relations and advertising contracts in a two and a half year span between 2003 and 2006 (Miller). Of the $1.6 billion, the Department of Defense spent $1.1 billion (Miller).

On September 10^th, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld made a statement that $2.3 trillion had been lost by Pentagon accountants (Grove). This is one instance among a host of other fraudulent financial activities surrounding September 11^th, 2001.

$10 billion in Iraq reconstruction money went unaccounted for which was under the responsibility of L. Paul Jerry Bremer, the man who was in charge of the Coalition Reconstruction plan in Iraq. Prior to his position as the head of the Coalition Reconstruction plan, Bremer was the CEO of financial giant Marsh & McLennan’s Risk Management Collective.

In the summer of 2001, Marsh & McLennan contracted SilverStream Software, an internet technologies company that caters to Fortune 500 businesses, to link the company to its business partners via internet portals to conduct paperless transactions. Specifically, Marsh & McLennan wanted a secure connection with financial powerhouse American International Group (AIG). The project was to be constructed on-site at the Marsh & McLennan offices in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, with a strict pre-September 11 deadline.

After the September 11 attacks, AIG and Marsh & McLennan were investigated for laundering hundreds of billions of dollars off the tops of insurance quotes that were beefed up prior to September 11, 2001. Eliot Spitzer, then attorney general of New York, conducted the investigation. Spitzer found AIG guilty, and fined them $1 billion. $1 billion is less than 1% of the hundreds of billions profited by AIG and Marsh & McLennan in the insurance scheme.

In the midst of Spitzer’s investigation of Marsh & McLennan, Marsh replaced their CEO with Michael Cherkasky. In the years prior to 2001, Cherkasky helped Spitzer into the position of DA for New York City. The CEO of Marsh & McLennan, prior to Cherkasky, was Jeff Greenberg, the son of AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg.

In 2001, AIG owned Kroll Associates, a Risk Management firm responsible for security at the World Trade Center.

Prior to the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings on September 11, 2001, a wealth of fraudulent trading activity took place, which was captured on hard-drives which were found in the rubble of the collapsed towers. A German technology company, Convar, recovered the data on these hard-drives. In June of 2002, Kroll Associates purchased Convar, then in July of 2004, Marsh & McLennan purchased Kroll Associates, who’s CEO was also Michael Cherkasky (Grove).

In 2004, Kroll was contracted by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to carry out security during reconstruction in Iraq (Crandlemire). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) was designated as responsible for the restoration of Iraq’s oil production which was to be used as a means to fund reconstruction (Anderson & Berning). The USACE said that it would use private contractors to do this work. The USACE secretly contracted Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton, to put out oil well fires among other things pertaining to Iraq’s oil production (Anderson & Berning).

Halliburton, formerly under the direction of Vice President Cheney, has been charged with “reckless misspending and waste of U.S. tax dollars” while under government contract in Iraq (Kucinich 15). Truck drivers for Halliburton testify that instead of performing routine maintenance on brand new $85,000 vehicles, the company would torch them (15). A Halliburton manager billed $5.5 billion for a job that should have cost only $685,000 (16).

Congressman Henry Waxman argued that “there should be a thorough congressional investigation of the [Bush] Administration's relationship with Halliburton” (Crock). Waxman also serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Waxman). In a report concerning Halliburton contracts in Iraq reconstruction, the Committee stated:

From the beginning, the Administration adopted a flawed contracting approach in Iraq. Instead of maximizing competition, the Administration opted to award no-bid, cost-plus contracts to politically connected contractors. Halliburton’s secret $7 billion contract to restore Iraq’s oil infrastructure is the prime example. Under this no-bid, cost-plus contract, Halliburton was reimbursed for its costs and then received an additional fee, which was a percentage of its costs. This created an incentive for Halliburton to run up its costs in order to increase its potential profit (Kucinich 16).

Waxman has also expressed serious reservations concerning the federal bailout of corporate giant AIG (Waxman). Given the history of corruption in AIG; also given the history of the Federal Government’s use of psychological warfare on the American population via the media; also given the recent legislation that lays out continuity of government plans in case of such an economic situation, the pieces of the puzzle seem to be being put into place by the hand of the invisible government that Edward Bernays spoke of.

National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 51 states that in the event of an economic emergency, or any “catastrophic emergency,” the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism shall be appointed National Continuity Coordinator, and shall be responsible for the continuity of executive departments and agencies among other responsibilities (NSPD 51). The National Continuity Coordinator will provide “guidance to promote interoperability of Federal Government continuity programs and procedures with State, local, territorial, and tribal governments, and private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure” (NSPD 51).

There are Continuity Annexes attached to NSPD 51, which are highly classified. In July and August of 2007, a senior member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio, as well as Chairman Bennie Thompson, was denied access to the classified annexes (Kucinich 24).

Besides economic emergency, NSPD 51 leaves the term “catastrophic emergency” rather open ended. The term is defined in the directive as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions” (NSPD 51).

The economy is currently heading towards a state where the term “catastrophic emergency” may soon be applicable. Now is a pivotal time to acknowledge that there exists an invisible government “who pull the wires which control the public mind.” The masses need to reclaim their minds; to open their eyes that they may see; to open their ears that they may hear, the truth.

Works Cited

"1929: Torches of Freedom." The Museum of Public Relations. 7 Oct. 2008 <http://www.prmuseum.com/bernays/bernays_1929.html>.

Anderson, John T., and Paul W. Berning. Reconstruction of Iraq: Overview of Contracting Process and Resource Guide. Construction Weblinks, Thelen LLP.

Barstow, David, and Robin Stein. "Under Bush, A New Age of Prepackaged TV News." The New York Times 13 Mar. 2005.

Committee on Education and the Workforce, Committee on Resources. "Bush Administration Spent Over $1.6 Billion on Advertising and Public Relations Contracts Since 2003, GAO Finds." Press release. 13 Feb. 2006. U.S. House of Representatives. 7 Oct. 2008 <http://georgemiller.house.gov/press/rel21306.html>.

Crandlemire, Bruce N. Audit of USAID's Compliance with Federal Regulations in Awarding the Contract for Security Services in Iraq to Kroll Government Services International Inc. Rep.No. A-267-05-005-P. Office of Inspector General, USAID.

Crock, Stan. "Halliburton's Rising Cost for Bush." 20 Feb. 2004. The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 8 Oct. 2008.

"Edward Bernays." Public Relations Founding Fathers. University of Florida. 6 Oct. 2008 <http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/fall01/jones/bernays.html>.

Faragher, John Mack, et al. Out of Many: A History of the American People. Brief fourth ed. Vol. two. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003.

Grove, Richard A. "9/11 Whistleblower: Richard Andrew Grove (Transcript)." Interview with Meria Heller. The Meria Heller Show. Meria Enterprises Inc. 1 June 2006.

Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors., H.R. 1258, 110th Cong., Library of Congress (2008) (unenacted).

National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive.

NSPD 51. HSPD-20. 9 May 2007. National Continuity Policy. 22 Sept. 2008.

<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/print/20070509-12.html>

Public, Joe. Personal interview. 2 Sept. 2008.

Rampton, Sheldon, and John Stauber. Research Funding, Conflicts of Interest, and the "Meta-methodology" of Public Relations. Rep.No. 331-39.

Soroka, Kristin. "Office of War Information." Hollywood at War. University of San Diego. 7 Oct. 2008 <http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/st/~ksoroka/hollywood3.html>.

The Century of the Self. Dir. Adam Curtis. Prod. BBC. 2002.

The Wires that Control the Public Mind. Prod. Sheldon Rampton. Perf. Sheldon Rampton. You Tube. 19 May 2008. PR Watch. 7 Oct. 2008 <http://www.prwatch.org/node/7342>.

Waxman, Henry A. "Chairman Waxman Expresses Serious Reservations About Bailout Plan." Administration Oversight, Corporate Responsibility. 22 Sept. 2008. Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 8 Oct. 2008 <http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?id=2190>.