Ketchum-PR firm associated with Armstrong Williams/Iraq invasion PR

[Carni]

**Ketchum Inc. is the same firm that the Bush admin funneled 240,00 dollars through to pay Armstrong Williams.

The full article is a must read--(I can't post enough here in a few paragraphs to fully illustrate how involved Ketchum is with the US military and it's controlled message to the media)

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:y--CvPKymEIJ:www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20021112workingp2.asp+ketchum+saudi+arabia&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


"The Working Life: Military personnel get PR tips from Ketchum

Tuesday, November 12, 2002

By Teresa F. Lindeman, Post-Gazette Staff Writer


A week after Rick Thomas left his post on the Patriot missile project in 1990, Iraq invaded the tiny, oil-rich country of Kuwait. Soon U.S. troops were headed to Saudi Arabia preparing for battle.

Not Thomas. The longtime Army officer was on his way to a yearlong assignment working in the private sector, in his case gaining experience in public relations at Ketchum's offices in PPG Place.
He didn't want to go.

"Honestly, I tried everything I could to get out of Pittsburgh," he conceded. Nothing against Ketchum, but he wanted to be a part of containing Saddam Hussein.

More than a decade later, Col. Rick Thomas might get another shot at that. He's in Kuwait, serving as chief of public affairs for the U.S. 3rd Army. His last assignment was as deputy director of public affairs for the U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., where he advised top Army officials on explaining the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

To this day, he carries a Ketchum card in his wallet that lays out the key points in teaching executives how to deal with TV and newspaper reporters.

Career Army officers have been trading their uniforms for business suits and working at the Pittsburgh agency for the past two decades. The Army calls this "training with industry," and it operates similar programs in a number of areas where private sector expertise could be useful in the military.

** Reference

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56330-2005Jan7.html

"In taking the money, funneled through the Ketchum Inc. public relations firm, Williams produced and aired a commercial on his syndicated television and radio shows featuring Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige"