From: visser@convex.com (Lance Visser)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Hill & Knowlton: Hired PR for Genocide White Wash
Date: 3 Oct 92 20:19:18 GMT
Organization: CONVEX Computer Corporation, Richardson, Tx., USA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by a user at CONVEX Computer
              Corp. The opinions expressed are those of the user and
              not necessarily those of CONVEX.

In <9210022215.AA24785@echidna.swdc.stratus.com> lpb@STRATUS.SWDC.STRATUS.COM (Len Bucuvalas) writes:


>    
+>    As the New York Times reported, Hill and Knowlton, working for the
+>    government of Kuwait, spread the false story that Iraqi troops had
+>    snatched hundreds of Kuwaiti babies from their incubators and left them
+>    to die. The bogus story was part of a massive Hill and Knowlton p.r.
+>    campaign that helped lead the the United Nations giving the green
+>    light for the Gulf War.


	So there should have been no gulf war against Iraq, correct?  
The poor Iraqis were in the right correct?

	Is working with Kuwait against Iraq a "white wash of Genocide"?

	
    
+>    On March 9, a woman phoned the ACT Toronto office and, without
+>    identifying herself, asked for copies of recent press releases from the 
+>    East Timor Alert Network. When questioned by ACT's Maggie Helwig, the 
+>    caller said she was "just doing some research."
+>    
+>    Finally, after being asked a number of times about her identity, the
+>    caller admitted that she worked for Hill and Knowlton's Ottawa office,
+>    though she would only give her first name.

	So is ACT scarred to give out its own press releases?


   
+>    Why the call? It seems that Hill and Knowlton are also hired 'p.r.
+>    guns' for the government of Indonesia, which has killed at least
+>    200,000 Timorese people since invading East Timor in 1975.
+>    
+>    The call to ACT came shortly after Indonesian foreign minister Ali
+>    Alatas visited Canada in February. Alatas was on a world tour in an
+>    attempt to counter bad publicity over last November's massacre of
+>    unarmed Timorese protestors by Indonesian government troops at the 
+>    Santa Cruz cemetery.

	I see.  This is the old double-standard:  Iraqi invasion of kuwait
good, Indonesian invasion of East timor bad right?

    
+>    The firm has done public relations for the government of Turkey,
+>    another regime with a brutal record of human rights violations,
+>    including torture and killing of its own citizens and genocidal
+>    campaigns against the Kurdish minority.

	Turkey is brutal toward kurds no doubt, but is not "Genocide" 
a bit strong a term to use in this case?  Turkey is brutal towards
almost every group in the country as far as human rights violations 
go.


    
+>    Hill and Knowlton lobbies, in Washington, for nuclear manufacturer
+>    General Electric (for more on the GE Boycott, see story, this page).

	Oh how evil.  General Electric defending itself against a boycott
via public relations.

+>    Catholic bishops in the U.S. have hired Hill and Knowlton for
+>    anti-abortion campaigning.

	So are you saying that "Catholic bishops" should be restricted
from hiring pr firms.


+>    Other Hill and Knowlton clients have included the forces opposed to
+>    Ontario's NDP provincial government, such as "Project Economic Growth", 
+>    a group opposing the reform of labour laws. However, Hemming said that 
+>    Hill and Knowlton's involvement with Project Economic Growth had run 
+>    its course.

	Opposing the NDP is a crime against humanity for certain.  I say
that canada should pass a law restricting the activities and speach of
opposition parties to correct this horrible example of political "genocide" 
against the NDP.

    
    
+>    Despite this grim record, Hemmings insists "We would not work for any 
+>    client who is doing anything illegal, or which is not in the public
+>    interest."

	So working against abortion, against Iraq, for Kuwait
and for General Electric is a "grim record"?


+>   Even if you made an agreement to abolish all nuclear weapons, but you left 
+> established power structure in the U.S. and the USSR, they'd go on to research
+> mind control or some chemical or biological thing.  My view is, there exists a
+> group of people in the world that have a disease.  I call it the "power 
+> disease."  They want to rule and control other people.  They are a more 
+> important plague than cancer, pneumonia, bubonic plague, tuberculosis, and 
+> heart disease put together.  They can only think how to obliterate, control, 
+> and use each other.  They use people as nothing more than instruments to cast
+> aside when they don't need them any more.
+>        --Dr. John W. Gofman, from "Nuclear Witnesses, Insiders Speak Out" 1982

	
	"Even if you made huge defense cuts and eliminted every nuclear weapon
from the face of the earth, these people would not be happy.  They would most
certainly go on to discover that every disease, illness or problem in the
world is still the fault of the military.  There are people currently running
around claiming that cancer and aids are government plots.  They believe
in the grand conspiracy and as such they are the force with the greatest
potential for cheapening the whole political process.  They are not 
interested in soliving problems, they are concerned with finding someone
to blame for all their and the worlds perceived ills."
	-- Unattributed (1985)
Xref: sparky talk.politics.misc:48799 alt.rush-limbaugh:6289 alt.politics.bush:7329 alt.politics.clinton:7970 alt.politics.elections:14770 talk.abortion:39663 alt.sex:31471