From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: HILL AND KNOWLTON -- SELLING DEATH
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 08:15:09 GMT

/** gen.newsletter: 147.0 **/
** Topic: The ACTivist 8#10, October 1992 **
** Written  9:32 pm  Sep 24, 1992 by web:act in cdp:gen.newsletter **
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HILL AND KNOWLTON -- SELLING DEATH

By Aaron Doyle
The ACTivist

ACT for Disarmament got a strange phone call earlier this year -- one 
we eventually discovered was from Hill and Knowlton, the controversial
 public relations firm who were instrumental in swinging public opinion 
in favour of the Gulf War.

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.

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.

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.

However, Brian Hemming, general manager of the firm's Toronto 
office, told The ACTivist that "Hill and Knowlton has worked for the
 Indonesian economic ministry helping to promote investment 
opportunities. We've had nothing to do with the human rights issue." 
No one from the Ottawa office was available for comment.

Hill and Knowlton is one of the world's biggest multinational p.r. 
firms, with offices in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Vancouver, Washington, 
and about 60 other locations around the world. It is owned by a 
massive British-based parent company, WPP, which also owns 
Decima Research, pollsters for the Tories in the 1988 election, and 
the lobbying firm Public Affairs International, along with two major 
ad agencies.

After the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Hill and Knowlton was hired 
by the Kuwaiti government, through the funnel group Citizens for a 
Free Kuwait, for more than $10 million, to spread tales of Iraqi atrocities 
and gather public support for a military intervention.

Hemming denied that the dead-babies story was a deliberate hoax, 
even though the key source was the 15-year-old daughter of the 
Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. "To the best of our abilities 
we tried to confirm it, and our people believed it to be true."

Hill and Knowlton has a lengthy list of other dubious clients.

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.

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

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

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.

Hill and Knowlton bailed out on another infamous client, the Church 
of Scientology, shortly after a Time magazine article revealed their
 connection and called the church "a ruthless global scam." Hemming 
admits that H&K's involvement with Scientology was "a mistake."

Hill and Knowlton has many close links with the political elite. Craig 
Fuller, who was chief executive at H&K until very recently, was 
George Bush's Chief of Staff when Bush was vice-president.

In Canada, Paul Curley, former vice chairman of H&K, is also former 
national director of the Progressive Conservative party. Rick 
Anderson, general manager of H&K's Ottawa office, discussed his 
allegiance to the Reform Party in a recent Financial Post article.

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."

** End of text from cdp:gen.newsletter **

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