Pro-Iraq ad buyers turn to lobbying Nick Juliano

Published: Friday November 16, 2007



del.icio.us

Print This Email This Group tells Raw it will reach out to both parties Freedom's Watch, a pro-Iraq war interest group populated by prominent Republicans and former Bush administration officials, swept into the debate over the war this summer with a series of slickly produced, emotional TV ads. Now the group wants to take its arguments straight to the Capitol Hill lawmakers who are debating how and whether to continue funding America's nearly five-year occupation of Iraq. Freedom's Watch filed papers on Sept. 17 to lobby lawmakers, as noted this week by CQ Moneyline, a campaign fundraising and political advocacy tracking service. The group says it plans to reach out to members of both parties on a variety of issues, including troop funding and "winning the war on terror." "We won't narrow our scope in terms of who we're going to be talking to," Matt David, a spokesman for the group, tells RAW STORY . The lobbying disclosure form lists three Freedom's Watch officials, who are joining the pro-war lobbying effort, including Bradley Blakeman, a former deputy assistant to President Bush, and David, a former Bush-Cheney campaign aide. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer is a founding board member of Freedom's Watch, although he is not listed as a registered lobbyist. David says Fleischer won't be involved in the lobbying effort, and the group will not be coordinating its actions with the Bush administration. "By law we're not allowed to coordinate with the White House, so we are following the law," he said in an interview Friday. "We are not coordinating with the White House." As RAW STORY reported last month, Freedom's Watch appears to be part of a revolving door between the White House and outside public relations groups trying to bolster support for the unpopular occupation of Iraq. David said Freedom's Watch plans to announce an expansion of its advocacy efforts to include issues beyond the war and hopes to become a force in Washington. "This is an organization with the goal to be a perpetual operation for years and years to come," he said. In August, Freedom's Watch began a $15 million ad campaign in 20 states urging members of Congress to stay the course in Iraq. Those ads, which aired just before Gen. David Petraeus's progress report on the "surge" in Iraq, conflated the Iraq invasion and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, despite the fact that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the plot to fell the World Trade Center. Just this month, Freedom's Watch purchased newspaper ads in vulnerable Democrats' districts, although the ads didn't seem to shake their targets. "If people want to advertise that he's advocating a position different than President Bush, we welcome that,"a spokesman for Rep. Harry Mitchell, an Arizona Democrat whose constituents saw the Freedom's Watch ad in the Arizona Republic, told the Huffington Post's Michael Roston. It is unclear whether the highly emotional ads helped sway any votes, although Congress has continually failed to force a change of course in Iraq. Whether such arguments will be just as convincing when presented in person remains to be seen.



