What’s the Real Story on The Rendon Group?
As a follow-up to an earlier post (link) we are adding some references for
anyone interested in questionable connections between secretive operations
of private enterprise to government policy and action.
MoreWhat.com’s previous post was inspired by a post at Making Light and
the subject was astroturfing. The definition in this case refers to grass roots
impostors paid to influence public perception in an unethical way. Pretend
to be someone legitimate and make your case for someone whose intentions
are not so legitimate. The follow-up Making Light post is here.
Like many other people, we typically get a feel for what’s out on the net for
gathering enlightenment by search engine. We’re embarrassed to say that
we googled. The first hit of the 89,200 counted was a lengthy account of the
Rendon Group in one item at the Center for Media and Democracy. We are
usually uncomfortable with org’s named like this. Too many times we find
that they are subjective presentations of data by those with their own agenda.
We have not vetted this information but it is an interesting read nonetheless.
The CMD account on their project SourceWatch first of all provides a list of
references from 2001 into 2006. Of these some are quite familiar as they are
commonly known to all. The AP, Chicago Tribune, Rolling Stone, The New
Yorker and many others. This had the immediate effect of calming us as to
the potential validity of information. Follow the links at the page as we’ll give
summary information here and in subsequent posts, but providing in detail is
a bit burdensome for our size of staff.
John Rendon, the founder of Rendon Group, got his start in election politics.
It appears the bulk of that experience was for the Democratic party. We find
this disturbing for the later exploits mentioned about the Iraq War and back to
Desert Storm. This of course “speaks” to the pervasive effects of enormous
ramifications to our country. Ala Butch Cassidy, “who are those guys”?
The photo above was in a Google result
that displayed partial text, “Rendon Group
hosted an Afghan……”, but the page was
404 at State.gov (Hmmm?)
We will touch on one more hit from our search and leave the remainder for
future posts. Although the chronology is likely out of sequence, this is in a
sequence of the search engine hits. This hit provides a link to the response by
the Rendon Group to the Rolling Stone article by James Bamford with a title
of intrigue, “The Man Who Sold the War”.
Rendon Group, of course, denies all or most of what Mr Bamford has written.
They say, for instance, there is no connection between the Rendon Group and
the DOD’s Office of Strategic Influence. As there only proof offered they site
a Chicago Tribune confirmation from the former director of the office. With no
more offered as proof, this seems an entry level PR attempt by a heavyweight.
TRG, as they refer to themselves, claims to reviews and analyzes open source
media reports for the DOD. Funny, MoreWhat.com had a recent post that was
referring to Rumsfeld and the DOD claims of the media not covering available
positive news on the Iraq War and they are going to drop $20 million for some
one to help them with that. Who’s on first? I dunno. Second base is where we
are at right now.
The claims of astroturfing seem to have merit to us. Not simply based on these
accounts. There is a great deal of reference material and Rendon Group does
not seem to be responding as one would expect. They appear to just answer a
point as it comes up as if hoping that will be enough and it will go away. We’ll
have some more on this later. We’d like to thank Making Light for there kind
inclusion of our brief report. What started as a casual hunt for post subjects may
be around for a while.
MoreWhat.com staff