Former Bush Spokesman Urges Newspapers to Run Pro-War Stories by Former Vets With GOP Ties

The official -- Taylor Gross -- has pitched the stories as "balanced and credible viewpoints gained directly from those closest to and most affected by the Iraq War."

But it turns out the veterans are from a pro-war group called Vets for Freedom that has ties to the Republican Party.

The group is now running website hosted by a firm that previously worked for the 2004 Bush-Cheney re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee.

Questions about ties between Vets for Freedom and the Republican party were first raised by the group PR Watch and citizen journalists at PR Watch's website SourceWatch.

• John Stauber, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and co-editor of the publication PR Watch. He has co-authored several books including "Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq."