SF: Stewart Brand hosts CIA Contractor John Rendon (free event)

Former Merry Prankster Stewart Brand is hosting John Rendon. He is speaking on "Long-term Policy to Make the War on Terror Short".
Has the real Stewart Brand has been replaced by an imposter?
First he came out in favor of nuclear power. (What ever happened
to "appropriate technology" a la the Whole Earth Catalog"?)
Now he's become an admirer of one of the leading propaganda
warriors in the "war on terror". How he can soft-pedal Mr. Rendon's
Iraq War activities is beyond me. Hopefully there will be a sizeable
anti-war contingent on hand at this event to hold Rendon's feet
to the fire.

____________________________________

from http://www.prwatch.org/node/4954/print
(Stewart Brand's email/announcement is included below)

Center for Media and Democracy

Publishers of PR Watch
John Stauber's blog

John Rendon's Long, Strange Trip in the Terror Wars

Submitted by John Stauber on Mon, 07/10/2006 - 22:15.
Topics: Iraq | propaganda

John Rendon

In his hippie youth as a Merry Prankster, Stewart Brand bounced around San
Francisco in Ken Kesey's day-glo bus, dousing people with LSD-laced Kool-Aid
at the legendary Acid Tests. Those were strange days, but his latest trip is also
bizarre. Brand and his Long Now Foundation are bringing to San Francisco John
Rendon ( http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Rendon ) the elusive
head of the Rendon Group, one of the CIA's favorite PR firms.
( http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Rendon_Group )

John Rendon is the self-described "information warrior" who, under contract with
the CIA, named and nurtured the infamous Iraqi National Congress.
( http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Iraqi_National_Congress ) INC leader
Ahmed Chalabi ( http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ahmed_Chalabi )
was a Rendon protégé embraced by the Project for a New American Century
( http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Project_for_a_New_American_Century )
and other advocates of war with Iraq. Rendon and Chalabi probably did as much
as anyone to deceive the US into war.

John Rendon usually stays in the shadows, but he'll be riding high with Stewart
Brand this Friday, July 14, 7:00 PM at San Francisco's Herbst Theater.

Sheldon Rampton and I described some of the Rendon Group's activities in our
2003 book, Weapons of Mass Deception, http://www.prwatch.org/books/wmd.html
and we go into further detail in our new book, The Best War Ever, which will be
published in September. ( http://www.prwatch.org/books/tbwe ) The Iraqi National
Congress was the source for much of the false and deceptive propaganda on Iraq's
non-existent weapons of mass destruction, which they planted in the press with
help from Judith Miller of the New York Times and other obliging journalists.
Ahmed Chalabi has subsequently fallen out of official favor with the US, but he
is currently serving in the Iraqi government and is very friendly with Iran, a real
bummer for his patrons in the Bush Administration.

Stewart Brand is a serious guy these days, and his endorsement of John Rendon
as a guru in the "global war on terror" is for real. Brand finds Rendon "exceptionally
informed, astute, and engaged. // It should be a hell of a talk." Brand says Rendon
wants the US "to deepen its thinking and activities against terror" and Rendon's
talk is titled "Long-term Policy to Make the War on Terror Short."

Some small bit of public enlightenment could occur at Rendon's appearance if he
is thoroughly grilled by critics in the audience about his lucrative career as an
information warrior before he slips back into the shadows. But Rendon is first and
foremost a PR guy, and dodging questions and spinning an audience are his stock
in trade. His San Francisco gig looks like a set-up for more hallucinations,
delusions and self-deceptions. Merry Prankster meets Mis-Information Warrior;
what a long, strange trip it's been in the never-ending, secretive, dirty, spy-
infested, mis-named and mis-handled war on terror.

7/10 Email from Stewart Brand
Submitted by John Stauber on Tue, 07/11/2006 - 21:49.

My article above quotes Stewart Brand. The quotes are from Brand's letter below
announcing Rendon's talk. John Stauber

--------------
From: Stewart Brand
Date: July 10, 2006 2:14:19 PM CDT
To: salt [at] list.longnow.org
Subject: [SALT] The long game against terror, FRIDAY, July 14 (for forwarding)

As "senior communications consultant" to the current administration and every
White House and Defense Department leadership since President Carter, John
Rendon, head of The Rendon Group, has been in the thick of combatting terrorism
for decades. In his view, the US needs to deepen its thinking and activities
against terror from tactical to strategic -- from short-term reactive to long-term
systemic.

"Long-term Policy to Make the War on Terror Short," John Rendon, Herbst
Theater, San Francisco, 7pm, Friday, July 14. The lecture starts promptly at
7:30pm. Admission is free ($10 donation always welcome, not required).

The Rendon Group specializes in studying public opinion and media activities
worldwide, in real time, and in devising appropriate responses. Some media
characterize John Rendon as a right-wing information warrior, but that is not my
experience of him, and it belies his background as a campaigner for Michael
Dukakis, Jimmy Carter, and John Kerry. What characterizes Rendon to me is that
he is exceptionally informed, astute, and engaged. It should be a hell of a talk.

The Herbst Theater is at Van Ness and McAllister in the War Memorial Veterans
Building, adjoining the San Francisco Civic Center.

This is one of a monthly series of Seminars About Long-term Thinking organized
by The Long Now Foundation, usually on second Fridays. If you would like to be
notified by email of forthcoming talks, please contact Simone Davalos --
simone AT longnow.org, 415-561-6582 -- or go to:
http://list.longnow.org/mailman/listinfo/SALT

You are welcome to forward this note to anyone you think might be interested.

-- Stewart Brand

Stewart Brand -- sb AT gbn.org
The Long Now Foundation - http://www.longnow.org
Seminars & downloads: http://www.longnow.org/projects/seminars
________________________________

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Email: editor AT prwatch.org

http://www.prwatch.org/node/4954/print