Coalition press office is heavy with Republicans

By Jim Krane
The Associated Press

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

Dan Senor, a former press secretary for Spencer Abraham, the former Michigan Republican senator who's now energy secretary, heads the office packed with former Bush campaign workers, political appointees and ex-Capitol Hill staff members.

More than one-third of the U.S. civilian workers in the press office have GOP ties, running an enterprise that critics see as an outpost of Bush's re-election effort.

One of the main goals of the Office of Strategic Communications — known as Stratcom — is to ensure Americans see the positive side of the Bush administration's invasion, occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, where 610 U.S. troops have died and a deadly insurgency thrives.

GOP-Iraq link Some of the U.S.-led Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority's political appointees: • Michael Fleischer, the brother of former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, said he landed his Iraq job as director of private-sector development with his brother's help, but he was also a State Department foreign-service officer in Africa in the 1970s. Fleischer, a Republican, donated $2,000 to Bush's 2000 election campaign. • Leslye Arsht, CPA's senior adviser to the Iraqi Ministry of Education, has a long background in education, including creation of a nonprofit U.S. educational-reform organization and at the U.S. Department of Education. Arsht is a friend of the Bush family and worked in press relations for President Reagan, Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush. • Dorrance Smith, a GOP operative and former executive producer for ABC's "Nightline," was accused by Gordon Robison, a former CPA contractor who helped build the Pentagon-funded Al-Iraqiya television station in Baghdad, of using Al-Iraqiya "more as a tool for getting out the coalition's message than as an independent network in the making." Robison said Smith demanded Al-Iraqiya broadcast Bush's State of the Union address live — at 5 a.m. Baghdad time.

"Beautification Plan for Baghdad Ready to Begin," one press release in late March said in its headline. Another statement last month cautioned, "The Reality is Nothing Like What You See on Television."

Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), said his office is guided by ethical "red lines" that prevent it from crossing into the Bush campaign.

"We have an obligation to communicate with the U.S. Congress and the American people, given that they're spending almost $20 billion in Iraq and have committed over 100,000 U.S. troops here," Senor said.

Known as the Green Room, the press office is inside coalition headquarters in the Republican Palace that used to belong to Saddam Hussein. The palace is in central Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

The office counts 21 Republicans — 11 of whom have worked inside the Bush administration before their Iraq posting — among its 58 U.S. civilian staff members, according to figures Senor provided. The political affiliation of the 37 others could not be determined.

More than half a dozen CPA officials in the press office worked on Bush's 2000 presidential campaign or are related to Bush campaign workers, according to payroll records filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

Gordon Robison, a former CPA contractor who helped build the Pentagon-funded Al-Iraqiya television station in Baghdad, said Republicans in the press room intensely followed the Democratic primaries as John Kerry emerged as the presumed nominee.

"Iraq is in danger of costing George W. Bush his presidency and the CPA's media staff are determined to see that does not happen," Robison said.

Robison, a journalist who said his political affiliation is a private matter, left Baghdad in March after finishing his contract with U.S. defense contractor Science Applications International. A new U.S. contractor, Harris Corp., has taken over the Al-Iraqiya operations.

One CPA staff member who spoke on condition of anonymity said the press office had sent targeted "good-news" releases to American television, radio and newspaper outlets that were timed to deflect criticism of Bush during the Democratic primaries.

Stratcom's schedule of news releases shows that stories were sent to media outlets in Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee and Virginia and other states in the days before their Democratic primaries. But the schedule also shows releases sent to Virginia, Ohio and Florida after the primaries were over. Senor said any correlation to the vote was a coincidence.

Rich Galen, 57, a well-known Republican strategist, oversees the daily news releases sent directly to media outlets in the United States. Before joining the CPA press operation late last year, Galen wrote a GOP insider column and appeared on Fox News to harpoon liberal critics of Bush.

Now, he's still writing an Internet column, but he's turned it into what he calls a travelogue about Iraq. Galen has been press secretary for both former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Vice President Dan Quayle during their careers. His 27-year-old son, Reed, is involved in the Bush re-election effort.

Since arriving in Iraq, Galen said, he has made sure not to veer into politics in his work in the Green Room, in his column or during his television appearances.

"I understand when the game clock is on and when the game clock is off," Galen said

Associated Press writer Aparna H. Kumar contributed to this report from Washington.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company