Nov 18th 2005
We read with some interest James Bamford's article about the Rendon Group (RS Issue No. 988).

For the record, the Rendon Group (TRG) had no role whatsoever in making the case for the Iraq war, here at home or internationally. Mr. Bamford's contention to the contrary is flatly untrue.

TRG reviews open source media reports for the Department of Defense and analyzes and charts positive and negative trends very much the same way public opinion researchers analyze polling data.

Unable to find facts that support his thesis, Mr. Bamford relies on false information and mischaracterization to create his story.

Some of the many mistakes in the article include:

1. Mr. Bamford states "Judy Miller's front-page story, which hit the stands on December 20th, 2001 was exactly the kind of exposure Rendon had been hired to provide." This is false. The Rendon Group does not produce or disseminate false information and has no connection at all with Judith Miller's work.
2. Mr. Bamford incorrectly writes that TRG worked for the controversial Defense Department Office of Strategic Influence. The former director of that office himself has publicly confirmed in the Chicago Tribune that the Rendon Group had nothing to do with the Office of Strategic Influence as Mr. Bamford falsely asserts.
3. Mr. Bamford incorrectly reports that the Kuwait Government worked through Citizens for a Free Kuwait to hire The Rendon Group. The Rendon Group had a contract directly with the Government of Kuwait, had no association with Citizens for a Free Kuwait and had no association with their activities.
4. Mr. Bamford absurdly characterizes the late Paul Moran as an "agent" of the Rendon Group. In fact, Mr. Moran was a journalist tragically killed while reporting for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. While we are proud to acknowledge that Mr. Moran, a gifted freelance cameraman, provided video services to TRG (and many other clients), he had not done any TRG work for years prior to the events described by Mr. Bamford.
5. Mr. Bamford incorrectly states that TRG participated in on-line chat-rooms in Arabic or English or helped clients do that. TRG as a PR company specializing in international media analysis tracks on-line media as part of its core competency but has never participated in any chat rooms.
6. Mr. Bamford states that Mr. Rendon "rises at 3 a.m. each morning ...and begins ingesting information... an assortment of government documents, many of them available only to those with the highest security clearance." Mr. Rendon does not have access to classified material in his home or via Internet, and his limited access to such material is no different from that of thousands of other DoD contractors who work for the US government.
7. Mr. Bamford quotes from a publicly available contract document, which indicated that TRG would "identify the biases of specific journalists and potentially obtain an understanding of their allegiances, including the possibility of specific relationships and sponsorships." Tracking media and journalist dynamics is undertaken by every PR firm, marketing agency and business intelligence company in today's wired world- this is commercial grade media analysis, not "secret targeting of journalists that may have a sinister purpose."
8. Mr. Bamford implies throughout the article that TRG's fees are excessive. TRG's contracts with the US Government are priced according to the GSA approved billing rates, which are often substantially discounted when compared to corporate rates. A review of published figures regarding US Government contractors will show that TRG's rates are in line with industry standards.

Finally, Mr. Bamford implies that the location of his interview with Mr. Rendon, the menu and the expensive French wine were all of Mr. Rendon's choosing. Readers of Rolling Stone should know that Mr. Rendon was an invited guest to Mr. Bamford's elite Washington club described in the story and that Mr. Bamford ordered the French wine and lamb chops. Mr. Rendon had seafood.