Gray, R

=power house; apprantly no relation to CBG

wikiRobert Keith ("Bob") Gray (September 2, 1923 – April 18, 2014) was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party%28U.S.%29" title="Republican Party (U.S.)" class="mw-redirect">Republican</a> activist and public relations executive who founded <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gray_and_Company&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Gray and Company (page does not exist)">Gray and Company</a> in 1981 after working with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill%26_Knowlton" title="Hill & Knowlton" class="mw-redirect">Hill & Knowlton</a>. He served as an advisor to President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_Eisenhower" title="Dwight Eisenhower" class="mw-redirect">Dwight Eisenhower</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#cite_note-1">[1]</a>

<h2>Contents</h2>

</div></div><div id="toc" class="toc">

<ul><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#Early_life_and_education">1 Early life and education</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#Career">2 Career</a>

<ul><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#In_government_service">2.1 In government service</a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#Private_sector">2.2 Private sector</a></li></ul>

</li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#Personal_life_and_death">3 Personal life and death</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#Awards_and_recognition">4 Awards and recognition</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#External_links">5 External links</a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#References">6 References</a></li></ul>

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<h2>Early life and education</h2>

Gray was born September 2, 1923 in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hastings,Nebraska" title="Hastings, Nebraska">Hastings, Nebraska</a> and graduated in 1943 from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlton_College" title="Carlton College" class="mw-redirect">Carlton College</a> in Northfield, Minnesota; he later graduated from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_University" title="Harvard University">Harvard University</a> with a Masters in Business Administration. In between these, Gray served in the Navy during <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II">World War II</a> and remained in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.Naval_Reserve" title="U.S. Naval Reserve" class="mw-redirect">U.S. Naval Reserve</a>, attaining the rank of commander.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#cite_note-Washington_Post_obituary-2">[2]</a>

<h2>Career</h2>

<h3>In government service</h3>

In 1955, Gray was appointed Special Assistant for Manpower for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_the_Navy" title="United States Department of the Navy">United States Department of the Navy</a>,

the following year, Gray served as Appointments Secretary to President

Dwight Eisenhower and later as Secretary of his cabinet.

<h3>Private sector</h3>

In the 1960s and 1970s, he served as Washington operative for Hill

& Knowlton. In those years, according to a case study by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Business_School" title="Harvard Business School">Harvard Business School</a>, H&K's clients produced nearly 10% of the GNP. In 1967, Gray joined the 50-person committee responsible for charting <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon" title="Richard Nixon">Richard Nixon</a>'s path to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House" title="White House">White House</a>. After Nixon was elected president, Gray would often escort Nixon's personal assistant, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_Mary_Woods" title="Rose Mary Woods">Rose Mary Woods</a> to official functions.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#cite_note-Washington_Post_obituary-2">[2]</a>

After serving as deputy director of the Reagan-Bush presidential

campaign, in 1980, Gray became Reagan's first appointment as president

when Gray was named co-chairman of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan">Ronald Reagan</a>’s

Presidential inauguration. During the Reagan Administration, Gray

started his own firm, Gray and Company, in 1981. When he took the firm

public in 1985, it became the first public relations-public affairs firm

to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Three years later, he sold

majority interest in the firm to Hill & Knowlton and became

H&K's Worldwide Chairman. In 1988, as one of his last acts as

president, Reagan flew to Gray's hometown, Hastings, Nebraska, to

dedicate a communications center Gray had given to Hastings College in

honor of his parents.

Gray’s book, 18 Acres Under Glass, was published by Doubleday

in the States and by MacMillan oversees. Becoming number-four on The

Times best-seller list, the book highlighted the demands on both his

political and social life as the Secretary of the Cabinet under

President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower" title="Dwight D. Eisenhower">Dwight D. Eisenhower</a>.

With tales of the visits with kings and queens, to the extended hours

spent with the Chief Executive, the book gives an inner look at the

functions and sometimes dysfunctions of Washington. Gray was featured in

cover stories in Time Magazine and U.S. News and World Report, named Marketer of the year by AdWeek Magazine, and was the subject of a fifteen-minute Monitor program on NBC.

In the 1992 book, The Power House by Susan B. Trento, "tells

how Mr. Gray, after unabashedly peddling access for decades, reached the

apex of his influence when his friend Ronald Reagan moved into the

White House." <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#cite_note-3">[3]</a> This book led to a defamation lawsuit by Gray against Trento and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin%27s_Press" title="St. Martin's Press">St. Martin's Press</a>, in which Gray's claims were dismissed.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#cite_note-4">[4]</a>

<h2>Personal life and death</h2>

Gray was never openly gay, but his obituary acknowledged his partner of 20 years, Efrain Machado.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Keith_Gray#cite_note-Washington_Post_obituary-2">[2]</a> Gray died in Miami, Florida on April 18, 2014.

<h2>Awards and recognition</h2>

Gray received Italy's highest civilian decoration, Grande Ufficiale.

<h2>External links</h2>

<ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://robertkeithgray.com/">Hon. Robert Keith Gray's official website with blog</a></li><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.namebase.org/main4/Robert-Keith-Gray.html">Robert Keith Gray</a> at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NameBase" title="NameBase">NameBase</a> (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.webcitation.org/64lIs1VVb">Archive</a>)</li></ul>

<h2>References</h2>

<li id="cite_note-Washington_Post_obituary-2">
</li><li id="cite_note-Washington_Post_obituary-2"> <cite class="citation news">Langer, Emily (April 22, 2014). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bob-gray-influential-washington-lobbyist-and-founder-of-gray-and-co-dies-at-92/2014/04/22/1db46e42-c96a-11e3-95f7-7ecdde72d2ea_story.html">"Bob Gray, influential Washington lobbyist and founder of Gray & Co., dies at 92"</a>. Washington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2014.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3ARobert+Keith+Gray&rft.atitle=Bob+Gray%2C+influential+Washington+lobbyist+and+founder+of+Gray+%26+Co.%2C+dies+at+92&rft.au=Langer%2C+Emily&rft.date=2014-04-22&rft.genre=article&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Flocal%2Fobituaries%2Fbob-gray-influential-washington-lobbyist-and-founder-of-gray-and-co-dies-at-92%2F2014%2F04%2F22%2F1db46e42-c96a-11e3-95f7-7ecdde72d2ea_story.html&rft.jtitle=Washington+Post&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal" class="Z3988" /></li>

<li id="cite_note-3">
</li><li id="cite_note-3"> Darth Vader of the Lobbyists. By Stephen Labaton, The New York Times, August 23, 1992 <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/23/books/darth-vader-of-the-lobbyists.html">[2]</a></li>

<li id="cite_note-4">
</li><div id="mw-content-text" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" lang="en"><div class="reflist" style="list-style-type: decimal;"><ol class="references"><li value="4" id="cite_note-4"> Gray v. St. Martin's Press, 221 F3d. 243, 1st Cir. 2000</li></ol>

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    <div id="catlinks" class="catlinks"><div id="mw-normal-catlinks" class="mw-normal-catlinks"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Category" title="Help:Category">Categories</a>: </font><ul><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_lobbyists" title="Category:American lobbyists">American lobbyists</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:LGBT_people_from_the_United_States" title="Category:LGBT people from the United States">LGBT people from the United States</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1923_births" title="Category:1923 births">1923 births</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:2014_deaths" title="Category:2014 deaths">2014 deaths</a></font></li><li><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Harvard_Business_School_alumni" title="Category:Harvard Business School alumni">Harvard Business School alumni</a></font></li></ul></div></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==<br /></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">But even friends in the fight places can do only so much to offset a string of bad publicity. Gray signed on the Church of Scientology, and later Time magazine ran a highly critical cover story titled, "Scientology--The Cult of Greed." He also signed a contract with the Catholic Church, agreeing to help change public attitudes towards abortion, a move that prompted severe public criticism as well as internal bickering at the finn. Other clients included the People's Republic of China--after the Tiananmen Square massacre. And then there was Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a client the company may never recover from. (See sidebar, page 16.)

<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">In the wake of so much bad publicity, staffers began abandoning the firm for greener, and possibly cleaner, pastures. The biggest blow came in April 1991, when four top Hill and Knowlton executives publicly and abruptly left to start a competing firm, Capitoline. As more and more top executives left, morale dipped to an all-time low. From a staff of 250 during the Persian Gulf war, the office now had 90 people. Rows of offices now sat empty, and Hill and Knowlton alumni could only laugh when they recalled the fights over who got the offices along the Potomac River.

<h1 class="articleHeadline">Darth Vader of the Lobbyists</h1>

<h6 class="byline">By Stephen Labaton;</h6>

<h6 class="dateline">Published: August 23, 1992</h6>

THE POWER HOUSE Robert Keith Gray and the Selling of Access and Influence in Washington. By Susan B. Trento. Illustrated. 430 pp. New York: St. Martin's Press. $24.95.

ACROSS the nation Ronald Reagan has had a lasting impact on taxes, savings and loan associations and defense plants, but in Washington the most visible remnants of his legacy have been those advocates who were behind much of the legislation of the 1980's, namely, the lobbyists.

In the last 12 years, they have proliferated in extraordinary numbers, many cashing in on their brief experience and lasting friendships in places of power by selling their access and expertise. In a year of voter disgust with Washington, lobbyists are widely viewed as the personifications of government's problems. They are disingenuously criticized as bogymen by George Bush and Bill Clinton, who take money from them, and by many in the House and Senate who still manage to share private moments with them over a drink or on the golf course.

To Susan B. Trento, who was formerly the chief staff aide to Representative Harold Hollenbeck of New Jersey, the lobbying industry's Darth Vader is Robert Keith Gray of the public relations firm of Hill & Knowlton. In "The Power House," she tells how Mr. Gray, after unabashedly peddling access for decades, reached the apex of his influence when his friend Ronald Reagan moved into the White House. Throughout the 1980's and into the 90's, as either the head of his own firm or as an executive with Hill & Knowlton, Mr. Gray indiscriminately took on almost any cause, as long as his hefty retainers were paid.

His rogues' gallery of clients has included the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the teamster president Jackie Presser, the disgraced publisher Robert Maxwell, the scandal-ridden Bank of Credit and Commerce International (B.C.C.I.), Haiti under the regime of Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier and China immediately following the massacre at Tiananmen Square.

An avowed conservative who was an inaugural co-chairman in 1980-81, organizing the glitzy Republican parties that ushered in the Reagan decade, Mr. Gray represented the Marxist Government of Angola. He also worked for Playboy and Penthouse when they were facing a Reagan Administration antipornography crusade led by his friend Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d. Mr. Meese ultimately turned his back on the crusade, Ms. Trento says, because of Mr. Gray's persuasive powers. (She notes elsewhere that Mr. Gray once helped secure a job for Mr. Meese's wife, Ursula.)

For a fee of more than $10 million, Mr. Gray's office at Hill & Knowlton waged a lobbying campaign for Kuwait in an effort to manipulate public opinion in favor of an American invasion. The campaign was effective, although eventually Hill & Knowlton was severely embarrassed: the firm had arranged for a young woman to present emotional testimony before a Congressional panel about Iraqis killing Kuwaiti babies by removing them from incubators. Later, it was revealed that she was really the daughter of the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United States.

MS. TRENTO'S account makes clear that Mr. Gray has been successful at selling two things: himself and his connections. He has been a genius at self-promotion, able to get flattering portraits in the nation's premier publications and to convince many in Washington that he has strong ties to the city's movers. And years before most others, he saw the potency of marrying public relations to lobbying, creating the kind of expensive lubricant that many companies and foreign potentates still find attractive.

"The Power House" is thorough, almost tediously so, including everything from Mr. Gray's sex life to the interior decoration of his doghouse (wall-to-wall carpeting, an oil painting of a nude woman and a poster of puppies). The book suffers as well from redundancies and from an overreliance on unattributed pejorative quotations that detract from an otherwise richly detailed narrative. (And this is the book that recently made headlines with a footnote about George Bush's alleged holiday diversions.)

The epilogue to the Gray story is that Hill & Knowlton has suffered a dramatic turndown recently. It has faced a storm of bad publicity, a wave of defections and increasing competition from other well-connected firms. Prospective clients of Hill & Knowlton and other big Washington lobbyists would do well to read Ms. Trento's inside account, if only to find out what they might be getting for their money.

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<table><tbody><tr valign="top"><td height="23">Hill and Knowlton</td></tr><tr valign="top"><td>

<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" align="left">Hill and Knowlton has more than 1,200 employees and 50 offices in 20 countries and works with more than 70 associate companies. it's clients have included governments from all over the world including Turkey, Peru, Israel, Egypt, Indonesia, Slovenia, the Czech Government, the Duvalier regime in Haiti and the People's Republic of China after Tiananmen Square.

Hill and Knowlton have helped to keep petrol taxes low on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute, have campaigned for deregulation for the American Truckers Association, been retained by apple growers to fight claims about Alar, worked with the American Association of Advertising Agencies to clean up the image of advertising, helped the National Conference of Catholic Bishops oppose abortion, and advised supporters of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Hill and Knowlton tells potential clients, "If your company or organisation faces a challenge from central, state or local government, you will need to campaign. Hill and Knowlton's worldwide Public Affairs practice organises campaigns which draw on professional expertise in policy forecasting, media relations, grass-roots communications and direct political advocacy." Additionally, Hill and Knowlton helps companies to identify and create sponsorship opportunities in areas such as education, conservation and charity.</td></tr></tbody></table>

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Lord of the Lies; How Hill and Knowlton's Robert Gray Pulls Washington's Strings

The Washington MonthlyBy Trento, Susan B.

Magazine article from The Washington Monthly, Vol. 24, No. 9

Article details

Beginning of article

This article is adapted from The Power House: Robert Keith Gray and the Selling of Access and Influence in Washington, recently published by St. Martin 's Press.

In the old days, when Robert Gray was a staffer in the Eisenhower White House and had visitors in his office, he'd have his secretary interrupt him from time to time with fake telephone calls from the President. Back then, the occasional deception helped the Nebraska native wire his White House career. Three decades later, the tricks were the same but the stakes a fittie higher. This time around, deception helped Bob Gray set the American agenda.

"A reporter would walk in, and he would instruct his executive assistant to come in and announce there was a call from the White House," a former Gray and Company executive recalls. "Totally fabricated. They would come in and they would say, 'Mr. Gray, Mr. Meese is on the phone,' and he would pick up a dead fine, carry on a conversation of four or five short, rapid sentences as though he was in constant communication and hang up. And then, of course, the reporter, dazzled, would report that a White House phone call came in."

Access: The illusion of it has long been the energy source of Washington's unelected power elite--the lobbyists, PR sorcerers, and counselors who work their quiet magic on the nation's laws in back rooms the general public doesn't even know exist. And no one has nurtured that illusion better or longer than Bob Gray, one of Washington's most powerful, and most respected, influence peddlers. For 30 years, at his own firm and at Hill and Knowlton, he's set a standard--not a particularly high one for what Washington lobbying can get away with.

Of course, Gray would probably relate his story as a Horatio Alger tale: A boy from Hastings, Nebraska, comes to Washington, works hard, and makes it to the top. When he started in the world of public relations in 1961, he had no expertise in either government or substantive policymaking. But he did have a talent for making people believe he was well-connected, and in the power-crazed world of Washington, he found an audience not only eager to believe he was a player, but willing to pay him handsomely to prove it.

In relatively short order, his illusion became reality: Gray did favors for people; he thrived on the party circuit; he was a perfect host and perfect guest. He cultivated Washington society wives, raised money for the Republican party, and took care of the politically powerful. Soon enough, Gray did know almost everyone in town who mattered. And he knew exactly how to profit from that knowledge: Take all comers, regardless of who they are. Whether the client was Haiti's "Baby Doc" Duvalier or the Church of Scientology, the only criterion was that the client paid--and paid well.

Gray's professional life is a study of how, if it's done fight, pulling strings for profit can come to look an awful lot like status. But it's not, unfortunately, the story of one man. In part because of Gray's success, the brand of insider politics he fine-tuned has become an entrenched and unhappy part of our legislative process. And any understanding of how we got here must take into account the career of Robert Keith Gray.

In 1961, the year he parlayed his White House experience into a power position in public relations, Gray went as respectable as Washington could get. As vice president and director of the D.C. office of Hill and Knowlton, Gray had signed on to perhaps the most conservative firm in the field.

Founder John Hill saw himself and his employees as public relations counselors, much like lawyers. Instead of simply taking instructions from his clients and putting out press releases, he genuinely tried to advise them. If a company was getting bad publicity because of bad policy, Hill would advise that the policy be revised. He would routinely turu down clients if he felt they wanted "to shade the truth," explained George Worden, a Hill and Knowlton official. "He was a very moral man.

<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">How did he use his power? Consider one client who went away happy, <a onmouseover="t_i(14)" onmouseout="t_o(14)" class="tip" rel="nofollow" href="http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/El+Paso+Natural+Gas" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">El Paso Natural Gas</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">. <a onmouseover="t_i(15)" onmouseout="t_o(15)" class="tip" href="http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/El+Paso" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">El Paso</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> hired Hill and Knowlton to drum up support for legislation that would allow El Paso to buy out its competitor, Pacific <a onmouseover="t_i(16)" onmouseout="t_o(16)" class="tip" rel="nofollow" href="http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Northwest+Pipeline" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Northwest Pipeline</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> Company. (El Paso's earlier attempts to do so had been blocked by a Supreme Court decision on the grounds that it would have meant higher costs for consumers.) <br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" />

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; float: none; display: inline ! important;">There was Noreen Fuller, the first wife of Vice President Bush's former Chief of Staff <a onmouseover="t_i(20)" onmouseout="t_o(20)" class="tip" rel="nofollow" href="http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Craig+Fuller" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Craig Fuller</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; float: none; display: inline ! important;">. There was Nancy Thurmond, wife of Senator Strom Thurmond, then chairman of the <a onmouseover="t_i(21)" onmouseout="t_o(21)" class="tip" href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Senate+Judiciary+Committee" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Senate Judiciary Committee</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; float: none; display: inline ! important;">. There was Washington socialite Joan Braden. Keeping the wives of the powerful happy was smart business. Not that they knew anything about lobbying, but they contributed to the illusion of access. "Need a favor from Henry Kissinger? Call Joan Braden," The <a onmouseover="t_i(22)" onmouseout="t_o(22)" class="tip" href="http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/New+York" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">New York</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; float: none; display: inline ! important;"> Times wrote. "A prominent Washington hostess with many highly placed friends, she regularly counts Mr. Kissinger among her dinner guests." <br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" />

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">His hair is silver-gray, his suits are impeccably tailored, and he is always in a hurry .... "Get me <a onmouseover="t_i(34)" onmouseout="t_o(34)" class="tip" rel="nofollow" href="http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Jim+Baker" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Jim Baker</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">," Mr. Gray calls to his secretary .. . Mr. Gray can get just about anyone in town on the telephone, maybe even the President now and then .... Just now, he is <a onmouseover="t_i(35)" onmouseout="t_o(35)" class="tip" href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/talking+to" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">talking to</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> Mr. Baker. "James!" he booms. "How are you doing? . .. We want to help you anytime we can .... You know that." Then Mr. Gray brings up the real reason for the call: Mr. Reagan's minimum profits tax ... He hangs up the phone and telephones <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; float: none; display: inline ! important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Robert B. Peabody<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">, president of the <a onmouseover="t_i(36)" onmouseout="t_o(36)" class="tip" rel="nofollow" href="http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/American+Iron+and+Steel+Institute" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">American Iron and Steel Institute</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">, one of his clients. "Bob," he says, "how're you doing? I just had a telephone call with Jim Baker on minimum profits .... " <br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" />

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">Domestically, one of the more notorious reputations Gray tried to <a onmouseover="t_i(38)" onmouseout="t_o(38)" class="tip" href="http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/sanitize" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">sanitize</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> was that of American fugitive Marc Rich. A billionaire, Rich fled to Switzerland in 1983 to avoid a 65-count criminal indictment. A year later his company, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">Marc Rich & Co., AG, pleaded guilty to 38 counts of <a onmouseover="t_i(39)" onmouseout="t_o(39)" class="tip" href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/tax+evasion" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">tax evasion</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> and paid a $150 million fine. Gray and Company turned the fine into a celebration--a media event. The deal was announced with great fanfare by New York's then-U.S. Attorney Rudolph Guliani, <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; float: none; display: inline ! important;">who accepted a huge, <a onmouseover="t_i(40)" onmouseout="t_o(40)" class="tip" href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/oversized" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">oversized</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> check as if he had just won the Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes. The fine was publicized as one of the largest in American history. In reality, though, it was pocket change for Rich, who was charged with <a onmouseover="t_i(41)" onmouseout="t_o(41)" class="tip" rel="nofollow" href="http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Gouging" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">gouging</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> the American taxpayers for as much as Charles Keating had with his <a onmouseover="t_i(42)" onmouseout="t_o(42)" class="tip" href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/savings+and+loan" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">savings and loan</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> boondoggies. <br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" />

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;">California Rep. Tom Lantos,<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline ! important;"> whose government operaorions subcommittee had oversight of HUD programs, began hearings into influence-peddling at HUD in the spring of 1990. Just before Demery was scheduled to testify, he hired Hill and Knowlton to advise him on how best to make his case to the news media and Congress. Remarkably, Lantos announced at the heating that the subcommittee was not going to investigate the relationship between Food for Africa and HUD contractors, a key portion of the inspector general's report that had started the HUD investigation in the first place. <br style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" />

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 13.6px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline ! important; float: none;">This article is adapted form the Power House: Robert Kieth Gray and the Seling of Access and Influence in Wahsington, recently prublished by St. Martin's Press.

==

3x

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">PR firms manipulate public and congressional opinion and government

policy through media campaigns, congressional hearings, and lobbying.

They have the ability and the funds to conduct sophisticated research

for their clients and, using inside information, to advise them about

policy decisions. They are positioned to sell their clients access and

introductions to gov- ernment officials, including those in

intelligence agencies. Robert Keith Gray, head of Hill and Knowlton's

Washington office for three decades, used to brag about checking major

decisions personally with CIA director William Casey, whom he

considered a close personal friend.

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">One of the most important ways public relations firms influence what

we think is through the massive distribution of press releases to

newspapers and TV newsrooms. One study found that 40 percent of the

news content in a typical U.S. newspaper originated with public

relations press releases, story memos, or suggestions. The Columbia

Journalism Review, which scrutinized a typical issue of the Wall

Street Journal, found that more than half the Journal's news stories

"were based solely on press releases." Although the releases were

reprinted "almost verbatim or in para- phrase," with little additional

reporting, many articles were attributed to "a Wall Street Journal

staff reporter."

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">While some PR campaigns are aimed at the general pub- lic, others

target leadership, either to persuade them or to provide them with

political cover. On November 27, 1990, just two days before the U.N.

Security Council was to vote on the use of military force against

Iraq, while the U.S. was extorting, bullying, and buying U.N.

cooperation, Kuwait was trying to win hearts, minds, and tear ducts.

"Walls of the [U.N.] Council chamber were covered with oversized color

photographs of Kuwaitis of all ages who reportedly had been killed or

tortured by Iraqis. ...A videotape showed Iraqi soldiers apparently

firing on unarmed demonstrators, and witnesses who had escaped from

Kuwait related tales of horror. A Kuwaiti spokesman was on hand to

insist that his nation had been `an oasis of peaceful harmony' before

Iraq mounted its invasion." This propaganda extravaganza was

orchestrated by Hill and Knowlton for the government of Kuwait. With

few exceptions, the event was reported as news by the media, and two

days later the Security Council voted to authorize military force

against Iraq.

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">THE INTELLIGENCE CONNECTION The government's use of PR firms in

general, and Hill and Knowlton in particular, goes beyond ethically

dubious opinion manipulation. It includes potentially illegal proxy

spying operations for intelligence agencies. "H&K recruited students

to attend teach-ins and demonstrations on college campuses at the

height of the Vietnam War, and to file agent-like reports on what they

learned," according to author Susan Trento. "The purpose was for H&K

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">to tell its clients that it had the ability to spot new trends in the

activist movement, especially regarding environmental issues." Richard

Cheney (no relation to former Secretary of Defense Cheney), head of

H&K's New York office, denied this allegation. He said that H&K

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">recommends that its clients hire private investigative agencies to

conduct surveillance and intelligence work. But, Cheney admitted, "in

such a large organization you never know if there's not some sneak

operation going on."

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Former CIA official Robert T. Crowley, the Agency's long-time liaison

with corporations, sees it differently. "Hill and Knowlton's overseas

offices," he acknowledged, "were perfect `cover' for the

ever-expanding CIA. Unlike other cover jobs, being a public relations

specialist did not require technical training for CIA officers." The

CIA, Crowley admitted, used its H&K connections "to put out press

releases and make media contacts to further its positions. ...H&K

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">employees at the small Washington office and elsewhere, distributed

this material through CIA assets working in the United States news

media." Since the CIA is prohibited from disseminating propaganda

inside the U.S., this type of "blowback"- which former CIA officer

John Stockwell and other researchers have often traced to the

Agency-is illegal. While the use of U.S. media by the CIA has a long

and well-documented history, the covert involvement of PR firms may be

news to many. According to Trento:

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">"Reporters were paid by the CIA, sometimes without their media

employers' knowledge, to get the material in print or on the air.

But other news organizations ordered their employees to cooperate

with the CIA, including the San Diego-based Copley News Service.

But Copley was not alone, and the CIA had `tamed' reporters and

editors in scores of newspaper and broadcast outlets across the

country. To avoid direct relationships with the media, the CIA

recruited individuals in public relations firms like H&K to act as

middlemen for what the CIA wanted to distribute.

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">This close association and dependence upon the intelligence community

by reporters has created a unique situation which has shielded PR

executives and firms from closer scrutiny by the media and Congress.

According to Trento, "These longstanding H&K intelligence ties and

CIA-linked reporters' fears that Gray might know about them might

partially explain why Gray has escaped close media examination, even

though he was questioned about his or his associates' roles in one

major scandal after another during his long Washington career."

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Over the years, Hill and Knowlton and Robert Gray have been implicated

in the BCCI scandal, the October Surprise, the House page sex and drug

scandal, Debategate, Koreagate, and Iran-Contra. In October 1988,

three days after the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI)

was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring with the Medellin

Cartel to launder $32,000,000 in illicit drug profits, the bank hired

H&K to manage the scandal. Robert Gray also served on the board of

directors of First American Bank, the Washington D.C. bank run by

Clark Clifford (now facing federal charges) and owned by BCCI. Gray

was close to, and helped in various ways, top Reagan officials. When

Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger's son needed a job, Gray hired

him for $2,000 a month. "And when Gray's clients needed something from

the Pentagon, Gray and Co. went right to the top." Gray also helped

Attorney General Ed Meese's wife, Ursula, get a lucrative job with a

foundation which was created by a wealthy Texas client, solely to

employ her.

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">ROBERT KEITH GRAY- PRIVATE SPOOK? Robert Keith Gray, who set up Hill

and Knowlton's important Washington, D.C. office and ran it for most

of the time between 1961 and 1992, has had numerous contacts in the

national and international intelligence community. The list of his

personal and professional associates includes Edwin Wilson, William

Casey, Tongsun Park (Korean CIA), Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Anna Chennault

(Gray was a board member of World Airways aka Flying Tigers), Neil

Livingstone, Robert Owen, and Oliver North.

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">"Most of the International Division [of Gray & Co.] clients," said

Susan Trento, "were right-wing governments tied closely to the

intelligence community or businessmen with the same associations."

In 1965, with Gray's help, Tongsun Park, had formed the George Town

Club in Washington. According to Trento:

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Park put up the money and, with introductions from Gray and others,

recruited "founders" for the club like the late Marine Gen. Graves

Erskine, who had an active intelligence career. Anna Chennault became

a force in the club. Others followed, and most, like Gray, had the

same conservative political outlook, connections to the intelligence

world, or `congressional overtones.' Gray's ties to right-wing Asians

like Chennault and Park had deep roots. Gray had been critical of

Eisenhower [when he was appointments secretary for Eisenhower] for

never being partisan enough. Perhaps that is why Gray embraced

wholeheartedly the powers behind the China Lobby. One reason Gray was

attached to the lobby was that they had long been behind the funding

of Richard Nixon's various campaigns.

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Tongsun Park was an "agent of influence," trained by the Korean

intelligence agency, which was created by and is widely regarded as a

subsidiary of the CIA. The George Town Club has served as a discrete

meeting place where right-wing foreign intelligence agents can

socialize and conduct business with U.S. government officials.

Robert Gray has also been linked with former CIA and naval

intelligence agent Edwin Wilson, although Gray denies it. In 1971,

Wilson left the CIA and set up a series of new front companies for a

secret Navy operation-Task Force 157. Wilson says that Robert Gray

"was on the Board [of Directors]. We had an agreement that anything

that H&K didn't want, they would throw to me so that I could make some

money out of it, and Bob and I would share that."

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">THE GRAY AREA BEHIND HILL & KNOWLTON Gray's connection to Iran-Contra

has never been fully examined. Notably, the Tower Commission, Reagan's

official 1986 investigation, all but ignored it. In 1983, Texas

Senator John Tower had declined to seek reelection thinking he had a

deal with Reagan to become Secretary of Defense. After Weinberger

decided to stay on in the second Reagan term, Tower found himself

without a job. In 1986, his friend Robert Gray offered him a position

on the board of directors of Gray and Co. Shortly thereafter, Tower

was asked to head the presidential inquiry. Not suprisingly, the Tower

Commission kept Gray and Co. out of the investigation, in spite of the

facts that several key players in the scandal had worked for Gray and

Co., and Gray's Madrid office was suspected of involvement in the

secret arms shipments to Iran.

</pre>

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Despite large gaps in the official inquiry, it has been established

that Robert Owen, Oliver North's messenger and bagman, worked for Gray

and Co. after leaving then-Senator Dan Quayle's staff in 1983. Owen

worked primarily with Neil Livingstone, a mysterious figure who claims

to be a mover and shaker in the intelligence world but who is

described as a "groupie." Livingstone worked with Ed Wilson, Air

Panama, and as a front man for business activities sponsored by the

CIA and Israeli intelligence. Owen and Livingstone traveled frequently

to Central America to meet with the Contras in 1984. An interesting

footnote to Iran-Contra is that in 1986, Saudi Arabian arms broker

Adnan Khashoggi hired Hill and Knowlton and Gray and Co. to milk

maximum publicity out of his major donation to a $20.5 million sports

center, named after him, at American University.

</pre>

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline ! important; float: none;">Carlisle, Johan, (1993) '<a href="http://mediafilter.org/caq/Hill%26Knowlton.html" style="font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Public Relationships: Hill and Knowlton, Robert Gray, and the CIA</a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline ! important; float: none;">', <b style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">CovertAction<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; display: inline ! important; float: none;">, vol. , no. 44: 19-25.

<pre style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">In the 1930s, Edward Bernays, the "father of public relations,"

convinced corporate America that changing the public's opinion--using

PR techniques--about troublesome social movements such as socialism

and labor unions, was more effective than hiring goons to club people.

Since then, PR has evolved into an increasingly refined art form of

manipulation on behalf of whoever has the large amounts of money

required to pay for it. In 1991, the top 50 U.S.-based PR firms billed

over $1,700,000,000 in fees. Top firms like Hill and Knowlton charge

up to $350 per hour.