Fun with Lobbyists and Astroturfing - False Flag Operations

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I stumbled about this little piece of news that will never make it to TV and thought it'd be a splendid idea to devote a series of threads to document such stuff, much like Mrs. Taitz' fabulous exploits in court.

A US lobbying firm Bonner & Associates has sent false flag letters to lawmakers - purportedly coming from minority, senior, and veterans' groups - urging them to oppose climate change legislation. Apparently the impression that was to be generated was one of widespread citizen concern on the matter. The lobbying firm blames a bad, bad employee for the incident, suggesting he has acted on his own.

That appears implausible. Example: One of the letters targeted, among others, for instance a Freshman Democratic congressman Tom Perriello from a Republican leaning Virginia district - suggesting to him he might alienate a segment that voted for him if he supports climate change legislation, raising the spectre of losing re-elections. That does appear pretty shrewd and deliberate as far as political calculations go.

Great background article here. And very detailed report on on the modus operandi of Bonner & Associates can be found here.

Congress is to hold hearings on the matter. It can be watched online

 

Can they file slander or libel charges since these people used other people's names? Can Congress file some sort of fraud charges? I hope these people are jailed.

 

A congressman from my district got elected from this kind of thing. Thousands of false flyers went out from a fictitious organization attacking his opponent in both English and Spanish. The flyers looked like they were from a legitimate source, but no ever even found out who printed the things, let alone the author.

It's wrong, but it works when the ruse goes undiscovered (especially when you can't finger the culprit).

 

I think there should be some serious penalties for that sort of nonsense -- IMHO that's a fraudulent action that is worse than hosing someone for money.

Of course, the politicians should check the veracity of stuff like that they receive.

 

A ficticious organization is one thing (though still not particularly moral). Hijacking the good name of an existing organization is something else entirely.