WPP Group Profile: British Wrecking Capability in U.S. Politics
April 8, 2008 (LPAC)--The British advertising-company monopoly, WPP Group, has taken over the most important United States political consulting firms, giving London a powerful instrument within the U.S. Presidential campaigns. WPP's control of the main U.S. advertising firms, in tandem with such British empire operatives as media mogul Rupert Murdoch, also extends more generally the British influence over American public discourse.
The founder of WPP, Martin Sorrell, served for ten years in the ad agency that ran the Thatcherites' rise to power and their implementation of the privatization policy.
From 1975 to 1985, Sorrell was a top executive of Saatchi & Saatchi, the advertising agency for Margaret Thatcher's initial 1979 defeat of Labour. As finance director for the firm, Sorrell was considered the "third brother" of the Saatchi brothers, who are two Iraqi-born Jews. Advertising for entities Thatcher privatized, such as British Airways, Saatchi & Saatchi became Britain's largest ad agency by the time Sorrell left; Maurice Saatchi became a life peer in 1996 and was co-chair of the Conservative Party from 2003 to 2005.
Martin Sorrell took a stake in Wire and Plastic Products Plc in 1985, seeking an entity through which to buy up public relations firms worldwide. Sorrell renamed the Wire and Plastic firm WPP Group and in 1986-1987, began acquiring companies in the U.K. and U.S.
J. WALTER THOMPSON Group was acquired in 1987, including ad agency JWT and public relations/political "fixer" firm HILL & KNOWLTON, an agency operating in the dim region between private firms and transatlantic intelligence agencies.
The OGILVY GROUP was bought in 1989, including ad agency Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Ogilvy Direct and Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Founder David Ogilvy was a leading British intelligence strategist and an active opponent of Lyndon LaRouche in the period overlapping the Train Salon.
YOUNG & RUBICAM Group was bought in 2000 including Y&R Advertising and BURSON-MARSTELLER, which in turn was parent to BLACK MANAFORT (now BKSH).
QUINN GILLESPIE was acquired in 2003.
FEDERALIST GROUP was acquired n 2005, absorbed under Ogilvy Government Relations.
WPP also owns Nielsen TV ratings agency, and a total of about 100 companies worldwide. They are very heavily represented in east Asia, in Japan, Korea and China.
- London's Hand in U.S. Campaigns -
Penn-Schoen president Mark Penn, who is also CEO of Burson-Marsteller, is lead adviser to Hillary Clinton.
BKSH president Charles Black is lead adviser to John McCain. Black has been since the 1970s the political partner of Roger Stone (formerly of Black Manafort & Stone), who is now a partner in a Florida law-firm crucial to McCain's operations. See the accompanying article on Spitzer and Stone.
Penn-Schoen co-founder Douglas Schoen, and Mark Penn, were lead advisers to Michael Bloomberg's re-election race in 2005, and Schoen, claiming to have left the Penn Schoen firm, has recently written the book puffing Bloomberg, Declaring Independence; and Penn and Schoen served as covert paid advisers to Tony Blair in his 2005 re-election campaign.
Penn, through Burson-Marsteller, is currently conducting a "behind-the-scenes" campaign for Microsoft, in its takeover wars versus Google. Other Penn/Burson clients have included Blackwater, the bloody mercenary firm, dropped by Penn's firm under adverse criticism from John Edwards, and Countrywide, the bloody mortgage firm, which Penn dropped for unstated but obvious reasons.
The Federalist Group, a former key part of Tom DeLay's K Street organization. The shop's chief, Wayne Berman, currently vice-chairman of John McCain's campaign, is close to Dick Cheney; Berman's wife is social director of the White House, and was chief of staff to Mrs. Lynne Cheney.
Quinn Gillespie chairman Jack Quinn was VP Al Gore's chief of staff, then worked for the Clinton White House (though he does not now support Hillary Clinton). Quinn advised Clinton to pardon Marc Rich, for whom Jack Quinn and Lewis Libby were lawyers. Quinn's partner, Ed Gillespie, is a George W. Bush adviser who was chairman of the Republican National Committee 2003-2005.
Penn Schoen & Berland ran a covert operation in Venezuela, an apparently phony "exit polling" and propaganda attempt to defeat Hugo Chavez's recall referendum. PSB did this through a "Democracy Watch" front they set up, reportedly on behalf of a Venezuelan anti-Chavez group called Sumate. Critics of the operation referred to the "British-run Penn, Schoen and Berland firm."
PSB's so-called "Democracy Watch" was also operating in Mexico, when Marcela Berland, wife of PSB partner Michael Berland, was a campaign adviser for Vicente Fox's successful Presidential campaign, working as a team with Rob Allyn (Allyn & Company), the U.S. Republican Party-aligned consulting firm. The Fox propaganda team used "Democracy Watch" as a "human rights/election monitoring" scam.
Mrs. Berland advertises herself as a native of Argentina and former "senior adviser" to Presidents Miguel Angel Rodriguez, Costa Rica; Leonel Fernandez, Dominican Republic; Carlos Andres Perez, Venezuela; Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada, and Jaime Paz Zamora, Bolivia; and Rodrigo Borja, Ecuador, and adviser to numerous corporations.
Under Charley Black at BKSH is the vice chairman, Scott Pastrick. In 1997 Occidental Petroleum hired Scott Pastrick (through the Black firm) -- Pastrick is an old friend of Al Gore's, known for his role in 1996 preparing "call sheets" that Gore used to brief himself on donors before making fundraising calls.
- The WPP Board: The London-Wall Street Axis -
Along with CEO Martin Sorrell, other WPP board members are:
