A series of videos designed to spread lies about the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin has been connected to a professional Public Relations firm. Those videos also share production qualities used in pro-Obama videos produced by Obama media campaign strategist David Axelrod.
Axelrod is considered by many to be a master of planting campaign messages on the internet to look like they did not originate from an organized campaign, a practice know as “astroturfing” (because of the fake grass-roots nature of the message). The smear videos have been connected to a professional PR firm, the kind of firm Axelrod would turn to in order to disseminate his message. No direct evidence of such a link has been established but to do so would be very difficult for any outside investigation.
Company employees and family members of Winner & Associates have been connected to the placement of these videos on Youtube. In addition, they have been shown to have sent notice of these videos to the fringe left-wing websites, the Democratic Underground and Daily Kos. Those smear machine websites then urged their readers - hundreds of thousands of them - to spread word about the smear videos.
Bloggers at the website “The Jawa Report” have used their collective investigative talent to expose the smear campaign. Normally, the blog specializes in tracking down and stopping sources of internet-based Islamic extremism, also known as jihadist propaganda. The bloggers recently turned their abilities to finding the source of the Palin smear videos. They present strong evidence linking Winner & Associates to the videos including an email from one of the postings that is assigned to the domain name for the company's website.
The “Jawans” also compared the smear videos to videos known to have been produced by David Axelrod's media company in support of the Obama campaign. The Jawa Report presents strong evidence that the female voice-over used in the smear videos is the same voice used in all of the Obama campaign videos from Axelrod's company. In addition, the investigators who routinely review jihadist videos for clues have determined that the video and production quality of the smear videos was high and likely done by a professional production company, not a “grassroots” effort.
The connections provide a clear, although yet to be fully proven, scenario. Based upon the evidence it appears that Axelrod likely orchestrated the smear campaign providing his media company resources to create the smear videos for the PR firm which launched the viral campaign. It was all meant to look like it came from some where other than the Obama campaign, a prime example of “astroturfing”.
Update: With in minutes of the revelation of this information at The Jawa Report the smear videos were taken down by the poster on Youtube. Anticipating this, the Jawans made a copy and reposted it.
Ray Robison is the author of Both In One Trench: Saddam's Secret Terror Documents
Comments
Thanks for picking up the best story of this election cycle....bloggers doing the work the MSM ought to be doing if they were not in the tank for Obama....they will rue this election cycle when they EXPOSED themselves to their liberal nature for the world to see....they didn't even try to HIDE their liberal bias this season at all. It won't work for them nor Obama because the American electorate is smarter than they give them credit for.
This is beyond outrageous. The unvetted one, with his background of: terrorist ties, Muslim upbringing, 20 year membership in his radical and racist church, naive foreign policy ideas, cut-and-run plans for our military as we are winning the War on Terror, uncaring for his close relatives that live in a hut in Kenya on $1/month, drug use and possible drug dealing, outright lies and virtual gaffe machine when not tele-prompted, Marxist leanings from Saul Alinsky himself, and who received untold thousands of dollars to complete his education and untold millions in campaign contributions from shadowy and illegal sources has the audacity to create and perpetuate the biggest campaign fraud in the history of the United States, with the elite media in tow. BO is an evil the world has not seen for ... oh, I guess about 6o some years now. We need to send him packing to some 3rd world, tin pot dictatorship where he will be right at home, ASAP.
the "smear ad campaign" you are complaining about is made up of one youtube video?
really? sounds like quite the viral smear campaign to me.
first of all, the suggestion that a youtube video constitutes an "ad" is highly questionable. Unless someone paid to show the video in other locations, a youtube video is just video so the FEC implications this jawa report suggests are not credible in the slightest.
essentially this "story" is that a PR company axelrod worked with in the past made a youtube video which claimed Palin was a member of the alaskan sepratists, when in reality only her husband was a registered member of the party.
Excuse me if I don't rush off to stop the presses.
@David Kerman: Actually, it was at least four videos. This is just one of them. And the allegation about the Alaskan Independent Party has been proven false. Even the NY Times retracted the claim.
Jawas not Jawans. Geesh.
it was the same video uploaded 4 times and the claims we're probably based on incorrect info that AIP gave to the NYTimes and later retracted
from factcheck.org
"The party's chair originally told reporters that Palin had been a member, but the official later retracted that statement. Chairwoman Lynette Clark told the New York Times that false information had been given to her by another member of the party after she first told the Times and others that Palin joined the AIP in 1994. Clark issued an apology on the AIP Web site.
The director of Alaska’s Division of Elections, Gail Fenumiai, confirms that Palin registered to vote in the state for the first time in May 1982 as a Republican and hasn’t changed her party affiliation since. She also told FactCheck.org that Palin’s husband, Todd, was registered with AIP from October 1995 to July 2000, and again from September 2000 until July 2002. (He has since been registered as undeclared.) However, the AIP says Todd Palin "never participated in any party activities aside from attending a convention in Wasilla at one time."
There is still some dispute as to whether Sarah Palin also attended the AIP’s 1994 convention, held in Wasilla. Clark and another AIP official told ABC News’ Jake Tapper that both Palins were there. Palin was elected mayor of Wasilla two years later. The McCain campaign says Sarah Palin went to the 2000 AIP convention, also held in Wasilla, “as a courtesy since she was mayor.” As governor, Palin sent a video message to the 2008 convention, which is available on YouTube, and the AIP says she attended in 2006 when she was campaigning."
one last note,
it's hard for me to really believe that Palin would consider herself "slimed" by being associated with a party her husband was registered with for several years.
How is this video not true? Her husband was a member wasn't he?
@Terri: The video is not true because Palin was not in the AIP.
Thank you Mr. Robison, for picking up this story. Rusty and his gang of Jawans have been fighting internet Jihadis for years. The level, and character, of online maneuvering following the announcement of Governor Palin as John McCain's running mate, was suspicious. Many bloggers and regular commenters noticed a pattern of activity that was strangely widespread, but so uniform in content that it became increasingly difficult to believe that it was a natural, grassroots phenomenon.
As you pointed out, bloggers don't have the resources that are available to professional investigators, either law enforcement or journalistic, and The Jawa Report has done some very heavy lifting in terms of laying out these connections. Those who point out that this is only one video would do well to consider how much time and effort it has taken to lay out the case for this one video. The Jawans haven't attempted to make any claims beyond what they have meticulously documented. Don't assume, however, that this video is the only link; it's the first link, and a very impressive piece of work.
If members of the media, who have connections and resources that bloggers do not, were to build on the work that The Jawa Report has done, many of the online witnesses to the campaign against Palin are confident that there is much more to find. If the bloggers are left to do the work alone, they will get it done, but I'd hope that the people who comment will consider the enormity of the task. These aren't paid reporters. The Jawa Report itself has been struggling with posting updates all day, due to service outages, and having to work at their real jobs. They're just regular people, like the rest of us, and that's what makes this report so impressive.
In reference to the update. Not only is it telling that the videos were pulled so quickly after this story was posted, but this all happened between midnight and 3:00 or 4:00am. In other words, people were making calls and deleting accounts in the middle of the night.
Sounds like panic to me.
i rather have sarah then a black muslim. until corrected be george on abc news. barak has known ties to terroist anyway that killed americans
Barak is a muslim? And his Christian church minister sounds extremist? How do both views coeexits? Unless you're a simpleton who believes everything anyone sounding from the right types.
Sounds like the readers of this post believe the same BS that's being dished out on the other side. Exept Palin did graciously host the anti-american group her husband has admitted being a member of. Oops!Could it be possible they create this to attribute it to Obama? hmm..
Gordon
Hmm, as a concerned Christian I have given much consideration to Mr. Kerman's assertion that there is nothing wrong with this video. I think he makes valid and important points for America. In fact, I am disapoointed that Ethan Winner felt compelled/was instructed to pull this video after midnight on a Sunday night after the expose was up for only an hour. Who knew he was a JAWA Report blog fan? Imagine that. You would almost think that a large operation, one that would have to have many operatives watching the internets, was behind the decision to scrub the mission. Nah, that's just silly.
Get a life! Obama has been WRONGFULLY accused of being a muslim, "friends" with a former terrorist because he had ONE dinner at a neighbors house (How many of you have done a backgrund check on you neighbors before going to dinner?), refusing to take the oath of office on the bible (there are PICTURES in the archive) and now being corrupt because he rose out of Chicago politics. The truth is that there is PLENTY of truthful things you can smear Sarah with, so I don't think her fans should focus on smear videos. Why don't you explain her repeated lies about her record, why she hasn't released her tax returns, why she uses personal email for business purposes and here is the BIGGIE. If she is SO experience and SO qualified, then why is the McCain campaign so scared that they have her sequestered from voters and the press. Maybe someone needs to make a video about that....
The JAWA/Shackleford piece has been debunked. John McCain is connected to Winner & Associates:
http://tinyurl.com/4uh6uz
Hello!
One more time, tell me,! who is this Barack Obama,! tell us who is there Family (cradle), by the way there are not Americans,there from Africa, looks
who are siblings (respect) gramma. This Barack Obama is not Messiah Please this directors.., where the money coming in? how this are Radical Socialism, there are not American they are Foreigns, including Americans Dean, Kennedy Kerry.
Ketchup)Clinton, Money is Need.- This is our America is in trouble. please need everything Happening.Please hope AMERICA by Saved.-
Thanks Cooperation
Charles H. Garrido
Miami Fla,
Obama who? we need to take our country back. liberals need to stop being so p.c. and use just a little brain. it is so esy to stand for everything when you stand for nothing. GO McCain!!!
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