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This article is part of SourceWatch coverage of Freedom's Watch

Main article:

Freedom's Watch

Sub-articles:

About the organization: founders, funders and key personnel Sheldon Adelson Bradley A. Blakeman Matt Brooks Ari Fleischer Richard J. Fox Mel Sembler Organizations affiliated with Freedom's Watch Move America Forward Vets for Freedom Selling the war in Iran Ad campaigns Ad buys Pro-war in Iraq ad campaign Pro-war petitions and call-in campaigns Sued for trademark infringement External articles August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November-December 2007

Related articles: Operation Iraqi Freedom External articles (has links to sub-articles) Related SourceWatch articles Congressional actions on the Iraq War Exit Strategy from Iraq Selling the war at home Stay the course Troop surge in Iraq The Petraeus Report / Testimony before Congress Violence in the Middle East

Due to the rapid pace at which the Freedom's Watch article has grown, the chronological listing of articles dating from August 22, 2007, has been subdivided.

This section covers August 2007. Also see articles for September 2007; October 2007; and November-December 2007.

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Contents 1 August 2007 1.1 August 21 1.2 August 22 1.3 August 23 1.4 August 24 1.5 August 25 1.6 August 26 1.7 August 27 1.8 August 28 1.9 August 29 1.10 August 30 1.11 August 31

August 2007

August 21

• Michael Falcone, "Message of New Ads: Hold That Line," The Caucus Blog/New York Times, August 21, 2007.
• Joe Sudbay, "Bush White House is launching a negative ad campaign against Republicans," AMERICAblog, August 21, 2007.

August 22

• Jonathan Weisman and Anne E. Kornblut, "Democrats Refocus Message on Iraq After Military Gains. Criticism Shifts to Factional Unrest," Washington Post, August 22, 2007.
• "Wash. Post suggested pro-Iraq war ad campaign is an 'attack' on Democrats, despite its reported GOP focus," Media Matters for America, August 22, 2007.
• B Merryfield, "Loyal Bushies pimping families of the fallen," The Daily Kos, August 22, 2007.
• Mae, "Who are these people?" The Daily Kos, August 22, 2007.
• MisterOpus1, "Ari Fleischer and his Pro-Surge WH Front Group," The Daily Kos, August 22, 2007.
• Joan Walsh, "Ari Fleischer, reporting for duty!" Salon, August 22, 2007.
• The Angry Rakkasan, "Ari Fleischer: I Am So Confused About 9/11 and Iraq," The Daily Kos, August 22, 2007.
• David Edwards and Nick Juliano, "Hardball: Ari Fleischer can't name vet used in campaign ad," The Raw Story, August 22, 2007.
• Matt Corley, "Fleischer Ignorant Of The Name Of Wounded Iraq Vet Featured In His TV Ad," Think Progress, August 22, 2007.
• "Original Iraq War Propagandist Ari Fleischer Returns To Flack For Bush’s Escalation," Think Progress, August 22, 2007.
• Will Thomas, The Daily Muck, TPMmuckraker, August 22, 2007.
• Jackie Kucinich, "Pro-war group spends millions on ad campaign," The Hill, August 22, 2007.
• gideon1789, "'Freedom's Watch' Aims to Surpass MoveOn.org, Begins with $15M Ad Buy," Red State Blogs, August 22, 2007. Includes YouTube video links as well as links to articles "assembled by" the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.
• Eric Kleefeld, "Right Wing Answer to MoveOn Rolls Out Pro-War Ads," Election Central Blog/TPM Cafe, August 22, 2007.
• Frank James, "GOP ads to press lawmakers to back Bush on war," The Swamp Blog/Chicago Tribune, August 22, 2007.
• "Ad Wars Heat Up Ahead of 'Surge' Report," Washington Post, August 22, 2007.
• stilwell, "Freedom's Mouthpiece," Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog, August 22, 2007.
• Dave Johnson and James Boyce, "Behind The Front: The Pro-War 'Freedom's Watch'," Seeing the Forest, August 22, 2007.
• Taylor Marsh, "White House Front Group Screens You Out," The Huffington Post, August 22, 2007.
• Martin Kady II, "Groups plan $30 million battle over war," The Politico, August 22, 2007.
• "New group calls for fully funding troops," UPI, August 22, 2007.
• Matt Corley, "Fleischer Ignorant Of The Name Of Wounded Iraq Vet Featured In His TV Ad," Think Progress, August 22, 2007.
• "Pro-War Group Runs Ads Urging Republicans To Stay The Course," MyDD, August 22, 2007.
• Oliver Willis, "Freedom's Watch: Resist The Trap," Like Kryptonite to Stupid Blog, August 22, 2007.
• John Stauber, "The Pro-War Lobby's Latest Addition is Freedom's Watch," PR Watch, August 22, 2007.
• Stephen Koff, "New commercials urge LaTourette and Voinovich: Don't surrender," Openers/The Plain Dealer Politics Blog, August 22, 2007.
• Jake Sherman, "Ad campaign aims to keep lawmakers backing war. The ads, which will air in Minnesota, seek to keep supporters of the Iraq war from changing their positions," Minneapolis Star-Tribune, August 22, 2007.

August 23

• Ronald Kessler, "Freedom's Watch to Rival MoveOn Funding," NewsMax, August 23, 2007.
• Joe Bodell, "A New Frontier in Attack Ads? GOP Group Sets Sights on Some Republicans," Minnesota Campaign Report, August 23, 2007.
• Nick Coleman, "Bush's chutzpah on war is a sign of disrespect," Minneapolis Star-Tribune, August 23, 2007.
• "John Warner in the crosshairs," The Shad Plank Blog, August 23, 2007.
• "Left, Right Proxies Push on Iraq," Washington Post, August 23, 2007.
• "Philly Connection to New Astroturf Pro-War Group," Fables of the reconstruction Blog, August 23, 2007.
• Bill Berkowitz, "Last stand for Bush's 'stay the course' crowd? Freedom's Watch, a new group of former ambassadors and Bush pitchmen are targeting dozens of congressional representatives with $15 million worth of pro-war radio and television advertisements," Media Transparency, August 23, 2007.
• Philip Weiss, "New Pro-Iraq-War Organization Hides Its Pro-Israel Agenda," Mondoweiss, August 23, 2007.
• James Boyce, "Freedom's Watch Pro-War Ad: Is It False Advertising?" The Huffington Post, August 23, 2007.
• John Stauber, "YouTube Wars - Freedom's Watch vs. IVAW. Which is Real Grassroots, Which is a Front Group?" PRWatch, August 23, 2007.
• fbihop, "NM-Sen, NM-01: Pro War Group Targets Domenici, Wilson," Swing State Project, August 23, 2007.
• William N. Grigg, "The Last Full Measure ... Of Murderous Opportunism," Pro Libertate Blog, August 23, 2007.
• David Weigl, "Let Me Get An Encore, Do You Want More?" Reason Magazine, August 23, 2007.
• Mark Murray, "Donors Funding $15 Million Pro-War Ad Campaign: A Who's Who Of Fmr Bush Ambassadors," The Huffington Post, August 23, 2007.
• "ME-Sen: VoteVets responds to pro-war ads," The Daily Kos, August 23, 2007.
• Mary Gilbert, "Republicans squeezed from both sides on Iraq. Conservative group goes on offensive with pro-war grassroots campaign," National Journal (MSNBC), August 23, 2007.
• News Release: Press Gaggle by Gordon Johndroe, Crawford Filing Center, Crawford, Texas, August 23, 2007, 2:24 P.M. CDT: "Q Is there any White House connection to this group, Freedom's Watch, that is running ads against Republicans around the country?"
• Spencer Ackerman, "Today's Must Read," TPMmuckraker, August 23, 2007.
• Mithras, "More on that Pro-War Astroturf Group," Fables of the reconstruction Blog, August 23, 2007.
• Lane Hudson, "Veteran: New Iraq make political props out of soldiers," News For The Left Blogspot, August 23, 2007.
• Steve Watson, "Pro War Ads Falsely Link 9/11 To Iraq," Infowars.com (RealTruthOnline), August 23, 2007.
• "Media reports on Freedom's Watch advertisements don't note misinformation," Media Matters for America, August 23, 2007.
• "Reporting on Bush's VFW speech, media failed to note his previous disavowal of Iraq-Vietnam parallels," Media Matters for America, August 23, 2007.

August 24

• Joe Conason, "Ari Fleischer's misleading message. Freedom's Watch, the former press secretary's new pro-Iraq war group, has little to do with veterans and everything to do with politics," Salon, August 24, 2007.
• Justin Raimondo, "Home Front 'Surge'. War Party's ad campaign will boomerang," Antiwar.com, August 24, 2007.
• Herman Wang, "Iraq war ads target moderate Republicans," Times Free Press (Chattanooga, Tenn.), August 24, 2007.
• Mark Weiner, "Republicans buy ads to push Walsh to stay the course. The campaign targets Republicans in Congress who might break ranks," The Post-Standard (Syracuse, N.Y.), August 24, 2007.
• Jesse Singal, "A New Group with an Old Message on the War," The American Prospect, August 24, 2007: "An organization set up to advocate for our continued involvement in Iraq doubles down on a failed PR strategy in the hopes of regaining the support of moderate Republican voters -- and smoothing the path for a pro-war presidential candidate."
• "Pro-'surge' group is almost all Jewish," JTA.org, August 24, 2007.
• Robert A. Kezelis, "Freedom's Watch," Capitol Hill Blue, August 24, 2007.
• Erika Anderson, "Freedom's Watch Strengthens Surge Efforts," Human Events Online, August 24, 2007.
• Joe Fryer, "Ad campaign supporting war features Minnesota veteran," KARE11.com (Minn.), August 24, 2007.
• Mark Matthews, "GOP Ads Run To Counter War Detractors," KFSN/ABC30 (Calif.), August 24, 2007.
• "Advocates Launch Iraq War Ad Campaigns," PBS Online NewsHour, August 24, 2007.
• "MoveOn.org Defends Anti-War Ad Campaigns," PBS Online NewsHour, August 24, 2007.
• Faiz Shakir, "Right-Wing Launches Assault Against Warner, Claims He ‘Hurts The Cause Of Freedom’," Think Progress, August 24, 2007.
• Randall Mikkelsen, "ANALYSIS-Warner call on Iraq troops an alert for Bush," Reuters AlertNet, August 24, 2007.
• "Attacking Warner," Snaking the Drain Blog, August 24, 2007.
• James Boyce, "A Few Quick Thoughts From A Stalinist Blogger," The Huffington Post, August 24, 2007.
• Xanthippas, "Freedom's Watch," Three Wise Men Blogspot, August 24, 2007.
• "The Ministry of Propaganda Is in Full-Swing, Desperation Mode," DetainThis Blog, August 24, 2007.
• "Speaking of Freedoms' Watch," UncommonSense Blogspot, August 24, 2007. Tracks back to SourceWatch.
• Justin Schardin, "Ari Fleischer Pro-War Group Ads to Target Grassley and Latham," Campaigns & Elections, August 24, 2007.
• "Media failed to resolve question of which members of Congress Freedom's Watch ads are targeting," Media Matters for America, August 24, 2007.
• Terry K., "Kessler Not Interested In Freedom's Watch Funding," ConWebBlog, August 24, 2007.
• The Crux, "Well-Funded, Well-Connected Group Runs Questionable Pro-War Ads," Buck Naked Politics, August 24, 2007.

August 25

• "Some more than others," Maverick Tribe Blogspot, August 25, 2007.
• James Gordon Meek, "Don't give up, ads urge GOP. $15M blitz aims to keep pols' support for war," New York Daily News, August 25, 2007.
• Steve Benen, "The inevitable Warner smear," The Carpetbagger Report, August 25, 2007.
• John Hinderaker, "How Dare They?" Power Line Blog, August 25, 2007.

August 26

• relehrer, "'Jesse's Mom': Bush Plays The Death Card And Is Looking To Pair Up," The Daily Kos, August 26, 2007.
• "'Freedom's Watch' Pro-Surge Commercials Paid For By Bush Supporters," Buckdog Blog, August 26, 2007.
• "Jim Pence: “WUSSSIES FOR WAR” YOUTUBE VIDEO," TheRuralDemocrat, August 26, 2007.
• Josh Levy, "'Freedom's Watch' Strikes a Nerve Among the Anti-War Folks," Win-the-War.com, August 26, 2007.

August 27

• Steven Lee Myers, "A familiar U.S. strategy to help stay the course in Iraq," International Herald Tribune, August 27, 2007.
• William M. Arkin, "They're Marching, But for What?" Early Warning Blog/Washington Post, August 27, 2007.
• James Boyce, "If this Administration Actually Helped Veterans, Maybe our Disabled Warriors Wouldn't Have to do Commercial Work," The Huffington Post, August 27, 2007.
• Kate Nash, "Bush visit shows Sen. Domenici serious about re-election, observers say," Albuquerque Tribune, August 27, 2007.
• Editorial: "Sen. Alexander hits a nerve," CommercialAppeal.com, August 27, 2007.
• cafiend, "War is running for office," brain lynt Blogspot, August 27, 2007.
• Gilles d'Aymery, "Blips #58. From The Martian Desk," Swans Commentary, August 27, 2007.
• Martin Fisher,"Inconvenient civilian control of the military," My Reality Blogspot, August 27, 2007.
• Mike Deeson, "Local developer pushes Iraqi war," Tampa Bay's 10 News (Fla.), August 27, 2007.

August 28

• Gary Kamiya, "The waning power of the War Myth. As Iraq dies, Bush is falling back on his old standby: Patriotic blackmail. But this time it won't work," Salon, August 28, 2007. If there are problems in accessing the full article, it is posted here at Crisco on the News Blogspot.
• Bill Berkowitz, "Last stand for Bush's 'stay the course' crowd?" Online Journal, August 28, 2007.
• "Surgers," xymphora Blogspot, August 28, 2007.
• Dade Cariaga, "Ari Fleischer, a first-class liar," Sound and fury, signifying nothing Blogspot, August 28, 2007.
• William K. Wolfrum, "The Bush Administration squeezes some more blood from 9/11 victims," William K. Wolfrum Blog; Shakespeare's Sister Blog, August 28, 2007.
• Shane D'Aprile, "Freedom's Watch Targets Voinovich," Campaigns & Elections, August 28, 2007.
• Ken Shepherd, "MTV.com Rocks... to the Beat of Anti-war Drummers," NewsBusters, August 28, 2007.
• Megan L. Ortagus, "Anti-war YouTube Bloggers Viciously Attack Vets & Mothers," Gateway Pundit Blogspot, August 28, 2007.
• Herb Jackson, "Princeton firm producing pro-war ads," Capital Games, August 28, 2007.
• Bernard Weiner, "CheneyBush's 'mercenary' legions," The Crisis Papers/Democratic Underground, August 28, 2007; Online Journal, August 31, 2007.

August 29

• Jeremy Wallace, "Buchanan faces big pressures over Iraq. Defenders and opponents of the war work to pull congressman to their side," HeraldTribune.com (Fla.), August 29, 2007.
• "Freedom's Watch ads running during Thom Hartman on Sirius 146," Democratic Underground discussion board, August 29, 2007.
• Jim Freeman, "You Can't Judge the Bottle by its Label," Political Crank Blogspot, August 29, 2007.
• Richard Lee Dechert, "Rove's Warspeak 'surge' report scam," Twin Cities Daily Planet, August 29, 2007.
• peacevoice, "We don't have Ari Fleischer and $15 million...," The Daily Kos, August 29, 2007.
• Jon Ward, "MoveOn.org's conservative answer?" Fishwrap/Washington Times, August 29, 2007.

August 30

• "Mother Who Lost Son in Iraq Takes on Former Bush Aide. Gold Star Mom’s Anti-Iraq War You-Tube Video Challenges Ari Fleisher’s $15 Million Ad Campaign," Military Families Speak Out, August 30, 2007.
• Jonathan D. Salant, "Air War: Iraq Ads Target Vulnerable U.S. Lawmakers in Campaigns," Bloomberg News, August 30, 2007.
• Media Mouse, "National TV Campaign in Favor of the US Occupation comes to Grand Rapids," Mediamouse.org, August 30, 2007.
• Editorial: "Shameless exploitation," The Times (N.J.), August 30, 2007.
• Helen Thomas, "Bush Wants to Run Out the Clock," Hearst Newspapers ( Falls Church NewsPress]) August 30, 2007; Seattle Post-Intelligencer, August 31, 2007.
• Scott Manley, "Freedom's Watch Ads," Voice of Arizona, August 30, 2007.
• Philippe Grangereau, Translated by Pascaline Jay, "Thanks to Wealthy Friends, Bush Re-Launches His War," Watching America, August 30, 2007.

August 31

• Richard Forno, "Not Buying the Spin. Watching Freedom's Watch," CounterPunch, August 31, 2007.
• Glenn W. Smith, "The American Tragedy of Our Troops Held Hostage," OpenLeft; BuzzFlash, August 31, 2007.
• Marcus Alexander Gadson, "Making Soldiers into Propaganda," Blogcritics.org, August 31, 2007.
• Khody Akhavi, "The So-Called War Critics," Right Web, August 31, 2007.
• "Ali Baba and the Thieves of Baghdad - GWB on Magic Carpet," Shrapnel Blogspot, August 31, 2007.
• Dante Zappala, "The truth about my dead brother," The Daily Kos, August 31, 2007.