"Who needs Hill & Knowlton when you've got Benador Associates?" asks Larry Cohler-Esses in The Nation. Cohler-Esses examines a rapidly-debunked May 2006 story in Canada's National Post, which claimed that Iran's government was requiring Jewish residents to wear a yellow insignia. That story was planted by the PR firm Benador Associates, according to its president, Eleana Benador. The firm's "stable of writers and activists" reads like "a Who's Who of the neocon movement," including Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, Frank Gaffney and Amir Taheri, an Iranian exile who wrote the false story. Cohler-Esses notes that Taheri's 1989 book, Nest of Spies, was also debunked for citing "nonexistent sources," fabricating "nonexistent substance in cases where the sources existed," and distorting the facts "beyond recognition." Last year, Taheri falsely claimed that Iran's current ambassador to the United Nations took part in the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Yet, Taheri was part of an "Iraq experts" briefing of President Bush last month. "My major concern is the large picture," Benador told Cohler-Esses. "As much as being accurate is important, in the end it's important to side with what's right. What's wrong is siding with the terrorists."

"As an industry, we have not done a good job about educating people and talking about how gas prices are set," explained Shell Oil's senior media relations specialist, Darci Sinclair. So, over the next two years, Shell "will send its senior leaders on a 50-city 'tour'," reports PR Week. Shell president John Hofmeister and other executives will hold "one-on-one and group meetings, receptions, speeches, and other events with local chambers of commerce, rotary clubs, educational institutions, media members, environmental groups, government officials, Shell employees themselves, and others." The goal is to reach 10,000 people in total, in cities including Dallas, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Seattle, Charlotte and Honolulu. Like other oil companies and the industry group American Petroleum Institute, Shell is trying to counter public anger at high oil prices and "windfall profit" tax proposals.

STRATCOM, the U.S. military's Strategic Operations Command, has awarded its new contract for foreign media monitoring to SOS International. Perennial Pentagon favorite the Rendon Group formerly held the contract. SOS will track "foreign press in several languages across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Mexico with a focus on the so-called Global War on Terrorism," reports O'Dwyer's PR Daily. The contract is worth up to $67 million through 2010. SOS "was one of four companies awarded a multi-million contract with the FBI last year to train and provide role players to support the Bureau's nationwide counterintelligence training program." It's also worked for the United Nations, providing "anti-money laundering training" in Nigeria; for Kellogg Brown and Root, providing linguists; and for the National Security Agency.

The Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) has dismissed an ethics complaint that a front group authorized by the Chief Executive of Corporate Communications Tasmania, Tony Harrison, breached the PR industry's self-regulatory code of ethics. In the March 2006 Tasmanian state election, Harrison authorised a major advertising campaign for Tasmanians for a Better Future but refused to disclose who was funding it. Australian Greens Senator, Christine Milne, argued that in her opinion Harrison breached the code of ethics provision which states that "members shall be prepared to identify the source of funding of any public communication they initiate or for which they act as a conduit". In a speech to the Australian Senate late last week Milne said that all she got from the PRIA "was a two-line reply" dismissing her complaint. Corporate Communications Tasmania is the largest PR company in Tasmania and an affiliate of Porter Novelli.

The U.S. India Business Counci (UIBC) has hired the lobbying company Patton Boggs to build Congressional support for President George W. Bush's plan to allow nuclear technology sales to India. In a July 2005 agreement with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bush pledged to "adjust U.S. laws and policies" to allow nuclear sales to proceed, even though India is not a signatory to the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. India proposes that only 14 of its 22 nuclear power reactors would be open to international inspectors. Potential beneficiaries of the deal include Westinghouse and General Electric, both of which are UIBC members. The plan faces strong opposition from Democratic and Republican members of Congress. O'Dwyer's PR Daily reports that one member of the Patton Boggs team will be "Benjamin Ginsberg, who was national counsel for the Bush-Cheney '04 presidential campaign, and a key player in the 2000 Florida recount."