Paxety Pages

No. It seems to have begun with an email sent out by a U.S. diplomat in June 2003 while our troops were still engaged with the enemy and while they were still searching for WMDs.

According to Insight Magazine, the diplomat was Ed Bernier, a retired officer who was called back into service in February, 2003 to help with regime change. He was paid $685-per day. Yes, per day.

Mr. Bernier, former U.S. embassy spokesman and USIA chief in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, said he was directed in the lead-up to the Iraq invasion until May 2003, to help generate “positive stories” for news organizations covering military operations. He was also tasked with advising U.S. commanders on cultural matters and outreach to the Muslim population as Operation Iraqi Freedom unfolded.

“I was disgusted, it was denigrating,” Mr. Bernier said of the direction he received from younger superiors “with zero background in the region.”

Mr. Bernier said he quit after 90 days “because the effort I had put into a public affairs campaign was being ignored.” He returned to Hilton Head, where his wife, Geraldine, is a leader of the island’s Democratic Party organization and prolific anti-Bush administration letter-writer to local and statewide newspapers.

Mr. Bernier, according to the article, then wrote an email to friends and former collogues in the foreign service to help begin the Bush lied campaign.

Go read it all. Even Mahone couldn't have made up this stuff.