What, one might ask, could be wrong with a clearly upstanding organization like Empower Peace (empowerpeace.com/pages/home.html)? Look at the bright splashy graphics, the happy smiling schoolchildren and teachers, and read the scrolling news ticker. Watch the news ticker, read the news ticker, just stare at the news ticker, let your mind wander as you read the news ticker...

Snap out of it!

Don't you know Empower Peace is a Pentagon front? From this:

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking records under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), 5 U.S.C. ' 552, from the Department of Defense concerning Pentagon funded programs engaged in "strategic influence, perception management, strategic information warfare and/or strategic psychological operations" through media consultants, "think tanks," foreign expatriate political organizations and Internet sites...

Judicial Watch is seeking, among other matters; information on a "peace movement" Internet site that reportedly was funded and established by the Pentagon called "Empower Peace." The site was developed by The Rendon Group, a media consultancy firm the Pentagon has paid more than $40 million dollars to since 2001, and targets participation of American school age children, teachers and schools in what appears to be a "grassroots" peace movement. The Rendon Group's relationship with the Pentagon has been reported in the New York Times and public relations trade magazines. "Empower Peace" offers "cultural awareness," interactive web broadcasts between New York and Jordan, as well as Boston and Bahrain, and interaction with school age children of Islamic countries. There is no indication on the site that it is a project of the U.S. Defense Department.

(Via reason . com/hitandrun/2005/03/teach_the_child.shtml)

In loony leftie paranoia news, the Captain alerts us (washingtonmonthly . com/archives/individual/2005_03/005791.php) that Garance Franke-Ruta is tying all the loose ends together: Blogged Down (link). In Part 2, I fully expect coverage of the ties between RedState.org, the Grays, and Majestic-12.