CREATED 4/28/2011
 USAWARNING:
This site deals only with the corporate corruption of science, and makes no inference about the motives or activities of individuals involved.
There are many reasons why individuals become embroiled in corporate corruption activities - from political zealotry to over-enthusiastic activism; from gullibility to greed.
Please read the OVERVIEW carefully, and make up your own mind.
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OPINION ONLY
Geoffrey Freeman
— A tobacco industry lobbyist/PR staffer at APCO Associates. — APCO Associates (later APCO & Associates, then APCO Worldwide) was a company established by Arnold & Porter, the boardroom lawfirm of Philip Morris, specifically to provide the tobacco industry with an under-cover way to influence public opinion by establishing 'astroturf' operations.
APCO is clearly exposed in the tobacco archives as setting up The Advancement of Sound Science Coaltion (TASSC) and the junk-science.com website for the tobacco industry in the early 1990s. And it largely controlled the coalition-funded American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) through Neal Cohen from about 1991, and it is known to have had a hand in S Fred Singer's Science and Environmental Public Policy (SEPP) operation a little later.
In the mid 1990s it migrated to become a more 'normal' public relations and influence-retailing organisation [hiring many ex-Diplomats and Congressmen] after a complex series of management take-overs engineered by Margery Kraus and her lawyer husband. It is not clear how much control Philip Morris still had over the company during the 1995 - 99 years, or how much influence it has now.
Some key documents • APCO gfreeman@apcoassoc.com
1998 Jan 10: (Fax date) APCO puff piece Geoffrey Freeman: Project Assistant, focuses primarily on coalition building and the development of third-party allies.
Prior to joining APCO, Mr. Freeman worked for The Heritage Foundation, where he was a research assistant in federal budgetary affairs. Mr. Freeman studied the federal budget process and wrote numerous op-eds and analyses on proposed legislation.
Mr. Freeman also was an Assistant Transportation Coordinator for the City of Oakland, California. In that capacity, he researched mass transit programs around the country and implemented Oakland's "Commute Incentive Program" for all city employees.
Mr. Freeman graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in Political Science and a minor in Public Policy.  
1999 Aug: - Sep: At APCO, Freeman was running a program of paying nationally syndicated newspaper columnists and some well-known 'policy analysts' to write newspaper columns and general articles attacking:
- The Contingency Fee plaintiff legal system which supports class actions against the tobacco industry
- The Federal Government's Lawsuits against the tobacco industry.
This was being financed and controlled by Brendan McCormick at Philip Morris. See the entry on cash-for-comment syndicated journalists for the more detailed story of this operation.
1999 Dec 22: Geoff Freeman has sent Philip Morris PR executive Beverly McKittrick a parcel of document headed "Foreign Litigation Briefing Materials" about legal attacks on the tobacco industry (mainly Latin America). Freeman and Robert Schooling were in charge at APCO.
2000 Jan 14: Geoff Freeman to Beverly McKittrick. Tobacco Business Summaries Enclosed, please find tobacco business summaries for Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Panama and Venezuela.
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WORTH READING
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