Media reports about a recent advertisement buy in support of the war in Iraq by an organization named Freedom's Watch, including those by CNN, NBC, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, have ignored that two of the four Freedom's Watch advertisements link the Iraq war to 9-11, as an ABCNews.com report noted.

As ABCNews.com noted -- but the reports by CNN, NBC, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times did not -- the Freedom's Watch advertisements “link the war with Sept. 11, despite no reliable evidence Iraq played any role in those attacks”:

The ads also link the war with Sept. 11, despite no reliable evidence Iraq played any role in those attacks.

In the ad, [Iraq war veteran John] Kriesel says, “They attacked us, and they will again. They won't stop in Iraq.”

Laura Youngblood is featured in another ad -- she lost her uncle Henry, a New York City fireman, on Sept. 11, and her husband, Travis, in Iraq.

In the advertisement featuring Youngblood, she says, “I lost two family members to Al Qaeda -- my uncle, a fireman on 9-11, and my husband, Travis, in Iraq. ... Congress did the right thing, voting to defeat terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The advertisement featuring Kriesel included the words “They attacked us” on top of an image of the smoking Twin Towers, which aired without comment on the August 23 edition of NBC's Today:

As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted (most recently here), while President Bush and members of his administration have repeatedly linked Iraq and the 9-11 attacks, the 9-11 Commission found “no evidence” that contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda “developed into a collaborative operational relationship” before the Iraq invasion. A September 2006 report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded: “Postwar information supports prewar Intelligence Community assessments that there was no credible information that Iraq was complicit in or had foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks or any other al-Qa'ida strike.”

From the 4 p.m. ET hour of the August 22 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

JESSICA YELLIN (CNN congressional correspondent): Democrats are pouncing on those words. While they acknowledge the surge has had some military success, they insist the president is missing or avoiding the larger point.

Says Senator Hillary Clinton [D-NY]: “The surge was designed to give the Iraqi government time to take steps to ensure a political solution to the situation. It has failed to do so.”

Senator Ted Kennedy [D-MA] agrees: “Political reconciliation continues to elude Iraq's leaders.”

And Majority Leader Harry Reid [D-NV] adds: “It's time to change direction in Iraq and Congress will again work to do so in the fall.”

KRIESEL [Freedom's Watch ad]: If we pull out now, everything I've given in sacrifice will mean nothing.

YELLIN: This comes as a new conservative action group unveils a series of ads targeting wavering Democrats and Republicans.

VICKI STRONG (mother of soldier who died in Iraq) [Freedom's Watch ad]: We're starting to see results. The price is being paid. Don't give up.

YELLIN: Part of an effort to stymie Democrats' chances of building a consensus for a drawdown.

[end video clip]

YELLIN: And Wolf [Blitzer, host], those ads will run in dozens of congressional districts for five weeks, through General [David] Petraeus' testimony and the debate that will follow here on the Hill.

From the August 22 edition of NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams:

KELLY O'DONNELL (NBC News White House correspondent): The president claimed America's modern enemy, Al Qaeda, saw weakness -- that if a war became unpopular enough, the U.S. would leave. A parallel campaign launched today involves new TV ads, fighting the PR battle.

KRIESEL [Freedom's Watch ad]: I know what I lost. I also know that if we pull out now, everything I've given in sacrifice will mean nothing.

O'DONNELL: Injured veterans and military families appear in these spots from a group backed by Bush donors, friends, and former [White House] press secretary Ari Fleischer. The spots target 20 congressional districts.

KRIESEL [Freedom's Watch ad]: It's no time to quit. It's no time for politics.

O'DONNELL: On the other side, a TV campaign from a group long critical of many Bush policies, targeting Republicans, like Maine Senator Susan Collins.

ANNOUNCER [Americans United for Change ad]: Tell Susan Collins it's time to take a stand. End the war.

From the August 23 edition of NBC's Today:

O'DONNELL: As the president called Vietnam a tragedy, the lasting wounds of today's war are on TV.

KRIESEL [Freedom's Watch ad]: We are winning on the ground and making real progress.

O'DONNELL: Twenty-five million dollars spent in competing TV ad campaigns in a message battle over the war. From the side that says, “Stay in Iraq,” an injured veteran:

ANDREW ROBINSON (Iraq war veteran) [Freedom's Watch ad]: To hear Congress talk about surrendering really makes me angry.

O'DONNELL: The mother of a fallen Marine:

STRONG [Freedom's Watch ad]: We've already had one 9-11, we don't need another.

O'DONNELL: Paid for by a group that includes donors and friends of the president and former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. Their aim is Congress.

YOUNGBLOOD [Freedom's Watch ad]: Call your congressman and senator. Tell them surrender is not an option.

O'DONNELL: And from the side that says “It's time to get out of Iraq”:

ANNOUNCER [Americans United for Change ad]: After four years with no end in sight, nearly $500 billion spent --

O'DONNELL: Congress is also a target.

ANNOUNCER [Americans United for Change ad]: -- Iraq in religious civil war and over 3,700 Americans dead. Susan Collins is still standing with President Bush on Iraq, voting time and again --

O'DONNELL: And all of this is important because of the timing. In about three weeks, Congress will get that expected report from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and so, both sides -- the president and those who oppose the war -- are very much trying to compete for Congress' attention and the public's as well. And we'll be hearing more from the president in the days to come.

From the August 23 New York Times article:

As the battle lines are drawn, a new advertising war is beginning to heat up, focusing on lawmakers, especially Republicans, who face tough re-election campaigns. On Wednesday, a new interest group, Freedom's Watch, led by allies of the Bush administration -- including Sheldon G. Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate who ranks sixth on Forbes Magazine's lists of the world's billionaires -- began a monthlong, $15 million campaign intended to support the president's policy.

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to Mr. Bush and a member of the group's board, said the ads would run in 20 states, in more than five dozen Congressional districts. ''Anybody who is considering switching their vote is somebody we care about,'' he said.

From the August 23 Los Angeles Times article:

A secondary communications effort got underway from a different quarter of the Republican Party on Wednesday, as nonprofit group Freedom's Watch launched a $15-million television ad campaign to support the administration's position on Iraq.

The group, headed by two former Bush administration officials -- Bradley Blakeman, a former senior assistant to Bush, and Ari Fleischer, Bush's former spokesman -- is funded by private donations.

“Those who want to quit while victory is possible have dominated the public debate about terror and Iraq since the 2004 election. Freedom's Watch is going to change that,” Blakeman said in a statement.

The group did not specify which members of Congress would be targeted by the ads, and Blakeman and Fleischer did not respond to calls seeking comment. But antiwar groups said 90% of the group's targets were Republicans, mostly moderates and mavericks who have expressed doubts about the course of the war.

“There are 41 politicians covered by their buys, and 37 of them are Republicans,” said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of MoveOn.org and campaign director for Americans Against Escalation in Iraq.

“Their theory is that they are providing support” for those Republicans, Matzzie said, but he believed the ads would backfire: “More Iraq on TV is bad news for Republicans in Congress. All people are going to see is more people hurt by the war.”