Children injured in Homs, Syria violence. Photo: Channel4News via youtube.

A New York-based public relations firm is under fire – and for good reason –  after WikiLeaks revealed that Brown Lloyd James has been working with the Syrian Government in “helping Assad get away with murder.”

As I have written previously, crisis PR firms often assist in helping to sell terror and brutality, a fact that is atrocious and awful. Previously it was revealed that Brown Lloyd James worked to boost the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and has worked extensively for other dictators. Who knows what other work they have done which hasn’t yet been uncovered?

Last year, the company wrote to Syrian officials that they “needed to buff up its (Syria’s) image abroad as decidedly unflattering stories of mass arrests and alleged killings spread in the press.” The agency said Syria suffered from “an imbalance in its communications approach” which had failed to reassure the Syrian people and outsiders that the country was genuinely pursuing reform.”

“Syria seems to be communicating with two hands. One is offering reform and the other, rule of law. Rule of law is a fist. Reform is an open hand. Right now the fist appears to the outside world, and probably to many Syrians, as though it is ten times bigger than the outstretched palm,” the firm wrote in its email, which WikiLeaks dated May 19, 2011. “They must be brought into better balance.”

From Hamas and Hezbollah to Assad and other dictators, public relations firms are assisting killers, and it is a practice which must be ended. Strategic communications is a vital part of war strategy and American companies should not be providing those services to those whose intention is to harm American interests.

Ronn Torossian is CEO of 5WPR.