Eleana Benador is the founder of Benador Associates,
a public relations firm that helped publicize the work of neoconservatives and other hardline figures
who advocated for U.S. intervention in the Middle East during the George W. Bush presidency. A Peruvian-born
Swiss-American, Benador (who recently has spelled her first name "Eliana") has claimed credit
for herself and her firm for the rise of neoconservatism after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A press release
announcing the creation of a new outfit called Benador Public Relations said: "European educated,
and a polio survivor, Ms. Benador has been the mastermind behind Benador Associates, which became the
centerpiece of the neoconservative movement in the United States and the West in the aftermath of the
attacks of September 11" (see "Announcing the Creation ...," Benador Public Relations).
Notable clients of Benador Associates have included Rachel
Ehrenfeld, Hillel Fradkin, Charles
Krauthammer, Richard Perle, Dennis
Prager, James Woolsey, and Meyrav
Wurmser. In a 2006 expose about Benador, the New York-based magazine Bidoun reported: "Founded,
with what Mrs. Benador calls 'serendipity,' on September 10, 2001, Benador Associates has ridden the
rising demand for such strident voices. If you read something that advocates regime change in the New
York Post, or if you see a 'political adviser' on Fox News suggesting that Israel hasn't gone far
enough in its attacks on Hizbullah, there's a good possibility that the appearance has been engineered
by Mrs. Benador. She arranges speaking events for her clients, places articles in newspapers for them,
and helps them address problems with their public image. Which is good for them, as Mrs. Benador's fifty-plus
clients are hardly a lovable bunch. Benador Associates' first member was the late A.M. Rosenthal, an
executive editor at the New York Times, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, who, in the
wake of the attacks on September 11, called for the bombing of the capital cities of Afghanistan, Libya,
Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Sudan."
Similarly, Jim Lobe of the Inter Press Service (Asia Times, August 15, 2003) writes: "When
historians look back on the United States war in Iraq, they will almost certainly be struck by how a
small group of mainly neoconservative analysts and activists outside the administration were able to
shape the U.S. media debate in ways that made the drive to war so much easier than it might have been.
... But historians would be negligent if they ignored the day-to-day work of one person who, as much
as anyone outside the administration, made their media ubiquity possible. Meet Eleana Benador, the Peruvian-born
publicist for Perle, Woolsey, Michael Ledeen, Frank
Gaffney, and a dozen other prominent neoconservatives whose hawkish opinions proved very hard to
avoid for anyone who watched news talk shows or read the op-ed pages of major newspapers over the past
20 months."
In May 2000, the Middle East Forum published "Ending
Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The U.S. Role," by Daniel
Pipes and Ziad Abdelnour. Benador served
as the media contact person (see Middle East Forum, "Lebanon Study Group Issues Report Calling for
End to Syrian Occupation"). She was also listed as a "Golden Circle" supporter of Abdelnour's U.S.
Committee to Free Lebanon—a list that included several of Benador's clients.
By early 2006, Benador began expanding the range of her public relations work to include individuals
not involved in national security issues. According to a press release on PR Newswire (January 3, 2006),
Benador Associates wanted to diversify "into other fields of activities, enlarging the scope of
its initial and successful areas in the world of politics, Middle East, national security, foreign policy,
terrorism, relations with Islam, and the Muslim world."
In late 2007, Benador announced the creation of an entirely new firm, Benador Public Relations (BPR),
whose "areas of expertise—with absolute exclusion of politics—will include: international finance,
with investment banking and infrastructure projects as the main chapters in that field; international
real estate; science, and culture." According to a BPR statement, "Ms. Benador announced that
in view of the uncertain political situation in America, she is to devote her undivided attention to
her new public relations outfit" ("Announcing the Creation ...," Benador Public Relations).
Despite the firm's purportedly non-political nature, a picture gallery on its website features photos
of Benador with Perle, Gaffney, and Ledeen.
According to her biography on the BPR website, " Ms. Benador has been a keynote speaker at leading
international events and has been interviewed for publications such as Asia Times, Die Welt,
the Gulf News, Bidoun, Lifestyles, among others. Ms. Benador has developed an
international media relations network that expands from Australia, Kazakhstan, Singapore, Japan, the
Middle East, and Europe, in a variety of fields. Her contact database includes presidents, prime ministers,
and decision makers from around the world. She has provided public relations services, among others,
to the Arab Broadcasting Forum, the Young Arab Leaders, the Arab Strategy Forum, the Coptic Association,
and has been adviser to a variety of politicians and business leaders worldwide" (see "Eliana
Benador," BPR).
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Affiliations
Middle East Forum: Former Publicist
Children of Peace: Goodwill Ambassador
U.S. Committee to Free Lebanon: Golden Circle Supporter
Private Sector
Benador Associates: Founder/CEO
Benador Public Relations: Founder
Education
Sorbonne: Studied Interpreting and Translation
Universite Catholique de Lille: Studied Interpreting and Translation
Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Peru): Studied Psychology
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