I am not sure how many Malaysians take the American Defense Council (ADC), a group that New Straits Times dubbed as "influential", seriously. I don't know if they are influential, but I know that they probably don't even have an office space.

Yesterday Bernama told us that ADC "has an office space in 1747 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington DC." I checked. I found out the space was occupied by one James Bopp, Jr, a lawyer. In response to my e-mail, he wrote, "[the] address is my Washington, DC [#1]law firm[/#]. If ADC uses that address it would be because they are a client of the firm."

Next, Bernama also gave the phone number of the ADC's regional office at Massachusetts: (413) 280-6369. I called. An answering machine told me, "You've reached the American Defense Council. When out of the office, Dan Perrin has made arrangement to electronically transmit to him by e-fax ..."

However strange it may sound, it appears that Mr Dan Perrin, the executive director of ADC, is the only one manning the regional office!

Dan Perrin also said (as reported in Bernama) the ADC office is housed in the law firm of Webster, Chamberlain and Bean. I called them, too.

The receptionist told me, after a pause, "ADC people aren't around." When I asked a few more questions, I was directed to the answering machine of someone called Melissa. Those interested may try to reach her at (202) 785-9500.

There was a mention of the American Taxpayers Alliance, the umbrella organisation whose foreign/defence policy arm ADC supposedly is. The American Taxpayers Alliance's claim to fame is that it spent US$2 million on TV ads attacking Governor Gray Davis' (Democrat-California) energy policy. The group, however, failed to reveal during its ad campaign its conservative bent or the source of its funds, in violation of California's Political Reform Act. See the news [#2]here[/#].

And finally, if ADC is indeed as influential as claimed by NST and Bernama, we should be able find something about them on the Internet. But, not only don't they have a web presence (a fact highlighted repeatedly by Mr Lim Kit Siang of DAP), I did not find even a single report on them or by them using Google search engine!

Based on all the above, it appears that the American Defense Council isn't a credible or an influential group. It is therefore patently wrong, in my opinion, for our major national news agency to give undue importance to an unheard of group.

I would like to believe that the blunder by Bernama and NST was the result of ignorance and not of ill intent. If so, they owe the Malaysian people an apology for misleading us.