Statement by Camille Chidiac regarding USA Today's articles

LOS ANGELES, May 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Camille Chidiac, entrepreneur and co-founder of Leonie Industries, made an announcement today in anticipation of an article appearing in USA Today about his involvement in the creation of blogs and discussion forums featuring two of their staff. 

"In the wake of recent reporting by USA Today on Information Operations, Leonie Industries generally, and me personally, there was much online criticism of the articles, and of the two USA Today staff members involved: Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker. Some of the positive and negative comments made about these two journalists articles were written on blogs that I had registered under my name.  I take full responsibility for having some of the discussion forums opened and reproducing their previously published USA Today articles on them.  Even though the USA Today articles written about my family included unfair personal attacks and false statements by the reporters, it did not motivate me to post anything personally nor did I encourage anyone to post anything that was untrue or defamatory in any way.  The blogs registered under my name were all clearly marked "unofficial fan site(s)", were not "fake websites" and were not intended to "smear", mislead or misinform anyone.  Instead, they were intended to create open dialogue in an open forum related to the reporters past articles. Due to the un-moderated nature of the forums, some of these discussions quickly degenerated from legitimate criticism to immature and irrelevant rhetoric by unknown users. Following USA Today's release of a new article falsely claiming a "smear campaign" had been instituted against its journalists, I had the blogs audited and then removed so that there would be no consequences to Leonie for something I did personally.

Although I own a minority interest in Leonie, I have not been part of its management or day-to-day operations for approximately four years.  I acted independently of Leonie Industries and the US Government using only personal funds. My actions should in no way reflect on the honor of Leonie Industries eight years of work serving the military, its hundreds of veteran and civilian employees or the brave work of the US military we support in Afghanistan. I recognize and deeply regret that my actions have caused concerns for Leonie and the US military. This was never my intention. As an immediate corrective action, I am in the process of completely divesting my remaining minority ownership from Leonie."

About Camille Chidiac

Mr. Chidiac is an entrepreneur and co-founder of Leonie Industries. Camille Chidiac is an expert in global strategic communications and was instrumental in developing Leonie Industries international media capabilities while acting as the company's President and CEO from 2004-2008. Since 2004, Camille Chidiac has managed and developed communications and research campaigns in over 50 countries. As an entrepreneur, Mr. Chidiac has advised, partnered with and invested in dozens of both privately held and publicly traded companies in the fields of healthcare, technology, defense, media and renewable energy.

For more information on Mr. Chidiac please go to his website at http://camillechidiac.com.

For further information, please contact:
Phalanx Public Relations:
David Tractenberg
[email protected]

SOURCE Camille Chidiac