"Lobbyist to Put in a Good Word for Sudan," by Al Kamen ('In the Loop') - the Washington Post, 26 Oct 2005, p. A17 (registration required)
As they say in Washington, "If you've got a phone -- and a half-million or so bucks -- you've got a lobbyist."
So the government of Sudan, which has been getting just dreadful press in recent years -- having your troops and their militia allies committing genocide often upsets people -- has hired a Washington lobbyist to help out.
Robert Cabelly , a former State Department hand who worked in the Bush I and Clinton administrations on African issues, and his firm have a contract worth $530,000 a year, not including transportation expenses, to represent the murderous regime.This did not sit well with Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.), who has been spearheading the drive in Congress to stop the slaughter in the Darfur region. Wolf took to the House floor last week to condemn the agreement -- "Where will the lobbying wheel of fortune stop next?" he asked -- and to blast the State Department for waiving sanctions on doing business with Sudan so Cabelly could get the contract.
President Bill Clinton issued the executive order imposing the sanctions. Congress last year passed a resolution regarding genocide in Sudan, and President Bush has repeatedly labeled the actions in Darfur as genocide. The United Nations is investigating.
Wolf wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , saying that "increasingly this town has appeared up for grabs to the highest bidder, with well-reputed lobbying shops representing the interests of some of the world's most unsavory governments." But "I would have hoped for more from the American government."
The State Department, asked about Wolf's letter, issued a response saying that "we believed that Robert Cabelly, in advising the Sudanese Government, would provide a perspective on U.S. concerns and policy that would be useful in advancing the peace process and resolving the crisis in Darfur."
But Wolf has yet to receive a response from Rice. "I would hope and expect they will reverse" the waiver, he told us, adding that "nobody would have represented the Soviet Union during the days of Ronald Reagan."
The Los Angeles Times reported in the spring that the head of Sudanese intelligence was secretly flown here in April for meetings with U.S. officials about terrorism. (Sudan, an official state sponsor of terrorism, according to the State Department, knows a lot about these things.) So the Sudanese should surely have an adequate "perspective on U.S. concerns and policy."
What part of G-E-N-O-C-I-D-E don't they get?
Comments