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Voting in the United States of America is obsolete; lobbying is the new norm.

May 14, 2018 By administrator

What is missing from the list of Israeli lobby AIPAC spent about $3.5 million.

US Chamber of Commerce $82,190,000
National Assn of Realtors $54,530,861
Business Roundtable $27,380,000
Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America $25,847,500
Blue Cross/Blue Shield $24,330,306
American Hospital Assn $22,094,214
American Medical Assn $21,535,000
Alphabet Inc $18,150,000
AT&T Inc $16,780,000
Boeing Co $16,740,000
Open Society Policy Center $16,110,000
DowDuPont $15,877,520
National Assn of Broadcasters $15,460,000
Comcast Corp $15,310,000
Lockheed Martin $14,464,290
Amazon.com $13,000,000
Southern Co $12,970,000
National Retail Federation $12,890,000
NCTA The Internet & Television Assn $12,790,000
Oracle Corp $12,385,000

Source:  info@crp.org

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Lobbying, US

Harut Sassounian: Azerbaijan’s US lobbying firm’s list of impressive accomplishments

July 26, 2017 By administrator

Azerbaijan lobbyBy Harut Sassounian

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the four lobbying and PR firms hired by Azerbaijan in the United States. One of these companies is the Tool Shed Group.

This week, I would like to present a sample of the impressive activities organized by the Tool Shed Group on behalf of the Consulate General of Azerbaijan which is getting a great bargain by paying only $9,000 a month for all of these pro-Azeri efforts, almost none of which could have happened without the Tool Shed Group.
Most readers are unaware that American lobbying and PR firms hired by foreign entities are legally required not only to register their clients with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), but also file the detailed list of activities on their behalf.

In order to know what efforts have been made by the Tool Shed Group on behalf of the Consulate of Azerbaijan, I have checked the website of the Justice Department where the Tool Shed Group has listed by date all of their activities for Azerbaijan’s Consulate in Los Angeles.

Tool Shed’s list of activities starts on April 1, 2009, but mysteriously ends on March 31, 2011. This must surely be a violation of the Justice Department’s requirement which has to be brought into the attention of the U.S. government. Nevertheless, the two-year report provides a detailed glimpse which I have summarized below as it is a dozen pages long:

1) Outreach to Universities:
Arranged meetings for Consul General Elman Abdullayev with the following University officials: Jolene Kester, California State University, Northridge, CA; the University of New Mexico; Geoff Cowan and Adam Clayton, USC; Chapman University, Orange, CA; Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA; Larry Greenfield, Vice President of the Claremont Institute, Los Angeles, CA; Jack Lewis, Associate Dean, USC Marshall School of Business, Los Angeles, CA; Gail Lapidus, Stanford University, Stanford, CA; David Lundberg, UCLA NanoSystems Institute; University of California, Irvine; and University of Las Vegas, Nevada; Lectures by the Consul General at UCLA; San Francisco State University; San Jose State University, San Jose, CA; USC; Scripps College, Claremont, CA; University of California, Santa Barbara, CA; California State University, Fullerton, CA; Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; and Stanford University, Stanford, CA; spoke at a conference on religious pluralism at USC; and conference call with USC Center for Public Diplomacy to discuss a lecture by the Consul General.

2) U.S. Politicians:
Consul General met with Darrell Steinberg, President Pro Tem, California State Senate, Sacramento, CA; Karen Bass, Speaker, California State Assembly, Sacramento, CA; Annette Porini, Chief of Staff, State Senator Joe Simitian, Sacramento, CA; Felipe Fuentes, Assemblyman, California State Assembly, Sacramento, CA; Councilor Chris Calvert, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Speaker Ben Lujan, New Mexico State Legislature, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Mayor Bob Foster, Long Beach, CA; Cong. Adam Schiff, Glendale, CA; Congresswoman Diane Watson; Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchins, Santa Ana, CA; Orange County Board of Supervisors; Mike Schneider, President Pro Tem, Nevada State Senate, Las Vegas, Nevada; Mayor Oscar Goodman, City of Las Vegas, Nevada; Asked Cong. Michael McMahon (NY) to join the Azerbaijani Caucus, Los Angeles, CA; Mayor Chuck Reed, City of San Jose, CA; Meeting with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to present a gift from Azerbaijan to the Governor, Los Angeles, CA; Mayor Coss, City of Santa Fe, New Mexico; Cong. Dana Rohrabacher, Huntington Beach, CA; and City Council Member Jan Perry, Los Angeles, CA.

3) Jewish and Israeli Representatives:
Consul General of Azerbaijan met with Consul General Jacob Dayan of Israel, Los Angeles, CA; John Fishel, Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles; Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles, CA; Lecture at Temple Judea, Tarzana, CA; American Jewish Committee, San Francisco, CA; and met with Rabbi Leider and Prof. Reuven Firestone regarding a lecture by the Consul General at Temple Beth Am, Los Angeles, CA.

There are dozens of other meetings that Jason Katz, the owner of Tool Shed Group, had arranged for the Consul General of Azerbaijan. I must admit that for a paltry $9,000 a month Mr. Katz is underpaid for arranging such a wide array of access for Azerbaijan in several US States, something the Consul General of Azerbaijan could have never accomplished on his own.
The Armenian-American community makes up for its lack of lobbying and PR firms by the activism of its organizations and their members. However, a professional lobbying and PR firm can add a lot to the existing successes. Unfortunately, most Armenians do not have a proper appreciation for the work of lobbying and PR firms and therefore do not believe in funding such a valuable and much-needed effort!

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Azerbaijan, firm’s, Lobbying, US

Azerbaijan Employs Four Lobbying and PR firms

June 27, 2017 By administrator

Azerbaijan Employs Four Lobbying and PR firmsby Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier · June 27, 2017

After identifying the lobbying and PR firms hired by the government of Turkey, we now report on four similar firms hired by Azerbaijan.
By observing Azerbaijan’s devious approach to foreign relations, I have noticed the following pattern:
1) Whatever actions Armenian-Americans take for their causes, Azerbaijan seeks to emulate and counter them in the United States through its hired companies. Pres. Aliyev in a 2013 speech stated that Azerbaijan’s “main enemy is the Armenian lobby.” He also stated: “the Armenian lobby day and night is trying to slander Azerbaijan, to undermine its authority. They have broad financial resources. They are closely connected with the authorities of their countries where they donate to the legislators under the name of ‘lobbying.’ But, in fact, it is a bribe. Thus the Armenian lobby is at the forefront of an organized campaign against us.” In his lengthy diatribe, Pres. Aliyev falsely ascribes to Armenians the persistent bribing campaign carried out by his own government around the world.
2) Azerbaijan follows the footsteps of Turkey’s more experienced officials in its policies on Armenia and Armenian issues, including the denial of the Armenian Genocide and accusing Armenians for the crimes committed by Azerbaijan and Turkey. Regrettably, Azerbaijan has been also emulating Turkey in the repression of its own citizens, making it difficult to determine which of the two countries is more autocratic.
3) The government of Azerbaijan, realizing its tarnished image in the West due to widespread human rights violations, has hired PR and lobbying firms to whitewash its negative reputation. One would expect a regime that is so concerned about its poor image overseas that it would improve its human rights record at home, so it does not need to waste millions of dollars on American firms to carry out the impossible task of cleansing its image. In his 2013 speech, Pres. Aliyev wishfully described Azerbaijan as a “modern, progressive, open, tolerant country.” Who can be fooled by such outright lies?
The government of Azerbaijan has hired dozens of PR and lobbying firms over the years. However, at this time, it employs only four such firms.
1) Podesta Group, Inc., is paid $45,000 a month by Azerbaijan to “research and analyze issues of concern to [Azerbaijan]; counsel [Azerbaijan] on U.S. policies of concern, activities in Congress and the executive branch, and developments on the U.S. political scene generally; and maintain contact, if necessary, with members of Congress and their staff and executive branch officials, media and non-governmental organizations.”
2) SOCAR USA (U.S. subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) pays Roberti White LLC $125,000 to “research and analyze issues of concern to [Azerbaijan]; counsel [Azerbaijan] on U.S. policies of concern, activities in Congress and the Executive branch, and developments on the U.S. political scene generally; and maintain contact, as necessary, with members of Congress and their staff, executive branch officials, members of the press, and non-governmental organizations.” It is not surprising that the description of the functions performed by Roberti White for SOCAR USA is identical to the ones performed by Podesta Group, Inc., for the government of Azerbaijan.
3) BGR Government Affairs, LLC is paid $50,000 a month by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Washington, D.C., to provide “strategic guidance and counsel with regard to government affairs and public relations activity within the U.S. This may include relevant outreach to U.S. government officials, non-government organizations, members of the media and other individuals within the U.S.”
4) The Tool Shed Group LLC, originally headquartered in Woodland Hills, California, now relocated to Parker, Colorado, was hired by the Consulate of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles in 2009 for a period of four months for a flat fee of $35,000. The Tool Shed Group now also represents the Republic of Azerbaijan. Since then the contract has been renewed every six months. Tool Shed is led by Jason Katz, former Director of Public Relations and Public Affairs for the American Jewish Committee. Tool Shed provides “consulting services to the Consulate, including organizing briefings/lectures; facilitating meetings with community members, elected and appointed officials, and business leaders; write and disseminate op-eds.”
Recently, the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles disseminated to all Consulates in Los Angeles, and probably many others, a color brochure entitled, “Nagorno-Karabakh: Background and Facts.” This 16-page propaganda piece, full of misrepresentations about Artsakh, most likely was prepared by The Tool Shed Group, Azerbaijan’s and its consulate’s PR and lobbying firm. At the end of page 16, there is a note which states: “Published by the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles.” It is interesting that this sentence does not indicate who prepared the brochure, but simply who published it!

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Azerbaijan, Employ, Lobbying, PR firms

Turkey spends $2.6 Million to Hire Two New Lobbying and PR Firms

June 20, 2017 By administrator

Photo by GagrulenetBy Harut Sassounian, Publisher, The California Courier

Last week, I wrote about a dozen public relations and lobbying companies the Turkish government had already hired. In recent weeks, the Republic of Turkey added two new such firms: Ballard Partners and Burson-Marsteller.
Turkish officials don’t seem to realize that having more than a dozen lobbying firms not only is a waste of money due to unnecessary duplication, it is also a waste of the valuable time of several Turkish Embassy officials in Washington, D.C., spending a lot of their time on a daily basis to give detailed instructions to these lobbying firms, read their reports, comment on them, meet with them, forward their reports to the Foreign Ministry with lengthy explanations, and take corrective action based on Ankara’s reaction. Unless such an intense and elaborate effort is made in working with so many lobbying firms, Turkish officials are simply wasting their country’s money!
I am happy that the Turkish government has decided to waste more of its money by agreeing to pay Brian Ballard’s firm, Ballard Partners, $1.5 million from May 15, 2017 to May 14, 2018. According to Ballard’s registration with the Justice Department, the firm will provide the Turkish government “with advocacy services relative to US-Turkey bilateral relations.” The lobbying activities include “advising, counseling, and assisting [Turkey] in communications with US Government officials. Maintaining US relations with this important NATO partner.”
Brian Ballard is the longtime lobbyist for Pres. Donald Trump as the representative of the Trump Organization in Tallahassee, Florida. He raised $16 million for Trump’s presidential campaign while serving as his state finance chairman and later as vice chairman of the President’s inaugural committee. Ballard issued a statement asserting that he “still speaks to Trump on occasion.” Susie Wiles, who was introduced by Ballard to Trump during the campaign, served as Trump’s Florida campaign manager. She is now working for Ballard Partners. Ballard also hired former Congressman Robert Wexler (Democrat-Florida) to be in charge of the Turkish lobbying account. As co-chair of the Congressional Turkey Caucus, Cong. Wexler actively lobbied and voted against a proposed House Armenian Genocide resolution on Oct. 10, 2007. His new job is his reward for staunchly supporting Turkey in Congress for years!
According to the Tampa Bay Times, Ballard’s first interaction with Trump occurred several years ago when he wrote a letter to Trump after reading his book, Art of the Deal, and Trump answered. Ballard wrote back stating: “if you ever have any issues in Florida, please don’t hesitate to call.” Trump called him after purchasing Mar-a-Largo in 1985, and paid Ballard at least $460,000 from 2013 to 2015 for lobbying work. Trump personally called Ballard asking for his help when he launched his presidential campaign. Ballard is now organizing a fundraising banquet for Trump on June 28. The cost is $35,000 per person and $100,000 to join the host committee.
Ballard makes no secret of his special connections with Pres. Trump. “I would imagine if Hillary Clinton were elected I wouldn’t be here,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. Ballard said “he doesn’t discuss how he works or his contacts with the president. He’s been spotted at the White House, however, and Trump maintains phone relationships with allies.”
In addition, the Turkish Embassy in Washington D.C., signed a contract with Burson-Marsteller for $1.1 million for the period May 1-Dec. 31, 2017. Ironically, from 2012 to 2015, Burson-Marsteller was doing lobbying work for the Alliance for Shared Values, a group tied to the Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen whom Erdogan opposes and seeks his extradition from the US to Turkey. The Turkish government reportedly threatened Burson-Marsteller’s operations in Turkey if the firm continued to lobby for Gulen.
Burson-Marsteller is supposed to provide “integrated public relations services to support the [Turkish] Embassy’s communications objectives in the United States. Activities include media outreach, monitoring and analysis; event support; stakeholder engagement; social media counsel; and support for Turkish consulates in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.”
It is noteworthy that despite the millions of dollars spent by Turkey on more than a dozen high-powered lobbying and public relations firms, they could not counter the large number of news articles and TV coverage critical of the Turkish government for the attack on peaceful protesters by Pres. Erdogan’s bodyguards in front of the Turkish Ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C., on May 16. This fact reinforces my firm belief that Turkey is wasting millions of dollars annually trying to cleanse its image in the U.S., which is further tarnished by the Turkish government’s brutal policies both at home and abroad!

Filed Under: News Tagged With: cost, Lobbying, Turkey

Trump’s ex-adviser Flynn admits Turkey lobbying

March 10, 2017 By administrator

U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who was fired from his prominent White House job last month, has registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for $530,000 worth of lobbying work before Election Day that may have aided the Turkish government, AP reported.

Paperwork filed Tuesday with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agent Registration Unit said Flynn and his firm were voluntarily registering for lobbying from August through November that “could be construed to have principally benefited Turkey.”

In February Flynn left the post and admitted that he gave the White House incomplete information on contacts with the Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak at the end of December.

Flynn was known to have spoken with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak several times by phone in December. Flynn denied that he and Kislyak had discussed U.S. sanctions and Vice-President Mike Pence also denied the claims on his behalf. Later, Flynn told the White House that the topic of sanctions could be discussed.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: advisor, Lobbying, Security, Trump, Turkey

Turkey wasting no time Using #Trump adviser Michael Flynn who linked to Turkish lobbying met Turkish FM in Washington.

January 19, 2017 By administrator

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Jan. 18 that he met with incoming U.S. National Security Advisor, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, and other officials in Washington.

Çavuşoğlu tweeted he had a “working breakfast” with Flynn but it was not immediately clear who else was in attendance.

He said he hopes relations between Ankara and Washington would gain momentum with the new U.S. administration.

Expected to be on Çavuşoğlu’s agenda while in Washington is the extradition of U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accuses of being the mastermind behind a group of people mainly from the Turkish military that sought to overthrow the government on July 15, 2016 in an attempted coup.

Ankara has said Gülen’s network was behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the government through its infiltration in Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

Flynn on Nov. 8, 2016, the day of the U.S. presidential election, wrote in a piece for the Hill newspaper that the U.S. should not provide a safe haven for Gülen.

“The forces of radical Islam derive their ideology from radical clerics like Gülen, who is running a scam. We should not provide him safe haven,” Flynn wrote.

Trump adviser linked to Turkish lobbying

A company tied to Erdogan’s government hired retired general Michael Flynn’s lobbying firm.

Donald Trump wants to forbid his officials from lobbying for foreign governments, but one of his top national security advisers is being paid by a close ally of Turkey’s president.

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a vice chair of the Trump transition who is in the running for a top national security post in the new administration, runs a consulting firm that is lobbying for Turkish interests, an associate told POLITICO. Asked if Flynn’s firm was hired because of the general’s closeness to Trump, the associate, Robert Kelley, said, “I hope so.”

Kelley told POLITICO that the client, a Dutch consulting firm called Inovo BV, was founded by Kamil Ekim Alptekin. Alptekin is chairman of the Turkish-American Business Council, known as TAIK, an arm of the Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey, whose members are chosen by the country’s general assembly and economic minister. In that role, Alptekin was involved in organizing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington earlier this year.

The Turkish government’s connection to Flynn’s client was first reported by the Daily Caller.

A lobbying registration posted Sept. 30 said that Kelley, a former chief counsel to the House National Security Subcommittee, would lobby on bills funding the departments of State and Defense.

“We’re going to keep them informed of U.S. foreign and domestic policy,” Kelley said in a phone interview. “They want to keep posted on what we all want to be informed of: the present situation, the transition between President Obama and President-Elect Trump.”

Kelley said he didn’t know if the client presented a conflict of interest. A spokesman for Flynn said he was too busy to answer questions. The Trump transition didn’t answer a request for comment.

Source:http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/donald-trump-turkey-lobbying-231354

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Lobbying, Michael Flynn, Trump, Turkey

Ex-U.S. Congressman Dan Burton Quits Azerbaijani Lobby Group, Citing Nonpayment

March 2, 2016 By administrator

Former U.S. Representative Dan Burton said he did not engage in lobbying during his time with the Azerbaijan America Alliance, but that he would occasionally invite members of Congress to “social functions” staged by the group. (file photo)

Former U.S. Representative Dan Burton said he did not engage in lobbying during his time with the Azerbaijan America Alliance, but that he would occasionally invite members of Congress to “social functions” staged by the group. (file photo)

By Carl Schreck

March 02, 2016

RFE/RL WASHINGTON — A former U.S. congressman has resigned as chairman of a central player in the multimillion-dollar Azerbaijani lobbying effort to court American support for the ex-Soviet republic’s authoritarian government, saying he has not been paid for his services “in a year.”

Former U.S. Representative Dan Burton (Republican-Indiana) this week resigned from the Azerbaijan America Alliance, a group founded by tycoon Anar Mammadov, son of the oil-rich Caucasus nation’s transport minister, that has paid U.S. lobbyists more than $12 million since 2011. 

“As I have not heard from you or Anar, and have not been paid for a year, please consider this e-mail as a letter of resignation as Chairman of the Azerbaijan American Alliance,” Burton wrote in a March 1 e-mail to James Fabiani, whose Washington-based firm lobbies for the group in the United States. The e-mail was seen by RFE/RL. 

Fabiani did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment or to a voicemail left with his office, and no one answered the phone at the number listed on the Azerbaijan America Alliance’s website.

Mammadov, a recent business partner of U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump for the construction of a 33-floor, sail-shaped luxury hotel in Baku, did not respond to a Facebook message, and no one answered the phone at the number listed on his website. 

Burton’s resignation follows months of speculation about the fate of the Azerbaijan America Alliance, a prominent pillar of a broader Azerbaijani lobbying campaign in the United States to portray Azerbaijan as a stable energy and security partner for the West. The lobby involves both private and state money. 

Baku’s detractors accuse President Ilham Aliyev’s government and its proxies of trying to paper over an abysmal human rights record with “caviar diplomacy,” using gifts, vacations, and other expensive incentives to gain friends and curry favor with foreign officials.

Aliyev recently removed broad powers from the Transport Ministry, overseen by Mammadov’s father, suggesting the family’s influence in the government is waning. 

Several reports in the Azerbaijani media since August have cited unidentified sources as saying that Mammadov planned to shutter the Azerbaijan America Alliance due to financial difficulties amid the broader economic crisis Azerbaijan is grappling with due to plunging energy prices. 

Burton’s predecessor as the group’s chairman, Azerbaijani businessman Khayal Sharifzadeh, denied those reports, saying the organization “continues its activity as usual and even in a larger scale.” 

Wining And Dining 

Over the past five years, the Azerbaijan America Alliance has poured a total of $12.3 million into U.S. lobbying efforts, according to the public-interest website Opensecrets.org, having wined and dined Washington’s elite and pushed Baku’s interests in meetings with senior members of Congress. 

Fabiani & Company’s work for the group has made the Top 10 list of priciest U.S. lobbying contracts every year since the organization’s launch in 2011, according to rankings compiled by Opensecrets.org.

The organization, which is not formally affiliated with the Azerbaijani state but has hewn closely to the Aliyev government’s line, has continued this spending, paying $1.46 million for U.S. lobbying services in 2015, most of which went to Fabiani & Company, according to public lobbying disclosures.  

Precisely how that money is being spent remains unclear. The group’s public activities appear to have ground to a halt. It has not updated its social media accounts or the news feed on its website since November, and it did not stage its lavish annual gala dinner in 2015 as it had the previous three years.

The group spent $430,000 for its 2012 dinner, which was attended by then-House of Representatives speaker John Boehner (pictured with Mammadov at left) and 15 other members of Congress, including Burton, according to a 2013 filing under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

In 2013, the Azerbaijan America Alliance terminated its FARA registration, which had required it to provide detailed accounts of its expenditures and contacts with government officials, journalists, and other individuals while lobbying.

Its spending is now reported under the U.S. Lobbying Disclosure Act, which requires a far less detailed account of a lobbying activities than FARA. Fabiani & Company’s filings reporting its work for the Azerbaijan America Alliance in each quarter of 2015 indicate only that contacts were made with the U.S. State Department and both houses of Congress.
‘I Didn’t Want To Be Involved Anymore’
 

Burton was named chairman of the Azerbaijan America Alliance in February 2013, a month after he left office after a 30-year career in Congress. He told RFE/RL this week that Fabiani introduced him to Mammadov, chairman of Garant Holding, a conglomerate with interests that include construction firms, hotels, and insurance companies. 

Investigations by RFE/RL have previously revealed that Anar Mammadov’s business interests are tied to the ministry overseen by his father, Ziya Mammadov.

Burton said that he did not engage in lobbying during his time with the Azerbaijan America Alliance, but that he would occasionally invite members of Congress to “social functions” staged by the group.

He also published opinion articles supporting the Azerbaijani government. One such piece in The Washington Times was singled out by Washington Post media reporter Erik Wemple, who noted that it failed to mention Burton’s affiliation with the Azerbaijan America Alliance. 

In his resignation e-mail, Burton said that while he believes “it is very important that there be a strong business and government relationship between the United States and Azerbaijan, I still must resign” due to nonpayment.

He declined to say how much he was paid as the organization’s chairman.

He told RFE/RL that he has not been paid for his services since February 2015.

“I hope they don’t have my name still as chairman of the Azerbaijan America Alliance. I told them that I didn’t want to be involved anymore,” he said in a March 1 telephone interview. 

As of March 2, Burton was still listed as chairman of the Azerbaijan America Alliance on the organization’s website.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Azerbaijan, Dan Burton, Lobbying, quits

After switching positions, Gephardt and his lobbying firm have taken $8 million from Turkish government

June 6, 2015 By administrator

By Chuck Raasch,

Gephardt and his lobbying firm have taken $8 million from Turkish government

Gephardt and his lobbying firm have taken $8 million from Turkish government

WASHINGTON • As a member of Congress, Dick Gephardt often spoke passionately about the need for the United States to recognize as genocide the mass deaths of as many as 1.5 million Armenians under the Turkish government that began one century ago. Report ST. Louis Post Dispatch

But as a lobbyist for Turkey since leaving Congress in 2005, Gephardt, a Democrat, has taken the opposite side. His behind-the-scenes work has been cited as a factor in the annual failure of Congress to recognize the Armenian genocide.

Justice Department records show that Gephardt’s lobbying firm has been paid more than $8 million since 2008 to fight the declaration and represent Turkey on other contentious issues, including repatriation of Christian holy sites seized over the last century in that Muslim nation.

Now, in the 100th-anniversary year of what Armenians refer to as Meds Yeghern — “great calamity” — two Armenian-American groups are pressuring Gephardt’s lobbying firm to drop Turkey as a client, and for companies to drop Gephardt as their lobbyist.

Gephardt, who declined to respond to repeated interview requests, has ignored the Armenian groups’ letters. Three companies have ended contracts with the Gephardt Group since the two Armenian-American groups launched a letter-writing campaign in January, although none publicly tied the decision to the letters.

Critics of the former congressman from St. Louis say he is just another example of the revolving door between electoral office and the lucrative lobbying business, where policy positions seem to change based on who’s paying the bill.

Son of a Milkman

Gephardt often described himself as the son of a milkman in 18 years representing St. Louis in Congress. He campaigned as a Midwestern everyman, champion of the working class, with All-American ambitions that led to two unsuccessful campaigns for the White House. But since leaving office, he has been emblematic of the path from elective office to private influence, as ex-members of Congress and their former staffers use the power and prestige they built in public office to segue to lucrative lobbying careers. The nonpartisan watchdog Center for Responsive Politics lists 427 ex-members of Congress who have lobbied or advised lobbyists, including former Republican U.S. senators from Missouri Jim Talent, John Ashcroft and Christopher “Kit” Bond.

When he retired from Congress in 2007, Gephardt told the Post-Dispatch that, as a lobbyist, he would be “involved in the same issues I used to be involved in.” He looked forward to weekends off for the first time in 30 years. He built a house in Sonoma, Calif., and had a condo in Naples, Fla., and promised his wife, Jane, that after tromping through Iowa and New Hampshire presidential snows, she would never be cold again.

Gephardt also said that his views of relations between the U.S. and Turkey — often described as the world’s leading Muslim democracy — changed profoundly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“We’ve got to have models out there of Muslim governments that are moderate and successful,” he said.

And yet in 2003, while running for president two years after 9/11, Gephardt co-sponsored HR193, which said recognition of “Armenian Genocide,” along with the Holocaust and genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda, must be recognized to “help prevent future genocides.”

Four years later, he was accepting money from Turkey to fight such recognition.

Over the last six years, the Gephardt Group has earned $4.7 million to $6.7 million annually from a host of corporations and associations, including Google, Goldman Sachs and Boeing, and St. Louis area employers Ameren, Anheuser-Busch, Peabody Energy and Prairie State Generating, according to CRP.

Besides Turkey, Gephardt has had contracts worth a collective $1.4 million representing Taiwan, Georgia, El Salvador and South Korea, according to Justice Department records.

His company’s most recent contract with Turkey, signed in March, is for $170,000 a month, with roughly half going to subcontractors, including a firm that employed former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

In 2013, Gephardt and Hastert helped arrange a visit to Turkey for eight members of Congress. According to the National Journal, they did so by exploiting loopholes in lobbying reforms passed in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal that ended lobbyists’ ability to pay for trips for members of Congress. Lobbyists can, however, plan and accompany members on trips paid for by foreign governments, as the National Journal said happened in this case.

In lobbying for Turkey, Gephardt has stepped to the other side of a highly polarizing, highly charged debate. In recent months, other governments, including Germany, have declared the deaths of Armenians genocide. Pope Francis in April urged such recognition.

In response, the Turkish government — saying modern Turkey should not have to atone for what it calls deaths from war and starvation in the Ottoman Empire in World War I — has pulled envoys from the Vatican.

In the U.S., the Armenian genocide debate is “inflamed” by politically active, second- and third-generation Armenian-Americans whose identity is wrapped in a belief that history demands recognition of genocide, said Edward Erickson, a professor of military history at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Va.

But geopolitically, said Erickson, author of a dozen books on Turkey, “the United States needs Turkey a lot more than Turkey needs the United States.”

Among Armenian-Americans, there is a simple explanation for Gephardt’s shift.

It “is premised on one thing, and one thing only, which is money,” said Kenneth Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America.

“The cause of genocide prevention, a core moral imperative of our age, requires, as the pope so powerfully stated, that we not engage in ‘concealing or denying evil,’” Hachikian, a second-generation Armenian-American, told a congressional hearing in April.

At that hearing, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., said Turkey’s “campaign of denial … underwrites a disinformation campaign to confuse the historical record.” After the hearing, he identified Gephardt as a key lobbyist in that effort.

The code of discretion

“As a matter of policy, we don’t discuss our clients,” said Thomas O’Donnell, a co-founding partner in Gephardt’s lobbying firm and his former chief of staff in Congress.Through O’Donnell, Gephardt declined interview requests.O’Donnell is among several Gephardt employees with deep roots in Turkish-American relations. Another is Michael Messmer, vice president of Gephardt Government Affairs, and a St. Louis native. He was also on Gephardt’s House leadership staff and later was assistant director of the Congress and U.S. Foreign Policy program at the influential Council on Foreign Relations.

The CRP says 29 former Gephardt Capitol Hill staffers are lobbyists or have worked for lobbying firms.

Messmer also did not respond to interview requests, nor did Hastert. Turkey’s embassy in Washington did not respond to multiple calls and emails.

Gephardt, 74, is not alone in lobbying for positions opposite those taken while in public office. Bond opposed Obamacare as a senator but lobbied the Missouri Legislature in 2014 to expand Medicaid, a key component of President Barack Obama’s health care reforms.

But Gephardt’s change on the genocide issue is stark because of the passion he once brought to the position.

In 1998, speaking to frequent applause from the Armenian National Committee of America in a Capitol Hill event, Gephardt called for Congress to “solemnly remember the genocide which occurred many years ago, but which so deeply affected so many families and people in Armenia. We must always keep that fact, those real facts, in our mind.”

But after going to work for Turkey in 2007, he told the Post-Dispatch that he was working toward a reconciliation that would avoid a genocide declaration, to “get all the facts on the table and let the chips fall where they may.”

Gephardt’s about-face on the issue is mirrored by that of President Barack Obama.

As a candidate in 2008, Obama said “the facts are undeniable” that genocide occurred. And yet in April, Obama avoided using the word “genocide” in his annual statement on the events in Armenia for the seventh consecutive time.

Instead, Obama used “massacre,” “horrific violence” and “dark chapter of history.”

While advocates for genocide recognition say that Turkey cannot move on from a dark chapter by denying it, some historians say the record is not clear in implicating the Turkish government.

Turkey has driven home that uncertainty with the help of not only Gephardt and Hastert, but ex-Republican House leader Bob Livingston and former administration and Pentagon officials.

Records at the Justice Department show scores of Gephardt meetings, email exchanges, arranged visits on Capitol Hill with Turkish diplomats and contacts with the highest officials of the Obama administration, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In late 2010, for instance, records show Gephardt lobbied Clinton, top Obama advisers and members of Congress days before then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulled back a promised vote on a genocide resolution.

In the wake of actions like this, fellow Democrats have become some of Gephardt’s biggest critics.

“It really impairs having credibility on human rights issues when we pick and choose the genocides we recognize,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a persistent critic of Gephardt’s about-face.

However, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., dismissed the impact of the revolving door on stopping the Armenian genocide declaration.

“The relationship we have with Turkey and its importance to so many things that are happening in the region right now” is reason enough to avoid it, he said.

Letter-writing campaign

In January, as the 100th anniversary of Meds Yeghern approached, two Armenian-American groups began pressuring Gephardt and his clients.“The American corporate community must have a zero-tolerance policy against any action that either covers up past genocides or in any way contributes to future atrocities,” declared a Jan. 28 letter to the former congressman signed by leaders of the groups, the Armenian National Committee of America and the Armenian Assembly of America.“To that end, as a courtesy, we would like to inform you that we have reached out to all of your clients … to educate them about your lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government.”

The groups sent letters to roughly 200 clients who had hired either Gephardt or other lobbying firms that represented Turkey, saying the companies had a “troubling relationship” with genocide deniers.

The results of the letter campaign are unclear.

Spokesmen for Google, Boeing and of St. Louis-area companies Ameren, Anheuser-Busch and Peabody either refused to comment or said they had no record of receiving the letter.

But Frederick D. Palmer, Peabody’s senior vice president for government relations, wrote back to the Armenian-American groups saying his company would not drop lobbyists just because they represented Turkey.

“The events you describe are tragic indeed, but there is no basis to punish Turkey today, an ally for more than 60 years along with being a democratic and free market example that is rare in the region,” Palmer wrote.

The Los Angeles World Airport canceled its $20,000-a-month contract with Gephardt exactly a month after the letter was sent. Mary Grady, managing director of media and public relations for the airport, declined to say why.

Mike Zampa, communications director for the Port of Oakland, said the port allowed a $160,000 contract with Gephardt to expire in January but described it as a normal change.

The Human Rights Campaign also canceled its $10,000 monthly contract, but Fred Sainz, the rights organization’s director of communications, said it had “nothing to do with the Armenia letter.”

A lobbyist left the Gephardt Group, Sainz said, “and we followed him to his new firm.”

Filed Under: Genocide, News Tagged With: Gephardt, Lobbying, Turkey

Politico report: Dennis Hastert’s lobbying firm Dickstein Shapiro reeling after indictment

June 4, 2015 By administrator

By TARINI PARTI and ANNA PALMER,

  U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL)

U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL)

It has faced an exodus of talent over the past year and lost major client contracts.
A week after the indictment of its most high-profile lobbyist, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, law firm Dickstein Shapiro has gone underground.
Already struggling to rebound from a huge decline in its K Street lobbying business, the firm isn’t talking to the news media and does not appear to have mounted a behind-the-scenes PR offensive to keep clients from fleeing amid the Hastert scandal.

None of the firm’s clients — including the Republic of Turkey, Secure ID Coalition and Fuels America — would confirm to POLITICO whether they intend to keep Dickstein Shapiro on their consultant rosters. Sources affiliated with some Dickstein Shapiro clients also said they had not heard from the firm since Hastert’s indictment on May 28.
Although Hastert wasn’t considered a top K Street rainmaker, according to industry insiders, the scandal was the last thing the beleaguered lobbying practice needed. The firm has faced an exodus of lobbying talent over the past year and the loss of major client contracts. Dickstein billed just $130,000 on behalf of only eight clients for the first quarter of 2015 — not close to being on track for its overall 2014 billings, when it brought in $3.7 million for the year, according to Senate lobbying disclosures.
Melvin ‘Mel’ Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), listens during a Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) meeting at the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, May 7, 2014. The FSOC today unanimously approved its 2014 annual report, which was developed collaboratively by the members of the Council and their agencies and staffs. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
ALSO ON POLITICO
Mel Watt: I heard ‘unseemly rumor’ about Hastert
CLEA BENSON
Hastert, who left Congress in 2007 and had prestige as the longest-serving Republican House speaker, was a well-connected former member who could offer his clients better access to lawmakers and a keen understanding of the legislative process. He signed a client – Secure ID Coalition — to work on issues “related to identity policy solutions” just weeks before the indictment came down, based on the disclosures.
Earlier this year, Hastert attracted media attention when he reportedly delivered a personal pitch to senators in the Senate Reception Room on behalf of Fuels America in favor of the renewable fuel standard. Some watchdog groups questioned whether Hastert was violating rules barring former lawmakers-turned-lobbyists from the House and Senate floor, but, according to the reports, Hastert lobbied members in private rooms and used the reception room just to greet members.
Dickstein Shapiro declined to respond to several inquiries for this story.
Instead, a spokesman for the firm again sent its statement from last week: “Dennis Hastert has resigned from the firm. Scott Thomas will continue to lead the Public Policy & Political Law Practice.”
Thomas also did not respond to several requests for comment.
Hastert has been in hiding since the indictment was issued. He is set to be arraigned next week on a federal indictment based on allegations that he sought to cover up a deal to pay $3.5 million to an acquaintance over “prior misconduct.” The Illinois Republican had already paid $1.7 million of that amount in small increments from various banks, and reports have said the payments were made as compensation to a former student for prior sexual misconduct.
News reports in recent days have named Barry Levine — a Dickstein partner and former defense lawyer for attempted Reagan assassin John Hinckley — as a defense attorney for the former speaker. However, Levine has yet to enter a formal appearance in the court docket, fueling speculation that the firm might try to step away from Hastert in order to get its name out of the spotlight. Levine didn’t respond to requests for comment.
While the firm’s external communications have all but shut down, Dickstein Shapiro quickly removed the former speaker’s bio from its website last week.
WASHINGTON – NOVEMBER 15:  Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) speaks with reporters after delivering his farewell address to Congress November 15, 2007 in Washington, DC. He announced his resignation today and said he will leave office before the end of December. Hastert, 65, announced in August he would not seek reelection in 2008. Hastert was the longest-serving Republican speaker in U.S. history, and the first speaker since 1955 to remain in Congress after losing the speakership.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Dennis Hastert
ALSO ON POLITICO
Hastert’s arraignment pushed to next week
JOSH GERSTEIN
Additionally, the firm appears to have wiped all mention of Hastert from its previous news releases. For example, a recent release announcing the addition of former CIA director and House member Porter Goss previously touted that Goss would be joining Hastert and included a statement from the now-indicted former speaker. The same release now on the firm’s website seems to have been edited to purge all mentions of Hastert — even in a statement from Goss.
Law firm consultants and recruiters said Dickstein Shapiro shouldn’t try to ignore the ongoing scandal because it invites more scrutiny over what the firm knew and how they are handling the aftermath.
“In the short term, things like this are always a major issue, and certainly this is not something that Dickstein needed at this particular moment in the firm’s history,” said Ivan Adler, a veteran legal recruiter at the McCormick Group. Still, Adler said he doesn’t believe this is the “straw that will break the camel’s back” as long as the firm addresses it in a “strategic way both externally and internally.”
Another veteran crisis communications consultant added: “There isn’t much more that Dickstein Shapiro can say at this point beyond the termination of Hastert’s services, or else it becomes more of the story that could hurt its reputation. However, a comment made by the head of the office about how shocked and saddened they are by the situation would go a long way towards keeping their credibility. For legal reasons, the organization may not be able to make statements because of the manner on which Hastert separated from the firm.”
And some expressed doubts about the firm’s ability to right the ship.
“It is going to make clients scratch their heads how does this kind of stuff, particularly at a law firm, go unnoticed and unchecked,” said a managing partner at a Washington law firm. “They’ve already lost a significant number of partners, and now they have a failing management structure allowing allegedly criminal activity under its nose, and they are representing the person perpetrating the crime. … The reason to say nothing is because they have nothing to say.”
Meanwhile, another Dickstein partner — Justin Chiarodo — still represents Hastert in a civil lawsuit alleging he used his official former speaker’s office for private gain. Hastert’s legal team in that case includes his son Ethan, a partner at law firm Mayer Brown. The team continued firing off legal salvos in that case through Wednesday afternoon even as the former speaker remained silent about the criminal charges.
Former House Speaker, Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., walks through Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007,  after delivering a speech on the House floor where he announced his plans to leave the House of Representatives by the end of the year. (AP Photos/Susan Walsh)
ALSO ON POLITICO
‘I’m a victim, too,’ says Hastert. Oh, yeah?
ROGER SIMON
Dickstein’s problems began long before news of Hastert’s misconduct surfaced. The firm has been plagued with dozens of departures by lawyers and lobbyists in recent years. In 2013, the entire firm faced a 35 percent drop in profits. And last year its longtime lobbying practice leader, Andrew Zausner, decamped, along with 13 lawyers and lobbyists, including three former members of Congress, to rival law firm Greenberg Traurig.
Following the departures, the firm’s lobbying-client portfolio shrank significantly after it lost more than three dozen clients last year, including its highest-paying clients: tobacco giant Lorillard, Peabody Energy, Bayer Corp. and Covanta Energy Corp.
More recently, the firm lost four partners to Cozen O’ Connor, which launched a new state attorneys general practice.
K Street insiders say the firm placed Hastert as co-leader of its lobbying practice because of his name identification.
Dickstein Shapiro currently lobbies on behalf of the American Greyhound Track Operators Association, Fuels America, Grain Management LLC, Lerner Enterprises, Pritikin ICR LLC and Secure ID Coalition, according to federal lobbying disclosures.
Hastert was on four of those accounts, in addition to working as a subcontractor through Gephardt Government Affairs for the Republic of Turkey, which paid the firm about $240,000 last year. A senior official at Gephardt said the client asked that the firm not talk about the Hastert matter. The Republic of Turkey did not respond to several requests for comment.
Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/dennis-hastert-lobbying-firm-118603.html#ixzz3c7khN6pc

 

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: dickstein shapiro, firm, Hastert’s, Lobbying, Turkey

One day you are CIA director next day you’r Turkish government Lobbies Ex. CIA director Porter Goss hired

May 10, 2015 By administrator

Former CIA Director Porter Goss, now Turkish GOV. lobbyist.

Former CIA Director Porter Goss, now Turkish GOV. lobbyist.

The Turkish government has hired former CIA Director Porter Goss for lobbying activities, according to a form filed with the US Department of Justice that was published online.

The form, filed pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, was published on Friday by The Intercept, an online publication that focuses on reporting on the documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Goss, who served as the CIA director from 2004 to 2006 under the George W. Bush administration, registered through his new employer, Dickstein Shapiro, a law firm which The Intercept said has a long standing relationship with the Turkish government.

According to the form, Goss will “provide counsel in connection with the extension arid strengthening of the Turkish-American relationship in a number of key areas that are the subject of debate in Congress, including trade, energy security, counter-terrorism efforts and efforts to build regionalstability in the broader Middle East and Europe; educate Members of Congress and the Administration on issues of importance to Turkey; notify Turkey of any action in Congress or the Executive Branch on issues of importance to Turkey; and prepare analyses of developments in Congress and the Executive Branch on issues of importance to Turkey.”

The form, dated April 23, indicates that Goss’ services will continue indefinitely.

The Intercept report called Goss’ decision to work for the Turkish government as an “odd choice” for the ex-CIA director, who once declared “there is no viable alternative to freedom – only freedom offers men and women the opportunity to reach their full potential,” given the poor press freedom record of the Turkish government, which “has arrested dozens of journalists, has violently suppressed peaceful protests and has censored social media.”

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: CIA, Lobbying, Porter Goss, Turkey, Turkish News

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