The Buddy Love Show
05-10-2008, 08:19 PM
embarrassing:
Leader of GOP convention quits after Myanmar ties reported
2 hours, 12 minutes ago
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar.
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Doug Goodyear resigned as convention coordinator and issued a two sentence statement:
"Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign. I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign."
Goodyear, chief executive of lobbying firm DCI Group, resigned a few hours after Newsweek posted a story posted online that the company was paid $348,000 in 2002 and 2003 to represent Myanmar's junta.
"We respect Mr. Goodyear's decision, and look forward to the convention in September," said Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign.
Cyclone Nargis left more than 60,000 people dead or missing, and the U.N. estimates that at least 1.5 million people have been severely affected. Human rights organizations and dissident groups have bitterly accused the junta of neglecting disaster victims and blocking foreign donations of relief supplies.
Justice Department records covering agents of foreign agents that are required to register with the U.S. government show DCI signed a contract to work to "improve relations between the United States and Myanmar" and to act as the junta's public relations agent in Washington.
Newsweek said the firm drafted news releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing claims by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.
"It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago," Newsweek quoted Goodyear as saying. The magazine said Goodyear added that the junta's record in the current cyclone crisis is "reprehensible."
The Newsweek article also reported that some of Goodyear's allies worry that worry the choice of Goodyear could fuel perceptions that McCain is surrounded by lobbyists. DCI Group earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients, the report said.
Newsweek also reported DCI has been a pioneer in running "independent" expenditure campaigns by so-called 527 groups, the kind of operations that McCain has denounced in his battle for campaign finance reform.
The convention runs Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown St. Paul.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080510/ap_on_el_pr/gop_convention_resignation
dj-chefron
05-11-2008, 03:26 PM
Guess who else supports the regime ?None other than our very own Condi,Come on down you the next contestant on "Sell my Soul for a few dollars"
Condi Rice And Bush Do The Katrina Thing In Myanmar
By: David Neiwert Friday May 9, 2008 9:30 am
The Chevron tanker Condoleeza Rice
(since renamed)
Didn't anyone else think it was kind of weird when, earlier this week, the Bush administration sent out First Lady Laura Bush to chastise the Myanmar regime for its failures to respond adequately to last week's killer typhoon? It's not as though Laura has either a background in foreign relations or a reputation for presenting the image of toughness usually called for in those circumstances.
Indeed, it was basically a signal that Bush was content to shake a naughty finger at the Myanmar junta, give itself a compassion beard, and let it go at that. Normally, if it isn't the president himself making such denunciations -- and we can understand why Bush wouldn't be eager to get up on a podium and denounce another government for its lack of responsiveness in the face of natural disaster -- it's a cabinet member, most often the Secretary of State. Where was Condi?
Well, Condi is almost certainly the source of the problem here.
You see, Condi Rice was for 10 years a director on the board of Chevron. She even had a Chevron oil tanker named after her (although the company, when it realized that this was a political liability for Rice, later changed it to the Altair Voyager because of the "unnecessary attention" the naming caused).
And the Myanmar government -- a military junta that has ruled with an iron fist, despite the best efforts of pro-democracy agitators like Aung San Su Kyi and the recent protests by Buddhist monks -- is being propped up almost entirely by Chevron.
Amy Goodman wrote about this during the monks' protests:
Fueling the military junta that has ruled for decades are Burma's natural-gas reserves, controlled by the Burmese regime in partnership with the U.S. multinational oil giant Chevron, the French oil company Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural-gas facilities deliver their extracted gas to Thailand through Burma's Yadana pipeline. The pipeline was built with slave labor, forced into servitude by the Burmese military.
The original pipeline partner, Unocal, was sued by EarthRights International for the use of slave labor. As soon as the suit was settled out of court, Chevron bought Unocal.
Chevron's role in propping up the brutal regime in Burma is clear. According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: "Sanctions haven't worked because gas is the lifeline of the regime. Before Yadana went online, Burma's regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It's really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers."
The U.S. government has had sanctions in place against Burma since 1997. A loophole exists, though, for companies grandfathered in. Unocal's exemption from the Burmese sanctions has been passed on to its new owner, Chevron.
As Goodman notes, Condi Rice was on the Chevron board at the time it was involved in bloody suppression of non-violent protesters in Nigeria, so it's not as though she's terribly sensitive to such things as the open murder of Buddhist monks. Far more important to keep the natural gas flowing, you know.
For an administration that likes to defend its oil wars in places like Iraq by holding up the fig leaf of the awful oppression suffered by the Iraqi people under Saddam, isn't it funny how it seems less than eager to end such oppression in other countries where the gas is flowing under the control of American corporations?
With the death toll now at 65,000 and counting, the ruling military junta in the country is refusing all aid -- they even went so far as to seize a large shipment of aid from the United Nations yesterday. So even beyond the 100,000 or so likely to have been killed by the storm, many thousands more are going to die of malnutrition and disease.
The Bush administration, of course, could do something about this, not least by teaming up with its friends at Chevron to apply the appropriate pressure on the junta. But instead it sends out Laura to call them naughty boys. And when the regime refuses aid for its own starving people, the Bush squad just throws up its collective hands and says, "Who could have foreseen this?"
I guess we can call it the global Katrina technique.
dj-chefron
05-12-2008, 08:45 PM
Here is a list of the lobbyist who works for the straight talker himself.Notice the pattern, they lobbied for some of the worst dictators.
McCain’s Lobbyists In Trouble For Foreign Lobbying
Progressive Media USA
PUBLISHED: May 11, 2008
Over the last two days, John McCain campaign has lost two advisors who resigned because of their lobbying firm’s work for the military regime in Myanmar. Unfortunately, these men are only two of 112 lobbyists who are advising, working for or raising money for John McCain’s presidential campaign. And they are not the only ones who have lobbied for foreign governments with headed by questionable foreign governments, including dictators. Here is some key information on McCain lobbyists.
Two McCain Staffers Resign Over Lobbying Ties With Myanmar’s Junta
May 10: McCain’s Republican National Convention Chair Doug Goodyear Resigned Over Lobbyist Firm Ties To Myanmar. According to the Associated Press, “The man picked by the John McCain campaign to run the 2008 Republican National Convention resigned Saturday after a report that his lobbying firm used to represent the military regime in Myanmar. Doug Goodyear resigned as convention coordinator and issued a two sentence statement: ‘Today I offered the convention my resignation so as not to become a distraction in this campaign. I continue to strongly support John McCain for president, and wish him the best of luck in this campaign.’ [Associated Press, 5/10/08]
• Goodyear’s Firm (DCI Group) Lobbied For Myanmar. Newsweek reported, DCI group “was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma's military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today. Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to “begin a dialogue of political reconciliation” with the regime. It also led a PR campaign to burnish the junta's image, drafting releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing “falsehoods” by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses.” [Newsweek, 5/19/08 Issue]
May 11: McCain Regional Campaign Manager And Former Head of DCI Lobbying Practice Resigned Over Myanmar Lobbying. The Politico reported, “Doug Davenport, one of McCain's 11 regional campaign managers, quit his post today, a McCain spokeswoman said in response to an inquiry. “Doug has tendered his resignation and we have accepted it,” Jill Hazelbaker wrote in an e-mail.” [Politico, 5/11/08]
• DCI Group And Doug Davenport Lobbied On "Humanitarian Issues Affecting Myanmar." The Department of Justice’s Supplemental Statement to the Foreign Agents Registration Act lists the details of DCI groups lobbying efforts with the Union of Myanmar. The state purpose of DCI’s activities with Myanmar was “to begin a dialogue on political reconciliation and humanitarian issues affecting Myanmar.” Doug Davenport is listed among the groups’ Pulic affairs staff on the contract. [FARA Database, accessed 5/11/08]
• McCain Tapped Founder of DCI’s Lobbying Group as Regional Campaign Manager. Marc Ambinder of theAtlantic.com reported that “Doug Davenport, a founder of the DCI Group and the head of its lobbying practice, will be one of the McCain campaign's ten regional campaign managers.” The Washington Post reported, “Davenport launched the government affairs (read: lobbying) practice at DCI Group in 2000.” Over the last decade, Davenport has lobbied for dozens of clients, including gambling services company GTECH, AT&T, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Intel, Lockheed Martin, United Airlines, Verizon and Visa. [Atlantic, 4/2/08; Washington Post, 4/6/08; Senate Lobbying Disclosure Database, accessed 4/2/08]
• Davenport Planned To Continue Lobbying For DCI While Working For McCain, But Backtracked After Lobbying Plans Were Reported. When Davenport’s position as McCain’s regional campaign manager was announced the Wall Street Journal reported an email from DCI President Jim Murphy. “While this new, full-time position will require him to take a leave of absence from the DCI Group partnership, we are fortunate that he will remain professionally affiliated with us as a senior consultant, assisting us with our portfolio clients and special projects,” Murphy wrote. He added: Doug will still maintain an office here.” After the Wall Street Journal reported, “[Davenport] has taken a full leave from the firm without pay, effective last week, on April 1; he also has given up his owner equity, and has begun deregistering as a lobbyist.” [Wall Street Journal, Washington Wire, 4/8/08]
Charlie Black’s Long Record Of Lobbying For Brutal Foreign Dictators & Terrorists
Black Enlisted to Improve Marcos’s Image. The Globe and Mail reported, “A politically well-connected U.S. lobbying firm is being paid nearly $1-million to help a Philippine client linked with President Ferdinand Marcos, and some analysts believe its task is to improve Mr. Marcos’ image.” “The firm, Black, Manafort & Stone Public Affairs, began a year-long contract with a client called the Chamber of Philippines Manufacturers, Exporters and Tourist Associations.” “Stanley Roth, who serves on the staff of a congressional subcommittee investigating Mr. Marcos’ business dealings in the United States, called the arrangement ‘just means of Marcos hiring a public relations firm.’ Under the terms of the contract, the suburban Washington-based concern is to be paid $950,000 plus expenses to provide ‘advice and assistance on matters relating to the media, public relations and public affairs interests’ as well as lobbying services.” [The Globe and Mail, 12/20/85]
• Federal Jury Awarded $1.2 Billion in Damages to Marcos’s Victims. The Associated Press reported, “A jury ruled in 1992 that Marcos was responsible for human rights violations, tortures, disappearances and summary executions between 1972, when he declared martial law, and 1986, when he was overthrown. Marcos died in Hawaii in 1989. This February, the same jury awarded the plaintiffs $1.2 billion in exemplary damages, similar to punitive damages.” Of the 10,000 plaintiffs, about 4,300 were relatives of murdered Filipinos, “and the others are torture victims.” In 1991, a U.S. federal judge in Hawaii froze Marcos’s estate, a decision upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1994. [Associated Press Worldstream, 6/16/94]
Black’s Firm Lobbied for Somalia’s Dictator. Common Cause Magazine reported, “The well-connected Washington lobbying firm of Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly has seen dictators such as Somalia’s Mohamed Siad Barre” as its clients. [Common Cause Magazine, Winter 1993]
• While Black Lobbied for Somalia, Siad Barre’s Army Killed 40,000 – 50,000 Civilians. The Associated Press reported, “The Somali army killed 40,000 to 50,000 unarmed civilians between June 1988 and January 1990, according to human rights group Africa Watch.” [Associated Press, 1/2/95]
Black Lobbied for Zaire’s Dictator. Black, Manafort, Stone lobbied for “Mobuto Sese Seko of Zaire.” The “military dictator, Mobuto, was a $1 million-per-year Black, Manafort client until December 1990.” [Common Cause Magazine, Winter 1993; Department of Justice, FARA database, accessed 2/26/08]
• Mobutu Was one of World’s Richest Men, Let Tens-of-Thousands of Children Starve. The Washington Post reported, “Ten thousand malnourished children under 4 years of age are brought yearly to Kinshasa’s Mama Yemo Hospital, named after President Mobuto Sese Seko’s mother. For the last two years, well over half of them have died there. Officials said the annual child mortality rate in some rural areas of this mineral-rich country of 27 million people may be much higher than 50 percent,” despite the fact that Mobuto, “Zaire’s military head of state and authoritarian president for the past 14 years” was “reportedly one of the world’s richest men.” [Washington Post, 12/30/79]
Black’s Firm Re-Made Savimbi’s Image. Harper’s Magazine reported, “Occasionally, firms will achieve spectacular successes for a client: one particularly remarkable piece of lobbyist image management, for example, occurred in the mid-1980s, when the firm of Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly helped refashion Jonas Savimbi, a murderous, demented Angolan rebel leader backed by the Apartheid regime in South Africa, as a valiant, anti-communist ‘freedom fighter.’ Savimbi visited Washington on numerous occasions, where the lobby shop had him ferried about by limousine to meetings with top political leaders, conservative groups, and TV networks. Black, Manafort checked repeated threats by members of Congress to cut off aid to Savimbi’s rebel group, which was burning and raping its way through Angola with the help of American taxpayers.” [Harper’s Magazine, 7/1/07]
• Black Used Influence with Dole on Behalf of Savimbi. Time reported, “When Savimbi came to Washington last month to seek support for his guerilla organization, UNITA, in its struggle against the Marxist regime in Angola, he hired Black, Manafort. What the firm achieved was quickly dubbed ‘Savimbi chic.’ Doors swung open all over town for the guerrilla leader, who was dapperly attired in a Nehru suit and ferried around in a stretch limousine. Dole had shown only general interest in Savimbi’s cause until Black, the Senate majority leader’s former aide, approached him on his client’s behalf. Dole promptly introduced a congressional resolution backing UNITA’s insurgency and sent a letter to the State Department urging that the U.S. supply it with heavy arms. The firm’s fee for such services was reportedly $600,000. [Time Magazine, 3/3/86]
• Savimbi Brutalized People; Personally Beat Rival’s Family to Death. The New York Times reported, “Mr. Savimbi personally beat to death a rival’s wife and children. He also shelled civilians, sowed land mines and then bombed a Red Cross-run factory making artificial legs for victims of mines. ‘We have to call him Africa’s classical terrorist,’ said Makau Mutua, a professor of law and Africa specialist. ‘In the history of the continent, I think he’s unique because of the degree of suffering he caused without showing any remorse.’” [New York Times, 3/5/02]
BKSH Led Back-Channel Lobbying Effort for Brutal Dictator. The Los Angeles Times reported, “For most of its 34 years of independence, Equatorial Guinea was best known for the outlandish brutality of its rulers, which left the tiny West African country isolated on the international stage.” That was until the mid-1990s when a vast supply of oil was found there. In 2002, the Los Angeles Times reported that “the U.S. is Equatorial Guinea’s major trading partner” sending a significant amount of oil to the U.S. “There’s just one problem: Equatorial Guinea is headed by an embarrassingly corrupt government with a notorious human rights record. That’s made it difficult for the Bush administration to openly embrace its president Brig. Gen. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, so he and his oil industry supporters have lined up Beltway lobbyists and assorted hangers-on to press Washington for improved ties.” Amerada Hess, which produces 39,000 barrels of oil per day in the country, “continues to be at the forefront of the corporate lobbying for Obiang,” who came to power in a coup in 1979. “To handle that task, the company retains Washington lobbyist” BKSH & Associates. [Los Angeles Times, 12/6/02]
Black Signed Up Nigerian Dictator As Client. The New York Times reported, “Three of the guys who ran the 1984 Reagan campaign – Charles Black, Paul Manafort and Roger Stone – get” a “million from the dictator of Nigeria,” Ibrahim Babangida. [New York Times, 2/17/86; FARA Database, accessed 3/2008]
• Commission Investigating Human Rights Pinned Murder of Journalist on Babangida. The Los Angeles Times reported, “A special commission investigating human rights abuses by Nigerian governments,” known as the Oputa Panel and “led by a retired Supreme Court judge,” found Babangida responsible for a murder. The Panel’s reported concluded: “On General Ibrahim Babangida, we are of the view that there is evidence to suggest that he and the two security chiefs, Brigadier General Halilu Akilu and Col. A.K. Togun are accountable for the death of Dele Giwa by letter bomb. We recommend that this case be re-opened for further investigation in the public interest.” [Los Angeles Times, 1/15/05; Oputa Panel Report, May 2002, http://www.dawodu.com/oputa1.pdf]
Other McCain Lobbyists
PETER MADIGAN
Madigan is D.C. Lobbyist. Peter Madigan is one of McCain’s top fundraisers and bundlers. He is also a registered foreign agent with the Department of Justice, having represented a number of foreign governments and entities. Madigan has lobbied at two firms. He was previously president and chief operating officer of Boland & Madigan and currently lobbies at Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland & Stewart. [Public Citizen, accessed 3/28/08; Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland & Stewart, accessed 3/28/08]
• Madigan Hired to Fight Child Enslavement Claims Against the UAE. Peter Madigan, a top McCain fundraiser, lobbies for Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE, “facing a class-action lawsuit over alleged enslavement of boys as jockeys in camel races, has hired several top Washington lobbyists and PR firms to present their case to Congress and the public.” The lawsuit alleged “that senior ministers from Dubai conspired to force thousands of underage boys to race camels.” According to The Hill, “The year-long contract with Johnson Madigan could cost the sheikhs’ more than $800,000. Jeffrey Peck, Sen. Joseph Biden’s (D-Del.) former counsel, and Peter Madigan, once a State Department official under the first President Bush, signed the subcontract.” [ABC News, 2/1/08; The Hill, 4/4/07]
KEVIN FAY
Fay is President of Vicki Iseman’s Lobbying Firm. Kevin Fay, a top McCain fundraiser, is president of the lobbying firm Alcalde & Fay. Vicki Iseman, the female lobbyist linked to McCain, is a partner at Alcalde & Fay. [Alcalde & Fay, accessed 3/28/08]
Fay Assisted Bangladeshi Political Party Headed by Official Accused of Extortion and Murder. According to paperwork submitted to the Department of Justice and signed by Fay, Fay and his firm have represented the interests of the Awami League, a Bangladeshi political party headed by former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In its contract with the Awami League, Alcalde & Fay agrees to pursue an aggressive program to gain sympathy for the Awami League’s point of view among American government officials. Acknowledging that “Developments in Bangladesh will not draw priority attention in the United States,” Alcalde & Fay states its intention to engage in an “active campaign” targeting the executive branch, Congress, the media, think tanks and academia, the American business community, and the Bangladesh-American community. [FARA Database, accessed 3/18/08]
• Hasina Charged with Extortion. In January 2008, the Washington Post reported: “A court in Bangladesh on Sunday charged former prime minister Sheikh Hasina with extortion after weeks of checking prosecution evidence. Hasina, her sister and a cousin are jointly accused of illegally taking $440,000 from a businessman when Hasina was in power.” [Washington Post, 1/14/08]
• Hasina Suspected of Extortion and Murder. “Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was arrested at her Dhaka home and taken to a local court, her party said. It ws not clear on what charges Hasina was detained, but she had faced allegations of extortion and murder charges stemming from political violence last year.” [Washington Post, 7/16/07]
• Hasina Accused of Extortion. “Sheikh Hasina, a former prime minister of Bangladesh who is on a private visit to the United States, was formally accused in her home country yesterday of extorting $436,000 from an electric power company.” [Washington Post, 4/10/07]
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