Janine Wedel - Unaccountable - How Elite Power Brokers Corrupt Our Finances, Freedom, and Security

104. Obiang had a lucrative contract with Qorvis, along with other more traditional legal-lobby firms. The firms McDermott Will & Emery LLP and Cassidy and Associates also have had substantial contracts with Equatorial Guinea (Lanny J. Davis & Associates LLC vs. Republic of Equatorial Guinea, http://unitedrepublic.org/why-are-dc-lobbyists-helping-dictator/).

(See also: Sara Jerome, “Lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates loses highest-paying client.” The Hill, August 6, 2010 [http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/113117-lobbying-firm-cassidy-a-associates-loses-highest-paying-client].) Apparently, the money was well spent. Obiang got the diplomatic money shot in 2006, so to speak, a handshake photo-op with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who noted that Obiang, well-known for his repressive ways, was a “good friend.” (See: Al Kamen, “Photo-Op Frames a Shot at Iran.” Washington Post, April 17, 2006 [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/16/AR2006041600737.html].) Later he would get another one with President Obama (see: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teodoro_Obiang_Nguema_Mbasogo_with_Obamas.jpg). According to William Sands of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, U.S. corporate interests got something as well, even if that meant supporting a despotic kleptocrat like Obiang.

International oil companies also spent large sums on lobbying in support of the Equatorial-Guinean regime: approximately $6.6 million by ExxonMobil Corp. in 2008; $1.3 million by Amareda Hess Corp. in 2009; and an estimated $5 million by Marathon Corp. in 2010, according to information provided under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. This lobbying and political pressure created a quid pro quo situation where the United States wouldn’t openly criticize the regime, and the regime guaranteed the US oil industry near-exclusive access to the country’s national oil reserves. Due to the lack of transparency, no one knows how much oil revenue the Obiang regime has siphoned out of the economy or how much revenue oil companies have earned in their operations in Equatorial Guinea. (See: William Sands, “Equatorial Guinea: Legitimizing Obiang.” Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, April 24, 2012 [http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/equatorial-guinea-president-teodoro-obiang-legitimization-corruption-oil-unesco-eiti-dodd-frank].)

In the years following the Rice photo-op, Obiang took on another lobbyist, former Clinton administration official Lanny Davis, who insisted that he was helping Obiang reform, telling the New York Times “I’ve kidded him he’d do better to win [re-election] by 51 percent than 98 percent” (Celia Dugger, “African Leader Hires Adviser and Seeks an Image Change.” New York Times, June 28, 2010 [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/world/africa/29obiang.html]). The joke, though, was on Davis, who sued Obiang for stiffing him on a six-figure bill about a year later: Ryan J. Reilly, “Lanny Davis Sues Brutal African Regime For Stiffing Him on Legal Bill.” Talking Points Memo, October 13, 2011 (http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/lanny_davis_sues_brutal_african_regime_for_stiffing_him.php).

105. See: Thor Halvorssen, “PR Mercenaries, Their Dictator Masters, and the Human Rights Stain.” Huffington Post , May 19, 2011 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thor-halvorssen/pr-mercenaries-their-dict_b_863716.html).

106. See: Tom Squitieri, Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-squitieri).

107. Squitieri continues to occasionally tweet about Qorvis, but one wouldn’t know he works there from just reading his columns. And one would have to read his entire Twitter feed to glean that he works there. His tweets to the Bahrain pieces he did for the Foreign Policy Association blog were still up as of May 2014; below that are tweets that serve the interests of the client (Bahrain).

Here are some of his tweets:

Tom Squitieri@TomSquitieri 21 Nov 11

A look at life and death on Bahrain’s streets: http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2011/11/21/intersections-of-fate-in-bahrain/ . . .

Tom Squitieri@TomSquitieri 19 nov 11

Independent commission details attacks on Bahrain Asian citizens http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2011/11/19/attacks-on-bahrain …’s-asian-citizens-documented-by-independent-commission/http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2011/11/21/intersections-of-fate-in-bahrain/ . . .

Tom Squitieri@TomSquitieri 10 Aug 2012

Qorvis Communications celebrates 12 years of creative success. Read all about it! http://qorvis-blogs.com/?p=80 @qorvis @qorvisdigital @qorvisgps.

Retweeted by Tom Squitieri

@bhactivities 16 Nov 2011

Do you know that #NabeelRajab is talking freely in #Bahrain without being arrested!? Isn’t that #Democracy? #JustSaying #bbc #cnn #uk #usa

Tom Squitieri @TomSquitieri 16 Nov 2011

More than 30 journalists plan to come to Bahrain to cover release of independent commission report.

Tom Squitieri @TomSquitieri 1 Nov 2011

Bahrain moves to reduce, drop charges against some medical personnel who unlawfully disrupted hospitals during protests earlier this year.

108. Kevin Morris, “PR firm accused of editing Wikipedia for government clients.” The Daily Dot, March 8, 2013 (http://www.dailydot.com/news/qorvis-lauer-wikipedia-paid-editing-scandal/).

109. Ibid. The name of the Qorvis partner is Matt J. Lauer.

110. Melanie Newman, “Lobbying’s Hidden Influence. PR Uncovered: Top Lobbyists boast of how they influence the PM.” Bureau of Investigative Journalism, December 5, 2011 (http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2011/12/05/pr-uncovered-top-lobbyists-boast-of-how-they-influence-the-pm/).

111. Ken Silverstein, “How Bahrain Works Washington.” Salon, December 8, 2011 (http://www.salon.com/2011/12/08/how_bahrain_works_washington/).

112. The journalist is Anna Lenzer. Anna Lenzer, “‘Team Fiji’ Co-opts the 99%.” Huffington Post , December 23, 2011 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-lenzer/fiji-_b_1165175.html).

113. Marcus Baram, “Lobbyists Jump Ship in Wake of Mideast Unrest.” Huffington Post , March 25, 2011 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/24/lobbyist-mideast-unrest-departures_n_840231.html). The reporter is Marcus Baram; the lobbyist Amos Hochstein.

114. Joshua Kurlantzick, “When Lobbyists Work for Authoritarian Nations.” Newsweek, July 26, 2010 (http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/07/26/the-hired-guns.html).

115. Evgeny Morozov identifies two -isms he deems dangerous, recounted in a Columbia Journalism Review profile: “The first is ‘solutionism,’ the idea that we should recast our problems, from political gridlock to weight loss, as things to be solved primarily through technological efficiency. The second is ‘internet-centrism,’ which he describes as the ‘firm conviction that we are living through unique, revolutionary times, in which the previous truths no longer hold’” (Michael Meyer, “Evgeny vs. the Internet.” Columbia Journalism Review , January/February 2014, p. 29). See also Evgeny Morozov, To Save Everything, Click Here , The Folly of Technological Solutionism . New York: Public Affairs Books, 2013; and Evgeny Morozov, The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom . New York: Public Affairs Books, 2011.

A number of observers have argued that the Internet is definitely not the democratizing force that tech utopians think it is. Besides Morozov, see, for instance, Sherry Turkle, Alone Together, Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other . New York: Basic Books, 2011.