Reply #90: Thomas Hockaday (Becki Donatelli's former partner) & APCO

[Carolab]

http://stopexxon.unfortu.net/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=6

APCO: Lobbying tobacco, big oil, "junk science".

This guy is also connected to The Washington Times

APCO president Margery Kraus is a real work of art.

APCO Creates Iraq Reconstruction Task Force

Washington, D.C. (May 20, 2003) — An Iraq Reconstruction Task Force, to help existing and potential clients navigate the complicated bureaucratic terrain of contracts and subcontracts from the United States government to rebuild Iraq, was named today by APCO Worldwide, announced Margery Kraus, president and CEO of APCO.

Given the expertise of APCO consultants in Middle East affairs and with the key U.S. government agencies involved in the contracting process, including the Agency for International Development (AID) and the Defense Department, APCO is well positioned to help identify contract opportunities, navigate the complex award process both in Washington and in Baghdad, and position clients with major contracting parties and the U.S. government's key appointees in Baghdad.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg, who has extensive public and private sector contract experience in the Middle East, is coordinating APCO's team. He is currently a senior vice president of APCO and heads its affiliate company Northstar Equity Group, which provides strategic business advice to U.S. and foreign companies operating throughout the Middle East.

http://www.apcoworldwide.com/content/Newsroom/press_releases/03_05_20.cfm

Marg:
http://www.apcoworldwide.com/content/bios/kraus_m.cfm

Also, Margery's involved with MENATEP:

What's MENATEP?



KHODORKOVSKY AS A STICK

There are two related parts to APCO's lobbying campaign in the United States. The first is to re-brand the most odious Oligarch into a political prisoner, a champion of democracy and free market enterprise. This has, in large part, succeeded. The Wall Street Journal howled over his arrest, calling Khodorkovsky "Russia's richest oligarch who was cleaning up his act." The International Herald Tribune read directly from the APCO script, stating that Yukos "stood out among Russian businesses in its striving toward Western ideals of financial transparency." And good corporate governance.

Together with business media, a number of American politicians have lined up to condemn Khodorkovsky's arrest and - this is the second part of the campaign - demand swift retribution against the totalitarian Russian state which has jailed him. Tom Lantos, John McCain, Conrad Burns and a number of other Washington heavyweights have introduced measures in Congress calling for Khodorkovsky's release and retaliation against Russia.

This, too, is probably an APCO operation. How do we know? Because APCO carried out an identical campaign just three years ago on behalf of Khodorkovsky's fellow Oligarch, Vladimir Gusinsky.

Back in 2001, after Gusinsky's brief imprisonment and then exile, Lantos introduced a measure in Congress which would call for Russia to be expelled from Group of Eight (G-8) summit of industrial nations. APCO's role in the affair was revealed by Moscow investigative reporter Aleksandr Budberg.

This time, it's McCain and Khodorkovsky's fellow financier George Soros who are leading the charge. McCain duly released a lengthy statement which, while admitting that Khodorkovsky had some warts, stated that his arrest by the Russian authorities was so dastardly that "Russia should have no place at the next G-8 summit." Soros, in the meantime, told a Harvard symposium on the Russian economy last November, after Khodorkovsky's arrest, that "The G-8 is supposed to be a democratic organization, but it is becoming questionable whether Russia qualifies for it." Per the St. Petersburg Times' account of the event, Soros was clearly on-message, calling Khodorkovsky "the most enlightened" Oligarch, and "praising him for building a transparent company with good corporate governance practices."

(LOTS MORE)http://www.diacritica.com/sobaka/2004/americanoligarch.html

Note Soros' involvement here, then read:

http://www.techcentralstation.com/121503D.html

A wealthy corporate titan undermines and criticizes a vast nation's president. The president grows ever more tired of the stinging dissent, and ultimately cracks down, jailing the offender and causing the nation's fragile stock market to crash.

Vladimir Putin repressing Yukos oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky? Yes, but this could also be President George Bush repressing wealthy tycoon George Soros -- who has made it known that he wants to defeat President Bush in 2004 -- in not so many years. All of this is thanks to a shameful decision last week by Sandra Day O'Connor and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Extreme? Absolutely. But the two cases bear comparison, not because Bush would ever do something like this, but because he could, thanks to the Court's justice-is-blind ratification of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) regulating free speech.



Which brings us back to Russia. When Putin imprisoned Khodorkovsky, he was trampling the rule of law, acting as legislator and judge as well as policeman. It caused enormous fallout in Russia's financial market, backing once again Adam Smith's prediction in the Wealth of Nations that a threat to republican government would cause Dutch merchants to "remove both their residence and their capital to some other country." (Smith also termed the politician an "insidious and crafty animal.")

Putin's precedent is the problem, though, not just the financial fallout. Last week, in a little noticed blurb, Mother Russia's crazed would-be dictator Vladimir Zhirinovsky, having just doubled his share of the vote in last Sunday's Duma elections, announced he was running for president. Think of that and read Ariel Cohen's recent piece on Russia's recent elections, which notes Zhirinovsky's call to halt discussion of Chechnya in the media, instead "using death squads to kill off entire Chechen villages."



Now, remember "we" backed Yushchenko.

Now there is a sale of Yukos Oil on 12/24/04 to Rosneft, a state-owned entity. Rosneft acquired Yukos’ Yuganskneftegaz unit from Baikal Finance Group, an unknown shell company that won an auction ordered by the government to collect back taxes from Yukos. Khordokovsky is still in jail.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/12/24/yukosdismay.shtml

And:
The Menatep group, which holds the majority of the stock in embattled Yukos, said that the Sunday auctioning of Yuganskneftegaz, the company’s chief production asset, is an outright violation of Russian and international law.

“We believe that Baikal Finance Group was nothing but a cover for the Russian government,” a Menatep press release said. It added that the announcement that Rosneft — a major state company — bought BFG only confirmed its suspicions.

The group added that while the government’s actions were not surprising “given the political course,” it was disappointed by what it called a “cold reaction” from governments in the West.

It also alleged that the Yukos assets had been “stolen” by the Russian government.

And:

Deutsche Bank filed a motion with a Houston federal court Tuesday afternoon to dismiss Yukos’ claim for bankruptcy protection.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/12/29/deutsche.shtml