You know, I understand that lobbyists - like lawyers - often wind up representing interests that are not entirely pure. I'm sure that citizens in countries where there is a certain amount of hostility to the US might look down their noses at those hired to represent the United States' interests. But there should be a limit to who you are prepared to go to bat for. That doesn't seem to be the case for former Clinton aide Lanny Davis - he's just signed up to try and improve the image of one of the worse human rights abusers in the world; Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the dictator of Equatorial Guinea
Below the fold if an expert from the article in The Hill that made me aware of this.
Equatorial Guinea, the oil-rich African nation targeted for corruption by a Senate investigation earlier this year, has signed a former Clinton White House aide to a lobbying contract worth more than $2 million.
Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton, will work to improve the country’s image by helping to implement a "comprehensive reform program," according to documents filed with the Justice Department.
Davis, a columnist for The Hill, signed the two-year joint contract with his old law firm, McDermott Will & Emery. Both were hired as "legal and technical advisers."
Davis, who recently started his own lobbying and law firm, said Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo hired him to help his government reform itself.
"The president said to me that he wanted his legacy to be change and reform," Davis told The Hill. "I have been hired not because they are in great shape but because the president wants to turn the page."
Where does one even begin? Davis says that they are not 'in great shape' - well that's a bit of an understatement. Human Rights Watch has described Obiang's regime as "one of the most abusive and corrupt in the world". The country is quite small, both in terms of population and in geography. They are also the 4th largest producer of oil in sub-Saharan Africa. But the dictator uses the oil as his own personal ATM - his wastrel son spent more on houses and cars in the United States and South Africa between 2004 and 2006 than the government did on the entire education sector in 2005 acording to reports.
The place is notorious for a lack of press freedom; foreign reporters are not allowed in and those that sneak in are taking huge risks - something that I discovered while reading Untapped, a rather depressing account of Oil in Africa.
Yet, Lanny Davis wants us to think that this dictator wants to 'turn the page' and leave a 'legacy of reform'. The only thing he wants to do is keep the heat off so he can continue to loot his country. As long as the oil keeps flowing and Lanny Davis says nice things about him, I have no doubt that he'll continue on as before.