{"id":4184,"date":"2011-12-09T13:02:06","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T20:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=4184"},"modified":"2011-12-09T13:06:22","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T20:06:22","slug":"meet-king-hamads-dc-lobbyists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=4184","title":{"rendered":"Meet King Hamad’s DC lobbyists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet Bahrain\u2019s lobbyists<\/strong>
\nBy Cole Bockenfeld, Director of Advocacy, Project on Middle East Democracy – 12\/09\/11<\/p>\n

Upon the release of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa noted, \u201cserious shortcomings on the part of some organs of our Government\u201d including \u201cinstances of excessive force and of the mistreatment of persons placed under arrest.\u201d <\/p>\n

These \u201cinstances of excessive force\u201d led to the death of at least 26 pro-democracy protesters, while \u201cmistreatment\u201d constituted systematic human rights violations including torture, according to the BICI report. The Government of Bahrain has been using the November 23rd release date of the report to delay a substantive conversation on its human rights record for months.<\/p>\n

And while dodging and delaying real reform, the monarchy has undertaken a pricey public relations blitz to rebuild their image. But the Bahraini ruling family doesn\u2019t have an image problem; they have a policy problem.<\/p>\n

Three days after protests began, the Government of Bahrain contracted the Potomac Square Group lobbying firm to provide \u201cadvice on dealing with reporters and public officials…in an effort to explain various positions held by the government of Bahrain\u201d for a $20,000 monthly fee. <\/p>\n

In the months after, the Bahraini government signed contracts with a full bench of lobbyists to \u201ccommunicate the positive work the government is undertaking,\u201d including Joe Trippi & Associates; Sanitas International; Qorvis Communications; Sorini, Samet, & Associates; Gardant Communications; and TS Navigations.<\/p>\n

When asked how much money the Bahraini government is spending on lobbying, the media attach\u00e9 for Bahrain\u2019s Information Affairs Authority Saqer al-Khalifa told a crowd at American University, \u201cI have no idea.\u201d In reality, his name and title appear on at least two contracts, with Sanitas International and Joe Trippi, pledging to provide \u201ccommunications services for the purpose of supporting the needs of the government of the Kingdom of Bahrain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Qorvis rakes in $40,000 a month to \u201cprovide press and public relations services\u201d, while Sorini, Samet & Associates grabbed $25,000 upon signing and charge $100-550 an hour to assist with the Government of Bahrain\u2019s response to \u201cspecific alleged labor rights and related human rights violations.\u201d Matt Lauer, a partner at Qorvis, relayed in an August email to PR Newser that \u201cWe help communicate the positive work the government is undertaking.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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Meet Bahrain\u2019s lobbyists By Cole Bockenfeld, Director of Advocacy, Project on Middle East Democracy – 12\/09\/11 Upon the release of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report, King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa noted, \u201cserious shortcomings on the part of some organs of our Government\u201d including \u201cinstances of excessive force and of the mistreatment of more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2170],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}