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Bill Buzenberg interviews former Representative Lee H. Hamilton

The Center in the News . . .

A recent Council on Foreign Relations backgrounder titled U.S-Pakistan Military Cooperation cited the Center's Collateral Damage project, which found among its major findings that Pakistan was the largest recipient of U.S. military aid, receiving almost $5 billion since 9/11, with little in the form of federal oversight and accountability.

The House of Representatives recently amended the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Among the newly expanded public provisions, White House task forces will be prohibited from operating in secrecy, transcripts or recordings of committee meetings will be electronically available, and advisory committee appointments must be made without regard to political affiliation or activity. The Center's Shadow Government project investigated FACA loopholes and several conflict of interest cases more than a year ago.

The Wall Street Journal featured the Center's latest analysis of the lobby spending by the pharmaceutical industry, health product manufacturers, and their trade groups. The Center found that the pharmaceutical manufacturers and their trade groups spent a record $168 million on federal lobbying last year, a 32 percent increase from 2006.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), requested by the House Foreign Affairs Committee, tasked the Defense Department with providing greater oversight in the way it handles Pakistan reimbursement claims for coalition support funds (CSF), a program created after 9/11 to reimburse key U.S. allies in the global war on terror. In May 2007, the Center's Collateral Damage project found that post-9/11 U.S. military aid to Pakistan, totaling more than $5 billion, was subject to virtually no congressional oversight.

Washington Post national politics reporter Shailagh Murray in the paper's daily campaign 2008 blog, 'The Trail,' cited a Center interview with James A. Johnson, who recently resigned from Senator Obama's vice presidential search committee. In the interview, Johnson had "kind words" to say about veteran senator, and potential VP contender, Christopher Dodd.

On Thursday, the Senate Intelligence Committee released its Phase II report on prewar Iraq intelligence. Committee Chairman John D. (Jay) Rockefeller said: "It is my belief that the Bush administration was fixated on Iraq, and used the 9/11 attacks by Al Qaeda as justification for overthrowing Saddam Hussein. To accomplish this, top administration officials made repeated statements that falsely linked Iraq and Al Qaeda as a single threat and insinuated that Iraq played a role in 9/11. Sadly, the Bush administration led the nation into war under false pretenses." To read more about the Bush administration's false statements about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, check out the Center's War Card project.

A Morning Call.com editorial cited a 2003 Center survey that ranked all 50 states' lobby disclosure laws. Until 2006, Pennsylvania had no lobbying law at all and was ranked 50th in the nation by the Center's survey. Currently, the legislature will consider a measure that would forbid gifts and entertainment from lobbyists to public officials.

Harry Shearer, actor, entertainer, musician, artist, and creator of the song 935 Lies - featured in his upcoming CD, Songs of the Bushmen - said in The Huffington Post, "Just in case Scott McClellan wasn't keeping count, the Center was: at least 935 falsehoods told by the president and his aides in the run-up to the [Iraq] war."

The Sunlight Foundation's SunSpots blog featured the "eye-popping reports" from the Center's Shadow Government project. The Center's Shadow Government project investigated a few federal advisory committees, part of a vast maze of committees, tasked with influencing federal government agencies on a variety of safety and policy issues, often done under secretive conditions with little public accountability.

Douglas Feith, President Bush's undersecretary of defense for policy from July 2001 to August 2005, was on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart May 12 and talked about the Iraq War. He said, "I think a lot of what the administration said was correct." The Center's Iraq War Card project, which documented 935 false statements made by Bush and six top administration officials in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq, would prove otherwise.

Watch the world premier video of Harry Shearer's video "935 Lies." Shearer, best known for his work on The Simpsons, This is Spinal Tap, Le Show, Saturday Night Live, For Your Consideration and A Mighty Wind, unveiled a video satire based on the Center's Iraq War Card project, which documented the 935 false statements orchestrated by top Bush Administration officials in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Kirsten Mitchell reported that Sen. Pete Domenici and 16 other Republican senators, who support the easing of offshore drilling restrictions on the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas, have received more than $3 million in campaign contributions from individuals and PACS affiliated with the oil and gas industry since Jan. 1, 2007.

The Washington Post's Matthew Mosk reported that Steven A. Betts, a top presidential campaign fundraiser for Sen. John McCain, was one of several Arizona developers who benefited from McCain-engineered land swaps.

TheStreet.com's John Stout cited the Center's Buying of the President 2008 chapter on Stealth Campaigns in "How Much Does It Cost to Buy a Presidency?" Political non-profit groups, such as MoveOn.org and the American Leadership Project, "will probably play an important role in this presidential election," he said.

Tobacco Companies Linked to Criminal Organizations in Cigarette Smuggling
Africa

In March 1988, BAT (U.K. & Export) director R. Howe spent three days in Cannes, France, visiting Marcel Binst at his Villa Magali. It was, as Howe later phrased it in a letter to Binst, an "enjoyable and productive" time. Binst was the aging but wealthy co-owner of a large wholesale distribution company called Sorepex NV, which specialized in selling goods into Africa. BATUKE had enjoyed a lengthy and highly successful relationship with Sorepex and now wanted to take a more active role in the distribution of its own products. This was fine with Binst. He was old and wanted to withdraw from active participation in Sorepex's complex business affairs. The visit was spent primarily hammering out an agreement whereby Sorepex would continue to act as BAT's wholesaler/middleman in central Africa but would allow BAT to begin managing its distribution channels. As Howe phrased it in a letter of intent to Binst, dated April 28, 1988, "Our objective now is to preserve the 'facade' that Sorepex represents between us and the sensitive markets of Togo, Benin, Niger (Unit I), and Equatorial Africa (Unit II) but at the same time, enable the BAT field force to take over the management of this important business."

 
In This Report

That important business included smuggling. The letter, found in BAT archives in Guildford, England, one of two corporate document depositories created under a U.S. court order that settled health litigations in the United States, is one of the most explicit examples of a major cigarette manufacturer's intention to use a front man to distance itself from smuggling while at the same time managing the smuggling. Previous correspondence between BAT and Sorepex is equally graphic about smuggling and indicates a longstanding relationship. In February 1987, Michel Chevaly of Sorepex wrote to BAT about sales into Cameroon. "First, Bogno will buy loads of 300 cartons: That's the capacity of his truck given the fact that there is other merchandise which will hide the cigarettes." On July 1, 1987, at a meeting at BATUKE headquarters outside London, BATUKE and Sorepex executives discussed Africa sales and had this to say about smuggling into Nigeria: "Discussion was held concerning direct imports to Nigeria through Mr. Adji who . . . would disguise the cigarette importation by calling the shipment something else, e.g. matches." In 1990, BAT claimed its brands dominated in Cameroon, where "there are no legal imports." For this reason, they could not advertise. However, the company dodged the problem by financing a "major campaign on the Africa No 1 Radio programs transmitted from Gabon. . . . This station has a high audience in Cameroon and is used by all major competitors including local manufacturers."

Even BAT chairman Sir Patrick Sheehy was brought into the picture on Africa sales and condoned and encouraged it, according to the documents. A Nov. 1, 1991, memo describes a meeting with Sheehy and a discussion about a so-called umbrella agreement, a system by which a manufacturer uses a small legal market as a cover for massive advertising of cigarettes it is selling primarily on the black market. "When the issue of Unit II [Equatorial Africa] was discussed where BATUKE wish to appoint a domestic importer enabling us to provide cover for advertising and GT business, Sir Patrick felt that it was perfectly acceptable for BAT Cameroon to recommend a domestic importer for BHS." GT is one of the company euphemisms for smuggling. The same memo also discusses various business assumptions for Equatorial Africa. One claims that "GT movements to this end market will remain a priority throughout the period." It then goes on to describe "Scenario 1: No official imports." Under this title it states that the "import of BHSF [Benson & Hedges Special Filter] legally is not an available option." Scenario Two is titled: "Legal imports is feasible" [sic]. In this section, however, BAT states that "GT shipments will remain the mainstay of our activity."

"It would therefore seem logical to import 'legally' some quantity, allowing also for an advertising campaign."

—Internal BAT document

Another memo dated 1990 talks about how it is "practically impossible to develop a pure GT brand" without having some sort of legal base in the target country, in this case Nigeria. "It would therefore seem logical to import 'legally' some quantity, allowing also for an advertising campaign." Yet another 1990 BAT memo delineates the difference between General Trade and legal markets. "The objective would be to legalise 'profitable' imports thus providing the Nigerian Government with revenue currently lost by the proliferation of GT. At the same time, it could limit the scope of further articles in the international press on the lines of the Sunday Times Insight feature." The memo referred to two articles in the Sunday Times published May 13 and May 20, 1990, describing how BAT had orchestrated a campaign to sell cheap, high tar and nicotine cigarettes in Africa. Apparently BAT was concerned that the "scope" of future articles might widen to include smuggling.

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