Clinton's visit to Pakistan MAY depend NOT on POLICY, BUT on HIGH-PRICE Lobbyists, and caucuses.
scare tacticS used by lobbyists: TO CLINTON: If you don't go, grave consequences - expect pakistan to AUTO-TALIBANIZE. EXPECT NIGHTMARES FROM BEN LAUDEN
Pakistan is trying and fighting hard and PAYS LOBBYISTS to force Clinton to visit Pakistan. India uses the same tactic to effect the opposite.
Wilson, Pakistan's lobbyist munches cold Turkey Sandwiches & sits days and nights on a COLD and FREEZING park bench AMONG THE ALCHOLIC, THE INSANE, THE HOMELESS, THE DESTITUTE, THE POOR, THE FORGOTTEN, THE LEAST, THE LONLIEST AND THE LAST, just to catch the members. DISCLAIMER: NO ASPERSIONS ON ANY OF THE POOR SOULS MENTIONED ABOVE. Just a reflection of Wilson's hard life on the bench---JPR
nytimes.com
Nuclear Rivals Marshal Armies of Lobbyists in Washington
By RAYMOND BONNER
ASHINGTON, Feb. 11 -- Pakistan and India, the world's
newest nuclear rivals, have brought their battles to Washington,
where each country has assembled a bevy of highly paid lobbyists
already tested in one fight -- Pakistan won -- and now engaged in
another: whether President Clinton should visit Pakistan as well as India
next month.
Mr. Clinton's foreign policy team will give him persuasive pros and cons.
But in the end, the decision may hinge on the power of the Washington
lobbyists who are being increasingly sought out by foreign countries that
believe that they need professional help, whether it is to get a piece of the
foreign policy pie or just to polish their image here.
Some countries, such as Israel, Greece and Taiwan, have always had a
strong presence in the parlors of policy making in the capital, and some
issues -- the Vietnam war in the 1960's; intervention in Central America
in the early 1980's -- have generated vocal constituencies. But the depth
and breadth of lobbying by individual countries has grown in recent
years, and foreign governments are now paying out tens of thousands of
dollars a month.
In the case of India and Pakistan and Mr. Clinton's travels, each side has
already begun to lobby the White House, the State Department and
Congress.
Traditionally, India shunned lobbyists, relying on its distinguished foreign
service to make the nation's case in State Department meetings with
Indian diplomats. These days, however, India is paying $50,000 a month
for the lobbying services of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson &
Hand, where the heavy hitters include two former Senate majority
leaders, Democrat George Mitchell and Republican Bob Dole, and a
former governor of Texas, Ann Richards. (Verner, Liipfert also lobbies
for Ethiopia, the Marshall Islands, Slovenia, the United Arab Emirates
and Uruguay.)
Adding to some grumbling at home about the use of lobbyists, the Indian
government is paying an additional $25,000 a month for the clout of
former Democratic Congressman Stephen J. Solarz, a New Yorker who
was viewed as a friendly voice for India when he was a lawmaker.
Meanwhile, Pakistan is shelling out $30,000 a month for the services of
Charlie Wilson, a former Democratic Congressman from Texas who was
a staunch ally of the country when he served in the House. Even though
Mr. Wilson cautioned the Pakistani government last year about hiring
another lobbyist -- given that "Pakistan's resources are limited," Mr.
Wilson wrote in a memorandum -- just this month, Pakistan signed a
contract with the politically connected law firm of Patton, Boggs & Blow
for $22,500 a month.
(Other countries that are paying Patton, Boggs for help include Benin,
Croatia, Oman, Paraguay and Qatar.)
The person handling Pakistan's account is a former Clinton special
counsel, Lanny J. Davis, who helped the White House navigate the 1996
Democratic fund-raising imbroglio.
SCARE CLINTON IN TO VISITING PAKISTAN. Dear Clinton: If U don't go Pakistan, Pakistan will fall in to the bottomless pit of TALIBAN --JPR
Mr. Davis said in an interview that he had talked to the White House and
the State Department, although he would not reveal which officials he had
approached, about adding a stop in Pakistan when Mr. Clinton visits the
Indian subcontinent next month. To spurn a visit, Mr. Davis said, "would
be conveying a message of hostility, and pushing Pakistan in a dangerous
direction away from the West and toward the Taliban."
"They keep thinking it's just a matter of hiring the right lobbyist, that the
right lobbyist will be their salvation," Robert Oakley, a retired American
diplomat, said about Pakistan, where he served as ambassador from
1988-1991.
And sometimes the right lobbyist may indeed make a difference.
Consider the battle last fall over legislation that would allow for the
resumption of United States military aid to Pakistan. Since 1990, military
assistance had been suspended because of Pakistan's nuclear program.
On top of that, economic sanctions were imposed on Pakistan after it
tested nuclear bombs in 1998.
Last year, the Senate's defense appropriations bill had a provision that
would allow the president to waive the sanctions against Pakistan; the
House bill did not have a similar provision. When the bill went to
conference committee, Mr. Wilson went to work.
Wilson, Pakistan's lobbyist munches cold Turkey Sandwiches & sits days and nights on a COLD and FREEZING park bench AMONG THE ALCHOLIC, THE INSANE, THE HOMELESS, THE DESTITUTE, THE POOR, THE FORGOTTEN, THE LEAST, THE LONLIEST AND THE LAST, just to catch the members. NO ASPERSIONS ON ANY OF THE POOR SOULS MENTIONED ABOVE. Just a reflection of Wilson's hard life on the bench---JPR
"I worked day and night," Mr. Wilson said. "I moved to the Hill," he
added, passing time on a park bench, waiting to catch members.
The odds were against him. The Indian-American population is politically
active, and growing, seeking to build a lobby on the model of the
American lobby for Israel, lawmakers and diplomats say. And in
Congress, as a reflection of that activism and of generous campaign
contributions, there is an India caucus, with more than 100 members.
Given its size, it is listened to at the State Department, diplomats there
say.
The co-chairman of the India Caucus, Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey
Democrat who has received significant campaign contributions from
Indian-Americans outside his district, has publicly urged President
Clinton not to go to Pakistan.
By contrast, the Pakistani caucus, never had more than a dozen or so
members, and is largely dormant now.
And Mr. Wilson was up against a few negatives on the Pakistan side of
the ledger: Pakistan had recently tested its nuclear weapons;
Pakistani-backed guerrillas had crossed into the Kargil region of the
disputed territory of Kashmir last year, bringing international
condemnation and the threat of outright war with India; then, in the midst
of the Congressional deliberations, came the military coup -- or "political
sea change," as Mr. Wilson carefully depicts it.
In arguing his client's cause during the congressional fight, Mr. Wilson
hurled some tough charges. India had been "virtually a Soviet satellite,"
during the cold war, Mr. Wilson said he told representatives, a depiction
he repeated with emphasis for use in the current row. Another aspersion
was that "Indians hate Americans," he said, a charge most Indians would
probably dispute.
But Mr. Wilson had something else going for him. While a member of
Congress, he had served for 20 years on the defense subcommittee of
the House appropriations committee. The members of this subcommittee
were on the conference committee.
"I was extremely lucky," Mr. Wilson said. "They were all friends."
Mr. Wilson, and his client, won that day.
Now, the challenge for Mr. Wilson is to keep Pakistan off the State
Department's list of terrorist nations, and to persuade Mr. Clinton that he
must stop in Pakistan, however briefly, during the India trip. Once again,
his colleague for 20 years in the House, Mr. Solarz, is on the other side,
as is Verner, Liipfert.
Mr. Wilson and Mr. Solarz both granted lengthy interviews, as did Mr.
Davis. Brenda Meister, who handles the India account at Verner,
Liipfert, declined to be interviewed, saying that it was the firm's policy to
maintain a low profile.
On one thing, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Solarz agree: Mr. Clinton would like
to make the stop. Mr. Wilson's mission is to give him the political cover
to do it; Mr. Solarz's is to stop it.
That would be "inappropriate and counterproductive," Mr. Solarz said.
He minces no words. Pakistan is a "terrorist state," and now it has a
military government. Mr. Solarz has already made these views known to
the White House and the State Department, as well as to his former
colleagues in Congress.
Mr. Wilson is equally busy, trying to generate a letter from enough
members of Congress urging the president to make the stop.
Is he also talking to State Department officials? "Not more than four or
five times a day," he answers. |
