Former US Envoys Lobby for Saudis and China
Back in August 2002, a congressional delegation was traveling around Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the 19 al Qaeda hijackers who less than a year earlier had launched the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
On one leg of the trip, in a big, white embassy van, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, a former FBI agent, turned to the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan. He asked Jordan, in light of how the Sept. 11 attacks had revealed the Saudis' role in nurturing al Qaeda-connected charities and religious schools, whether Jordan, a big-time Houston oil and gas lawyer, would be the first U.S. ambassador to not go to work for the Saudis after leaving his post.
Jordan, who had George W. Bush as a client before he went to the White House, considered Rogers' question for a moment, and then politely declined to "take the pledge," according to a witness who recalled the episode.
Not that it mattered: Jordan's company, Baker Botts LLP -- that would be James Baker, secretary of state in the first Bush administration and lawyer for the second Bush in the 2000 Florida election deadlock -- already had a host of business clients in the royal kingdom, with offices in Riyadh and Dubai.
In any event, Jordan in 2003 joined the long list of U.S. ambassadors and other former American officials working directly or indirectly for the Saudi royal family. Rogers recently introduced a bill that would bar federal employees from representing foreign governments for four years after they leave public service. Also last week, the House overwhelmingly approved a resolution (HRes648) that sharply curtails lobbyists by foreign agents on the House floor.
Actually, it would be big news if a senior U.S. diplomat in the Middle East did not accept the warm embrace of the Saudis or other despots upon leaving the region. They are sprinkled all over Washington, particularly in such well-known Saudi-supported think tanks as the Middle East Institute. Two former American ambassadors to Saudi Arabia lead the institute -- Wyche Fowler Jr., chairman, and Edward Walker, president. Former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and deputy assistant secretary for the Near East David Mack is the institute's vice president. Also at the institute is Richard Parker, former ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco, and Michael Sterner, former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and deputy assistant secretary of Near Eastern Affairs.
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On one leg of the trip, in a big, white embassy van, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan, a former FBI agent, turned to the U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan. He asked Jordan, in light of how the Sept. 11 attacks had revealed the Saudis' role in nurturing al Qaeda-connected charities and religious schools, whether Jordan, a big-time Houston oil and gas lawyer, would be the first U.S. ambassador to not go to work for the Saudis after leaving his post.
Jordan, who had George W. Bush as a client before he went to the White House, considered Rogers' question for a moment, and then politely declined to "take the pledge," according to a witness who recalled the episode.
Not that it mattered: Jordan's company, Baker Botts LLP -- that would be James Baker, secretary of state in the first Bush administration and lawyer for the second Bush in the 2000 Florida election deadlock -- already had a host of business clients in the royal kingdom, with offices in Riyadh and Dubai.
In any event, Jordan in 2003 joined the long list of U.S. ambassadors and other former American officials working directly or indirectly for the Saudi royal family. Rogers recently introduced a bill that would bar federal employees from representing foreign governments for four years after they leave public service. Also last week, the House overwhelmingly approved a resolution (HRes648) that sharply curtails lobbyists by foreign agents on the House floor.
Actually, it would be big news if a senior U.S. diplomat in the Middle East did not accept the warm embrace of the Saudis or other despots upon leaving the region. They are sprinkled all over Washington, particularly in such well-known Saudi-supported think tanks as the Middle East Institute. Two former American ambassadors to Saudi Arabia lead the institute -- Wyche Fowler Jr., chairman, and Edward Walker, president. Former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and deputy assistant secretary for the Near East David Mack is the institute's vice president. Also at the institute is Richard Parker, former ambassador to Algeria, Lebanon, and Morocco, and Michael Sterner, former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and deputy assistant secretary of Near Eastern Affairs.
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posted by TheFuriousGourmet | 7:34 AM
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