This morning, The Washington Post’s Dan Eggen reported:
A prominent Democratic fundraiser and ally of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) is attempting to secure a lobbying contract with the pariah regime in Sudan, which has embarked on an aggressive effort to enlist U.S. support against allegations of genocide and war crimes.
It’s not surprising that Khartoum is trying every way it can to buy influence in Washington. What’s appalling is that it can find takers. The lobbyist Bob Crowe makes it sound as if Khartoum would pay him to influence it, rather than the U.S. government. That is absurd on its face. It is shameful that any U.S. firm would want to do the bidding of an indicted war criminal.
The government of Sudan should stop looking for shadowy ways to buy influence and start making concrete and lasting progress toward securing peace and security in Darfur, fully implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), and implementing fundamental political reforms that allow freedom of speech, association and movement in advance of the national elections scheduled for April 2010. Khartoum can spend millions on lobbyists, but this issue won’t go away until the millions of Darfuris can return home. In the meantime, Khartoum should be spending its resources on aiding IDPs, not buying influence in Washington.
The influence-buying efforts that have been revealed through the Washington Post’s reporting beg the question of how much has not been uncovered. Who else is working on Khartoum’s behalf that we don’t know about?
The opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tags: Bob Crowe, Congress, Darfur, Government of Sudan, John Kerry, lobby, Obama Administration, President Obama, Scott Gration, Sudan, Washington DC
