-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: June 27, 2007 12:00:12 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Borat, Dick Cheney's Bastard Son
http://harpers.org/subjects/NoComment
Ken Silverstein’s article in the current Harper’s, “Their Men in
Washington” reminds us that the obstacles put in the path of
influence peddlers representing corrupt and repressive regimes are
impressive – on paper at least. On August 10, 2006, the White House
released its “National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against
Kleptocracy.” In doing so, the Bush Administration publicly
embraced efforts to target corrupt foreign government officials as
enemies of democracy and progress. The strategy committed the
United States to take a number of approaches to counter corruption,
including promises to:
Vigorously Prosecute Foreign Corruption Offenses and Seize
Illicitly Acquired Assets. In its continuing efforts against
bribery of foreign officials, the United States Government will
expand its capacity to investigate and prosecute criminal
violations associated with high-level foreign official corruption
and related money laundering, as well as to seize the proceeds of
such crimes.
Deny Physical Safe Haven. We will work closely with international
partners to identify kleptocrats and those who corrupt them, and
deny such persons entry and safe haven.
It follows, then, that the last thing the Bush Administration would
do following such an announcement is invite a “kleptocratic foreign
public official” to Washington for a White House visit. Right?
Well, maybe not.
And indeed, on September 29, 2006, President Bush hosted the
President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, at the White House.
How did the Kazakhs pull it off? We understand that the State
Department firmly opposed the visit, as did staffers at the
National Security Council. But our sources tell us that Kazakhstan
turned to one of Washington’s most connected lobbying firms,
Cassidy & Associates, to pave the way for this visit. And that made
all the difference. Ken Silverstein’s piece makes clear what a
powerhouse Cassidy & Associates is, and their ties to Kazakhstan
could hardly come as a surprise.
Moreover, Nazarbayev has a closely guarded relationship with the
power behind the throne in Washington: Vice President Dick Cheney.
During the Clinton years, as Cheney was serving as CEO of
Halliburton, a leading oil and gas industry service provider with
an enormous position in Kazakhstan, Cheney also served Nazarbayev
as a member of Kazakhstan’s Oil Advisory Board, and the two are
said to have formed a lasting rapport. The relationship continued
when Cheney came to the White House, and Nazarbayev sought Cheney’s
advice and intervention in connection with a Justice Department
corruption investigation, according to a New York Times report by
Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Jeff Gerth.
There has been lingering suspicion in Congress that Cheney
intervened to slow down the Justice Department’s management of the
Kazakh corruption investigation. In any event, following the Cheney-
Nazarbayev contacts, the Justice Department’s actions slowed to a
glacial pace.
President Bush had only words of praise for his Kazakh guest. He
spoke glowingly of Nazarbayev’s commitment to democracy in
Afghanistan. Curiously, Bush remained silent on the status of
freedom in Kazakhstan itself.
The truth is that Kazakhstan, for all its economic accomplishment,
is anything but a burgeoning democracy. This past May, Nazarbayev
secured passage of a bill allowing him to run for as many
presidential terms as he likes. Yes, that was literally meant. The
bill gave the right only to Nazarbayev. All other candidates only
get two presidential terms at most. Nazarbayev’s intelligence
service frequently finds cause to harass and intimidate the
opposition. In recent elections, opposition parties have won one
seat in Parliament. Western observers like the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have accused Nazarbayev
of rigging elections.
Indeed, at a press conference I attended in Almaty, after an
election in which opponents achieved roughly 20% of the vote,
Nazarbayev stated: “Well, I suppose you could say we’ve made 20%
progress towards democracy.” The room erupted into laughter. But
for many Kazakhs it was no laughing matter.
The recent “Kazakhgate” trial here in the U.S. demonstrates that
the Justice Department believes there is a pervasive culture of
corruption within Nazarbayev’s regime. The trial centers on James
Giffen, an American businessman with ties to the Western oil
companies, who stands accused of funneling millions of dollars in
bribes to Kazakh officials. Giffen ran Mercator Corporation, a
small New York merchant bank. Mercator’s business consisted of
representing and advising the government of Kazakhstan in
negotiating oil and natural gas concessions with Western energy
companies.
In the beginning of 1995, at the same time as Mercator won the
Kazakhstan contract, Giffen was made a “Counselor to the President
of Kazakhstan,” a title which gave him special privileges in
dealing on behalf of the Kazakh government (he received a
diplomatic passport) as well as foreign energy companies. The idea
was that for each successful transaction completed, Kazakhstan
would pay Mercator a certain fee. In fact, of course, this fee was
paid by the energy company as a part of the deal it struck with the
Kazakh government. This money went into escrow accounts at several
Swiss banks.
According to the indictment, Giffen illegally diverted some of the
escrow money into secret Swiss bank accounts; moreover, he used
more than $78 million of these funds to make payments to high-
ranking Kazakh officials, including former Prime Minister Nurlan
Balgimbaev and President Nazarbayev. The Kazakh officials used the
money to finance expensive purchases of luxury items like jewelry,
a speedboat, snowmobiles, and even tuition for one of the
officials’ daughters at a Swiss boarding school. If the reader
doesn’t smell bribery somewhere in this, perhaps a quotation from
the government’s 2004 indictment of Giffen will help:
One of Giffen’s purposes in making these unlawful payments was to
obtain and retain business for himself and his company… Giffen’s
scheme worked – the Republic of Kazakhstan showered business on
Mercator, paying it more than $60 million between 1995 and 1999.
The Indictment alleges that in carrying out this scheme, Giffen
committed many serious crimes: (1) he conspired to violate, and
violated, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act… (2) he conspired to,
an participated in a scheme to, steal tens of millions of dollars
from the Republic of Kazakhstan… (3) he conspired to, and
participated in a scheme to, deprive the citizens of Kazakhstan of
their intangible right to the honest services of their political
leaders… and (4) he conspired to launder, and laundered, tens of
millions of dollars to further the schemes described above, and to
hide their proceeds.
Giffen’s trial is set to begin sometime in the fall, but may be
delayed by legal wrangling. His lawyers are trying to employ a
“public authority” defense, insisting that Giffen has some links to
the CIA, and that the CIA somehow ordered or sponsored his dealings
to strengthen U.S. relations with oil-rich Kazakhstan. It will be
some time before Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA)
hearings and motions are resolved, but whether or not Giffen was
acting on behalf of the U.S. government, the scandal still points
to a failed U.S. policy in Central Asia.
Either “Giffen the CIA agent” was part of a White House effort to
cozy up to an oil-rich nation’s kleptocratic leaders via highly
illegal means, or “Giffen the ordinary, decent briber” stands to
provide further evidence of what is received wisdom among those who
study Central Asia – namely, that Nazarbayev heads a corrupt and
undemocratic regime.
No matter which version materializes at trial, the Bush
Administration’s curious decision to host and entertain Nazarbayev
shows that U.S. oil interests remain paramount. The U.S. interests
in promoting democracy, justice and official accountability in
Kazakhstan are clearly viewed as something for the backseat, if
they made it aboard at all. Moreover, cynics will say that over the
last five years there has been less of an effort to export American
democratic values to Kazakhstan, and more of an effort to import
Kazakhstani corrupt practices that undermine democracy to the
United States. Nazarbayev and Dick Cheney, it would seem, see
things perfectly eye to eye.
Some claim that while trying to cut backroom deals with corrupt
foreign bureaucrats, the United States has lost ground to China and
Russia in the “Great Game” of foreign relations in Central Asia.
Others are dismissive of “Great Game” analogies and suggest that
Central Asia’s geopolitical significance to the United States is
waning, oil or no oil.
Either way, the Bush Administration has once again created its own
rules, and immediately proceeded to ignore them. The “National
Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy” was still
warm from the press when President Nazarbayev stepped into the
White House with a smile and a handshake. The case against Giffen,
and therefore against Nazarbayev, and was already known among the
press and officials in Washington. Some kleptocrats, it seems, are
very welcome indeed.
Evan Magruder contributed to this piece.
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