Subject: RE: "A Security Scandal"
From: "Begala, Paul" <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], "John Podesta" <[email-masked]>, "Stan Greenberg" <[email-masked]>, "Anna Greenberg" <[email-masked]>, "Susan McCue" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:43:18 -0500

I think the lobbyist theme is important.  The McCain campaign is clearly worried about it, but unable or unwilling to thrown Charlie under the Straight Talk Express.  The lobbyist issue certainly undrmines him as a reformer, as a straight talker and as a maverick.  Whether or not it can undermine him on national security is more of a reach.  But if it takes off, maybe so.

________________________________

From: Tara McGuinness on behalf of Tara McGuinness
Sent: Sun 2/24/2008 2:38 PM
To: [email-masked]; 'John Podesta'; 'Stan Greenberg'; 'Anna Greenberg'; 'Susan McCue'; Begala, Paul
Subject: RE: "A Security Scandal"

1 "security scandal" possibility:

Charlie Black.
McCain this week defended Black's lobbying: "I'm proud of the record of many of my advisers. One small example, Charlie Black." 

Black lobbied for Chalabi, Iraq, the Fluor Corps (which overbilled USG in Iraq) and Blackwater (which unfortunately leads to Mark Penn).

See some early research below... there is definitely more out there . .

Iraq Reconstruction

Black Planned to Set up Iraq's First Lobbying Firm. "Another top Republican lobbyist in Washington, Charlie Black, told me that his firm, BKSH & Associates, has plans to help Iraqis set up their own affiliated public-relations and government-relations firm; the company would become perhaps the first lobbying shop in Baghdad.  Black is excited by the opportunities in Iraq, but he, too, has complaints.  'The problem in Iraq so far is it's slow and very confusing for people to figure out how to do business there,' he said.  'One week you go to Baghdad, and they say the decisions are being made at the Pentagon.  Then you go to the Pentagon, and they say the decisions are being made in Baghdad.  Only Halliburton is making money now!'  He laughed.  'Is there too much cronyism?  I just wish I could find the cronies.'" [The New Yorker, 2/16/04]

Black Helped Fluor Corporation Become Top Contractor. "Through his lobbying firm, BKSH & Associates (a division of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller), Black represents Fluor Corporation, an engineering and construction firm that is one of the top contractors for post-war reconstruction in Iraq."

*       Fluor Knowingly Over-Charged DOD and Dept. of Energy. "Last November, Fluor agreed to pay the government $12.5 million to settle a whistleblower suit alleging that the company had knowingly overbilled the Departments of Defense and Energy on contracts for tens of millions of dollars of illegal costs, including executive bonuses, land investments, construction and building improvements, luxury condos, fine art, a Mercedes driven by the company's president, and an antique Chippendale chair." [The American Prospect, 1/2006]

BKSH Lobbied for Firm that Handled Propaganda Articles in Iraqi Newspapers. "The Lincoln Group, a previously little-known business intelligence company headed by a heretofore little known young Briton and Oxford graduate, Christian Bailey, now at the centre of controversy surrounding the Bush administration's covert propaganda war in Iraq.  It was recently revealed that Bailey's company got the lion's share of a $100-million contract from Donald Rumsfeld's Department of Defense for buying space in Iraqi newspapers to place deliberately one-sided stories written by U.S. 'psy-ops' troops."  Additionally, the Lincoln Group was paid $20 million to place misleading stories in Anbar providence about U.S. forces running up to Iraqi elections.  "The Lincoln Group has Republican links.  Its lobbyists include Charles Black, an adviser to Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and Marlin 'Buzz' Hefti, a former Pentagon director." [Hamilton Spectator, 1/7/06]

Wye Oak Technology hired BKSH to help Contractor Get Contracts in Post-Invasion Iraq. "In April of 2003, after the United States invaded Iraq, Stoffel retained the lobbying powerhouse BKSH, the firm headed by the influential Republican lobbyist Charles Black, to provide 'assistance in defense contract procurement,' for Wye Oak." [Washington Monthly, 6/1/05]

*       BKSH Sought Out Because of Link to Iraq War. Wye Oak hired Black and BKSH to help it tap into the fortune of new Defense contracts in Iraq because "BKSH had a special interest in Iraq.  The firm was a key member of the coterie of talking heads, lobbyists, and politicians pushing for the war in Iraq that centered around Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC), the anti-Saddam exile group, which was itself a BKSH client." [Washington Monthly, 6/1/05]

*       Wye Oak was Greedy Business Looking to Profit from War. Dale Sfoffel, the founder and head of Wye Oak Technologies, "was a self-professed man of action, who was proudly and openly in Iraq to make a fortune." [Washington Monthly, 6/1/05]

Blackwater

Blackwater Enlisted Black to Repair Reputation. "Blackwater Worldwide, its reputation in tatters and its lucrative government contracts in jeopardy, is mounting an aggressive legal, political and public relations counterstrike."  The work was "landed by BKSH...led by Charles Black Jr."  A "BKSH associate had worked briefly in Iraq and met several Blackwater personnel." [International Herald Tribune, 11/2/07]

-----Original Message-----

From: Tom Matzzie [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Friday, February 22, 2008 11:06 PM
To: John Podesta; Stan Greenberg; Anna Greenberg; Susan McCue; Paul Begala; Tara McGuinness
Subject: "A Security Scandal"

I've been thinking about McCain's stength on keeping America safe and the advantages of going after his reform brand we saw in the poll. It struck me that what we need is a security scandal--something to connect his lobbyists with selling out US security.

I'm not even sure what something like that looks like. It would be the Halliburton of 2008 almost. Something to think about and get our folks who know these issues focused on.

Just a thought.