Disir
Platinum Member
- Sep 30, 2011
- 28,003
- 9,610
- 910
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Qatar has paid $2.5 million to the law firm of a former attorney general under U.S. President George W. Bush to audit its efforts at stopping terrorism funding, a matter at the heart of the Gulf diplomatic crisis that erupted last week.
John Ashcroft personally will lead his Washington-based firm’s efforts “to evaluate, verify and as necessary, strengthen the client’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing” compliance and potentially lobby lawmakers and the media, according to documents filed to the U.S. Justice Department.
Qatar hiring Ashcroft, who was attorney general during the Sept. 11 attacks and then helped push through the Patriot Act, appeared aimed at appeasing Washington as several Gulf nations try to isolate it. Officials in Qatar, home to a major U.S. military base, and Ashcroft’s firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
....The sudden move to hire Ashcroft’s firm shows Qatar “certainly dropped the ball” in recognizing that government opinion in Washington had swung away from it, said Christopher Davidson, a professor of Middle East politics at Durham University in Britain. That’s despite Qatar funding think tanks, university programs and the Doha-based Al-Jazeera satellite news network, he said.
“We’re seeing a new sort of conflict... where wars are being fought through PR companies,” Davidson said. “We can see what kind of damage that can do when your rival’s PR machine becomes more extensive than your own.”
Qatar, in regional crisis, hires former U.S. attorney general
One: It ain't new.
Two: Ashcroft? Really? He still sucks. He didn't stop sucking.
John Ashcroft personally will lead his Washington-based firm’s efforts “to evaluate, verify and as necessary, strengthen the client’s anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing” compliance and potentially lobby lawmakers and the media, according to documents filed to the U.S. Justice Department.
Qatar hiring Ashcroft, who was attorney general during the Sept. 11 attacks and then helped push through the Patriot Act, appeared aimed at appeasing Washington as several Gulf nations try to isolate it. Officials in Qatar, home to a major U.S. military base, and Ashcroft’s firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
....The sudden move to hire Ashcroft’s firm shows Qatar “certainly dropped the ball” in recognizing that government opinion in Washington had swung away from it, said Christopher Davidson, a professor of Middle East politics at Durham University in Britain. That’s despite Qatar funding think tanks, university programs and the Doha-based Al-Jazeera satellite news network, he said.
“We’re seeing a new sort of conflict... where wars are being fought through PR companies,” Davidson said. “We can see what kind of damage that can do when your rival’s PR machine becomes more extensive than your own.”
Qatar, in regional crisis, hires former U.S. attorney general
One: It ain't new.
Two: Ashcroft? Really? He still sucks. He didn't stop sucking.