The Podesta Group is one of the main lobbying firms for SAUDI ARABIA
John Podesta, of course, is Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Here are some articles about the Saudis hiring influential lobbyists.
This is important because of the Saudis' threat to the U.S., and because of the Clinton ties to Saudi Arabia.
http://217.218.67.231/Detail/2015/10/19/434022/Podesta-Group-lobbying-firms-
https://theintercept.com/2015/10/05/saudi-arabia-continues-hire-politically-connected-american-lobbyists-public-relation-firms/
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/01/07/washingtons-multi-million-dollar-saudi-pr-machine
Nice tidbit from that last article:
Saudi Arabia is certainly a prize catch for K Street firms looking for hefty monthly retainers from foreign clients. But the U.S. military-industrial complex rakes in the biggest profits from the country currently fanning the flames of sectarian conflict in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia is looking to complete a $1.29 billion purchase of U.S. weapons, in part to replenish bombs and missiles used in Yemen. Reuters reports that a $11.25 billion purchase of Lockheed Martin warships is also expected to move forward, according to “military and industry sources.” The Congressional Research Service reports that Saudi Arabia topped the list of arms transfer recipients among developing nations from 2007 to 2014 with $86 billion in agreements, giving US defense contractors ample incentive to lend their own lobbying and PR firepower to the Kingdom’s efforts to manage public opinion.
“The tangled and volatile realities of the Middle East do not give the United States or the European Union the luxury of choosing or rejecting allies on moral criteria,” the Times editorial concluded, but that “cannot mean condoning actions that blatantly fan sectarian hatreds, undermine efforts at stabilizing the region and crudely violate human rights.”
Saudi Arabia’s extensive contracts with Washington’s biggest PR firms—and the additional PR help it gets from U.S. defense contractors—are designed to make those actions somehow palatable inside the Beltway. But in the end they will only make the White House’s efforts to navigate the Sunni-Shia divide all the more difficult.
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Love this smilie...
In addition, the Podesta Group acts as a lobbyist for Egypt on U.S. policies of concern, activities in Congress and the Executive branch, and developments on the U.S. political scene generally,' according to forms filed with the Justice Department in 2009."[5][12]
They also received revenue of $900,000 over the last two years from the "European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based organization sympathetic to Yanukovich and his political party".[13]
The Podesta Group also carries out public relations work for the government of Azerbaijan for a monthly fee of USD 60,000 plus expenses.[14] According to human rights watchdog organizations, the government of Azerbaijan in mid-2014 has "intensified its already authoritarian crackdown on independent political and other public voices" and has imprisoned at least 40 political activists, human rights defenders, journalists and others "on various trumped-up charges, including drug possession, tax evasion, and even treason". [15] [16] Similarly, the former government of Albania, lead by former prime minister Sali Berisha, a leader with autocratic tendencies, is another in the list of questionable clients for whom the Podesta Group has lobbied in Washington DC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podesta_Group
