WP: Think Tank's (Heritage Fndn) Ideas Shifted As Malaysia Ties Grew

[kskiska]

Business Interests Overlapped Policy

Sunday, April 17, 2005; Page A01

For years, the Heritage Foundation sharply criticized the autocratic rule of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, denouncing his anti-Semitism, his jailing of political opponents and his "anti-free market currency controls."

Then, late in the summer of 2001, the conservative nonprofit Washington think tank began to change its assessment: Heritage financed an Aug. 30-Sept. 4, 2001, trip to Malaysia for three House members and their spouses. Heritage put on briefings for the congressional delegation titled "Malaysia: Standing Up for Democracy" and "U.S. and Malaysia: Ways to Cooperate in Order to Influence Peace and Stability in Southeast Asia."

Heritage's new, pro-Malaysian outlook emerged at the same time a Hong Kong consulting firm co-founded by Edwin J. Feulner, Heritage's president, began representing Malaysian business interests. The for-profit firm, called Belle Haven Consultants, retains Feulner's wife, Linda Feulner, as a "senior adviser." And Belle Haven's chief operating officer, Ken Sheffer, is the former head of Heritage's Asia office and is still on Heritage's payroll as a $75,000-a-year consultant.

On Sept. 27, 2001, Belle Haven hired Alexander Strategy Group, a Washington lobby firm run by Edwin A. Buckham, a former chief of staff to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), to help represent Malaysian clients. Linda Feulner works as a consultant for Alexander Strategy Group as well as for Belle Haven. Experts say that the relationship between one of Washington's most influential conservative think tanks and a network of lobbying firms collecting fees from Malaysian business interests -- well in excess of $1 million over two years -- could pose a problem for Heritage's tax status as a nonprofit group. The fees were disclosed in reports filed with Congress and the Justice Department.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59539-2005Apr16.html

[UpInArms]

1. does anyone else remember when the Mormon Church

banned caffeine - until they bought stock in Coca Cola?

whatever makes their pockets jingle!

[AlCzervik]

2. This is a big one imo

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Yep -- this is a scandal. nt

[AlCzervik]

6. omg, look at this, i knew the moonies would be in there

somehow, it's like a whose who of dc corrupt assholes.

http://nationaljournal.com/cgi-bin/ifetch4?ENG+NJMAG+7-njmagtoc+1132178-DBSCORE+256+1+260+F+15+25+1+PD%2f03%2f19%2f2005%2d%3e03%2f19%2f2005

[TahitiNut]

3. Their "intellectual integrity" is like Fox's "fair and balanced."

Stink tank is more like it. They have their noses planted in the ideological fascist rump - have dollars will pander.

[DBoon]

5. "Coin-op think-tanks"

insert money, weild influence

[grasswire]

7. what's this? real reporting?

Geez. Who slipped this in while the publisher's back was turned?

[wellst0nev0ter]

8. And Front Page Too

Someone must be slipping.

[grasswire]

10. kick

This is an important story.

[xchrom]

9. this just pisses me off.

ok -- who still doesn't believe in corporate control of the country?