dupe

[kpete]

Obama Envoy To Mubarak Works For...Mubarak
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/revealed-us-envoys-business-link-to-egypt-2206329.html

US envoy's business link to Egypt

Obama scrambles to limit damage after Frank Wisner makes robust call for Mubarak to remain in place as leader.

By Robert Fisk in Cairo

.........

Frank Wisner, President Barack Obama's envoy to Cairo who infuriated the White House this weekend by urging Hosni Mubarak to remain President of Egypt, works for a New York and Washington law firm which works for the dictator's own Egyptian government....the litigation firm Patton Boggs, which openly boasts that it advises "the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and has handled arbitrations and litigation on the government's behalf in Europe and the US"...

So why on earth was he sent to talk to Mubarak, who is in effect a client of Mr Wisner's current employers?


............

Patton Boggs states that its attorneys "represent some of the leading Egyptian commercial families and their companies" and "have been involved in oil and gas and telecommunications infrastructure projects on their behalf". One of its partners served as chairman of the US-Egyptian Chamber of Commerce promoting foreign investment in the Egyptian economy. The company has also managed contractor disputes in military-sales agreements arising under the US Foreign Military Sales Act. Washington gives around $1.3bn (£800m) a year to the Egyptian military.

MORE:http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/2/7/941777/-Obama-Envoy-To-Mubarak-Works-For...Mubarak

[ProSense]

1. It's interesting that people can take known news,

wait a few days, and then pretend that some investigative journalism discovered something that was well-reported as part of the original announcement.

When it was time to give Egypt's embattled leader a gentle nudge, President Obama picked a seasoned diplomat who could deliver the message as a close friend. Frank G. Wisner, a former U.S. ambassador to Cairo, has known Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for decades and has long advocated strong U.S. ties with him.

The White House dispatched Wisner to Cairo to "add his perspective to our analysis on current developments," as State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley put it on Monday. Within 24 hours of Wisner's private chat with the Egyptian president, Mubarak had announced on state television that he would step down at the end of his current term.

<...>

Former U.S. government officials who have worked with Wisner, 72, said the retired diplomat developed a close relationship with Mubarak during his assignment in Egypt as ambassador from 1986 to 1991.

After his retirement from the State Department, Wisner worked for Patton Boggs, a Washington lobbying firm that has represented Egypt in the past. He also served on the board of Egypt's largest bank, Commercial International Bank Egypt SAE.

more

Is Obama's new Egypt "envoy" too close to Mubarak?