Source:
Reuters, October 21, 2005
While human rights groups denounce the Sudanese government's "
condoning of the action of a violent militia which is raping and killing innocent women, men and children and pillaging villages
in Darfur," a U.S. firm is lobbying for
Sudan. Representative Frank Wolf said he was "shocked" that the
State Department granted
C/R International a waiver "from an order barring U.S. companies from doing business with Sudan." Rep. Wolf wrote
Secretary of State Rice that the waiver "conflicted with the administration's push ... to tighten sanctions" on Sudan. Sudan hired C/R, at $530,000 per year, "to promote the country's north/south peace agreement, and highlight Sudan's role in fighting terror,"
reported O'Dwyer's PR Daily. C/R head Robert Cabelly is "a former
Fleishman-Hillard and State Dept. official who has
repped Angola,
Equatorial Guinea,
Ethiopia and the
South Africa Foundation." Rep. Wolf also criticized
Patton Boggs for "trying to polish the image of
Saudi Arabia" and
Akin, Gump for "trying to
assist China in buying a U.S. oil company."
