PRESS ROOM

"Ben Freeman, director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy, said that while WestExec may not be involved in the firm’s work for Saudi Arabia, the firm’s connections to the Biden administration and influential groups are valuable. Teneo has reported contacting think tanks on behalf of foreign clients, and Flournoy is a member of the defense sector-backed Center for a New American Security, which has sent more than a dozen staffers to the Biden administration.

“It’s all just different shades of trying to garner influence,” Freeman said."

"From Afghanistan to Niger, the “new normal” of American warfare shows no signs of changing course under President Biden and his hawkish national security team. In this episode of “The Marc Steiner Show,” combat veteran and writer Danny Sjursen issues a dire warning about American military policy. "

In a new book, Planet Palm, author Jocelyn C. Zuckerman discusses the prevalence of palm oil in our food and in our lives. She points out the connectivity between palm oil sourcing practices and the existential threats of climate change, deforestation, and labor abuse. She cites Mighty Earth as a resource for individuals looking to learn more and get involved.

Saudi Arabia also benefits from the influence wielded by major U.S. arms manufacturers that would like to sell to them. Just four of the biggest companies received 90 percent of promised sales between 2009 and 2019, according to the Center for International Policy. Those four — Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Boeing — also happen to make up four of the top five defense-related companies spending the most on lobbying, pouring over $10 million each into their policy influence efforts in 2020 alone.

"This confirmation of bin Salman's role underscores the urgent need for a new approach to the US-Saudi relationship," William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, said in a statement on Thursday.

"Sunjeev Bery, executive director of Freedom Forward, stated, 'Saudi Arabia's dictatorship is using sports and entertainment events in a desperate attempt to hide its horrifying human rights record from the world. As a voice for freedom, Lewis Hamilton should take a stand in support of the peaceful reformers and activists who are languishing in Saudi Arabia's prisons. Hamilton should boycott the race until Saudi Arabia's monarchy embraces reform.'"

"Far from placating the kingdom's critics, the release of the official US assessment that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "approved" Khashoggi's murder has emboldened human rights groups that had pushed for the report to be made public. An array of advocacy organisations are working closely with key lawmakers on efforts to sanction the king-in-waiting and press for deep reforms in the kingdom while also pursuing legal action in US courts"

President Joe Biden launched a strike on Iranian backed militia in Syria, reportedly in reprisal for rocket attacks on U.S. forces. Such attacks should not have caught the White House by surprise. After all, it’s the muddled U.S. military mission and ongoing troop presence itself that creates nearly all the conditions for the current crisis. The attacks could very well derail Biden’s announced intent to reestablish Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, or even lead to a military escalation.

"Lobbyists for foreign governments have been dealing with a new Washington this year, as Democrats nowadays control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Some countries’ agents are ramping up their efforts in the U.S. capital, while others are retreating.

One expert on the influence industry, Ben Freeman, recently spoke with MarketWatch about important trends that he’s spotting, as he tracks disclosures required by the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and much more."

Our greatest security challenges — the pandemic, the climate crisis, and racial and economic injustice – are not military in nature and spending more on the Pentagon will do nothing to help solve them. Meanwhile, our post-9/11 wars have cost over $6.4 trillion with hundreds of thousands of lives lost on all sides, without making America or the world safer.

"China's playing a totally different game to the U.S.," said William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C. "The U.S. is relying on traditional military bases, global military reach and training local militaries, while China is forging ahead by cutting economic deals that appear to be buying them more influence than the U.S.'s military approach."
"In all these wars the U.S. has expended so much in terms of blood and treasure with actually very little to show for it," said Hartung of the Center for International Policy. "A reckoning is near."

The Feb. 18 news article “Newly released documents shed light on 1983 nuclear scare with Soviets” was an important reminder of the dangers of any military exercise that involves nuclear weapons, but it omitted a very important detail. KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, who reported to British intelligence, was a source of the intelligence alert and the “war scare.” A group of CIA analysts convinced CIA Director William Casey that the “war scare” was real, and Casey ignored his deputy director for intelligence, Robert Gates, who argued that the Soviets were merely crying wolf. Because of our efforts, Casey convinced President Ronald Reagan that the “war scare” was real and our nuclear weapons command exercise was made less threatening. Then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used the “war scare” to persuade Reagan to pursue disarmament talks with the Soviet Union.