Posts Tagged ‘Bahrain’
Bahrain: Western PR firms to the rescue of this absolute monarchy
Posted by: adonis49 on: October 16, 2011
Bahrain: Western PR firms to the rescue of this absolute monarchy
The Bahrain government has being wasting public money on protecting the absolute monarchic regime’s reputation by hiring western PR firms to trying to sanitize and salvage its awfully tarnished international image, since Feb 2011 uprising. Most of the presidents of these firms have been serving US governments in various public positions.
A couple of days ago, the Bahrain government acknowledged using activities contrary to human rights laws. It seems that Western States have been too embarrassed singling out Syria regime when Bahrain has been executing physicians and surgeons who tended to injured peaceful demonstrators. You may read this post for knowing “what’s going in Bahrain” https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/whats-going-on-in-bahrain-saudi-arabia-sending-expeditionary-forces/
Many Western PR firms/individuals were hired by the Bahrain government. For example, you have this small sample of the Potomac Square Group, Sorini, Samet & Associates, Qorvis, Joe Trippi & Associates, Sanitas International, Bell Pottinger, Gardant Communications, BCB Group, Olton, Tom Squitieri (TS Navigations LLC)
Potomac Square Group
Bahrain’s embassy in Washington DC signed a contract with the DC-based Potomac Square Group on the 17th of February, three days after the start of the uprising. The firm is run by a Chris Cooper, a former Wall Street Journalist reporter. He writes on his LinkedIn profile: “Clients include a foreign government seeking help in dealing with an internal crisis”.
According to the US registration documents the embassy was to pay him $20,000 (plus expenses) for a month’s worth of services (renewable). You can view the full document here.
Sorini, Samet & Associates
In April, the AFL-CIO filed a complaint with the US Department of Labor calling on it to terminate the Bahrain-US Free Trade Agreement in light of the mass sackings of workers in Bahrain following the protests. To formulate the response to this, Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hired the services of Sorini, Samet & Associates LLC, a government relations firm specializing in international trade legislation.
The point man at the firm is Andrew Samet, who has previously served as Deputy Undersecretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration. The Bahrain government was to pay the firm an hourly fee ranging between $100 and $550 with an initial non-returnable retainer of $25,000. See the US registration documents here.
One would imagine these guys helped arrange the July meetings of Bahrain’s ministers of labor and industry with US officials and policy wonks in Washington DC (after Samet visited Bahrain in May).
Qorvis
Qorvis is a well-known D.C.-based PR firms, notorious for being hired by Saudi Arabia to improve its image after 9/11. The firm was hired by Bahrain’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in April/May 2011 for a monthly fee of $40,000 (plus out of pocket expenses). The US registration documents are here.
The firm’s point man for the contract is Matt Lauer (@MattJLauer), a former State Department official. It seems that Qorvis is likely to be the source of the press statements on behalf of the Bahrain government regularly posted on PR Newswire. (See Brian Whitaker’s blog post ‘Spinning Bahrain, the Qorvis way‘).
Joe Trippi & Associates
Joe Trippi & Associates is a D.C.-based media firm headed by Democratic political strategist Joe Trippi, (@JoeTrippi) who managed Howard Dean’s 2004 U.S. presidential election campaign. He was hired some time before August by Dr. Saqer Al Khalifa, Ph.D. on behalf of Bahrain’s ministry of information.
According to the registration documents, Trippi is tasked with providing “strategic counsel” and assisting “with outreach to members of the media and non-governmental organizations.” The documents don’t mention how much the Bahrain government is paying for the services.
Sanitas International
Joe Trippi hired the services of a D.C.-based PR firm Sanitas International on behalf of the Bahrain ministry of information in July. Sanitas’ stated job is to once again “provide strategic council, public affairs and other media communications services” for the Bahrain government. The registration documents do not state the fee that Sanitas receives for its services.
The point-man for the contract is partner Christopher Harvin (@cmharvin), who has formally worked for the White House and several other US government departments. Earlier this year Harvin said in an interview that one of the trends that excites him the most is the wave of democratic reform in the Middle East:
In Egypt, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube facilitated the removal of Hosni Mubarak. Even as the Egyptian government shut down certain channels of communication, the opposition continued to influence, organize and connect through alternative forms of communication. In Syria, social media is fueling mass demonstrations and revolt. In Iran, the Green Revolution began on Twitter.
And yet this guy has no problems about being hired to whitewash the image of the regime in Bahrain that has used Facebook and Twitter in its brutal crackdown against the democratic movement and has arrested bloggers.
Bell Pottinger
Bell Pottinger is a major London-based PR agency that had a number of contracts with the Bahraini government, including one for the Economic Development Board since 2009, believed to be worth a seven-figure sum in pounds annually. The firm came under pressure in February for holding the contracts even after seven protesters had been killed in Bahrain, and in April BP suspended some of its contracts including the EDB one.
The chairman of the agency said “most” — not all — of the Bahrain contracts had been suspended, and stressed that it was not necessarily a permanent disengagement.
Gardant Communications
It’s not clear whether Bahrain still has a contract with Gardant, but it is still listed on the UK Public Affairs Council website for now.
Gardant is a London-based PR firm that seems to have been working for the Bahrain government since before the Feb 2011 uprising. It acts as the secretariat for the UK-Bahrain All-Party Parliamentary Group, arranging their paid visit to Bahrain in October 2010.
The point man for this contract is Lord Paddy Gillford, Earl of Clanwilliam, a former adviser to the Conservative Party. In June, Gillford got into a public spat with Anwar Abdulrahman, the editor-in-chief of the Gulf Daily News, a pro-regime Bahraini newspaper, who is regarded as very close to Bahrain’s prime minister. Abdulrahman lashed out at him in the newspaper for failing to do enough to protect the regime’s international reputation. It’s hard to imagine that Abdulrahman’s public criticism of a Gillford could have happened without a nod from the government. So unless they kissed and made up afterwards, its quite possible that the contract has been terminated now.
BCB Group
BCB is a marketing and PR firm based in Connecticut, USA. Its not clear exactly what their work is in Bahrain, but I do know that they had representatives at the “National Dialogue” back in July.
Olton
Olton is a UK-based intelligence gathering firm (that also offers “reputation management”) run by ex-military men and founded by a Paul Manister (@H4Hkiliclimb). Again, its not exactly clear what their work is in Bahrain, but they do have an office in the Bahrain Financial Harbour, and I have reason to believe that they have a contract with the government.
The group was promoting its ‘web-trawling’ technology named ORA at the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi this February. An editor at the UAE’s The National newspaper who visited the IDEX conference tweeted:
At #Idex2011 A western comp is pitching software to monitor soc media to identify ringleaders, saying it could head off unrest in ME #Fail
Note 1: Matt Lauer and Qorvis are also currently on the payroll of the Yemeni government receiving $30,000 per month, and of Hosni Mubarak’s close associate Ahmed Ezz receiving $92,000 per month;
Practices of the Wahhabi sect in Saudi Arabia Monarchy; (October 14, 2009)
Using the slogan “Participate with us for a clean site” Naqa2Tube (PureTube) re-transmits YouTube in Saudi Arabia in an expunged version that edit out the videos that hurt the image of the “Royal Family” and its practices. The administrators of NaqaTube claim receiving 6,000 hits since June 2009.
Graduates from Saudi Arabia universities are 60% females but they are prohibited to work after graduation in Saudi Arabia. They have to go abroad to exercise and work in their specialties, especially to the Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
Dozens of legal cabinets in Kuwait and Bahrain are owned and run by Saudi woman lawyers because they cannot practice law in Saudi Arabia. “More women decided to get established in neighboring States” confirms the journalist Wafa Al-Dhoweian so that they may ride busses and taxis alone and even drive their own cars, and have a drink in a coffee shop if it pleases them.
Saudi Arabia keeps erecting mega institutions with the latest technologies, but devoid of any specialized personnel to run them. What you got are mega shells, monument of the failure of this most obscurantist salafist monarchy after over 80 years of absolute reign.
“Saudi business men fled the Kingdom with their capital; now it is the turn of the scientists and technocrats.
The memory content of adolescents’ portables is 70% occupied with pornographic segments.
Crime has increased 14% over the last year. 60% of marriages are failures and end up in divorce.
Saudi Arabia has over 1.5 million single women of over 35 of age because of the division of sexes in all institutions and impractical means to get to even see the potential mate.
Saudi males go abroad to contract out short-term marriages or Pleasure marriage (for a month or less) with women under 17 years of age.
The Imam of Mecca, Adel Kalbani, excommunicated the Saudi Shiaa sect (residing in the eastern province) as well as the intellectuals and writers.
On week-ends, Saudis visit Bahrain to watch movies since movie theaters are banned in this “Kingdom”; 90% of the clients are Saudis. During the shopping festivals in Dubai 40% are Saudis, and they spend around half a billion dollars.
In summer time, a quarter of the Saudis take vacation abroad and they extend their stay as long as they can afford it; they generally spend $5 billion dollars “where time passes agreeably and freedom is so present that I feel it in my sleep” affirms a 27 year-old Saudi male.
I am aware of a few of my acquaintances who practiced ascetics before taking a job in Saudi Arabia: over there, you go to work and come back to your air-conditioned apartment; there is nowhere to go. Movie theaters, and public music are banned in that State.
Contrary to all civilization, the Wahhabi sect prohibit displaying cemeteries: Once dead, you are dead for good and you have got not to expect your descendent to pray for you in public.
You don’t find libraries selling any books, Arabic or foreign, but the Coran and the books that the sect selected to be read.
I feel that I should not mix politics in this factual post but it must be done.
Saudi Arabia sank deeper in the Dark Ages when a Wahhabi faction of “Takfir wa Hejrat” stormed and occupied Al Kaabat in 1979. The monarch bought the services of French paratroopers to re-occupy the Holy Place in Mecca; hundred were killed in that counter-attack.
“Takfir wa Hejrat” means repentance and taking refuge away from urban centers to isolated communities for the pure Moslems abiding by the Sharia; the purpose is to wait for the coming prophesied Mahdi who is to free and unite the Moslems.
The Kingdom wanted since then to prove to its “citizens” that the Royal Family is even more conservative than the most extremists of Wahhabis.
The monarchy focused on making the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca as safe and secure: They think that they have done their job; along with re-publishing their own version of the Coran and distributing it for free in Sunni Moslem States, and wasting the wealth on erecting Mosques in every street in their major cities and everywhere any community of Moslem requests finances for building or enlarging a Mosque.
Non Sunni religious monuments are Not to be built in Saudi Arabia.
The US and western Europe don’t care for the injustices committed in that backward State as long as oil is produced and sold.
In fact, this monarchy is prohibited to loosen up the purse, unless the US gives the green light for disbursement of any financial aid to foreign countries, except building more Wahhabi Mosques in Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Indonesia,…
Adonis Diaries 