The Harbour Group, the first Washington firm to apply to represent the Libyan rebels during the revolution, signed a $15,000-per-month contract with the Embassy of Libya. The agreement will run from March 1 to the end of the year. The Harbour group first signed with the Libyan National Transitional Council in April of 2011, first working on a pro-bono basis.
The contract stipulated that the firm will “help fund ‘a communications and public outreach program’” to “strengthen U.S.-Libyan relations, sustain U.S. foreign aid to Libya, and help build up commerce and investment in Libya. It will also help prepare speeches and press releases, develop website and social media content, and organize briefings and visits.
Patton Boggs, another lobbying firm, also represents the Libyans. “It was a great success for the client to remove Gadhafi and now the government is transitioning to a democratic country and is setting up the institutions it needs,” said David Tafuri, a partner at Patton Boggs.
Meanwhile, fighting in the remote southern region of Libya over the weekend resulted in 147 deaths.Joshua Foust writes for PBS that despite receiving praise from President Barack Obama, who called intervention in Libya “a recipe for success,” Libya is far from successful. Intervention in Libya has been tainted with reports of gratuitous human rights abuses, a continuing security crisis, and a inert political transition—which Foust says has been neglected by the engineers of the Libyan intervention.
[ ED NOTES: SOME BACKROUND ON ''HARBOUR GROUP''
According to O'Dwyer's, "The Harbour Group has inked a $15K a-month contract with Libya to conduct a public diplomacy program for the Libyan National Transitional Council and the country’s U.S. Embassy. The Washington-base firm began working for the Libyans last April on a volunteer basis. The new pact went into effect March 1 and runs through the end of 2012. . . . It will develop website content and social media platforms to promote the growth of Libya in the aftermath of the murder of its former leader Muammar Gaddafi. Harbour managing directorRichard Marcus reports to Libya’s ambassador Ali Suleiman Aujali on the account."[1]
According to the same article, "Harbour has represented the UAE [United Arab Emirates] under the U.S.-Emirates Alliance umbrella. That contract is pegged in the $2M a-year range."[1] The U.S. Emirates Alliance paid Harbour more than $900,000 for six months of work in 2008, to promote of Kalima, the UAE's cultural initiative, on behalf of its U.S. Embassy and the UAE Government. "Reps from Kalima participated in the Library of Congress' National Book Festival that was hosted by First Lady Laura Bush in September [2008] on the National Mall," reportedO'Dwyer's. Harbour also promoted the UAE's "openness and interfaith matters" to the American Jewish Committee, "pitched media about an urban planning event at the embassy, discussed the impact of investments made by sovereign wealth funds on U.S. jobs and talked about UAE aid to Iraq." [2]
Sam Fox, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Fox, a Republican fundraiser from Missouri, was named Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenifotentiary of the United States of America to Belgium on April 4, 2007, by President George W. Bush in a recess appointment, "a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress, whereDemocrats had derailed Fox's nomination." [1] "Fox chairs the national Republican Jewish Coalition. He and Pioneer coalition members Ned Siegel and Fred Zeidman accompanied House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on his 2003 trip to Israel. Harbour Group companies received $3.3 million in federal contracts in fiscal 2002. Sam Fox’s sons Jeffrey Fox and Gregory Fox are Bush Pioneers and Harbour executives."
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