Further to my FoxNews interview on Fusion GPS’ work for THE most corrupt group of thugs of THE most corrupt nation this side of Moscow, it is always helpful to provide a little perspective.
Years ago I spent a few hours with Vladimir Bukovsky in Cambridge. The man’s status is legendary and his opposition to different strands of Russian executive power known worldwide. We talked about similarities, between Venezuela and Russia. At the time I was researching the case of a Venezuelan dissident who, having been granted asylum by the Holy See, was trapped in their Embassy in Caracas due to Hugo Chavez’s refusal to give him a safe conduct to leave the country. We talked about filing of trumped charges in kangaroo courts followed by issuance of red alerts to INTERPOL, to curtail dissidents’ international movements, a common practice employed by Russia and the Chavez regime. We also talked about other methods, perfected over the years, for the Kremlin and its operatives to silence criticism, wherever it occured. Bukovsky, not surprisingly, has also been ‘accused’ of pedophilia.
It is no surprise that Fusion GPS, and its paymasters, have tried that on me. Quite the contrary, is just part and parcel of dictators and kleptocrats strategic tactics. What should concern authorities and civil society in developed countries, is the near absolute impunity with which outfits like Fusion GPS operate.
Fusion GPS’ Glenn Simpson, Peter Fritsch and Thomas Catan are but exhibit T of a cottage industry notorious for its black PR production. There is nothing these people won’t say, or make up, about a target: no accusation, however spurious and without merit, is too wild when income is directly related to the business of character assassination.
Simpson, Fritsch and Catan claim to have cut their teeth as investigative journalists. They, more than anyone, should know that every allegation must stand scrutiny. Simpson, who devoted the first half of his professional career investigating and exposing what he became in the second half, must have learned -when writing his magnus opus- that lobbying, spreading smears, and taking money from some of the world’s worst scum has unavoidable consequences. Simpson and his associates would have heard the bit about those who live by the sword. So what to make of his recent past?
Shortly after leaving the Wall Street Journal, Simpson registered as a lobbyist with the U.S. Senate. At the time he was retained to… better to quote from The Guardian:
Internal documents detailing the coup plot have provided a rare insight into an otherwise opaque world where global public relations firms, lobbyists and lawyers combine to earn small fortunes by acting, often behind the scenes, to try and alter the course of political history in whatever way their paymaster desires.
The papers show that as soon as Khalid decided to try and retake power after being deposed as co-ruler in 2003 and replaced as de facto ruler by his brother, Sheikh Saud, he found a ready network of such helpers for hire. In London, Washington DC and California, lawyers, public relations firms and lobbyists have all been keen to offer their services to help change the emirate’s government for fees often running into tens of thousands of dollars a month.
According to the documents, Khalid and his aides are trying to destabilise the current regime by creating international pressure. The strategy is to raise the stakes among the international community by suggesting aggressively that the existing leaders of Ras al-Khaimah — Khalid’s brother and father — are in league with Iran and may be breaking international sanctions to support its nuclear ambitions.
Other tactics explored and employed range from raking up a sex scandal involving the RAK’s ruler, Saud, and meeting Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, on visits to Washington. The campaign team suggested Ras al-Khaimah may have served as a “back door” for terrorists planning to blow up the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest tower in the world, although Dubai police subsequently described reports of an Iranian plot as “baseless”.
It is end of 2009. Simpson’s first job after years at the Wall Street Journal was “raking up a sex scandal”, making stuff up. Help plot a coup. Lobbying. Destabilising regimes… From that to becoming an employee of a dodgy cabal of Derwick-like criminals was the natural career move.
Form needed to be kept though, so Simpson chose one of the jurisdictions that provides a high degree of opacity and anonymity: Delaware. Both his SNS Global LLC -where he started off with Sue Schmidt- and subsequent Bean LLC -which is the vehicle behind Fusion GPS, were registered in Delaware. I sent a request to Sue Schmidt, to find out why they chose such structure. I also asked Schmidt why Simpson used her phone number in the Senate form, though have gotten no reply. Added: Schmidt just sent the following “Glenn Simpson and I were briefly in business together. SNS Global was a Delaware corporation that ceased doing business in 2010 and was dissolved the following year. The phone number on the Senate lobby form you referenced was Simpson’s, not mine.” SNS Global LLC old website however, gives the impression that number used by Simpson actually refers to Schmidt.
Attempts by Fox News reporters to get a word from either Derwick or Simpson were equally unsuccessful. Hyperbole and inanities, when caught in bed with Fusion’s kind of clients, are completely useless, but I guess that’s Simpson & co only option left.
One thing from the interview with Catherine Herridge did catch my attention: the notion that Fusion GPS, or Derwick, should be given the benefit of the doubt. Catherine asked me what would I say to potential arguments, by Derwick, of there being no evidence of wrongdoing, to which I answered that I have the evidence, proof of it below:
American audiences wouldn’t know Derwick’s story (thanks in great part to Fusion GPS), but overcharging to the tune of one billion dollars is a crime in Venezuela, in the U.S.A. and pretty much everywhere else. If a company is given a procurement contract by public institutions to provide power plants that cost 100, and are sold for 200, there’s obviously a problem. If that company is then found to lack a track record, anywhere, then the granting of contracts also becomes suspect. If officials involved in granting the contracts are found to be involved in corruption in various jurisdictions, then further scrutiny is a necessity. Furthermore, if owners of that company then partner with totally corrupt Russian conglomerates, and retain totally corrupt outfits like Fusion GPS, or FTI Consulting, or dirty politicians like Al Cardenas, or chief investigators-cum-criminal-advocates, or law firms with questionable reputations, or do business exclusively in desperately corrupt countries, then a pattern of behaviour emerges. If we couple that with admissions from Derwick’s partners of bribe payments then little doubt is left.
All of the above was missed by these so called “experts” in corruption, international investigations, and white collar crime. As I said earlier, Fusion GPS used their expertise to pocket hundreds of thousands from corrupt, white collar criminals. For how could we explain, for instance, Catan’s payment of a mortgage of over half a million dollars in just four years?
But perhaps the best answer to Catherine’s question would have been: why bother sending thugs to London to break into my apartment, steal my laptops, threaten my family, harass and persecute my sources in Venezuela, and expenditure of huge amounts to destroy my reputation?
Catherine also asked whether I thought American authorities and people will ever find out the truth about Fusion GPS, its work and clients, to which I said I doubted it. Fusion GPS are experts at gaming the system. Its fall could bring down the entire “Beltway media” edifice, along with high placed figures (past and present) on both sides of the political establishment, banking and government officials, and very powerful and extremely resourceful global kleptocrats. What are the chances of that happening?
We’ve already seen how Fusion is spinning this story: they are meant to be “victims” that can only recourse to constitutional rights to come out of this without a criminal record. What a joke, considering these thugs are unquestionably pushing Putin’s line and trying to undermine veracity of reports into Sergey Magnitsky’s torture and brutal assassination in a Russian prison. If their practices were worthy of question, investigation, and condemnation when Simpson, Fritsch and Catan were wearing their journalistic hats, so they ought now. Their evidently illegal work -taking public money from utterly corrupt Venezuelans for instance- shouldn’t be protected by privilege. Accesory -in the legal sense- is what defines Simpson, Fritsch and Catan’s activities.
