[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 131 (Monday, October 17, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2097-E2098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    SUDAN HIRES WASHINGTON LOBBYIST

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 17, 2005

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. First it was Patton, Boggs 
trying to polish the image of Saudi Arabia. Then we had Akin, Gump 
trying to assist China in buying a U.S. oil company. Now comes the 
shocking news that a Washington lobby shop has landed the Government of 
the Republic of Sudan as a client. Where will the lobbying wheel of 
fortune stop next?
  The Government of Sudan has hired Mr. Robert J. Cabelly, managing 
director, C/R International, to lobby on its behalf. How can an 
American company use such bad judgment and represent a country whose 
leaders are suspected of organizing and arming militias to commit 
genocide? And why did the United States State Department sign-off on 
such a plan?
  While shocking to some, it may not be all that surprising for anyone 
familiar with Mr. Cabelly's history. After working at the State 
Department for more than a decade where he

[[Page E2098]]

developed hundreds of contacts in Africa, Mr. Cabelly went on to found 
C/R International. This international consulting firm received $6 
million from Angola from 1996 to 2002 in order to successfully defeat a 
series of bills for an international oil embargo, according to a 
Harper's magazine article from March 2004. ``While [Mr. Cabelly's firm] 
served Angola, the government's troops beat and raped civilians, and 
killed suspected rebel sympathizers,'' wrote Harpers' magazine.
  On August 12 of this year, Mr. Cabelly filed with the Foreign Agents 
Registration Unit at the Department of Justice, reporting a contract 
with the Government of the Republic of Sudan for $530,000 per year. The 
contract lists the agreed representation by Mr. Cabelly for the 
Government of Sudan as providing ``public relations, government 
relations and strategic counsel as they would relate to implementing 
the North-South peace agreement, cooperating in the war on terrorism, 
and addressing other issues.''
  But make no mistake, Sudan is hiring this firm to help counteract the 
ongoing worldwide campaign against the government's policy in the 
Darfur region of the country. This American company is taking money to 
wage a lobbying war against the hundreds of organizations and more than 
130 million Americans who have voiced their concern about the situation 
in Sudan. While coalition groups work every day to call the world's 
attention to the regime in Khartoum and its condoning of the action of 
a violent militia which is raping and killing innocent women, men and 
children and pillaging villages in Darfur, they might be surprised to 
learn that one of the Government of Sudan's contract employees is 
working against it right here in Washington. Just last week there were 
new reports that the violence in Darfur is growing worse. The Sudan 
government has not reined in the janjaweed militia.
  There is no question about what is occurring in Sudan. Last year the 
United States clearly stated that genocide is occurring in Darfur. This 
Congress passed a resolution affirming it. President Bush has called 
the actions in Darfur as genocide on repeated occasions. The United 
Nations has referred the case to an international tribunal to 
investigate war crimes.

  I have been involved on Sudan issues for over 15 years. I have 
traveled to Sudan five times since 1989 with my most recent trip last 
summer to Darfur. I talked with women who had been raped and families 
whose members had been murdered. I saw emaciated children, dying from 
hunger and disease. I have seen with my own eyes bombed schools in Yei 
and horrific scenes of devastation inflicted upon the people of Sudan 
by government forces. The war between the Government of Sudan and the 
Sudan People's Liberation Army claimed the lives of over two million 
people and has left the country in despair. Although the fighting is 
over in the South and a Comprehensive Peace Agreement awaits 
implementation, death and destruction at the hands of the government 
and its proxy militia in Darfur continues unabated.
  The United States Government and the United States Congress stands 
united with the people of Sudan and any lobbyist who walks these halls 
on behalf of the Government of Sudan is not welcome. The Sudan regime 
should be spending its money reining in the Janjaweed, and turning over 
criminals to the International Criminal Court, not hiring lobbyists to 
try to improve their image.
  We are all aware of the actions of the Government of Sudan and no 
amount of lobbying will change that.

                          ____________________