One of the first things you do when you hire a PR firm is find out who their other clientele are. Clinton has used Penn and his company for many years now... and she's known about Columbia being a client of his. Here are some of his well-known clients (from wiki):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burson-MarstellerAmong governments often cited as one-time B-M clients are Nigeria, Romania, Singapore, Argentina and Saudi Arabia.
Colombia On April 5, 2008 the Colombian government terminated its business with Penn and his Burson-Marstellar firm.
Nigeria
The Ministry of Information of Nigeria employed Burson-Marsteller in the late 60s to assist in counteracting allegations by secessionists that the Nigerian government was committing genocide in the breakaway province of Biafra. Although the civil war brought about enormous suffering on both sides, an international commission reported finding no evidence of systemic genocide or serious human rights violations.
Romania
Burson-Marsteller assisted Romania in gaining Most Favored Nation status for trade with the United States. At the time the U.S. and other western nations regarded Nicholas Ceaucescu as the friendliest of the Soviet bloc leaders. President Nixon visited Ceauscescu in Bucharest in 1969 and the Romanian leader was said to be instrumental in arranging Nixon’s visit to China. B-M also promoted trade and tourism for Romania. One result was a week long visit to Romania by NBC’s Today program.
Singapore
Burson-Marsteller helped Singapore develop a program to attract overseas investment shortly after its formation as a nation in the mid-60s. This activity continued for approximately ten years and set the stage for Singapore’s highly successful high tech manufacturing economy.
Argentina
With full knowledge of and advice from of the U.S. State Department, Burson-Marsteller accepted the military junta government of General Jeorge Videla as a client to attract industrial investment, market Argentine bonds and promote Argentine products, mainly wine. The military takeover ended a protracted civil war and was hailed by world media as a prelude to peace in Argentina. Burson-Marsteller’s client was the Ministry of the Economy. During the Videla government’s reign, thousands of Argentine citizens disappeared and many more were tortured for their political beliefs. Burson-Marsteller has maintained through the years that it was never asked by its client to defend human rights violations. It did not seek an extension of its four-year contract.
Saudi Arabia
Burson-Marsteller’s relationship with Saudi Arabia dates to the late 1970s when it launched a new petrochemical producer SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation). This activity continued for two decades and was consistent with business-to-business programs undertaken for other industrial clients. In the mid-90s, the King Faisal Foundation retained Burson-Marsteller to gain recognition for several initiatives, including the King Faisal Prize for scientific achievement. This work continued for four years. Its only other engagement for Saudi Arabia was preparing advertisements for major media following the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center.
That is one nasty list of clients. But it doesn't end there. His firm is known for it's crisis management, and perhaps, when she found out she was up against Obama, she had a crisis. But let's take a closer look at his "crisis" clients (from the same wiki article):
Burson-Marsteller’s strong position in crisis management has resulted in its identification with many major corporate crises of the past half century. It is well known for assisting Johnson & Johnson in the two Tylenol crises in 1982 and 1985. The Tylenol case is frequently cited as the text book model of corporate responsibility for its crisis management.
The firm also is widely known for its work on the Bhopal (India) disaster that killed some 2,000 employees and nearby neighbors and seriously injured thousands more. The plant was a joint venture of Union Carbide Corporation, a long time B-M client, and the Indian government. While originally operated by Union Carbide, it was taken over by local Indian management prior to the accidental discharge of a deadly gas used in the manufacture of insecticides. Burson-Marsteller’s first objective was establishing a mechanism that would be helpful to global media representatives in transmitting news from a remote location in India to newspaper, TV and radio outlets. Two B-M executives were sent to Bhopal for this purpose and remained there more than a month. This facilitated daily press conferences that reported on steps taken following the accident.
Burson-Marsteller also has had a close working relationship with many of the global producers and marketers of petroleum products in training their employees how to respond to crises and working on key communications of specific crisis situations such as oil spills and serious accidents. It has also worked with these companies in the development of environmental upgrade programs. Among those served by Burson-Marsteller are Shell, Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Chevron, BP, Repsol, Gulf and numerous smaller entities that were merged into the larger companies.
There can be no doubt that this guy is sheer evil in the way he makes these corporations and nations that do wrong look "good". Clinton has had to have known this. She knows about the trade agreement with Columbia, as that is coming up for a Congressional vote and she know Penn was working with them. In fact, the embassy wasn't sure if Penn was to meet with them as
their agent or Clinton's (from MSNBC live television).
He hasn't resigned from the campaign, and he doesn't intend to. Look for April's FEC filings for proof. His firm will continue to suck down millions of dollars from her campaign and he will continue to push the initiatives of these non-Democratic countries and firms. His only problem is that the Clinton crisis will be listed on his clients as a failure in that respect.