“Running a presidential campaign is good for business.” Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist and the Worldwide CEO of international public relations/ lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller, wrote those telling words in his confidential internal corporate blog.
In the past, the company has also represented the Chinese National Offshore Oil Co, the Russian Government Press Office, Haiti, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Ahmed Chalabi, the disgraced president of the Iraqi National Congress who pushed for the overthrow of Saddam. But most of the firm’s clients remain secret: Unless direct lobbying is involved, there is no disclosure requirement.
http://www.hillaryproject.com/?/en/story-details/conflict_of_interest_burson_marsteller_and_hillary_clintons_alliance/Senator Clinton also took credit for strengthening U.S. ties with Ahmad Chalabi, the convicted embezzler who played a major role in convincing key segments of the administration, Congress, the CIA, and the American public that Iraq still had proscribed weapons, weapons systems, and weapons labs.
She has expressed pride that her husband’s administration changed underlying U.S. policy toward Iraq from “containment” – which had been quite successful in defending Iraq’s neighbors and protecting its Kurdish minority – to “regime change,” which has resulted in tragic warfare, chaos, dislocation, and instability.
In addition, although top strategic analysts correctly informed her that there were no links between Saddam Hussein’s secular nationalist regime and the radical Islamist al-Qaeda, Senator Clinton insisted that Saddam “has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members.”
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4802A host of prominent Republicans fall under Penn's purview. B-M's Washington lobbying arm, BKSH & Associates, is run by Charlie Black, a leading GOP operative who maintains close ties to the White House, including Karl Rove, and was a partner with Lee Atwater, the consultant who crafted the Willie Horton smear campaign for George H.W. Bush in 1988. In recent years Black's clients have included the likes of Iraq's Ahmad Chalabi, the darling of the neocon right in the run-up to the war; Lockheed Martin; and Occidental Petroleum.
http://www.hillaryproject.com/?/en/story-details/hillary_inc/Can anyone still doubt Ahmad Chalabi's place among history's great con men? Last week's police raid on his Baghdad offices—following reports that he'd supplied U.S. intelligence secrets to Iran—signaled the collapse of his once-mighty power base in Washington.
But con men tend to thrive when their marks WANT to be conned. And President George W. Bush's national-security team was rife with the most gullible marks imaginable. As long as Chalabi's interests converged with the Bush team's interests, he was their man.
http://www.slate.com/id/2101123/Edited to Shorten Up Headline