Remember Bart Fisher, the D.C. lobbyist for Sudan who made headlines in The Washington Post and Enough Said last week? How could you forget—after all, it is not every day that an American so publicly supports a genocidal dictatorship in exchange for a mound of cash.
To make a public statement last week, Act for Sudan organized approximately 30 supporters to protest in front of Mr. Fisher’s office in downtown Washington, D.C. Enough staff joined the protest, where we made it known that if you represent the needs of the Sudanese government—a government that continues to bomb, kill, and displace scores of its own innocent civilians—then we will tell your neighbors about it.
We marched outside of Fisher’s office on 12th St. NW, carrying signs with messages that said, “I Stand with the Victims of Genocide,” and “DC Lawyer = $20K / mo., Getting Away with Genocide = Priceless.”
Fellow protestor Representative Frank Wolf (R – VA), who stopped by in support of the rally against Fisher, said in a statement:
Against this backdrop, it is shameful that Khartoum has been afforded an advocate here in Washington, an advocate who in his own words will make “Representations (including petitions)… to U.S. government agencies regarding sanctions against the Republic of Sudan.”
. . . I urge this administration—President Obama, Secretary Clinton, Secretary Geithner, Adam Szubin, the head of OFAC, and David Cohen, under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at treasury—to act swiftly to revoke [Bart Fisher’s] license.
Every time they read an article in the newspaper about the displacement, the starvation, the mass graves and killings taking place in Sudan they should feel guilty for their complicity in empowering a genocidal government.
And in case Mr. Fisher believes that this protest was a one-time deal, Sudan activists want to let him know that we will be back. True to the chant we yelled outside his office last Friday, “Mr. Fisher, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide.”
N.B.: A bit of Googling turned up this picture of Mr. Fisher with a panda bear. Apparently he is a nature and animal lover, which raises the obvious question: What kind of person loves pandas and turns the other cheek while his client mercilessly kills children and tears apart families?