Looks like we weren’t the only ones taken aback by revelations in the Washington Post last week about the Sudanese government’s moves to pay off some high level advocates in Washington. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA), co-chairman of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, has called a press conference today to publicly address reports that a U.S. firm is seeking to lobby on behalf of Khartoum in Washington.
Congressman Wolf will voice his concern to the White House in a letter, asking the president to instruct the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to deny any requests by U.S. companies for a sanctions waiver so that they can cut a deal with Khartoum.
The media advisory included a hard-hitting note about the co-chairman’s feelings on the matter:
Wolf, who led the first congressional delegation to Darfur in 2004 and has travelled to Sudan on a number of other occasions, believes it is unconscionable that any government with blood on its hands be permitted the privilege of having a Washington lobbyist on retainer.