By Tian Chua
In this dynamic and ever-changing world, Apco Worldwide stands tall as the giant of the lobbying industry. The firm, in its own words, offers “professional and rare expertise” to governments, politicians and corporations, and is always ready to help clients to sail through troubled waters in the complex world of both international and domestic affairs.
Malaysia isn’t Apco’s only client. In my last article, I described Apco’s relationship with homeland security and risk management consultancy firm Asero Worldwide. Asero is almost like a retirement home for ex-Mossad and ex-Shabak secret services officials.
Going through Apco’s record, it is amazing to see the audacity of the company in being so consistently and persistently opposed to the cause of social justice.
Dressing up dictators
As we all know Apco and its strategic partner Asero serve Israel and its Zionist agenda. On the international stage, Apco in particular is well known for assisting dictatorships across the globe.
Gujarat’s Hindu nationalist Chief Minister Narendra Modi hired Apco as image consultant in August 2007. The BJP politician was implicated in the religious riots that killed some 1,000 people.
Besides anti-Muslim chief minister Modi, APCO is well-known for running public relations campaigns for disgraced politicians.
In the mid-90s, the company was contracted by former Nigerian president-for-life Sani Abacha. Apco represented the dictator when the regime clamped down on a popular uprising and executed 9 pro-democracy activists, including the famous environmentalist-artist Ken Saro-Wiwa.
After the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, Apco found new fortunes in Russia, Eastern European states and Central Asia.
Ken Silverstein, the editor of Harper’s Magazine (June 30, 2007) described Apco lobbyists as the “crucial conduit through which pariah regimes advance their interests in Washington”. He exposed APCO’s specialised experience in working on behalf of authoritarian regimes such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan.
In China, Apco helps Israeli firms to do business. In one of its brochures, Apco advertised that: “Apco will conduct and guide a participant through locating and screening processes relating to a potential business partner or a participant’s potential China distributors, integrators, agents, suppliers or competitors.”
Beating the war drum
Doing public relations for dictatorships is perhaps the more charitable part of Apco’s activities. Apco has a battalion of pro-war lobbyists under its wing. The firm is also a strong advocate of expanding armaments and the US military role in world affairs.
In October 2004, Apco and Kissinger Associates (owned by Henry Kissinger) formed a strategic alliance. Beside Kissinger Associates, Apco also built a broad network or coalition of conservative pro-Zionist lobbyists and consultancy groups including Heritage Foundation, Frontier of Freedom, Jewish Policy Center, etc.
In the name of war against terror, Apco helped to coordinate government communications to convince the public of the necessity of war. Its job also included manufacturing public opinion and feedback in supporting the war efforts. Basically it exploited Islam-phobia in Western society to sell aggression as the solution to regain security in the West.
In addition to supporting George Bush (right in photo), Apco also defended British prime minister Tony Blair’s unpopular move to enter the Iraq war. Apco had assisted Tony Blair (left in photo) to consolidate the war alliance. Together with the London-based Foreign Policy Institute, Apco prepared and published the pamphlet, ‘A Global Alliance for Global Values’ in which Blair declared:
“We must commit ourselves to a complete renaissance of our strategy to defeat those that threaten us.”
After the invasion of Iraq, Apco swiftly positioned itself to help American companies plunder Iraqi wealth and resources. In May 2003, Apco Worldwide launched a task force headed by Marc Ginsberg, the former US ambassador to Morocco, to help U.S. clients secure contracts for Iraq’s rebuilding.
Anti-reform in US
All evils start at home. Apco is not an angel in its home base either. Armed with such a heavy conservative political outlook, it is always ready to serve the right-wing political agenda against reforms and public interests.
Apco Worldwide was born out of the law firm Arnold & Porter, one of Washington DC.’s largest law firms that is well connected to the tobacco industry.
Apco is described as a lobby firm that “specialises in helping corporations advance their goals by manipulating legislators, and drafting and advancing model legislation and regulations. Key tools… include the creation of business coalitions and fake, corporate-funded ‘grassroots’ groups tailored to specific issues.”
In 1993, tobacco giant Philip Morris hired Apco to counter public awareness campaigns against tobacco. Apco organised a pseudo-NGO front known as The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC). The objective was to fight public health efforts seeking legislative change, and fence off attempts to restrict tobacco sale.
Not only does Apco want people to think smoking is good for health, it also represents the profiteering interests of pharmaceutical companies and health care industries. Thus we are not surprised to notice that Apco is actively resisting and undermining Obama’s initiative for health care reforms.
One of Apco’s favorite legislators is Senator Joe Lieberman, who is a staunch supporter of military aid to Israel. Lieberman’s wife, Hadassah was Apco’s leading lobbyist for health care and pharmaceuticals clients.
On behalf of big drug companies, Senator Lieberman organised anti-health care reforms that hardliners hoped would frustrate Obama’s initiative; and have successfully delayed the passage of the new health care schemes.
Outside the US, Apco led the legal campaign against the distribution of cheap AIDS drug in South Africa.
Apart from health, Apco is also in league with big multinationals in the energy sector to reject concerns over global warming. Again, the assignment of TASSC was to present ‘rational’, ‘level-headed’ scientific evidences to paint the danger of global warming as illusion of alarmist environmental lunatics.
Paid by companies like Exxon Mobil, Apco was tasked to assemble an army of climate change skeptics to oppose the Kyoto Treaty’s “science and technology fatal flaws”.
In all these, APCO’s means and ends have been none but profits and bigger profits.
The public relations captains in Malaysia
Apco’s managing director in Kuala Lumpur is Paul Stadlen. Stadlen came to Malaysia in 2008, around the time of ISA crackdown against Teresa Kok, Raja Petra and Sin Chew journalist Tan Hoon Cheng. He was recruited to assist the communications strategy of the Home Ministry to justify the ISA arrests, particularly with regard to the international community.
Apco’s vice chairman Larry Snoddon was appointed Asian regional CEO on January 2009. H Snoddon was previously CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a UK-based public relations big player.
Burson-Marsteller too had a very interesting record. Like Apco, Burson-Marsteller was hired by Nigerian Ministry of Information in the late 60s to counter international condemnation over alleged genocide and systematic human rights violations conducted by the Nigerian military.
Similarly, the firm was appointed shortly after Lee Kuan Yew’s infamous ‘Op Cold Store’ during Singapore’s formative years. Lee sought its services to help Singapore develop a 10-year program to attract overseas investments.
More recently, Burson-Marsteller represented US. private security services firm Blackwater in a controversial case. It was engaged to defend Blackwater employees, who had killed 17 Iraqi civilians following a shoot-out in the street of Baghdad on September 16, 2007.
However the real boss of Apco’s operations in Malaysia is based in Washington DC. The person in-charge of Najib’s image consultancy is Jonathan M Winer, the senior vice president of Apco Washington DC.
Formerly, Winer served as the US deputy assistant secretary of state international law enforcement from 1994 through 1999. During his term as deputy assistant secretary of state, he was known to be an expert in terrorist finances.
In U.S. domestic politics, Winer had once helped Kerry’s presidential campaign. Unfortunately unlike his boss John Kerry, Jonathan Winer is not a good friend of Anwar’s. Jonathan Winer had in fact started to help Najib to campaign against Anwar prior to the Apco contract.
As far back as 2005, conservative US groups cited Jonathan Winer’s congressional testimony to paint World Assembly of Muslim Youth (Wamy) as terrorist-linked organization.
Winer’s claim was never vigorously challenged. He based his conclusions solely on a single event when Wamy had invited Hamas leader Khalid Mishal as a VIP to its Riyadh conference held on October 2002.
Besides being sympathetic to Zionist causes, Winer had on many occasions expressed his deep prejudice towards Muslims and Islam in general. In his testimony to the US Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs on 31 July 2003, Winer described the organisation Ikhwan Muslimin (Muslim Brotherhood) as “terrorist group”.
He said, “The Brotherhood’s role in the development of other militant Islamic organizations is also illustrated by its relationship to the establishment of the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiya, the JI, created with the aim of setting up an Islamic state in Indonesia. JI’s founder has acknowledged being inspired by the Brotherhood in the goal of jihad as a means to the creation of an Islamic state in South East Asia covering Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the southern Philippines.
“JI then received funding from wealthy Saudis affiliated with Al Qaeda. In turn, the Brotherhood’s central financial mechanism, Al Taqwa, established operations in Malaysia that linked to JI… the al Taqwa group…has long acted as financial advisers to Al Qaeda, … providing direct assistance to Osama bin Laden as well as investment advice and cash transfer mechanisms for Al Qaeda and other radical Islamic groups.”
I presume the above view expressed by Jonathan Winer is not acceptable to my friends from Barisan Nasional. Nonetheless, has the Malaysian government requested the Apco consultant to change his view before signing the lucrative RM23m contract?
Can we trust Apco?
The modus operandi of Apco has been the same; it provides the public relations legionnaire that advocates the cause of those who can pay, and can pay the most.
The points I raised in this article have somewhat been included in my debate of Royal Address in the Parliament on 29 March, 2010. In the debate, I appealed to the BN, as well as fellow Malaysians, to treat this issue seriously.
Apco might provide a convenient shortcut to face-lift the government. But seriously, can we really trust a mercenary to serve our national interests?
And ultimately, if 1Malaysia, as the government claims, is about fulfilling a shared destiny of Malaysian people, we should not need any external intervention to shape our country’s future.
Hornbill Unleashed 
Narendra Modi is not implicated you moron, India is democracy and has robust judicial system, there is not a single piece of evidence which shows that he is anti Muslim, he is nationalist and has done a single thing in terms of policy which was anti muslim
Comment by Sid — August 27, 2013 @ 12:50 PM |
Killers do not have conscience. They lie, they cheat, they kill. They have killed before so what is another life to them?
They will continue to consolidate their power base at all cost to protect their ill gotten wealth and position. They know losing their position means the end of everything. Using Apco to consolidate their stranglehold on 1Malaysia is not surprising. Anyway, Malaysian taxpayors are going to foot the bills.
Keep up the good work, Tian Chua. This kind of info must be exposed to all Malaysians to counter the devious and evil strategy of Apco.
Take care, some of the PR leaders may be the next target of these Jewish mercenaries.
May God protect you all. Amen.
Comment by Rocketman — April 5, 2010 @ 8:10 AM |
If it is not obvious, everyone must be warned that Apco is very good at what it does and with the paycheck they receive, they can achieve a lot. That means they can do maximum damage in many areas. Through the mainstream media, their reach is obviously extensive. Many will believe.
Comment by Peen Keening — April 2, 2010 @ 2:43 PM |
Great work, Tian Chua, excellent research. The rakyat tips its hat to you, sir!
Comment by Tom & Jerry — April 2, 2010 @ 2:34 AM |
WHY is the Malaysian Government is hiring the Jewish Legend to rule our beloved Country?. What is so serious about that, after all. Well, it is very indicative that Najib & Co is in a real deep shit now. No wonder, there are lots of unexplained death, stepping on Cow Head, anti this and anti that, non tolerance of public anger, arresting public and opposition politician at will, but tolerating their own kind.
All of the above, are a pure Jewish manufactured policy and agenda and Najib & Co is applying that to the rakyaat of Malaysia. We were never told to travel, touch and used Jewish made Country, product and idea, but the Barisan Nasional led Government is just doing the opposite and using our money to service their illegal activities.
To the Pakatan Rakyaat MP and ADUN, go hard on them and skin this silly BN politician to their bones and exposed their dirty and contaminated organ to the public and strewn it on the street for the stray dog to abuse, abuse and abuse until it is clean with no traces left on this planet Earth anymore. Good Exposure – Mr. Tian Chua. We the rakyaat love this very much, for that we are for sure to smoke dry the BN goon for good to eternity in the GE13 to HELLLLLLL.
Comment by Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban — April 1, 2010 @ 11:51 AM |
The more I read about APCO, there more it tells me that this is a sleazy, corrupt global influence peddler. The world is better off without this people.
Comment by D'evil — April 1, 2010 @ 10:41 AM |
Hi jerryrich888; The public have the right to know. This is about accountability and it doesn’t matter how nefarious the deeds are. The challenge we face is the confusion[s] created by crooks in the UMNO/BN and the devious apathy in public circles. To ask what the Gomen is doing to eradicate poverty in general, is indeed a belated question. The answer is Zero when comparing the wealth and the power at its disposal for decades. Why haven’t the people of S&S resist this misery and link with the peninsular on the need for change. The people in Central and South America have showed the world how it is/was done- rest assured they were worst off with guns and death squads at their throats backed by far more powerful governments in the West compare to UMNO and the hypocrite glutenous BN components. Apco wasn’t contracted to change the minds of S&S but Peninsular Malaysia because that’s where the challenges lay. Poverty is no excuse after all S&S got the message, a point in case is the ALLAH/GOD issue where they won the debate and the understanding of all communities against the Gomen machinery. It is time S&S advocates begin to focus on real issues and stop blaming and hiding behind its predicaments.
Comment by irs — April 1, 2010 @ 9:30 AM |
comrades, countrymen, let’s start peoples’ power to drive these propaganists out.
Comment by ts liew — April 1, 2010 @ 9:21 AM |
While politicians of Government & opposition are busy *washing dirty linen in public* one PKR member in SAbah ,Keningau just lost one of his younger brother to suicide;reason being he was unable to put food on the table for his wife & 2 children;one girl age 2 years and a baby boy age 5 months;poverty in Sabah has reached such alarming critical situation it is petrfying to note people are turning to ubi kayu and pucuk ubi for survival;I just wonder what the BN government is doing to eradicate poverty;it seems all allocation spent onSabah goes towards corruption;just check the ruling party slimey politician and see their ill-gotten wealth;massive palaces sprouting out from nowhere;worst is its all taxpayers money spent on big television sets;dining tables;settees made of silver;gold plated cutlery in display;I wonder what is next.Please wake up fellow Malaysians who still have that wee bit of conscience in their brain;its time to throw out this garbage Government before something happens to your family;Amen ;Alhamdulilah & sadhu3!
Comment by jerryrich888 — April 1, 2010 @ 6:46 AM |