Jumping Ship or Pushed?

Advice, information and discussion about Egypt in general.

Moderators: DJKeefy, 4u Network

Post Reply
User avatar
Hafiz
V.I.P
V.I.P
Posts: 1284
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:23 pm
Has thanked: 614 times
Been thanked: 632 times
Gender:
Australia

Jumping Ship or Pushed?

Post by Hafiz »

Jumping Ship.

Weber Shandwick is one of the largest public relations companies in the world with clients including Coca Cola and Microsoft. It is owned by an advertising behemoth.

In 2017 Military Intelligence Egypt of Egypt hired its Weber’s Washington office to lobby US politicians and use Facebook to influence public opinion. This was in addition to a similar existing contract with another firm let by the Egyptian Embassy in Washington and shows not so much left hand, right hand but the contempt that those in power in Egypt have for their Foreign Service.

After 6 months, the Regeni murder, stories of torture and arrests led Weber to cancel the contract and walk away. They valued their reputation and in an industry not noted for its integrity they decided to walk rather than take money from Egypt. Good on them, and lots of people both in the industry and more broadly noticed.

APCO took over the contract. They have a taste for filth including Russian billionaires ‘in trouble’, corruption in Saudi, being hired by the Russians to get access to North American uranium, publicizing things they know are untrue and acting for Malaysia in relation to sleaze and corruption.

They are also being attacked in the US for representing Egypt by the LGBT community and for lobbying for asbestos firms running from their legal obligations to dying people.

Its fair to say you go to APCO when you are in trouble and have nowhere else to go.

https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... od/532227/

Maybe similar pressure might be applied in the future to airlines, travel companies and hotel chains – not that it would worry the Russians. Not that it would change much.

I’m waiting for the constitution to be amended along Divine Mugabe lines to permit eternal radiance to benefit all Egyptians. Would the occasional, well publicized, miracle be out of the question.

An interesting tidbit:

“Mr. Sisi’s son Mahmoud, who works at the General Intelligence Service, is likely to retain an influential role. On at least one occasion, he accompanied Mr. Fawzy (then head of Military Intelligence) on a visit to Washington to meet with Obama administration officials, Mr. Miller said.” https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/worl ... ctionfront

(Declan Walsh heads the NYT Bureau in Cairo. Unlike others he has extensive Middle East and third world experience. He can also write and was expelled from Pakistan for having a brain.)

Maybe its Mubarak inheritance/succession all over again. Didn’t the army turn nasty on Mubarak because of this very thing?

Bel Trew the Cairo correspondent for The Times was expelled from Egypt without explanation. Boris raised the matter privately – but not publically. She had been resident for 7 years, was arrested on the street (presumably by the Security Service) and threatened with secret military detention and trial. Never charged, never overtly accused of any offence she was put on a plane and told to never come back. There had been no prior problems for her with Security/Police.

The Times spent a month asking the Egyptian Government for specifics of her alleged offense. They received no reply. Rupert is just the type to get mad about this and is close to Trump.


Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post