- A powerful Washington, D.C., law firm with unusually
close ties to the White House has earned hefty fees representing
controversial
Saudi billionaires as well as a Texas-based Islamic charity fingered last
week as a terrorist front.
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- The influential law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer
& Feld has represented three wealthy Saudi businessmen - Khalid bin
Mahfouz, Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi and Salah Idris - who have been
scrutinized
by U.S. authorities for possible involvement in financing Osama bin Laden
and his terrorist network.
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- In addition, Akin, Gump currently represents the largest
Islamic charity in the United States, Holy Land Foundation for Relief and
Development in Richmond, Texas.
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- Holy Land's assets were frozen by the Treasury Department
last week as government investigators probe its ties to Hamas, the militant
Palestinian group blamed for suicide attacks against Israelis.
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- Partners at Akin, Gump include one of President Bush's
closest Texas friends, James C. Langdon, and George R. Salem, a Bush
fund-raiser
who chaired his 2000 campaign's outreach to Arab-Americans.
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- Another longtime partner is Barnett A. "Sandy''
Kress, the former Dallas School Board president who Bush appointed in
January
to work for the White House as an "unpaid consultant'' on education
reform.
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- In September, a federal grand jury issued subpoenas for
Holy Land records around the same time terrorist investigators froze the
assets of a North Texas Internet firm hired by Holy Land.
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- Holy Land shared office space with that firm, InfoCom
Corp., which was raided by police on Sept. 5, just days before the World
Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
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- Holy Land has denied any link to Hamas.
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- According to Akin, Gump, the firm represents Holy Land
in a federal lawsuit filed against the charity and another suspected Hamas
entity by the parents of a man allegedly murdered by Hamas operatives in
the Middle East.
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- In a statement issued Friday, Akin, Gump said it decided
last week to decline a request to represent Holy Land in its defense of
terrorism-related charges made by the U.S. Treasury Department.
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- Akin, Gump, which maintains an affiliate office in the
Saudi capital of Riyadh, is also a registered foreign agent for the
kingdom.
It was paid $77,328 in lobbying fees by the Saudis during the first six
months of 2000, public records show.
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- In addition to the royal family, the firm's Saudi clients
have included bin Mahfouz, who hired Akin, Gump when he was indicted in
the BCCI banking scandal in the early 1990s. In 1999, the Saudi's placed
bin Mahfouz under house arrest after reportedly discovering that the bank
he controlled, National Commercial Bank in Saudi Aabia, funneled millions
to charities believed to be serving as bin Laden fronts.
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- A bin Mahfouz business partner, Al-Amoudi, was also
represented
by Akin, Gump. When it was reported in 1999 that U.S. authorities were
also investigating Al-Amoudi's Capitol Trust Bank, Akin, Gump released
a statement on behalf of their client denying any connections to terrorism.
One year earlier, the firm had co-sponsored an investment conference in
Ethiopia with Al-Amoudi.
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- Akin, Gump partner and Bush fund-raiser Salem led the
legal team that defended Idris, a banking protege of bin Mahfouz and the
owner of El-Shifa, the Sudanese pharmaceutical plant destroyed by U.S.
cruise missiles in August 1998.
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- cw-2 The plant was targeted days after terrorists -
allegedly
on the orders of bin Laden - bombed two U.S. embassies in Africa. The U.S.
Treasury Department also froze $24 million of Idris' assets, but Akin,
Gump filed a lawsuit and the government later chose to release the money
rather than go to court. Idris, who insists he has no connection whatsoever
to bin Laden or terrorism, is now pursuing a second lawsuit with different
attorneys seeking $50 million in damages from the United States.
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- Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for
Public
Integrity, a Washington, D.C.-based non-partisan political watchdog group,
said Akin, Gump's willingness to represent Saudi power-brokers probed for
links to terrorism presents a unique ethical concern since partners at
the firm are so close to the president.
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- The concern is more acute now, Lewis said, because Bush
has faced stiff resistance from the kingdom in his repeated requests to
freeze suspected terrorist bank accounts.
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- "The conduct of the Saudis is just unacceptable
by international standards, especially if they are supposed to be one of
our closest allies,'' Lewis said.
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- Speaking of Akin, Gump partner Kress' office in the White
House, Lewis added: "That's not appropriate and frankly it's
potentially
troublesome because there is a real possibility of a conflict of interest.
Basically you have a partner for Akin, Gump . . . inside the hen
house.''
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- But another longtime Washington political observer,
Vincent
Cannistraro, the former chief of counter-intelligence at the Central
Intelligence
Agency, said the political influence a firm like Akin, Gump has is
precisely
why clients like the Saudis hire them.
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- "These are cozy political relationships . . . If
you have a problem in Washington, there are only a few firms to go to and
Akin, Gump is one of them,'' Cannistraro said.
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- Cannistraro pointed out that Idris hired Akin, Gump
during
the Clinton presidency, when Clinton confidante Vernon Jordan was a partner
at the firm. "He hired them because Vernon Jordan had influence .
. . that's a normal political exercise where you are buying influence,''
he said.
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- Akin, Gump is not the only politically wired Washington
business cashing in on the Saudi connection.
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- Burson-Marsteller, a major D.C. public relations firm,
registered with the U.S. government as a foreign agent for the Saudi
embassy
within weeks of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
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- One of Burson-Marsteller's first public relations efforts
for the Saudis was to run a large advertisement in the New York Times
reading:
"We Stand with You, America.''
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- The Washington chairman for Burson-Marsteller, which
also maintains an office in Saudi Arabia, is Craig Veith, who ran
communications
for the Republican Party in the 1996 elections.
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- Other GOP heavyweights who have held top positions at
the PR giant include Sheila Tate, the campaign press secretary for the
elder George Bush; Leslie Goodman, deputy director of communications for
the 1992 Bush-Quayle campaign; Craig L. Fuller, chairman of the 1992
Republican
National Convention and elder Bush's vice presidential
chief-of-staff.
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