Since the unrest in the Middle East began a month ago the Sunlight Foundation has shone a unique spotlight on the lobbying efforts by the governments now facing massive protests and upheaval. Check out this post for an overview of the lobbying contracts from some of the Arab world and below for in-depth coverage on specific countries:

Algeria

• February 18, 2011: Libya and Algeria rocked by recent protests, have history of US lobbying

Egypt

• February 16, 2011: Egypt's Lobbyists Worked To Block Pro-Human Rights, Democracy Resolution

• February 15, 2011: Egypt's Washington Lobbying Operation Continues
• February 7, 2011: Egypt's Corruption Problem
• January 31, 2011: Lobbying Contacts By Egypt's Washington Lobbyists
• January 28, 2011: Egypt and US Lobbying History
• January 28, 2011: Egypt's Washington lobby helped country's military and U.S. defense firms

Libya

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Curious about other countries? The Sunlight Foundation and ProPublica created the Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker to enable research of the lobbying records by other countries. This searchable database is a collection of filings under the Foreign Agent Registration Act that is maintained by the Justice Department. Since mid-2007, the pdf images of these documents are available online and the Foreign Lobbyist Influence Tracker is the strongest resource available that digitizes these important records.

New disclosures filed in the past few weeks by Egypt's lobbying team in Washington shine a light on the activity the country took last summer and fall to block the discussion and passage of a resolution calling on the United States to support human rights in Egypt and demand an end to the emergency law, two key demands of the protesters who, last week, toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.

While only two of the three lobbying firms working for Egypt have filed their reports for the second half of 2010, the pattern of contacts reported so far shows a high level attention paid to the Senate Resolution (S. Res. 586) introduced by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) on July 20. Seventy-seven of the 129 lobbying contacts made by The Livingston Group and The Podesta Group were to senators. Fifty-two of these contacts explicitly mention the Resolution, while many more contacts are undoubtedly related.

See the updated database of lobbying contacts by Egypt's Washington lobbyists below (see the original database and post here.)

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The most contacted Senate office was that of Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS). In an article in Foreign Policy, Wicker was implicated as the chief actor in blocking movement of the Feingold Resolution.

An aide to Wicker confirmed to The Cable that Wicker did in fact talk with Livingston about the resolution, but the aide said that Wicker was simply doing his due diligence to make sure the resolution was not pushed through hastily.

"Senator Wicker's main goal was to make sure the resolution was worded in a way to make sure the resolution was productive and to make sure that Egypt was recognized as an ally and a partner," the aide said.

According to the report filed by The Livingston Group Wicker did not simply talk with Livingston about the Resolution, he was the lobbying firm's chief contact on Capitol Hill on the Resolution. Livingston Group lobbyists contacted Wicker's office twenty times after the Resolution was introduced. Seventeen of those contacts listed the Resolution as the reason for the contact.

Twenty other Senate offices were contacted over this period, largely in regards to the Feingold Resolution. The second most contacted office was that of Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA). Isakson's office was contacted ten times by Livingston Group lobbyists.

Supporters of the Resolution were contacted thirteen times by lobbyists from The Podesta Group.

The Foreign Policy article mentioned above includes speculation about other senators who successfully worked to block passage of the Resolution. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is noted to have "had concerns about the resolution's effect on the U.S. relationship with the Mubarak regime and worried that it would jeopardize U.S.-Egyptian cooperation on a range of sensitive national security issues." Podesta Group lobbyists contacted her office three times during the post-midterm lame duck session when a pared down version of the Resolution was making the rounds.

The article also notes that the lame duck effort to pass the Resolution ended after two Democratic senators placed a secret hold on it to block discussion. While Feinstein denies placing the final secret hold, she was one of only two Democrats contacted by Podesta Group lobbyists who had not cosponsored the Resolution during the lame duck. The other Democrat being Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was contacted twice after the midterm election.

There are likely other Democratic senators who were contacted by Egypt's lobbyists during the campaign to block the Feingold Resolution. The Moffett Group, a Democratic connected lobbying firm, has yet to release their final disclosure report for 2010. Upon receipt of the Moffett report, there may be more clarity to the senators behind the blocking of the Feingold Resolution.

On February 2, 2011, in the midst of the revolution in Egypt, the PLM Group, filed a disclosure report with the Department of Justice noting their continued lobbying contract with the government of Egypt. The report notes that, while PLM holds the lobbying contract for Egypt, the three lobbying firms that make up PLM handle the filing independently. Those firms are The Podesta Group, The Livingston Group, and The Moffett Group. (The report also lists a firm called Vanguard Government Services, which is not registered as a foreign agent, but is run by two lobbyists from The Livingston Group.)

So far, Podesta and Livingston have filed new disclosure reports detailing their lobbying work up through the end of last year. This includes efforts to influence the Senate's work on a resolution supporting human rights in Egypt.

We'll have more on these new reports tomorrow.

There are a couple of great articles on the ways in which politics and business meld in Egypt from the New York Times and The Guardian.

NYT:

Hosni Mubarak’s Egypt has long functioned as a state where wealth bought political power and political power bought great wealth. While hard facts are difficult to come by, Egyptians watching the rise of a moneyed class widely believe that self-dealing, crony capitalism and corruption are endemic, represented in the public eye by a group of rich businessmen aligned with Gamal Mubarak, the president’s son, as well as key government ministers and governing party members. “The people around Gamal became the wealthiest group in the country,” said Hala Mustafa, a political scientist who quit the ruling party years ago, saying it was not committed to political reform. “They monopolized everything.” While Egypt’s gross domestic product grew, so did the percentage of the population that was poor. Rumors of kickbacks and corruption swirled. There have been multibillion-dollar estimates of the wealth of the president or his family, but experts say those are unsubstantiated guesses.

The Guardian:

Egypt was governed as a private estate. Mubarak's immediate family is implicated in crony capitalist activities as partners of most of the businessmen who benefited from the regime's corruption. These beneficiaries do not want to leave their palaces, beaches and resorts, lucrative businesses and extreme riches. These are fixed assets that could not be transferred outside the country – although it should be noted that the ruling elites have siphoned off much capital to foreign banks. Nonetheless, it is the country-turned-private-estate they do not wish to abandon – that's why they deployed the thugs in Tahrir Square to terrorise the population. This is a tactic that the National Democratic party has used on many previous occasions. In the national elections to the people's assembly and to the shura council, thugs are hired to intimidate voters and to support rigging the results. At all popular protests, the police set thugs to attack the protesters using all means of intimidation, including the sexual harassment of women participants. Thugs have become an arm of the police and they have been used as informants in popular quarters of the city. They are rewarded with licences to operate kiosks or run minibus services. In a sense, practices of thuggery have been adopted by the regime to maintain itself and protect the interests of the ruling elite for decades now. Facing the growing possibility of losing their illegitimately acquired wealth and power, the regime and its cronies resorted to the techniques and practices that they have previously used with impunity to silence all opposition and resistance. However, the magnitude of popular mobilisation and the resolve to fight for dignity and freedom have rendered the regime's tactics obsolete.

The world's focus has been rightly been focused on the ongoing revolt in Egypt. That has brought some attention to the Egyptian government's lobbying operation here in Washington. Yesterday I put up a database of contacts made by Egypt's Washington lobbyists. But how does that compare to the rest of the Arab world's lobbying?

The Egyptian government's lobbyists made the third most reported lobbying contacts of all Arab nations during the previous reported period in 2010. Surpassing Egypt's 366 lobbying contacts were the United Arab Emirates (407 contacts) and Morocco (653 contacts).

Only three other governments of Arab nations or territories reported any lobbying contacts over the same period in 2010. These include Algeria (50 contacts), Saudi Arabia (20 contacts), and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank (19 contacts).

It may come as a surprise to see Morocco lobbying in Washington at such a heavy pace. There is, however, the pressing issue in Morocco's back yard related to the sovereignty of the Western Sahara. Reporters with both the Sunlight Foundation and ProPublica wrote about the controversy regarding the Western Sahara in 2009:

The Western Sahara [15] is an inhospitable patch of desert about the size of Colorado on Africa’s Atlantic coast, with a population of about 400,000, a GDP of only $900 million, and an economy based on nomadic herding, fishing and phosphorous mining. It is also one of the last colonies in the world — Morocco [16] annexed it a few years after Spain granted it independence in 1975 — and the subject of 34 U.N. Security Council resolutions on the territory since 1999.In late 2007 and 2008, the desert region was a top priority for Morocco’s hired lobbyists. At issue was Western Sahara’s autonomy, but the story also shows how, in a foreign lobbying arms race, the side with the biggest arsenal can come out on top. The government of Morocco sought the support of Congress in this lengthy territorial dispute. The region has long demanded independence. An indigenous insurgent group, the Polisario Front [17], waged a guerrilla war against the Moroccan military until the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991. Part of the terms of that deal included holding a referendum to determine the territory’s final status, but no vote has been held. In 2007, Morocco issued a proposal to grant Western Sahara autonomy within sovereign Morocco. The U.S. initially welcomed the proposal, and direct talks began between Morocco and the Polisario with the involvement of Algeria, which supports self-determination for the Sahrawi tribes from the area.

This controversy has raged on as Morocco and their lobbyists have claimed that the Polisario Front is aligned with Al Qaeda and that the Western Sahara is becoming a training  ground for terrorists. The conflict continues to rage in both the desert of the Sahara and on the streets of Washington.

Morocco's lobbyists include former congressman Toby Moffett, also a lobbyist for Egypt, and the Morocco-American Center for Policy, a Washington-based operation supporting Moroccan policies. In total, Morocco retained seven lobbying firms that made contacts with government officials in 2010.

The United Arab Emirates should come as no surprise as a big lobbying force in Washington as they have been in the top ten in spending on lobbyists for years. Sunlight's Anupama Narayanswamy reported on their 2009 activity recently:

From state-owned businesses to political deal making, the seven sovereign nations that form the United Arab Emirates in all spent a total of $5.3 million in 2009 lobbying the U.S. government. The UAE hired D.C.-based lobbyists DLA Piper to work on the “123 agreement” that would give them access to nuclear technology from the U.S. starting in January 2009; a deal was signed in May 2009. In addition to atomic power for its energy sector, the Emirates pushed for this deal in response to Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. Recent documents released by the whistleblower site Wikileaks, show that the oil-rich country considered this a vital step in strengthening their ties Washington: “According to AbZ, [Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Foreign Minister of UAE] the 123 is a powerful example for the region and provides a transparent alternative to Iran's nuclear model.  The UAE views Iran as a huge problem that goes far beyond nuclear capabilities.”

UAE's lobbying for nuclear technology continued in 2010, but much of the Emirates' lobbying in Washington involved contacting the Justice Department over an ongoing investigation into price fixing in the air cargo industry. The investigation has netted numerous guilty pleas from airlines across the world including British Airways, Qantas, El Al, Korea Air Lines, Société Air France, Northwest Airlines, China Airlines, Polar Air, Singapore Air Cargo, and Cargolux. UAE's lobbying was on behalf of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, which has so far not been charged in the American investigation. Dubai Civil Aviation Authority has, however, been charged in Australia in a similar price fixing investigation.

UAE retained lobbying powerhouses Akin, Gump and DLA Piper, along with The Harbour Group.

While only six Arab nations reporting lobbying contacts in 2010 other Arab nations still retained lobbyists, for consulting purposes, and are also allowed to directly contact U.S. government officials through diplomatic means without reporting contacts.

As events continue to unfold in the streets of Egypt, here in Washington the government of Egypt has a team of high-powered lobbyists ready to deal with the unfolding United States response. Numerous reports emerged on Friday about the three lobbying firms, The Livingston Group, The Podesta Group, and The Moffett Group, that operate as the PLM Group, the registered umbrella group lobbying on behalf of Egypt.

These three firms are all headed by powerful political players former House Republican Majority Leader Bob Livingston, longtime Democratic campaign advisor Tony Podesta, and former Democratic congressman Toby Moffett.

The most recent reports were filed in July of 2010. Being registered foreign agents, Egypt's lobbyists are required to file as foreign agents, which means that they must disclose their contacts with government and NGO officials.

Below I have compiled a Socrata database for all contacts reported by the three firms from January to July of 2010:

The three lobbying firms reported 366 contacts with government officials, lawmakers, congressional staff, military officials, and non-governmental organizations. The vast majority of those contacts were made with lawmakers and their staff. Lobbyists made sixty-nine contacts with sixty-one members of Congress and 179 contacts with 141 different congressional staffers.

The Livingston Group carried the heaviest lobbying load for the government of Egypt, including leading an Egyptian military delegation to over 100 meetings on Capitol Hill. Lobbyists for The Livingston Group, including the former congressman himself, brought the military delegation to 147 meetings with members of Congress and their staff meet. In those April, 2010 meetings, the delegation received meetings with forty-five members of Congress and 102 congressional staffers.

The military delegation included officials close to the Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who is rumored to have discussed with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak plans for Mubarak to leave the presidency. The delegation was headed by Major General Mohamed Said Elassar, Assistant to the Minister of Defense, and also included Major General Ahmed El Moataz Bellah Mahmoud Hedyat, Chief, Egyptian-American Relations Branch; Major General Mohamed  A. Elkeshky, Defense, Military, Naval and Air Attaché at the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Washington, D.C.; and Major General Wael Rabiaa, Information Officer for the Ministry of Defense.

The majority of the contacts made by Podesta and Moffett lobbyists were concerned with inviting members of Congress to an official dinner at the Egyptian Embassy.

Prior to the Egyptian military delegation's trip to Washington, Rep. Frank Wolf and seventeen other lawmakers sent a letter to Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, who leads efforts to combat human trafficking, to take action to protect Egypt's Coptic Christian population, particularly women, who reports claim were being kidnapped and forced into marriage resulting in rape and violence. In May, 2010, Livingston brought the Egyptian Ambassador to meet with Wolf privately.

Many of the meetings with lawmakers were with lawmakers with seats on powerful committees including the panel in charge of foreign aid spending. Lobbyists contacted six of the fourteen members of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations Appropriations including both the then-chair, Rep. Nita Lowey, and ranking member, Rep. Kay Granger.