More on Frank Wisner and Patton Boggs | Michael Tomasky

More details on Wisner’s possible conflict of interest, but it’s the least of the challenges facing the Obama administration As I indicated yesterday , the idea that just because diplomat Frank Wisner worked for the Patton Boggs law firm, that didn’t necessarily mean that he was personally involved in working on matters related to Egypt. Now comes this from Justin Elliott in Salon : “The law firm of Frank Wisner, who was the Obama administration’s special envoy to Egpyt last week, is denying that Wisner ever worked for the Egyptian government, which has been a client of the firm, Patton Boggs. “The denial comes after journalist Robert Fisk, writing in the UK Independent, accused Wisner of a conflict of interest because Patton Boggs has, according to its website , worked for the ‘the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and has handled arbitrations and litigation on the [Mubarak] government’s behalf in Europe and the US.’ “But Ed Newberry, managing partner at Patton Boggs, told Salon today that the firm ‘represented the Egyptian government in the past – in the mid 1990s’. He said the firm also handled ‘a very small legal matter’ for the Egyptian embassy in Washington last year, but that Wisner did not work on that case. Newberry said that matter generated fees of less than $10,000. Just thought you would want to know. Wisner still went off-message, but evidently for his own reasons. Meanwhile, we have entered the second phase of this revolution, at least from a US perspective, in which Washington now has no choice but to get deeply involved in pressing for reform that may or may not happen under Omar Suleiman. From the New York Times : “Administration officials say that in recent days, Vice President Joseph R Biden Jr – who has a long relationship with Mr Suleiman from his days on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – has been pressing Mr Suleiman for a clear road map of democratic reforms, linked to a timetable. “But among the protesters and opposition groups in Egypt, there is deep scepticism that Washington is demanding enough of Mr Suleiman. “The administration sought amendments to the Egyptian constitution to legalise political parties, termination of one-party rule, and the end of extralegal efforts to lock up government opponents and regulate the media. But much of the opposition considers the constitution fatally flawed, and is calling for an entirely new document on which to base a more democratic Egypt. “Similarly, a meeting with opposition groups on Sunday led by Mr Suleiman was seen by many Egyptian activists as nothing more than political theatre that yielded no concrete steps toward reform. In a statement afterward – characterised by opposition figures as propaganda – Mr Suleiman offered some of what the administration sought, but left himself a lot of wiggle room.” This is going to be awfully difficult. Egypt Obama administration United States Middle East US foreign policy Hosni Mubarak Michael Tomasky guardian.co.uk

Posted by on February 8, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry