As most of you should know by now, the ACVR is crawling with Republican operatives, many of whom have strong links to indicted sleazoid Jack Abramoff. AVCR chairman Brian Lunde has a particularly troubling history...
According to Senate lobbying registrations, in 2001 Lunde registered to lobby for George Birnbaum, an associate of Republican consultant and mudthrower Arthur Finkelstein. According to his disclosure filed with the Secretary of the Senate, Lunde worked to "set up meetings for President Kabila of Congo."A lobbyist for a democracy-phobic dictator dares to give the rest of the world a lecture on voting rights? Outrageous!
According to the CIA factbook on the Congo, at the time, President Joseph Kabila had just assumed power from his father, Laurent Kabila. The older Kabila was a committed Marxist who had ruled Congo since he took forcefully took power in 1997 in a rebellion backed by Uganda and Rwanda. As President, Laurent Kabila banned all political parties except his and failed to hold long-promised elections. He also blocked an investigation into the massacre of tens of thousands of Rwandan refugees that occurred during his takeover. Today, Joseph Kabila still rules as a dictator and no elections have been held in Congo since 1984.
In addition, by claiming he worked for Birnbaum and not Kabila directly, Lunde skirted disclosure laws that would have required him to register as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice.
The Lunde/Kabila conection, like the Moon/North Korea linkage, proves that Republicans only pretend to hate Marxists. When a good business opportunity arises, ideology takes a back seat.
On the Brad Blog, I hope to publish the full DNC response to the claims made by this slime-filled GOP front organization.
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