The Nation: HRC's Blackwater Connection

HRC'S BLACKWATER CONNECTION...UPDATE: Mark Penn emailed the Politico's Ben Smith to say that the Associated Press story, on which I wrote this blog post, is inaccurate. "It was a temporary assignment based on a relationship that has concluded," Penn says. "Burson is correcting this." The question, of course, is what was the "temporary assignment," when did it begin and when did it conclude? To be continued...

UPDATE II: Burson says it subsidiary, BKSH & Associates, run by GOP operative Charlie Black, "helped Blackwater prepare for their recent hearing before Congress. With the hearing over, BKSH's temporary engagement has ended."

The PR firm run by Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton's top strategist, has a new client: Blackwater.

Burson and its subsidiaries, as I reported in a profile of Hillary's corporate advisors in May, has represented everyone from union-busters to big tobacco to Ahmad Chalabi. Blackwater represents a new low.

The firm will be tasked with salvaging Blackwater's tattered image and allegedly murderous conduct. But hey, if Burson could set up the National Smokers Alliance on behalf of Philip Morris, which covertly fought anti-smoking initiatives, who knows what they could do for private mercenaries.

The account is being handled by Robert Tappan, a former State Department official who directed communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2004. Tappan was presumably one of the people tasked to defend Blackwater when State was giving it hundreds of millions of dollars in military contracts.

Hillary Clinton, like so many Democratic politicians, has sharply criticized the conduct of Blackwater in Iraq. "Let's end outsourcing our government to companies like Blackwater and hold the contractor accountable," she said at a rally in California this week.

But her chief strategist remains the head honcho at the company defending them. Penn has never clarified his financial stake at Burson since he joined the Clinton campaign, nor exactly how much business he's still doing. Now might be a good time for a thorough explanation.


Posted by Ari Berman at 10/05/2007 @ 11:57am | Email This Post

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=240313

hopefully They will Wake up before that happens...

BTW - is there an ongoing connection between James Carvel and the Clintons, even an unofficial one? Whatever happened to the story that Carvel was in the Kerry camp taking to Matlin in the Bush camp on election day 2004?

Personally, I think it's both. With a large topping of GREED.

Greenwater, Redwater, Bluewater...damn I guess the other candidates' supporters feel emasculated if they don't bash Hillary.

... or is freedom to post outlawed now too?

Frankly, it should be demanded or we are no better than the republicans.

and yes, that goes for all candidates.

She is NOT on a pedestal. There should be no pedestal. We need all the facts before we can make an intelligent choice.

She is the favorite of the corporations. The very corporations that own the MSM.

There is NO major candidate in the running today (I'll except Dennis from that) who is not a part of the American corporate elite. You and I have no connection to them and they feel no responsibility to us. Their only concern is that their masters are happy.

I believe that the only hope for our nation lies in infiltrating the party from the bottom, putting up Progressive Democrats for office and taking over the party that way. We will have most americans with us. Seventy percent now agree with us as progressives.

Therein lies our only hope of recovering our democracy.



Let's make America a Demilitarized zone.

That's all that matters.

this sure cuts very close to the work he is doing for Clinton. Is this why his co. got the engagement - because Penn works for a Dem? Was that perceived as somehow helping Blackwater? Is Hillary a loss leader for Penn? What happens if she's elected - who will go flocking to Penn then? Burmese generals? And will he accept the gig?