Well-Paid Agents of Influence

Those who recall their high school history may remember the name of “citizen” Edmond Genet, the agent of the French revolutionary government who caused such a stir by trying to influence the foreign policy of the nascent American republic. Foreign governments have been at it ever since, just as our own government seeks in many ways to shape public opinion and influence policies abroad.

U.S. law has long wisely required that agents of foreign governments identify themselves publicly when their activities are political. “Such public disclosures permit . . . the U.S. government and the American people . . . to be better able to appraise (such persons) and the purposes for which they act.”

That quote comes from a Justice Department announcement this week of the indictment of three Americans charged with a multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud the Treasury and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The three are alleged to have taken $7.7 million from the government of Kuwait in 1990 and 1991 to lobby for U.S. military intervention to repel Iraq’s conquest of the oil-rich sheikdom.

Two of the defendants, William R. Kennedy Jr. and Scott Stanley Jr., are former executives of the publication Conservative Digest. The third, Sam H. Zakhem, was Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the tiny Persian Gulf island of Bahrain.

The indictment alleges the three spent about $2 million on lobbying efforts--while illegally hiding their connection with Kuwait--and diverted to their own use $5.7 million, on which they took steps to avoid paying taxes. In sum, they are charged with trying to fool Congress and public opinion as well as the IRS.

Kuwait, which is to say the very rich ruling Sabah family, spent lavishly to influence Western opinion on behalf of intervention against Iraq. But it would be a great mistake to conclude that U.S. policy and the public support behind it would have been different had it not been for this marketing effort. Iraq’s aggression had to be overturned because otherwise world economies would have been left hostage to Saddam Hussein’s domination over the Arabian Peninsula’s vast oil resources.

It’s clear that some sought to profit illicitly from the U.S. intervention. If the Justice Department makes its case in court, some will be sorry they ever tried.