LEAKED reports and messages to the CPP reveal that the
party's Washington D.C.-based public relations firm
"enlisted human rights activists to criticize [Dana
Rohrabacher's] Resolution", in a failed effort to
get the House resolution attacking Hun Sen quashed.
The PR/law firm Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur did,
however, work to defeat a similar resolution before the
Senate.
Porter, Wright who worked in tandem for the CPP with a
top Washington D.C. corporate law firm Arnold &
Porter, especially William Rogers of that firm also wrote
to the CPP's Phnom Penh-based American lawyer, Bretton
Sciaroni, on Oct 13, recommending:
that a new government be formed as soon as possible
"so that international focus will [instead] be on
the new leadership...";
that Hun Sen should immediately begin leading the charge
to bring the Khmer Rouge to trial before an international
tribunal;
and that some "significant progress be made on
solving the alleged political killings" done both
before and after the July election.
The Oct 13 memo to Sciaroni, from Porter, Wright lawyer
James Stearns, was in response to Sciaroni's previous
inquiry as to why "the Washington team" could
not stop the Rohra-bacher resolution going through.
Rohrabacher wanted to appease the "anti-CPP forces
in his district", Stearns told Sciaroni, and that he
also "raised money for [International Republican
Institute chairman] Gilman's re-election campaign from
Cambodians in his California district".
The State Department, Stearns said, didn't oppose the
resolution because it wanted to keep pressure on Hun Sen.
"... [A]lthough it has been State's policy to move
toward normalization of relations with the CPP, it wants
to move slowly so as to keep maximum pressure on [Hun
Sen]. We suppose that the lack of opposition to the
resolution was based on State's desire to ensure a
coalition government in Phnom Penh, and not a government
formed by the CPP."
But the State Department didn't know how far Rohrabacher
was prepared to go, Stearns told Sciaroni. "We
enlisted human rights activists to criticize the
resolution, then showed Assistant Secretary of State
Stanley Roth how bad the resolution was, and how
Rohrabacher was `telling everyone in Cambodia' that State
supported it. At that point, Roth... had [US Ambassador
to Cambodia Kenneth] Quinn issue the statement of
opposition... [But] by that time, it was too little, too
late...".
State's "change of position", Stearns said, did
alienate some Democrats who "did not want to be
labeled as opposing human rights, [since] they believed
that since the fighting last year, one hundred
extra-judicial killings had taken place in Cambodia for
political reasons. They note not one arrest has been made
in these cases...".
Stearns then made his three recommendations, including
the last for some action to be taken on solving the
killings.
Sciaroni then wrote an Oct 20 memo to the "BB"
a codename for the "Big Boss", or Hun Sen, and
also addressed to senior CPP strategist Say Chum
reiterating many of Stearns' points, saying "[o]ur
team worked with the relevant congressional officies...
to make sure that this legislation did not advance".
Sciaroni described Rohrabacher's work in Congress as
"meddling".
Sciaroni noting that because he is not registered as a
foreign agent for the CPP with the US Dept. of Justice,
he couldn't lobby the State Department attended meetings
with State staff and noted: "[They] understand that
a government must be formed, and do not care if Sam
Rainsy is included in the formula or not... [they] are
looking for a meaningful coalition to be formed."
Sciaroni told Hun Sen that the Senate Resolution (SR) 309
which was a similar version to that of Rohrabacher's
House resolution that has already been passed posed two
problems for Cambodia.
"First, like the House version of the bill, it
specifically condemed the Prime Minister-elect. Second,
we fear that it might be attached to the House
appropriations legislation, making further difficulties
for our ability to get US aid."
Sciaroni said the Porter, Wright team put pressure on the
State to issue a statement opposing SR309 "and [had]
Assistant Secretary stanley Roth lobby Congress against
it...".
Sciaroni called the bill "dangerous" because it
was introduced by two "key senators" Jesse
Helms (chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee) and Mitch McConnell.
McConnell, he said, was rumored to be holding up Kent
Weidemann's nomination as Cambodia's new ambassador
because "of issues concerning Burma" or
"because Mc-Connell is uncertain whether the US
should have an ambassador in Cambodia at all".
Sciaroni said that Porter, Wright's had a
"two-pronged approach" of getting the State
Department involved, and also the involvement of Senator
Craig Thomas who was "a man looking for solutions to
the current situation, not simply to put the blame on
someone.
"In the end, the intervention of Sen. Thomas was
critical to killing the SR309".
Sciaroni orignally did not want Hun Sen's adviser Hor Nam
Hong to come to Washington, because it was the end of the
legislative session and so many influential people would
be holidaying or campaigning for re-election.
However, he did tell Hun Sen who the most important
people were for Nam Hong to meet in Washington were Roth,
Senators Thomas, McConnell, John McCain, John Porter,
Patrick Leahy, Charles Robb and John Kerry; and in the
House Ben Gilman and Congressmen Bereuter and Berman, and
John Fox.
