Bangladesh probes US lobby firm's work on behalf of alleged war criminal

By Julian Pecquet - 08/27/12 05:24 PM ET

Bangladesh is probing accusations that an alleged war criminal used “money laundering and other illegal activities” to pay the U.S. firm Cassidy to lobby lawmakers and the Obama administration on his behalf, according to reports from pro-government media.

Mir Quasem Ali is a leader of an Islamist opposition party and a media owner who's accused of drawing up kill lists of intellectual leaders during Bangladesh's war for independence with Pakistan. He was arrested June 17 by the Bangladesh International War Crimes Tribunal, which was set up by the ruling Awami League two years ago to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes during the 1971 war.

Cassidy's vice chairman, Gregg Hartley, said media reports that Ali paid the firm $25 million were false and part of a pattern of intimidating government critics. He said the firm broke no U.S. laws in taking on Ali and later his brother, Mir Masum Ali, as clients. Mir Masum Ali is a U.S. citizen who got involved after his brother's assets were frozen.

“The sensational stories reported in the Bangladesh media are not based in fact and look like an effort to discourage international advocates, like Cassidy, from helping to inform and provide factual information to world leaders and in particular U.S. foreign-policy makers,” Hartley told The Hill in a statement.

Hartley also pointed out that former Rep. Marty Russo (D-Ill.), who left the firm after Democrats lost control of the House in 2010, did not work on the contract despite being cited in media reports. Mir Quasem Ali paid Cassidy $180,000 from Nov. 15, 2010 through March 31, 2011, according to filings under the Lobbying Disclosure Act; his brother then replaced him as the firm's client and paid $320,000 from April 25, 2011 through April 30, 2012 — much less than the $25 million reportedly alleged by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission.

Cassidy is expected to soon file further documents for work done for Mir Masum Ali on behalf of his brother since April, notably in the run-up to a July 19 congressional hearing by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, which examined reports of torture, arbitrary arrest, judicial corruption and forced disappearances by security forces under the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“While I support and applaud the Bangladesh government’s desire to bring justice to those responsible for committing atrocities in the [1971] conflict, I am concerned that the proceedings be conducted in a fair, transparent manner,” Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) said during the hearing.