Although the United States still classifies Libya as a terrorism sponsor, the US lobbyist for Muammar Gaddafi has for the past year quietly held a seat on the Energy Department's top advisory board, and the man who appointed her now serves on the board of a US oil company seeking contracts in Libya. US President George Bush rolled back most economic sanctions against Libya more than a year ago, and administration officials say the appointments do not violate any laws or restrictions on former policy makers. "Do we really want someone advising the US energy secretary on energy policy who has literally signed up to put Libya's interests first?" asked Mary Boyle of the watchdog group Common Cause.
Former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham's chief of staff, Joseph McMonigle, said it was not uncommon for departing government officials - and lobbyists - to get seats on the industry-dominated energy advisory board.
Less than a month after Bush suspended most sanctions against Libya in April 2004, Abraham appointed to the external board a long-time aide-turned-lobbyist who was about to sign her biggest client - Gaddafi.
Former international policy adviser Randa Fahmy Hudome, whose contract with the Libyan leader calls for her to work to "strengthen Libya's interests", is still a member of the board, the highest-ranking in the department. The board reports directly to the energy secretary, who was charged with overseeing the dismantling of Libya's nuclear arms programme.
Libya's main goal, like the oil lobby's, is now to get Tripoli removed from the US terrorism list and get Congress to authorise US taxpayer-backed loans to help finance US oil projects in Libya.
Libya's top envoy in Washington, Ali Aujali, told Reuters that Tripoli was hopeful its lobbyist's connections would help achieve those goals, and said prospects were very promising for Occidental Petroleum, which suspended operations in Libya when sanctions were imposed in 1986.
Abraham stepped down as energy secretary on January 31 and within weeks Occidental chief executive Ray Irani, whom Abraham had also appointed to the Energy Department's advisory board, asked him to join Occidental's board of directors.
Libya is one of Irani's top priorities and days after Bush lifted a travel ban, Irani flew to Tripoli to lay out his plans to Gaddafi in person. Since then, the company has been the most aggressive in signing new oil contracts there.
Fahmy Hudome's one-year $1.47 million consulting agreement with Libya took effect just six weeks after her May 14, 2004, two-year appointment to the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, according to administration officials and records she filed with a Justice Department unit that monitors the lobbying activities of foreign governments and entities.
Energy Department spokesman Mike Waldron said, "It's the department's understanding ... that Ms Hudome is in no way in violation" of federal laws that govern advisory boards, and that her appointment came before she became Libya's lobbyist and was based on her earlier international policy experience.
Waldron added that the board has not had a formal meeting since her appointment and that Fahmy Hudome has not contacted new Energy Secretary Sam Bodman "on any matter." However, he said, Bodman has been in the process of reviewing the board's membership.
Fahmy Hudome, who was associate deputy secretary of energy until June 30, 2003, did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Her appointment to the board came after Gaddafi's December 2003 pledge to dismantle Libya's nuclear, chemical and biological programmes - an announcement that provided an election-year boost to Bush.
Although Bush left in place some terrorism-related restrictions on Libya, his lifting of most commercial sanctions in April 2004 and formal ending of a US trade embargo in September cleared the way for US firms to invest in Libya and buy its oil for the first time since 1986.
It is common practice in both Republican and Democratic administrations for policy makers to take lobbying jobs or seats on corporate boards once they leave office. Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University, said this may be legal but raises ethical questions.
"When the public hears the former secretary of energy is on the board of a company with interests in Libya, it increases the public view that this is all about the intimate connections between political appointees and their agencies, and doesn't increase confidence in government one bit," he said.
Occidental spokesman Lawrence Meriage said the company had been "already moving forward" with activities in Libya before Abraham's appointment.
Abraham's former chief of staff, McMonigle, played down Abraham's role in the administration's deliberations over lifting the sanctions, saying: "We're not really the policy makers."
Susan Cohen, whose daughter was among the 270 killed in the 1988 plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, accused Abraham of benefiting directly from the removal of sanctions and said he should step down from the Occidental board.
"All these people like Spencer Abraham and this lobbyist care about is money, not safety, not protecting Americans from terrorism," Cohen said.
Aujali said that Tripoli knew about Fahmy Hudome's connections to Abraham before hiring her, and when asked if he thought those connections would benefit Tripoli's outreach in Washington, replied, "We hope so."
Jill Schuker, a former Clinton administration official hired by Fahmy Hudome as a consultant on the Libya deal, said the administration's efforts have rid Libya of banned weapons and helped shut down a major nuclear arms black market.
"It's an understandably emotional issue for the families. But you have to always look at this in geopolitical terms and what it means for the bottom line for US national interests and global security," she said.
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