Bush Adviser Helped Law Firm Land Job Lobbying for CNOOC By Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post Staff Writer
President Bush’s top independent intelligence adviser met last winter with investment bankers in China to help secure his law firm’s role in lobbying for a state-run Chinese energy firm and its bid for the U.S. oil company Unocal Corp., according to his law firm, Akin Gump.
The involvement of James C. Langdon Jr., chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and a major Bush fundraiser, underscores the tangled Washington connections beneath CNOOC Ltd.’s bid. Both CNOOC and its rival for Unocal, Chevron Corp., have enlisted lobbyists and public relations professionals with deep ties to the Bush White House and Republican leaders in Congress. Wayne L. Berman, a principal lobbyist for Chevron, is a Bush “Ranger,” having raised at least $200,000 for the president’s campaign. His wife, Lea, is the White House social secretary. [mjh: note that Berman and Langdon are TWO different White House insiders.]
Langdon’s involvement, given his dual role as Bush intelligence adviser and energy lawyer at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, may prove politically problematic, some security experts said. Members of the intelligence board, known as PFIAB, are granted the highest security clearance and develop top-secret advisories and reports for the president, most of which are not even available to members of Congress.
“China is among the biggest intelligence challenges of the coming decades,” said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy. “Along with the war on terrorism, it’s not far behind, and one has to wonder whether Mr. Langdon’s involvement in Chinese affairs will be tolerated by intelligence agencies that have different interests than those of Mr. Langdon’s firm.” …
CNOOC has already requested a review of its unsolicited $18.5 billion bid for Unocal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a secretive 12-member review board that includes Cabinet members and White House officials. The PFIAB chairman does not sit on CFIUS, but a review of national security implications could stray into matters relevant to foreign intelligence, security experts said. …
The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow on the national security implications of the CNOOC bid. One of the committee’s senior members and a prominent China hawk, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vowed to raise questions of Langdon’s involvement, saying, “Unfortunately, corporate dollars often transcend national security.” …
The President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board was established in 1956 to provide the president independent advice on the effectiveness of U.S. intelligence agencies. …
“They have the ear of the president,” said [Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy], who called the board “disproportionately influential.”