obiang equitorial guinea

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</div><div><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/07/27/alecs-pr-man-has-a-dark-past-as-spin-doctor-for-african-dictators/">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/07/27/alecs-pr-man-has-a-dark-past-as-spin-doctor-for-african-dictators/</a></div><div>
</div><div>American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has a history of

defending controversial and harmful legislation, but the man behind

ALEC’s public relations machine, Bill Meierling, has defended actions

far worse than anything done by ALEC.Two of Africa’s most

notorious dictators hired Meierling to downplay their abuses of power

and build political support for their authoritarian regimes: Equatorial

Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and Democratic Republic of

Congo’s Joseph Kabila.Meierling helped set up the information

ministry of Equatorial Guinea for the country’s tyrant, Obiang, and in

the Democratic Republic of Congo he advocated for Joseph Kabila’s

illegal attempt at a third term as president.A “former member of

ALEC who grew disillusioned with the organization” sourced the materials

for this story to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), which were

confirmed through Foreign Agent Registration Act filings. Anyone

representing the interests of a foreign government has to register as a

lobbyist and disclose their activities.Meierling officially <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilhelm-meierling-b534a17" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">joined</a>

ALEC in January 2013 as executive vice president for external relations

and strategic partnerships. As head of the group’s spin machine, he has

since retained that role and become the chief marketing officer.

Meierling “<a href="https://www.alec.org/person/wilhelm-meierling/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">manages</a>

crisis response and provides senior level counsel to investor-,

government-, and public relations divisions of Fortune 500 member

companies regarding state and federal advocacy; environmental, social

and governance (ESG) activism; and other concerns.”In Meierling, ALEC found an experienced propagandist who led the organization through a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/03/alec-funding-crisis-big-donors-trayvon-martin" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">donor crisis and member exodus</a> when its promotion of “<a href="https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Shoot_First_Bills" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Stand Your Ground</a>”

legislation was tied to the death of the unarmed Black teenager Trayvon

Martin. He managed PR when Google’s executive chairman <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2014/09/22/google-were-parting-with-the-climate-change-skeptics-at-alec/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">said</a>

ALEC was “literally lying” about the climate emergency, and when

corporations again dropped ALEC for its keynote speaker David Horowitz’s

<a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/09/17/verizon-dumps-alec-denounces-speaker-racist/" data-wpel-link="internal">racist and bigoted remarks</a> at a 2018 annual meeting.<h2>Meierling Assisted in Equatorial Guinea Propaganda Campaign</h2>Before joining ALEC, Meierling <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilhelm-meierling-b534a17" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">ran</a> his own PR firm, OpinionMakers International. Through OpinionMakers, he was hired in 2007 as a <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/fara2.opensecrets.org/5789-Exhibit-AB-20070129-1.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">subcontractor</a>

of lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates to work for the Equatorial

Guinea government and President Teodoro Obiang. He was paid handsomely,

raking in $15,000 a month in fees for his firm. Cassidy and Associates

made headlines with their work for Obiang when an executive <a href="https://apjjf.org/-Ken-Silverstein/2461/article.html" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">bragged</a> about how they were able to get Obiang off Parade Magazine’s top ten list of worst dictators. Obiang only “improved” to being <a href="http://www.dallariva.org/csumba/mba602/Sum08/The%20World's%20Worst%20Dictators.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">ranked</a> the world’s 13th worst dictator.Meierling fondly recounted his time in Equatorial Guinea in an <a href="https://www.lyonspr.com/campaigns/humans-in-pr/bill-meierling-humans-in-pr/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">interview</a>,

saying, “I was brought there in the mid 2000’s to help train them and

help prop up the information ministry within the country.” The Ministry

to which he referred is not so much one of information as it is

propaganda. In its <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FOTP%202007%20Full%20Report.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">2007 Freedom of the Press Report</a>,

the organization Freedom House described Equatorial Guinea as having

“virtually no independent media” and stated that “all domestic radio and

television stations are owned directly by the government or by the

president’s family. State-owned media are dominated by sycophantic

coverage of the government and the president.” The country still <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/equatorial-guinea/freedom-world/2020" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">ranks at the bottom</a> of Freedom House’s rankings with no independent journalism or freedom of speech.The coverage by state run media is so atrocious, a presidential aide once compared President Obiang to God while on a <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3098007.stm" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">radio interview</a>

in 2003. “He [Obiang] can decide to kill without anyone calling him to

account and without going to hell because it is God himself, with whom

he is in permanent contact, and who gives him this strength,” said the

aide. Obiang uses the state controlled media to stay in office, most

recently <a href="http://saharareporters.com/2016/04/26/equatorial-guinea%E2%80%99s-dictator-win-election-landslide-following-crackdown-media-and-civil" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">in 2016</a> when he won a sham election with over 90 percent of the vote.“It

was just an incredible opportunity to build something from the ground

up and to work in a developing nation with the people and the government

that was really interested in growing, changing, and telling their

story,” Meierling said of <a href="https://www.lyonspr.com/campaigns/humans-in-pr/bill-meierling-humans-in-pr/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">his work</a> in Equatorial Guinea.As part of that job, Meierling specifically worked to spin the dictator’s dismal human rights record.In August of 2007, Meierling <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5789-Supplemental-Statement-20080204-2.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">wrote</a>

a press release highlighting a visit by the United Nations Working

Group on Arbitrary Detentions and the Equatorial Guinea’s supposed

progress on “deprivation of liberty” and other human rights abuses.Whatever

progress allegedly occurred, however, was short-lived. In October of

2007, opposition party member Salvador Ndong Nguema <a href="https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/118999.htm" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">died</a> from injuries after being tortured in prison.Later

in 2010, four political opponents of President Obiang were abducted by

Equatorial Guinean security forces in Benin after fleeing the country

years earlier. They were held in the notorious Black Beach prison, where

they allegedly confessed to a 2009 attempted coup. The military

executed them after a brief military trial. Human rights observers <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2010/08/guinea-ecuatorial-ejecuta-cuatro-hombres/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">viewed the military trial as a sham</a> and believed the men were coerced to confess after being tortured.Meierling also consulted with Equatorial Guinea on the development of its oil industry. In 2008, he wrote a <a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/5789-Supplemental-Statement-20080204-2.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">press release</a> for the government highlighting a trip by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) to the country’s new liquefied natural gas facility. A <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210324020251/https:/digitalstrategies.org/an-introduction-to-digital-strategies-for-healthcare-executives/" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">biography</a>

on Meierling for another PR firm that was recently removed described

his work on the project and touted his connections to the Obiang regime.

“When the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and Marathon Oil sought

American support for construction of the world’s largest LNG export

train from Bioko, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea to Elba Island, Georgia, the

African nation’s leadership turned to him,” it said.While the

country’s oilfields have proven to be plentiful, the average citizen of

Equatorial Guinea still lives in poverty. Despite having a per capita

gross domestic product higher than that of Brazil and China, the country

ranks <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/f4d0e2d0-1cc9-11ea-97df-cc63de1d73f4" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">141st out of 189</a> on the United Nations Human Development Index.Meierling has also worked for Obiang’s son, Teodorin, directly. In March, Meierling’s <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210324020251/https:/digitalstrategies.org/an-introduction-to-digital-strategies-for-healthcare-executives/" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">website</a>

listed Teodorin and his girlfriend at the time, Eve, as former clients

for “reputation” management services, but the content has since been

removed.Teodorin has been the subject of numerous corruption

investigations, and has assets have been seized by U.S., French, Swiss,

and Brazilian authorities based on what the U.S. Justice Department

characterized as “<a href="https://www.voanews.com/africa/supercars-houses-and-suits-equatorial-guineas-teodorin-obiang" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">relentless embezzlement</a>.”According to a <a href="https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FOREIGNCORRUPTIONREPORTFINAL710.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">2010 U.S. Senate investigation</a>,<blockquote>From

2004 to 2008, Teodoro [Teodorin] Nguema Obiang Mangue, son of the

President of Equatorial Guinea, has used U.S. lawyers, bankers, real

estate agents, and escrow agents to move over $110 million in suspect

funds into the United States. Mr. Obiang is the subject of an ongoing

U.S. criminal investigation, has been identified in corruption

complaints filed in France, and was a focus of a 2004 Subcommittee

hearing showing how Riggs Bank facilitated officials from Equatorial

Guinea in opening accounts and engaging in suspect transactions.</blockquote>The

report attributed the success of Obiang and his family’s ability to

embezzle funds to the help they received from numerous lawyers,

lobbyists, and consultants to gain influence.<h2>Meierling Assisted Congo Dictator in Misinformation Campaign to Keep Him in Office</h2>In 2017, while working in his current capacity as chief marketing officer for ALEC, Meierling <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/fara2.opensecrets.org/6476-Short-Form-20171012-4.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">was paid $20,000 per month</a> for public relations work by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Meierling <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/fara2.opensecrets.org/6476-Short-Form-20171012-4.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">described</a>

the work done through a company called How Handy is That LLC as

“strategic communications services” and reported that he would be

“writing for, advising or representing the foreign principal.”<a href="https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6476-Informational-Materials-20180607-1.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Documents</a> disclosed in compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act show a series of op-eds appearing in the Washington Times

in 2017, many of which attack Moise Katumbi, a candidate who was

running in opposition to DRC President Joseph Kabila. While the articles

are labeled as “sponsored,” none of them disclose the DRC government as

the sponsor. One of the pieces authored by Meierling describes the

electoral situation in the DRC as follows:<blockquote>As

President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

readies his country and its government for Congo’s next free and fair

national election, some of the very opposition groups with whom he

worked to arrange next year’s vote are coordinating with powerful forces

outside of DRC who are deploying millions of dollars in foreign money

to influence its outcome, undermine its integrity and financially

benefit from its aftermath.</blockquote>Meierling brazenly

misinformed readers about the elections in the DRC when he described

them as being “free and fair.” At the time, Kabila was illegally holding

office, as his constitutionally limited two terms had expired in 2016.Kabila’s government <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/17/drc-delays-election-to-2018-despite-opposition-anger" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">delayed</a>

the presidential election until 2018, claiming to need more time to

update the country’s voter registry. Protests erupted in response to the

delay, and the United Nations <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/10/17/drc-delays-election-to-2018-despite-opposition-anger" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">reported</a> that government security forces killed 49 protesters.The group Journalists in Danger “<a href="https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Democratic-Republic-of-the-Congo-2018.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">reported</a>

121 cases of attacks on media from November 2017 to October [2018] and

attributed 77 percent of these attacks to government agents, including

nearly half to state security forces.”Meierling is not currently registered as a foreign agent.CMD reached out to ALEC for comment twice for this piece and received no response.</div>===