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Lobbyists for and allies of the SPDC

The Washington Post and other newspapers have written recently on the regime's efforts to improve its images by hiring Washington lobbying firms.  The firms have been retained through front companies by Burma's Directorate of Defence Services Intelligence (DDSI), which is the regime's military intelligence organization.  They are supervised by Lt. Col. Hla Min of the Office of Strategic Studies.

New  Hold on a minute...Why the FO [Foreign Office] is run by village idiots, London Observer, September 20, 1998.

Articles

• Burma's Image Problem is a Moneymaker for U.S. Lobbyists, Washington Post

• Paid lobbyists 'convince US of junta's reform,' South China Morning Post

• Buffing Burma's image, International Herald Tribune

Links to the lobbyists

• Jefferson-Waterman International, Washington lobbying firm--nominally an agent of Myanmar Resources Development, Ltd.

• Jackson Bain, Bain and Associates, a Washington area public relations firm--nominally an agent of   the Zaykabar Co.

Links to regime allies

• The US-Burma Myanmar Forum, a Washington based organization reflecting the views of US investors, primarily among oil companies.  Recently defunct.

• Michael Dobbs-Higgenson

• The National Foreign Trade Council and USA*Engage