Posted on 12/26/2015 9:45:22 AM PST by VitacoreVision
Consultants affiliated with a small Washington, D.C., firm called Beacon Global Strategies hold the unique privilege of providing high-profile foreign policy guidance to Hillary Clinton, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz, among others.
The bipartisan firm was founded in 2013 by former senior officials from the State Department, Department of Defense, and Central Intelligence Agency, and quickly had more than a dozen clients, primarily defense contractors, according to Defense News.
Philippe Reines and Andrew Shapiro, both considered part of Clinton's inner circle of foreign policy advisers, are founders of the firm. Reines served as a longtime spokesperson for Clinton and Shapiro served as her assistant secretary of state for military affairs.
Eric Edelman, a former Bush administration Defense Department official, is an advisory board member to Beacon Global Strategies and a leading foreign policy adviser to Marco Rubio's presidential campaign. "It's mostly about defense, but I've talked to him about the authorization of military force. I've talked to him about the campaign against ISIS, about Russia and Ukraine. There's not a shortage of issues right now," Edelman told Reuters. The news wire noted that that Edelman "regularly briefs the senator."
The Beacon Global Strategies advisory board, which includes retired Adm. James Stavridis and CNN contributor Fran Townsend, was established to "provide guidance to the BGS team on the full range of the firm's activities, from particular projects to larger strategic initiatives," the firm announced in 2013.
Brian Hooks, another veteran Bush administration official and advisory board member to Beacon Global Strategies, teamed up with Edelman to form a foreign policy prep effort for Republican candidates, called the John Hay Initiative. Hooks and Edelman have reportedly provided private briefings to help shape foreign policy ideas to candidates including Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and Lindsey Graham, encouraging them to take on hawkish positions.
Bryan Smith, the former budget director of the House Intelligence Committee who now works at Beacon Global Strategies as a technical adviser, is also helping lead the John Hay Initiative.
Multiple inquiries from The Intercept to Beacon to disclose its clients and what services it specifically provides went unanswered.
Beacon Global Strategies promoted its influence over the 2016 presidential field on its website with an item touting Brian Hook's work to advise Republican candidates.
Though the firm says it does not lobby and is not registered as a lobbying firm, lack of registration is becoming increasingly meaningless in Washington as thousands of lobbyists have simply deregistered while continuing to peddle influence on behalf of clients. Under federal lobbying law, lobby registration is only required under very narrow guidelines that are rarely enforced.
While Beacon Global Strategies' clients and services are a mystery, the firm maintains strong ties to Washington influencers. Politico Playbook headlined the launch of the group: "HOT NEW NATIONAL-SECURITY FIRM."
After the launch, Jeremy Bash, the managing director of the firm, joined the advisory board to Paladin Capital Group, a private equity firm that provides funding for start-ups that serve as contractors to the National Security Agency.
Beacon Global Strategies' seed funding came from Claude Fontheim, a former Clinton adviser who now serves as a lobbyist to the U.S.-China Exchange Foundation, a nonprofit reportedly used by Chinese government officials and Hong Kong tycoons to shape American policy toward China.
Amusing....
And yet Cruz’s position is different.
Interesting article.
I don’t think it is necessarily meaningful.
I can save them money. ..
Just do the opposite of what kerry/0bummer do.
Oh well, that’s that. May as well vote for the woman?
How is this company not bankrupt? The people who were leaders in getting us to the present state, now want to sell advice. Astonishing.
Donald Trump supporters may find the article interesting.
How is this company not bankrupt? The people who were leaders in getting us to the present state, now want to sell advice. Astonishing.
I understand what you mean. It can be demagogued very easily.
But it has little more meaning than using the same plumber or caterer or surgeon.
I suspect this firm and others that do the same work have a lot of clients from both sides of the aisle. No doubt they have a lot of private sector clients as well.
No doubt Trump uses this type of service in his private business. It makes a lot of sense if you do business overseas. After all, you don’t want to invest a billion dollars in a venture only to have a coup take it all away next month.
My uncle went to one of these firms to help decide about having the Japanese do some work for him. He ended up having the work done in south Korea.
Is it? He seems to be all in for provoking war with Russia and supporting our "friends". On H1B Viwas and his initial support for TPA (til Obama changed it) his differences are only by degrees.
I'd rather that pols didn't use consulting firms. It opens the opportunity to be manipulated.
Opposing the invasion of a weak country by a stronger neighbor is provoking war? Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler are in strong agreement with you.
Yeah sure, just like he supports Rubio’s and Christie’s position of a no fly zone in Syria, right actually HE DOESN’T.
Ted Cruz, as anyone who watched the last debate is Pro-American in his foreign policy, and doesn’t adhear to nation building, nor to needlessly antagonizing dictators just for an ego boost.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if it turns out that this “consulting firm” is funded by George Soros.
Poppycock. You've been reading blandishments by FR posters instead of Cruz' actual written policy paper. As to TPA, he doesn't believe this Congress will approve Obama's deal.
Folks, this is not a big deal and it isn’t necessarily BAD.
Getting a variety of viewpoints and information isn’t terrible....
I get much of my news from....gasp....Free Republic! I hear plenty from fellow FREEPers that makes me consider and form my own outlook. Some person who has a perverse world view can read FR and draw very different conclusions.
All of these people read the same Constitution and draw very different conclusions—especially the Demon Rat....
Let’s be careful about drawing conclusions from this information. :)
Odd that people are assuming the company gave bad advice.
No one even knows what advice they gave, or how it was followed, changed or ignored.
Agree. Most likely they just prepare open-source Intel briefings for candidates on the road, look at emerging threat scenarios, etc. Different candidates can use the same source for info and still arrive at different foreign policy positions. No big deal, really.
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