Linden Government Solutions, a ‘strategic advisory firm’, will lobby the US government on anyone’s behalf, provided they can afford the consultation fee.
Pakistan have recently hired LGS to improve their image in the US and ramp up anti-India sentiment. The service provided by this advisory firm allows sovereign nations to gain a footing in the US, circumventing traditional channels of diplomacy. In the case of Pakistan, the service they are providing is both reasonable and not an overall threat to anyone.
Issues arise, however, when this service is extended to Libyan generals attempting to take control of a nation by force. Field Marshal Khalifa Hafter and his Libyan National Army have hired LGS, based in Houston, to assist with ‘international coalition building, and general public relations.’
LGS will receive approximately $2 million under the 13-month agreement, and so far the relationship has already bore fruit. Hifter was granted a phone call with President Donald Trump and has been gaining international support for his campaign to take over the oil-rich north African nation, which has been without true peace since the toppling of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
A White House statement about the call said ‘the two discussed a shared vision for Libya’s transition to a stable democratic political system.’
Although reassuring, it is hard to see a former acolyte of Gadhafi, who defected after the ruinous war with Chad in the 1980s, to give up control of a nation where he could install himself in a similar way to his former leader. LGS’s service, although sometimes beneficial, is extremely worrying when it provides it to absolutely anyone with money.
Festus Media 