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In Washington, Algeria signed a one-year contract on November the 1st, hiring a new lobbyist. The country will be paying $36,000 a month for Keene Consulting Services to «interact on its behalf with members of the Trump Administration, Congress and non-government decision-makers», reports American online newspaper O’Dwyer’s.
The firm is headed by David Keene, an American political consultant, former Presidential advisor, and newspaper editor, known for being close to Republicans. He has worked as a special assistant for Ronald Reagan, George Bush (the father), Robert Dole and Mitt Romney. In the Trump administration, he is considered as a strong ally of John Bolton, the National Security Advisor of the United States.
The former president of the National Rifle Association, an American nonprofit organization that advocates for gun rights, will have to «strengthen the relations of friendship and cooperation between it and the US (…) promote Algeria’s role of peace and cooperation in world and regional affairs and attract business, trade and investment in the African nation», says the same source.
Through this contract, Algeria intends to be present in the Senate, which is under the control of Republicans, following the midterm elections. In the upper house, David Keene will have to coordinate with other Senators such as Lindsey Graham, James Inhofe and Patrick Leahy, known for defending Algeria and the Polisario.
In the United States, Algerians also rely on the services of lobbying firm Foley Hoag. In 2017, the country spent 421 thousand dollars to hire lobbyists in the US in comparison with Morocco which spent $ 1.8 million for the same purpose.
Keene, another defender of the Polisario
Keene is also a newspaper editor. He was the Opinion Editor of The Washington Times, where he publishes articles devoted to the defense of the Polisario. In October 2013 he published a call for «self-determination of Western Sahara». Following the death of Polisario former leader, Mohamed Abdelaziz, he paid him a tribute by publishing an article on the same newspaper.
Moreover, on December 6, 2010, he published a column in The Hill entitled «Our Friends of the Desert». He insisted that the Saharawi Tindouf camps «live under a written constitution almost unique among Muslim nations in that it guarantees residents the vote and provides equal rights for women. The inhabitants also tend to be strongly pro-American».
