Also:
August 12, 2007, The Washington Post
What Is This Man Thinking?
By Secretary William Cohen
http://www.cohengroup.net/news/op_ed/op_ed081207.cfm
Alex: This article is from 2006, but I could not find any history of it being covered in the Maine mainstream media (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=The+Washington+Post+The+Cohen+Group+William+Cohen&btnG=Google+Search and
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Maine+From+Public+Life+to+Private+Business+-+washingtonpost.com+William+Cohen+The+Cohen+Group&btnG=Google+Search) despite it being a page A01 Washington Post (5 pages online) story (perhaps they are no longer indexed or beyond first page of search results).
The Washington Post Delves into the Cohen Group (William Cohen) in Five Page (Length Online) Article
From Public Life to Private Business - washingtonpost.com - Former Pentagon Chief Cohen's Firm Serves Defense Contractors
"Sunday, May 28, 2006; Page A01"
Excerpt:
"After more than 30 years in politics, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen was saddled with credit card debt.
The baker's son from Bangor, Maine, was never wealthy, and his government salary went only so far. When the motorcades and military escorts ended in January 2001, his final financial disclosure form listed tens of thousands of dollars of charge-account debts at interest rates as high as about 25 percent.
Within weeks of leaving office, he was living in a $3.5 million McLean mansion with a swimming pool, a cabana and a carriage house.
Cohen's career had entered a classic final phase: the monetizing of the public man.
Instead of returning to Maine, which he had represented in the House and Senate for more than two decades, Cohen followed legions of government officials into the business of consulting and lobbying. Trading on an insider's knowledge, contacts and personal cachet, the former defense secretary created his own Washington firm, the Cohen Group , which works for some of the biggest companies in the defense industry....
Tyrer, who was Cohen's chief of staff at the Pentagon, added: "It does not strike us as illogical that Secretary Cohen and others at The Cohen Group would continue to be involved in their business careers in issues that they have worked hard on and felt strongly about during their public careers." Tyrer said the firm has been willing "to turn away work that might raise even the faintest ethical or reputational concern."
Tyrer and other members of the firm generally declined to discuss their activities in detail because, they said, clients wanted confidentiality....
"There is a competitive spirit in my soul," the former college basketball player said. "And I've been competing, it seems, almost from time immemorial.
"There are times I say, why am I doing this, at this pace, and yet, that's just who I am."...
Nonetheless, there is overlap between Cohen's government and business careers.
In December 2000, shortly before Cohen left office, the Pentagon awarded Iridium Satellite LLC a $72 million contract , without competitive bidding, that helped save the company's communications satellites from destruction. David R. Oliver Jr., who was a senior procurement official at the time, said that he and Cohen were the Pentagon's principal advocates for the Iridium deal.
Over the past two years, Iridium has paid the Cohen Group about $400,000 to lobby the House, Senate and Department of Defense, according to lobbying disclosure statements.
"Several months after Secretary Cohen left office, The Cohen Group was contacted by the Chairman of Iridium to assist with marketing to several government agencies including DoD, as well as foreign governments," Tyrer said in writing. "Obviously, we had no such discussions while in office."...
Though Cohen co-sponsored the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, which said "responsible representative Government requires public awareness of the efforts of paid lobbyists to influence the public decisionmaking process," the firm's lobbying disclosures are sometimes vague.
For example, the firm has lobbied the Defense Department and the now dismantled Coalition Provisional Authority on behalf of Nour USA Ltd., a local company that has won contracts potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars to provide security and to equip forces in Iraq. The National Journal quoted a Nour executive as saying the Cohen Group "introduced us to people in the U.S. government who were involved in oil-industry security."
Where the government disclosure form asks it to identify "Specific lobbying issues," the Cohen Group's filings on Nour say: "Exploring overseas business opportunities.""
August 12, 2007, The Washington Post
What Is This Man Thinking?
By Secretary William Cohen
http://www.cohengroup.net/news/op_ed/op_ed081207.cfm
Alex: This article is from 2006, but I could not find any history of it being covered in the Maine mainstream media (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=The+Washington+Post+The+Cohen+Group+William+Cohen&btnG=Google+Search and
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Maine+From+Public+Life+to+Private+Business+-+washingtonpost.com+William+Cohen+The+Cohen+Group&btnG=Google+Search) despite it being a page A01 Washington Post (5 pages online) story (perhaps they are no longer indexed or beyond first page of search results).
The Washington Post Delves into the Cohen Group (William Cohen) in Five Page (Length Online) Article
From Public Life to Private Business - washingtonpost.com - Former Pentagon Chief Cohen's Firm Serves Defense Contractors
"Sunday, May 28, 2006; Page A01"
Excerpt:
"After more than 30 years in politics, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen was saddled with credit card debt.
The baker's son from Bangor, Maine, was never wealthy, and his government salary went only so far. When the motorcades and military escorts ended in January 2001, his final financial disclosure form listed tens of thousands of dollars of charge-account debts at interest rates as high as about 25 percent.
Within weeks of leaving office, he was living in a $3.5 million McLean mansion with a swimming pool, a cabana and a carriage house.
Cohen's career had entered a classic final phase: the monetizing of the public man.
Instead of returning to Maine, which he had represented in the House and Senate for more than two decades, Cohen followed legions of government officials into the business of consulting and lobbying. Trading on an insider's knowledge, contacts and personal cachet, the former defense secretary created his own Washington firm, the Cohen Group , which works for some of the biggest companies in the defense industry....
Tyrer, who was Cohen's chief of staff at the Pentagon, added: "It does not strike us as illogical that Secretary Cohen and others at The Cohen Group would continue to be involved in their business careers in issues that they have worked hard on and felt strongly about during their public careers." Tyrer said the firm has been willing "to turn away work that might raise even the faintest ethical or reputational concern."
Tyrer and other members of the firm generally declined to discuss their activities in detail because, they said, clients wanted confidentiality....
"There is a competitive spirit in my soul," the former college basketball player said. "And I've been competing, it seems, almost from time immemorial.
"There are times I say, why am I doing this, at this pace, and yet, that's just who I am."...
Nonetheless, there is overlap between Cohen's government and business careers.
In December 2000, shortly before Cohen left office, the Pentagon awarded Iridium Satellite LLC a $72 million contract , without competitive bidding, that helped save the company's communications satellites from destruction. David R. Oliver Jr., who was a senior procurement official at the time, said that he and Cohen were the Pentagon's principal advocates for the Iridium deal.
Over the past two years, Iridium has paid the Cohen Group about $400,000 to lobby the House, Senate and Department of Defense, according to lobbying disclosure statements.
"Several months after Secretary Cohen left office, The Cohen Group was contacted by the Chairman of Iridium to assist with marketing to several government agencies including DoD, as well as foreign governments," Tyrer said in writing. "Obviously, we had no such discussions while in office."...
Though Cohen co-sponsored the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995, which said "responsible representative Government requires public awareness of the efforts of paid lobbyists to influence the public decisionmaking process," the firm's lobbying disclosures are sometimes vague.
For example, the firm has lobbied the Defense Department and the now dismantled Coalition Provisional Authority on behalf of Nour USA Ltd., a local company that has won contracts potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars to provide security and to equip forces in Iraq. The National Journal quoted a Nour executive as saying the Cohen Group "introduced us to people in the U.S. government who were involved in oil-industry security."
Where the government disclosure form asks it to identify "Specific lobbying issues," the Cohen Group's filings on Nour say: "Exploring overseas business opportunities.""
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