>>3297518 - Part 1 Cuba/Google
More on Flake the traitor - Part 2 Iran/Africa
Before coming to Washington Flake was a lobbyist in a mining company located in Africa with ties to IRAN
In 1992, Flake returned to Arizona, where he headed the Goldwater Institute, a think tank, until he was elected in 2000. In 1991 he was a public affairs executive with the firm of Shipley, Smoak & Henry he first represented Namibia.
He soon moved to Namibia as executive director of the Foundation for Democracy, a group established to draft Namibia's constitution. Flake's campaign says he worked for the foundation from April 1989 to 1990 (latest report http://democracy-africa.org/files/37462303.pdf)
But after leaving Shipley, Smoak & Henry, Flake also owned and operated Interface Public Affairs from 1990 to 1991. Flake acknowledges that he was registered foreign agent and was paid $7,000 a month for representing Rossing Uranium Limited, which was majority-owned by Rio Tinto Zinc.
He said in his 1990 foreign agent registration with the Justice Department that his job was to "introduce the corporation and its citizenship activities within Namibia to the U.S." ... and to "attempt to promote the image ... and good relations between the United States and Namibia."
Flake said his focus was on helping lift apartheid-era penalties against the country and the mine. He said he did not know until last October that Iran owned a 15 percent stake in the Rossing Uranium, an interest that he said pre-dates the Iranian revolution that deposed the shah, an ally of the West.
Cardon added: "It's also confusing to me that Flake has taken tens of thousands of dollars from the mining industry. From a guy who was a lobbyist before going to Washington, and claiming to fight special interests, it's interesting how beholden to special interests he has become."
Since joining Congress, Flake has received at least $97,000 from mining interests, including Rio Tinto, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracked donations through the 2010 election cycle.
He has backed legislation favorable to mining interests in Arizona. Flake proposed ending a ban on uranium mining claims around the Grand Canyon. In 2009 he introduced a land swap bill that would enable Resolution Copper, an arm of Rio Tinto, to develop a mine in eastern Arizona.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/past-lobbying-becomes-issue-in-arizona-senate-race
ROLLING IN THE CASH
The overall lobbying tab for telecom services and telephone companies exceeded $123 million in 2016, the money-influence research group Center for Responsive Politics says. That makes them among the top-spending industries in Washington. By contrast, some of the most active privacy and consumer groups on the other side spent just over $1 million, according to the nonpartisan group's data.
The lobbying on both sides goes far beyond privacy. Other issues on the agenda included immigration, taxes, cable boxes and cybersecurity. But the disparity in the spending totals shows that when it comes to politics, industry can wield a lot of power with its pocketbook.
Telecom has also given more in political contributions to the House Republicans who voted to repeal the rules (about $138,000 on average over their careers) than to the 15 Republicans who voted to keep them ($77,000), according to the Center for Responsive Politics. In the Senate, the Republicans who voted to undo broadband privacy received more from telecom ($369,000) than the Democrats who voted to keep the rules ($329,000) & that included Jeff Flake, R.-Ariz., chairman of a privacy and technology subcommittee, received some $59,000
http://www.wbal.com/article/233210/132/influence-game-telecom-lobbying-muscle-kills-privacy-rules
Thanks to Anon for pointing me to this:
The gun smoke of the last American-Indian war cleared more than a century ago. But descendants of the San Carlos Apache have been waging a new federal battle for more than five months, defending their land — and, in recent days, allowing themselves to hope that this time they might even keep it.
The assault began late last year, when Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona slipped a fine-print rider into a thousand-page bill to fund the Pentagon. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2015 gave essential money to the U.S. military. Thanks to the rider, however, the must-pass legislation also offered a surprise giveaway to the world’s largest mining company: a sacred stretch of Apache land.
This mining company? RIO TINTO - the same company that Flake had lobbied for when he was registered as a foreign agent
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/battle-over-land-sacred-apache-and-lucrative-mining-company