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• Monday, December 1, 2008 01:20 PM

  How is McCaffrey not a lobbyist?

  In his defense, McCaffrey's firm BR McCaffrey Associates, LLC claims that "General McCaffrey is not a lobbyist."

  Source: http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-30-2008/0004933623&EDATE=

  How do McCaffrey's actions in sending a briefing paper singing the virtues of his client, Defense Solutions, to General Petraeus not constitute lobbying? And, btw, how does he escape the legal definition of a lobbyist and the registration requirement?

  From Barstow's piece:

  [Defense Solutions] signed Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general and military analyst for NBC News, to a consulting contract starting June 15, 2007.

  Four days later the general swung into action. He sent a personal note and 15-page briefing packet to David H. Petraeus, the commanding general in Iraq, strongly recommending Defense Solutions and its offer to supply Iraq with 5,000 armored vehicles from Eastern Europe. “No other proposal is quicker, less costly, or more certain to succeed,” he said.

  Thus, within days of hiring General McCaffrey, the Defense Solutions sales pitch was in the hands of the American commander with the greatest influence over Iraq’s expanding military.

  “That’s what I pay him for,” Timothy D. Ringgold, chief executive of Defense Solutions, said in an interview.

  —Crust1 Read Crust1's other letters
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