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A former professor of mine, Philip Zelikow, a person I consider of high integrity, including for speaking out publicly and repeatedly against the use of torture and for long urging the administration to close black site prisons, is having a rough day in the blogosphere. He's been chastised by among others Glenn Greenwald, whose work I admire, for not revealing in an interview with ABC this week that he is an outside consultant to the lobby firm BGR when he spoke to them about Iraq recently, including commenting that he believed people in the U.S. government were thinking about such post-Maliki scenarios. As IraqSlogger's Christina Davidson first reported this past week, BGR recently snagged a $300,000 contract to represent former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allai, who is seeking to have Iraqi prime minister Maliki replaced -- by himself. Naturally, if Zelikow was working on the account for Allawi at the same time he was telling the media that he thinks Maliki should be replaced, that would be a conflict of interest that should have been disclosed.
But it turns out, Zelikow, a former counselor to Secretary of State Rice, says he did not know about the Allawi contract with BGR at the time of the ABC interview, and did not learn of it until he started getting called by the media about it two days afterwards.
He writes, "I'm listed as a senior adviser to BGR, which means I'm an outside consultant who gives them advice on issues from time to time, while I work fulltime here in Charlottesville at UVA. For example, I helped raise money and direct donations on Darfur (involving ....the charitable foundation now known as 'Not On My Watch'), help on various issues connected to Persian Gulf security, .... on Thailand, ... India (they represent the govt of India). Of course I do not talk to the State Department about any of these matters, since I'm still barred from doing so under federal law.
"Although I've disclosed the Kurdish connection in my Iraq work, I haven't done any direct work for or with the Kurds who are represented by the firm. And I've done nothing on Allawi at all and had no idea that he was a client. He wasn't on our client list and the filing was made public only after the original Iraqslgger story. I first heard about a possible connection on Thursday (two days after the ABC News comment) when I got calls from Isikoff, Anne Gearan with AP, and CNN. CNN didn't correct their story until a day later.
(Posted updated below the fold with a new statement from ABC)
"The one Iraq-related matter I have discussed with BGR is my view of the Kurdish situation. Therefore, in both written and oral discussions with Congressman Snyder's committee I highlighted (in a spotlighted text box) my role in advising a firm that was helping the Kurdish regional government, precisely so no one could make any accusation of concealment.
"And, no, I am not formally consulting with the administration about Iraq policy. I talk about Iraq issues with a number of Republicans and Democrats in an effort to help both sides find a common way forward, and therefore preferred not to take sides in public testimony. I'm not doing paid work on Iraq for anyone in the government."
My sense is if Zelikow made a mistake, it was not one of concealing a conflict of interest, because he not only wasn't working on the BGR Allawi account, but didn't know about it at the time he was interviewed; but rather that he didn't preempt the perception of a possible conflict of interest, and that the best thing would have been to make sure the media knew about his BGR work. The argument that he's deceitful strikes me as totally unfair. As he says, it's "hard to see how to preempt the conflict if you don't know there is one. If they brought up the Kurds, different story."
As for following my own advice, I studied with Zelikow at the Kennedy School in 1995, and worked as a staff researcher for a bipartisan task force of which he was the executive director in 2002-2003, called the Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age.
Late Update: Zelikow sends this updated statement he received from ABC News, August 30th:
Posted with permission.From: "Sproul, Robin V" Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:10:11 +0000 Conversation: ABC News Interview Subject: ABC News Interview
Dr. Zelikow:
Thank you again for speaking with me today. I apologize for the delay in addressing this issue.
Upon further reporting about the exact nature of your relationship with BGR, it is now clear to us why you did not disclose your occasional consultancy work with BGR. We now understand that you have discussed one Iraq related matter with BGR, your views on the Kurdish situation, and that you were not in a position to know the extent of BGR's other work on Iraq when we conducted the interview with you on August 21. Your participation in the interview was appropriate and professional and we appreciate the insight you provided our reporter. As you know, our interest in talking to you was based on your past work in the State Department, your current position as a professor of history at the University of Virginia, and your continued unpaid and unofficial role as a respected advisor on Iraq issues to members of both political parties.
We would welcome you back on any ABC News program in the future as an expert on Iraq issues.
At this time, we have sent an updated statement to our World News website.
Robin V. Sproul
Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief
ABC News