(Newsweek) Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball - The Justice Department has opened an investigation into allegations that the Saudi government, working through a prominent Washington public-relations firm, deceptively financed an advertising campaign promoting Crown Prince Abdullah's Middle East peace plan. Federal prosecutors are seeking to determine whether the Saudi Embassy's PR firm, Qorvis Communications, made false statements to the Justice Department and violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, regarding a 2002 radio ad campaign supposedly paid for by an obscure group called the Alliance for Peace and Justice. Sources familiar with the probe say prosecutors are focusing on whether the Alliance for Peace and Justice was used by Qorvis president Michael Petruzzello and his chief client, the Saudi Embassy's al-Jubeir, to run advertisements that were really designed to burnish the Saudi government's image and influence the domestic debate on U.S. Mideast policy.
2004-12-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive