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Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

China’s Huawei Pays Tony Podesta $1 Million for White House Lobbying

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Emerging Threats

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.theepochtimes.com/tony-podesta-paid-1-million-lobbying-white-house-for-chinas-huawei_4230099.html

People arrive to attend the Huawei keynote address at the IFA 2020 Special Edition consumer electronics and appliances trade fair on the fair's opening day in Berlin on Sept. 3, 2020. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Long-time Democratic power broker Tony Podesta has earned $1 million over the past half-year lobbying the Biden White House at the behest of a blacklisted Chinese tech giant, recent federal disclosures show.

Huawei, which was placed under trade sanctions during the Trump administration, paid Podesta $500,000 in the fourth quarter of 2021 in an attempt to shake off the trade impact of the restrictions, according to the disclosure form filed on the evening of Jan. 20. With the $500,000 Podesta made from the previous three months by lobbying the White House, he has been compensated $1 million over a six-month period for the lobbying effort.

Podesta’s latest lobbying campaign targeted the Executive Office of the President and centered around “telecommunications services and impacted trade issues,” according to the disclosure.

Huawei, once the world’s largest telecom equipment maker, has been facing international scrutiny in recent years. U.S. authorities have flagged the China-based company as a national security threat, saying the company’s close ties with China’s ruling communist regime, as well as Chinese law, could make it a potential espionage tool for Beijing.

A stream of U.S. sanctions since 2019—which have barred Huawei from using U.S. technology and software and have shut out its gears from critical U.S. infrastructure—have slashed the company’s annual revenue by a third. In November 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law a measure that further tightened restrictions on Huawei by restricting it from receiving new equipment licenses from U.S regulators.

Battered by the restrictions, Huawei has ramped up its U.S. influence operation in recent months. Podesta is one of half a dozen lobbyists the firm has engaged since July 2021, including a former congressman and a former congressional aide, according to disclosure filings.

At the time, the company had been pushing for the release of Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder Ren Zhenfei, who had been detained in Canada on fraud charges for business dealings with Iran that allegedly evaded U.S. sanctions.

Meng was eventually allowed to return to China after signing a deal with the Department of Justice.

Tony Podesta’s brother, John Podesta, served as White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and was the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. He was also a counselor to President Barack Obama, overseeing climate and energy policies.

The filings indicate that Huawei spent $3.59 million on lobbying in the United States in 2021, nearly eight times as much as it did in 2020. The $3.59 million was also $500,000 higher than heightened spending in 2019, when the sanctions were first put in place.

White House officials and representatives for Huawei didn’t respond to requests for comment by press time. Tony Podesta declined to comment and directed all questions to Huawei.

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