Republican Super-Lobbyist Stephen Payne (also Frank Carlucci, McCain & Nazi W. Dieter Zander)

Edited by Alex Constantine

" ... Payne is also a founder and managing partner of Envion Worldwide ... Envion's senior advisor is none other than Frank Carlucci, chairman emeritus of the Carlyle Group. ... Another former member of Team Eagle and current member of Worldwide Strategic Partners is Brian Ettinger, a former legislative aide to Sen. Joe Biden. This is especially interesting because Biden's name came up in the influence-peddling sting operation. ... "

By Lindsay Beyerstein
July 15, 2008

Stephen Payne continues to make Jack Abramoff look like a piker. You want a Republican super-lobbyist? I'll show you a super-lobbyist...

As you may have heard, Republican fundraiser and lobbyist Stephen Payne was caught on tape offering meetings with Dick Cheney and Condi Rice in exchange for a hefty donation to the George W. Bush presidential library. ...

Of course, the Bush administration and the library project are frantically trying to disassociate themselves from Payne. ...

White House press secretary Dana Perino admitted that Payne has probably met with the president on a number of occasions, but she balked when reporters asked her about visitor logs that might establish how often, citing "lawsuits and stuff."

If even half of what Stephen Payne says about himself is true, there is no question that he had acces to the highest levels of the Bush administration. Payne was a Bush Pioneer in 2000 and 2004. He was also a member of Bush Cheney 04, George W. Bush for President, and Tom DeLay's Congressional Committee.

According to a cached copy of Payne's curriculum vitae that I found on the Worldwide Strategic Partners website (now scrubbed), Payne claims to have been George W. Bush's personal travel aide during his father’s 1988 Presidential campaign. Payne served as Senior Advisor to the NASA Administrator on White House and Congressional Affairs in 2001, according to the same document.

If the old Worldwide Strategic Partners website is to be believed, Payne has accompanied Bush and Cheney on offical trips, as well as served as an advance man for them: "Currently, Mr. Payne assists the White House as a Senior Advance Representative traveling internationally in advance of and with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, including trips with President Bush to Jordan for the Red Sea Summit (Mid-East Peace Summit), and with Vice President Cheney to the Mid-East, Korea, Kazakhstan, and to Afghanistan for the historic swearing-in of President Hamid Karzai."

According to the same bio page and a WSP brochure obtained by the Sunday Times, Payne personally advised General Pervez Musharaff and helped secure billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan. I was able to confirm through public records that Payne was a registered lobbyist for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and a member of a lobbying group called Team Eagle (formerly known as Team Barakat).

Gary Polland

Republican heavyweights Gary Polland and Tim Powers served alongside Payne on Team Eagle. All three were registered foreign agents of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Another former member of Team Eagle and current member of Worldwide Strategic Partners is Brian Ettinger, a former legislative aide to Sen. Joe Biden. This is especially interesting because Biden's name came up in the influence-peddling sting operation.

When it comes to Republican bona fides, Polland's website bio says it all:
"Gary is on a first name basis with President Bush (he is called 'Chairman'), his political alliances are widespread from the White House, where he is friends with key Presidential assistants like Karl Rove to United States Senators Cornyn, Graham, Hutchison, and Kyl; and to House leaders like Eric Canter and Ted Poe. In Texas, Gary is an advisor to the GOP and its statewide office holders. Gary is also a key fundraiser for Republicans and is responsible for raising more than $3.35 million for Republican candidates and causes during the last ten years."

Polland is also a McCain fund raiser.

Tim Powers served Bush's Department of Commerce transition team in 2001. He's a former deputy director of legislative affairs for the Republican National Committee.

Payne's closest current ties to the executive branch appear to be through the Department of Homeland Security. According to the WSP brochure, Payne is a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council, the Rice/Chertoff Commission on Visas, and Border Protection, and the Essential Technologies Task Force of DHS.

Another of Payne's claims to fame is that he is one of Latvia's Honorary General Consuls to the United States.

Payne is also a founder and managing partner of Envion Worldwide, a D.C.-based globally networked investment firm that "works to acquire and consolidate natural gas, petroleum, alternative energy, and other power generating assets." Envion's senior advisor is none other than Frank Carlucci, chairman emeritus of the Carlyle Group.

Payne is a strategic limited partner in MSH Ventures and where Carlucci is senior advisor. Payne is a co-founder of Alliance & Co., which appears to be led by most of the same people as Envion and MSH, including Carlucci.

Carlucci and Payne both serve on the board of the National Defense University. Payne is also the president of a firm called Advanced Clean Air Technologies, which allegedly holds an exclusive NASA patent to scrub emissions from coal plants.

These preliminary findings are only scratching the surface of Stephen Payne's strange network of influence.

[Original reporting, please credit Lindsay Beyerstein.]

http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2008/07/stephen-payne-c.html
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Payne, Carlucci and a Nazi
Posted by Citoyen92

I did a LexNex search on Stephen P. Payne, using the address in Texas where Waxman sent his letter. Payne is, admittedly, a lobbyist, but he has his name attached to an unusually large number of active corporate registrations. At 5847 San Felipe, Suite 3275, Houston, Texas 77057, we find (all with Payne listed as at least one of the officers):

• Advanced Clean Air Technologies LLC
• Baltic American Energy Inc
• Baltic American Alliance LLC
• Caspian Alliance Inc
• CIMA Ranch Development LLC
• Strategic Political Partners Inc
• Universal Strategic Partners Inc
• Worldwide Capital Partners LLC
• Worldwide Capital Partners II LLC
• Worldwide Strategic Energy Inc

Separately, Payne also shows up as an officer, or principal of three firms, all with the same people listed and with very similar looking websites:
MSH Ventures: http://mshventures.com/payne.html

Alliance & C0
Envion International

All of these companies track back to a registered address at 1054 31st St, NW Suite 300, Washington, DC.

In all three, the same names appear in various leadership roles: Stephen P. Payne, Michael S. Han, Ying Wang, ex-Nazi soldier turned businessman W. Dieter Zander and Frank Carlucci.

That's right, Frank Carlucci. Former Secretary of Defense for Reagan. And grandaddy-godfather of Carlyle Group. Poppy Bush is VERY involved with Carlyle.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/homeland_security_advisor_who.php
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Worldwide Strategic Shakedown Partners
By Ken Silverstein
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/07/hbc-90003241

Make sure to read through all of the documents posted by the Sunday Times relating to the journalism sting it pulled on lobbyist Stephen Payne, which I linked to yesterday. The Times set up a meeting between Payne and “Eric Dos,” a man allegedly seeking to arrange an official Washington visit for Askar Akayev, the former president of Kyrgyzstan. In order to get meetings with high-ranking Bush Administration officials, Payne suggested “making a contribution to the Bush library. It would be like, maybe a couple of hundred thousand dollars, or something like that.”

The Times posted a glossy confidential brochure for Payne’s firm, Worldwide Strategic Partners, which detailed its alleged prior activities on behalf of the government of Azerbaijan. In it, Worldwide Strategic claims to have worked with “members of the Helsinki Commission to reduce the negative language in the U.S. press release” following elections in Azerbaijan that were widely condemned as fraudulent; and implemented “an aggressive media campaign to discredit the Azeri opposition.”

The brochure also says it worked closely with a number of people to “boost positive U.S . public perception about Azerbaijan,” including: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison; A. Elizabeth Jones, a former State Department official and now a lobbyist at APCO Associates (I wrote about her for my undercover story on lobbyists for Harper’s last year); and Gary Bauer, the leader from the Christian right (whose name was misspelled in the brochure). The Times also posted great video footage of the meeting with Payne.

The question remains of when The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz will denounce the Sunday Times. For Kurtz, undercover reporting is always wrong since “no matter how good the story, lying to get it raises as many questions about journalists as their subjects.”–even if the subject is brazenly seeking to sell access to the U.S. government.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/07/hbc-90003241
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Select Biographies of the Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc. Team:

Major General Lincoln Jones, III (USA Ret.)

Chairman, Advisory Board for Worldwide Strategic Energy and Chairman of Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc.

Major General Lincoln Jones, III (USA Ret.) retired from the Army as Deputy Commanding General U.S. Army V Corps, Germany where he was Deputy to the Former Secretary of State General Colin Powell. During his career, he also served as Commanding General, U.S. Army's Southern European Task Force. His list of service includes: Vietnam, Turkey, Korea, Italy, Panama, West Germany, and Hawaii.

Following his Army career, General Jones was a key executive at Enron where he served as President of Enron Power Corp. (1991-98); Vice Chairman, Enron Europe (1996-98); and President, Enron Engineering & Construction (1993-96). During that time, he developed sixteen and operated eighteen power plants throughout the world. He also managed the maintenance of 43,000 miles of gas pipeline located in the United States. Since retiring from Enron in 1998, he has acted as a consultant for energy, military and geopolitical issues.

General Jones is a current Member of the Board of the Association of the U.S. Army, Washington D.C., (Vice Chairman); the Council on Foreign Relations; the National Defense University Foundation (Vice Chairman); and the World Affairs Council of Houston (Chair 1993-96).

Dick Westfahl

Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations of Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc.

Dick Westfahl is a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy Annapolis in Maryland and the U. S Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA with an M. S. in Oceanography.

Mr. Westfahl has served as Executive Vice President of National Energy Production Company (NEPCO); President of Raytheon Environmental Services Company, a subsidiary of Raytheon Engineers & Constructors Company; Regional Director of Business Development for Harding Lawson Associates, an environmental engineering and consulting firm; and Vice President-Deputy Manager of Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation. He was also Managing Director for Enron Engineering and Construction Company (EECC) from 1997 to 2001.

Mr. Westfahl is a retired U.S. Naval Officer with experience in various leadership positions for the U.S. Navy, including that of Commanding Officer of a nuclear submarine.

Brian Ettinger

Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc. and Worldwide Strategic Energy

Brian Ettinger is a practicing attorney representing domestic and international clients in energy, oil and gas development, exploration, drilling and pipeline product and natural gas development, bio diesel and alternative fuels projects. Mr. Ettinger is experienced in the areas of business litigation, contract formation and general corporate business matters. He also serves as in-house counsel to Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc. in additon to serving on the Board of Directors for various affiliated companies.

Mr. Ettinger served on the Board of Pacific Texas Corporation, the developer of a natural gas and products pipeline from Texas to Arizona and Nevada. Mr. Ettinger has performed legal services in the sports, entertainment, and gaming industries and was an advisor and an official registered lobbyist for the Government of Pakistan from the summer of 2001 to fall 2004. Previously, Brian Ettinger served as Legislative Director for Senator Joseph Biden (Ranking Member, Senate Foreign Relations), as a Staff Assistant for U.S. House Majority Leadership, and as an Assistant to the Mayor of Philadelphia.

Stephen P. Payne

President of Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc., President of WSE Governmental Affairs

Payne is an accomplished governmental and international affairs consultant with vast experience as a corporate and political advisor and foreign diplomat. His extensive clientele roster ranges from large international corporations, including Morgan-Stanley, Nextel Communications, Yukos Oil, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, to serving NASA as a Senior Advisor and guiding diplomatic negotiations for foreign heads of state in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Mr. Payne has established strong diplomatic relationships with top officials in the U.S. and internationally, with particular emphasis on relations with and projects in Pakistan, U.A.E ., Iraq, Libya, Turkey, Azerbaijan, India, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Russia and China, as well as leading energy security talks for the NATO Summit.

He began his career in government and politics in the late 1980s in the Texas State Senate. During the 1988 Bush for President Campaign, Payne served as George W. Bush's travel aide, (son of the Vice President).

In 1993, Mr. Payne subsequently worked on the special election campaign for then State Treasurer Kay Hutchison. After Ms. Hutchison's election to the United States Senate, he served as the State Director of Special Projects and Deputy Director of the Southeast Texas region for Senator Hutchison.

In addition, Payne is currently the Honorary Consul General for the Republic of Latvia, and is part of Latvia's Diplomatic Corps in the United States. He serves as Latvia's official diplomatic liaison to the South Central region of the United States, working closely with the leadership and is one of the chief US advisors to President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.

Payne is also a Senior Presidential Advance Representative and travels regularly with President Bush. Mr. Payne accompanied President Bush to Jordan for the Red Sea Summit in June 2003 and to Europe in 2001. In 2002, he traveled with Vice President Cheney to the Middle East and Afghanistan for the historic inauguration of Afghan President Karzai.

Payne is a Board Member of the National Defense University Foundation. He is also a Republican National Finance Committee Member and is also Head of the Foreign Policy Committee for Presidential Campaign of Rudy Guiliani.

In July 2007, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff appointed Mr. Payne to the Homeland Security Advisory Council Board.

Gary M. Polland

Consultant to Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc.

Gary Polland has been a practicing attorney for more than 30 years. His practice is a mix of government relations for Texas Strategies and trial work where he is Board Certified in Civil Trial law. Gary has a distinguished record of obtaining favorable results for his clients. In addition, he served as Republican Chairman in Harris County Texas from 1996 to 2002 being overwhelmingly elected each time. As chairman, he earned national recognition for the party's success and for his Republican Party building efforts in such publications as Human Events, the national conservative weekly the American Spectator, the Houston Chronicle and Inside Houston Magazine.

Gary is on a first name basis with President Bush (he is called "Chairman"), his political alliances are widespread from the White House, where he is friends with key Presidential assistants like Karl Rove to United States Senators Cornyn, Graham, Hutchison, and Kyl; and to House leaders like Eric Canter and Ted Poe. In Texas, Gary is an advisor to the GOP and its statewide office holders. Gary is also a key fundraiser for Republicans and is responsible for raising more than $3.35 million for Republican candidates and causes during the last ten years.

Gary's a committed community and national leader. He has served locally as a member of the Executive Committee of the Community Relations Commission and in January 2006 was the leader of the Texas Legislative Mission to Israel. Gary also serves on the national boards of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Jewish Policy Center (a conservative Washington, D.C. think tank, along with such conservatives like William Kristol, Michael Medved), the board of Susan B. Anthony List (a pro-life political action committee). Most recently Gary was appointed as one of the leaders of the United Jewish Communities - Human Services and Social Policy Pillar.

Gary received his Bachelor Degree in Business Administration and his Juris Doctor at the University of Texas. While there, Gary was named a Cactus Outstanding Student, a College of Business Administration Outstanding Student and was a member of the Friars Honor Society. He has been married to the former Esther Slipakoff for 33 years and they have two sons. He served in the United States Air Force and Army reserves and he received an honorable discharge at the rank of E-7.

In 1997, Gary was named "Elected Official of the Year" by the Republic National Hispanic Assembly and in 2002 received the Tuff Tusk award from the National Federation of Pachyderm Clubs and was named Reaganite of the Year by the Reagan Alumni Association.

Gary is author of a book titled "A Time for Choosing 35 Years Later" an update of President Reagan's classic speech and is currently editor of Texas Conservative Review, a bi-weekly E-letter and co-hosts The Connection - Red, White and Blue on PBS in Houston.

Jim Arnold

Consultant to Worldwide Strategic Partners, Inc.

Jim Arnold has broad political and public policy experience, both in Texas and nationally, and has used that experience to build a successful public affairs consulting business, Jim Arnold & Associates. Jim opened his firm after managing the successful 1998 Lieutenant Governor campaign for current Governor Rick Perry, the first Republican elected Lt. Governor since Reconstruction.

Named by political industry magazine Campaigns and Elections Magazine in August 2002 as a "Mover and Shaker," Jim is a frequent speaker at campaign seminars around the country and travels extensively overseas to teach campaign techniques to emerging democracies.

Jim's past and current public affairs client list includes major corporations such as UPS, as well as non-profit organizations such as Goodwill Industries, hospitals and city and state government entities.

From 1990 to 1994, Jim was involved in national politics in Washington D.C., working for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). Since the mid-80s, Jim has worked in numerous statewide political campaigns in Texas, as well as in statewide and congressional campaigns throughout the country.

Before entering politics, he worked for the Texas Legislative Budget Board and the Texas Governor's Office. He has a Masters of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. from Texas A & M University.

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