Gallagher to Flack for Saudis

The Gallagher Group, headed by Republican policy analyst Jamie Gallagher, has signed a $300,000, one-year deal to assist Qorvis Communications in its PR work for the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Gallagher will provide "public policy advice, assistance in writing briefing papers and conduct meetings with Congressional and White House staff members on behalf of Saudi Arabia." The February O'Dwyer's PR Services Report (print version) has a lengthy piece about Qorvis's PR work for the Saudi Kingdom, for which it received "a staggering $14.6 million during its latest six-month federal reporting period." Although Saudi Arabia is formally an ally in the Bush Administration's "war on terrorism," some of its most scathing critics have been conservatives like Wall Street Journal editorialist William McGurn and Republican Congressman Dan Burton, who says the "activities of such 'propagandists'" should be "subject to the 'spotlight of pitiless publicity' so that the American people may be fully informed of the identity of the propagandists and the nature of the activities they undertake on behalf of their foreign masters."