Malcolm Wallop

Malcolm Wallop was the founder of Frontiers of Freedom, and was a Republican Senator from 1977-1995. Prior to this he was a member of the Wyoming house of representatives 1969-1972 and a member of Wyoming senate 1973-1976 ^[1]. Wallop had close connections to the George W. Bush Administration. He was seen as a friend of current Vice-president Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld spoke at FoF conferences. Freedom staff were invited to private briefings with President Bush on issues such as Kyoto.

Wallop himself was an ultra conservative rancher from Wyoming, who worked on tax reform, federal deregulation, energy policy, private property rights, and national defense. He was also a die-hard opponent of gun control. One of his nicknames amongst green activists was “strip-mine”.

Wallop sat on the boards of Hubbell Inc, El Paso Energy Company, and Sheridan State Bank ^[2]. In the 2006 Senate lobbying records, Malcolm Wallop was a registered lobbyist for Sherritt International, receiving $72,000 in lobbying income. Sherritt is a diversified Canadian natural resource company that operates in Canada, Cuba and internationally. He waw also listed as the lobbyist (in fact he was Chairman) for the Western Strategy Group, working for Belle Haven Consultants ^[3].

Western Strategy Group

The Western Strategy Group is a New York- and Washington, D.C.-based public relations and government affairs firm. In 2002, Western Strategy undertook a due diligence exercise on behalf of the Itera Group of Companies, which are a privately held conglomerate with 80 percent of its principal activity in natural gas production, transportation and marketing. The company controls natural gas reserves half the size of ExxonMobil’s ^[4]. In 1999, Western Strategy Group’s clients included Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, under attack about human rights abuses and lack of democracy.

Wallop spoke at the 1997 Wise Use Fly-in for Freedom along with Republican Richard Pombo. Also that year, Ebell is given as the press contact at Frontiers of Freedom for the launch of Ron Arnold’s book “Ecoterror – the Violent Agenda to Save Nature”, issued by the Centre for the Defence of Free Enterprise. In 2001 FoF held another “Eco-Terror” conference with Ron Arnold.

Affiliations

• Heritage Foundation
• Frontiers of Freedom Institute
• Center for Security Policy
• Tech Central Science Foundation
• Western Strategy Group

References

1. ^ US Congress Malcolm Wallop Biography, Accessed 21st August 2007.
2. ^ ExxonSecrets Malcolm Wallop Biography, Accessed 21st August 2007.
3. ^ OpenSecrets Lobbyists, Malcolm Wallop, Accessed 21st August 2007.
4. ^ PR NewsWire Western strategy group announces completion of due diligence investigation for ITERA executives, Accessed 21st August 2007.