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DOJ Probes Saudi Ad Campaign

The Department of Justice is looking into charges that the government of Saudi Arabia, working with a top-tier Washington public-relations firm, deceptively financed an ad campaign touting Crown Prince Abdullah's plan for peace in the Middle East. Federal prosecutors want to determine whether the Saudi Embassy's PR firm--Qorvis Communications--made false statements and violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1938 law that requires full disclosure of foreign-sponsored propaganda in the United States. The probe into the 2002 radio campaign, which was paid for by a group called the Alliance for Peace and Justice, led to an FBI raid on the DC offices of Qorvis, a firm that started representing the Saudis in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, which were carried out largely by citizens of the oil-rich country. The Qorvis raid came just a fortnight after the FBI went in to raid the offices of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), in what has been described as part of an espionage investigation of a Pentagon official associated with the group.

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