American Greek and Cypriot organisations are furious with the US news outlet Daily Beast, which slammed the International Coordinating Committee: Justice for Cyprus (Pseka) for holding its 34th annual conference at the Trump hotel in Washington suggesting all kinds of devious motives linked to special room rates.
“A deputy assistant US secretary of state addressed paying guests from behind a Trump Hotels-branded lectern, mayors of occupied Cypriot towns and a Greek member of parliament attended under clouds of emoluments concerns, and the spectre of Robert Mueller’s investigation weighed over the proceedings,” said the article written by Zach Everson.
Everson was referring to the deputy assistant European and Eurasian affairs secretary, Jonathan Cohen who attended part of the conference and was given an award. Cyprus comes under Cohen’s purview, and he was on the island on an official visit only last month.
“Cohen addressed attendees from behind a lectern bearing the Trump Hotels logo,” the Daily Beast article said.
The comment subsequently left the state department scrambling to make sure everyone knew Cohen did not spend any money at the Trump hotel. A Democrat senator at the event also had to do the same. She too was lambasted for speaking from a Trump-inspired podium.
The Daily Beast describes its political stance as “nonpartisan but not neutral”. One of its contributors posted an article in 2016, wrongly smearing several well-known liberal journalists as “Hillary Clinton-Loathing, Donald Trump-Loving Useful Idiots”.
Everson went on: “When the government officials are from another country though, the concerns aren’t about impressions but rather pertain to possible Constitutional violations.”
He said at least three foreign government officials attended the Justice for Cyprus event though when this tidbit was boiled down, it amounted to Greek Cypriot mayors of two towns in the north, and a Greek MP.
Philip Christopher, the president of Pseka was furious. “The article is completely misleading” he told CNA. “It misrepresents the facts. The truth of the matter is that we were all US citizens and only four guests weren’t. The mayors of Karavas and Lefkonoiko, the presidential commissioner for Cypriots abroad and a member of the Greek parliament. They were there to brief and educate the US citizens who were conference participants, not to influence any policymakers.”
Christopher also denied that Pseka was “trying to buy” influence with the Trump administration, noting that the author did not seem to have done his homework on the history of the Pseka conference, which had been held at many different Washington hotels over the past 34 years.
“Most of the conferences were held at the Madison Hotel and at the Willard Hotel which was very expensive, because they were charging us $499 per room. The Trump Hotel offered us $324 per night, a rate very competitive compared to the other hotels and it’s a very nice hotel,” he said.
“The Daily Beast acknowledges in its story that the price was very competitive… but, they cite as possible reason for choosing it, the role of Cyprus to Muller’s Russia probe,” he added.
Indeed, the title of the article is: ‘Delegation from Mueller-scrutinised Cyprus gets sweet deal at Trump’s DC hotel’.
“What makes Cyprus different from other foreign countries whose government entities have patronised the Trump hotel is its role in the Russia probe,” says Everson. “Banks on the small island nation… have come under outsized scrutiny from Mueller” and that the special counsel is investigating “flows of money into the Cyprus bank account of a company that specialised in social-media manipulation and whose founder reportedly met with Donald Trump Jr”.
“These predicaments give champions of Cyprus a possible incentive to want to do business with Trump,” it added.
Pseka is preparing a response letter. “Hopefully they will have the decency to publish it,” Christopher said.
The post Sinister Trump motives linked to Cypriot diaspora meeting appeared first on Cyprus Mail.
Read more → https://cyprus-mail.com/2018/06/21/sinister-trump-motives-linked-to-cypriot-diaspora-meeting/
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