Beginning in late February 2022, four pro bono FARA filings were logged at the Department of Justice in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a massive invasion of Ukraine—his second invasion of the country in under ten years. As images and video of the carnage and destruction poured into the living rooms and smartphones all across America, it is perhaps not surprising that firms and individuals tapped by Ukrainian government agencies to work on their behalf chose to do so without charge. After all, war is hell, and even small acts of charity can go a long way.
But in the war-torn country of Yemen, American firms have no qualms charging significant sums of money for their services, according to their FARA filings, despite the desperate situation facing the entire nation, particularly a catastrophic famine.
By focusing on the last several years, beginning in 2018, we will see that U.S. registrants charged Yemeni principals large sums for their services—despite the worsening famine conditions and wartime violence—while Ukrainian principals were not charged once the war escalated there.
The biggest Yemeni contract came in April 2019, when the Embassy of the Government of Yemen hired MSLGroup Americas, LLC Qorvis for $60,000 per month (p.3). The specific services provided are not stated in the documents but one Exhibit file summarizes the deal as “providing public relations services” and that the details were not finalized (p.3).
In February 2022, Dr. Ahmed Ali Atef filed retroactively with FARA for consulting and advising services to the Southern Transitional Council (STC), a secessionist government authority in Yemen, for $3,000 per month (p.5). Tully Rinckey, PLLC registered on September 30, 2021 after being hired by Yemen’s Ministry of Defense for a $3,000 advance fee plus standard hourly rates (p.12).
In December 2018, Grassroots Political Consulting LLC and the STC terminated early a contract that had the STC paying $15,000 per month. The settlement of the contract had the STC pay $120,000 instead of the $150,000 that would have been due in paid per the monthly installments (p.3).
Three Yemen filings did not disclose the contract values, but that should be taken to mean they were pro bono. The registrants may have offered their services for no charge, but without documentation, it is impossible to say so. Yet, the language used in many of these Yemeni filings suggest a situation no less desperate than the current situation in Ukraine.
One filing from 2021, on behalf of the STC, states that the objective of the principal is, in part, to “alleviate the suffering of the South-Yemeni people” (p.2) and another STC-related filing from the same month requests the registrant “solicit support for the STC and the people of South Yemen to regain their sovereignty and independence” (p.10). The Ukrainian filings show no similar language of desperation.
Why this discrepancy would arise is a complex question, but the answer starts with the simple fact that the wars in Ukraine and Yemen are very different conflicts, even if they bare some similarities.
Perhaps the biggest difference is that while the Putin’s war in Ukraine involves two sides, the invader and the defender, the war in Yemen is a messy, multi-sided civil war. To briefly illustrate this, consider that in addition to the Yemeni central government, which is heavily dependent on Saudi Arabia, there is also a sometimes-allied-but-rival government body, known as the Southern Transitional Council that fights many of the same enemies as the central government but also sees itself as an independent entity and is supported by the United Arab Emirates. A peace deal between these two factions began to fray in mid-2021. These groups are both fighting, among others, against Al Qaeda elements in the country and the Houthis, backed by Iran.
Yemen, like Ukraine, became the country we recognize on the map in the 1990s. But unlike Ukraine, Yemen was formed by the fusion of two distinct countries—one in the south known as the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, a British protectorate until 1967, and a Soviet client state by 1970, and the Yemen Arab Republic just to the north. The country quickly devolved into a civil war in 1994.
The complexity of the war in Yemen may provide the crux of the answer we are looking for, but the war in Yemen also has a less direct or immediate impact on the United States. War in Ukraine directly threatens NATO members, and thus, the United States. Yemen has been an economic backwater for decades and is one of the poorest countries in the world whereas Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest food exporters. The war in Ukraine could worsen the famine in Yemen as the war drags on as Ukrainian farmers fight off Putin’s invasion when they would normally farm.
But just as Russia’s war in Ukraine has forced over four million Ukrainians to flee their homes, roughly 10 percent of the entire population, Yemen’s civil war has itself forced more than four million to abandon their homes, and according to the UN Refugee Agency, over twenty million are in need of humanitarian aid.
For some, these numbers may speak for themselves. Yet, our political proximity, to the war over Ukraine, and its potential to spill into NATO territory, places it front and center for Americans working in this arena. But the material reality of both wars might be worth a second thought for FARA registrants working on behalf of Yemeni principals for hefty fees.
Be sure to check back next week for another installment of the FARA Files.
