The European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center (ESISC) is a self-described think tank and lobbying group dealing with issues related to terrorism and security. ESISC notes on its website that its "lobbying operations can defend an industrial portfolio, the economic opening of a new market, or the political interests of a state."[1]

It is operated by Claude Moniquet, a French right-wing[2] journalist, who is known for his connections with Azerbaijani caviar diplomacy and receiving financial means to promote Azerbaijani interests.[3]

History, and overview

ESISC was founded in April 2002 by Claude Moniquet. In 2019, the ESISC website listed staff members from Russia, Morocco, Italy, and Belgium.

In August 2007, the Belgian Ministry of the Interior renounced the advisory services of ESISC accusing Claude Moniquet of embezzlement and illegal possession of arms.[4]

In 2018, Claude Moniquet announced that ESISC had entered into a collaboration with the Washington Strategic Intelligence Center (WSIC), "a new American think-tank."[5] According to its founders, all of whom are Moroccan, WSIC "follows the road traced by our King, His Majesty Mohammed VI, may God glorify his rule."[6]

Moniquet and his colleagues at ESISC promote controversial theories claiming that George Soros controls an international conspiracy through which "he wants to destabilize sovereign states in order to impose his agenda and defend his financial interests." In a 2017 report, ESISC warns that "Soros-financed 'destabilisation operations'" are targeting numerous states, including Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Macedonia, and Serbia.[7]

Election observers

Representatives of ESISC participated in 2013 Azerbaijani presidential elections and 2015 parliamentary elections as observers. They evaluated the elections positively and criticized the assessments of the OSCE/ODIHR mission, in which the elections were recognized as inappropriate to democratic norms.[8]

According to the “Freedom Files Analytical Center”, ESISC lobbies for Azerbaijan's interests and provides services of “false observers,” whose task is to participate in the elections of autocratic states as observers, inform on a democratic vote, and criticize the OSCE/ ODIHR observation mission.[8]

According to Robert Coalson (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty), ESISC is a part of Baku's lobbying efforts to use analytical centers to change public opinion about Azerbaijan.[9]

Report on Western Sahara

In 2005 and again in 2008[10] and 2010[11] [12] ESISC issued reports on Western Sahara that dovetailed closely with official Moroccan views and claimed that there existed a link between Al Qaeda and the nationalist group Polisario, which seeks Western Sahara's independence from Morocco. Western Sahara expert Jacob Mundy described ESISC's publications as "think tank reports paid for by the [Moroccan] royal palace" to discredit Polisario.[13]

Le Journal Hebdomadaire, a leading Moroccan independent weekly, published an article critical of the first ESISC report and noted that it reflected the official views of the Moroccan government. Moniquet then sued the newspaper in a Moroccan court, which ordered Le Journal Hebdomadaire to pay him 360,000 dollars.[14] Unable to pay the fine, Le Journal Hebdomadaire was closed, in what Mundy termed the conclusion of a "successful five-year campaign to drive one of [Morocco's] few independent media voices out of existence".[15] According to Moroccan journalists, this was the largest-ever fine against the media in Morocco, and the Committee to Protect Journalists noted major irregularities in the trial.[16] Another press freedom organization, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), described the trial as “politically motivated and unfair.”[17] Human Rights Watch also voiced concern over the trial,[18] while Freedom House termed the lawsuit "a politically motivated effort to bankrupt the magazine."[19]

Social anthropologist of the Sahara Desert, Konstantina Isidoros, said that in both 2005 and 2008, ESISC issued two near-identical reports proclaiming distorted truths that Polisario is evolving to new fears terrorism, radical Islamism or international crime. According Isidoros "lies appear to play some peculiar importance in this report"[20]

The report “Republic of Azerbaijan: a model of good governance”

A month before the 2013 Azerbaijani presidential elections, ESISC issued a report entitled “The Republic of Azerbaijan: a model of good governance”.[21] According to Robert Coalson, a correspondent of Radio Free Europe, the "haphazardly edited" and "ungrammatical" report praised the stable social welfare" and the situation for women and religious minorities in Azerbaijan. Noting that the ESISC website advertises "customized reports, analysis, and [...] briefings responding exactly to the needs of each client in his or her sector of activity," Coalson accused ESISC of operating as a "front" for Azerbaijan."[9]

Syria, Rifaat al-Assad, and Russia

ESISC has also worked on behalf of members of the al-Assad family, producing a laudatory report in 2010 that portrayed Ribal al-Assad (a cousin of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) as a leader of the Syrian opposition and a "democratic alternative" struggling for human rights. Ribal is the son of Rifaat al-Assad, brother of former Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad. According to France 24, Rifaat al-Assad personally oversaw the 1982 Hama massacre,[22] and Human Rights Watch reports that he ordered "the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 1,000 prisoners" during a single day in 1980.[23]

By 2019, ESISC had scrubbed the 2010 report from its website.[24] However, another report by Claude Moniquet from 2011 that similarly highlights Ribal al-Assad remained on the website.[25]

The report “The Armenian Connection”

See also: Caviar diplomacy

On March 6, 2017, ESISC published the report “The Armenian Connection,” which leveled severe accusations against a number of NGOs specializing in human rights protection or researching human rights abuses and corruption in Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia. ESISC claimed that these organisations aim to create a network of PACE deputies, who will participate in a political war against Azerbaijan.[26] This network included the then member of PACE Christoph Strässer (Germany), Frank Schwabe (Germany), Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands), René Rouquet (France), François Rochebloine (France) and others. The report stated that Strässer and Schwabe were, within the SPD, the main actors of a campaign promoting the recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide, and Pieter Omtzigt had close connections with the Armenian lobby in Netherlands. René Rouquet was the President of the French-Armenian friendship socialist parliamentary group; François Rochebloine presided the “France-Karabakh” Circle, and was active in organizing “solidarity” trips to the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia. [26]

A follow-up report published on April 18 claimed that the anti-Azerbaijani network included a number of prime ministers of European countries, Armenian officials, and public organizations: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Human Rights House Foundation, Open Dialog, European Stability Initiative, Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, etc. According to the report, this anti-Azerbaijani network is funded by the Soros Foundation to serve the interests of George Soros and Armenia. ESISC also alleged that the Soros network targets other nations, such as Russia and Hungary.[27]

According to the Freedom Files Analytical Center, the ESISC report is propaganda and seeks to stop criticism of lobbying and corruption.[8] The European Stability Initiative stated that “the ESISC report is full of lies”.[28]

References

  1. ^ L'opposition syrienne a-t-elle les moyens de ses ambitions ESISC: About Us, ESISC website.
  2. ^ "Elections 2019: Claude Moniquet emmènera la Liste Destexhe au parlement bruxellois", Le Soir, 12 March 2019
  3. ^ AN EXPLORATION INTO AZERBAIJAN’S SOPHISTICATED SYSTEM OF PROJECTING ITS INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE, BUYING WESTERN POLITICIANS AND CAPTURING INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS // Freedom Files Analytical Centre (Civic Solidarity Platform), March 2017
  4. ^ “Greenpeace accuse Electrabel d'espionnage”, RTBF Info, 20 mai 2009
  5. ^ Claude Moniquet, ESISC and WSIC: transatlantic cooperation for two think-tanks, ESISC, 4 July 2018
  6. ^ 5 questions aux fondateurs du Washington Strategic Intelligence Center, Portail de l'IE, 6 July 2018
  7. ^ Claude Moniquet, William Racimora, and Genovefa Etienne, The Armenian Connection: Chapter 2, ESISC, 2017,
  8. ^ a b c AN EXPLORATION INTO AZERBAIJAN’S SOPHISTICATED SYSTEM OF PROJECTING ITS INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE, BUYING WESTERN POLITICIANS AND CAPTURING INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS // Freedom Files Analytical Centre (Civic Solidarity Platform), March 2017
  9. ^ a b Baku Smooths Over Its Rights Record With A Thick Layer Of Caviar // Radio Free Europe, November 08, 2013
  10. ^ Claude Moniquet, "Front Polisario : une force de déstabilisation régionale toujours active", October 2008 (English version
  11. ^ Claude Moniquet (under the direction of), "THE POLISARIO FRONT AND THE IRA - Two approaches to the process of negotiation", October 2010
  12. ^ Claude Moniquet, "The Polisario Front and the development of terrorism in the Sahel, 3 May 2010
  13. ^ Jacob Mundy, Failed States. Ungoverned Areas, and Safe Havens: The Terrorizaton of the Western Sahara Peace Process // Fonkem Achankeng. Nationalism and Intra-State Conflicts in the Postcolonial World. Lexington Books, 2015, ISBN 1498500269, 9781498500265. Pp.139-140. "Decades later, substitute "'Al-Qaeda" for "Communism" and the discourse is essentially the same. One of the first major salvos in the Moroccan offensive to link Polisario to Al-Qaeda was a series of think tank reports paid for by the royal palace (Moniquet, 2005, 2008). When a Moroccan newsmagazine, Le Journal hebdomadaire (December 9, 2005), dared expose the fact that the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Institute was being paid to tar and feather Polisario, thus began the regime's successful five-year campaign to drive one of the few independent media voices out of existence. Morocco even enlisted its academic voices to aid in the terrorization of the Western Sahara peace process by linking Al-Qaeda to Polisario. "
  14. ^ "Morocco: Pioneer of independent press silenced amid censorship worries". Los Angeles Times. 16 February 2010. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
  15. ^ Mundy, ibid.
  16. ^ Courts, press law undermine Moroccan press freedoms // Committee to Protect Journalists, April 6, 2007. "In April 2006, the Rabat Court of Appeals upheld record damages against the independent newsweekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire in a defamation suit brought by Claude Moniquet, head of the Brussels-based European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center. A lower court had awarded 3 million dirhams (US$359,700) in damages to Moniquet, who said Le Journal Hebdomadaire had defamed him in a six-page critique questioning the independence of his think tank’s report on the disputed Western Sahara, which was annexed by Morocco three decades ago. The damages were the largest ever for a press defamation suit in Morocco, according to Moroccan journalists. Jamaï’s lawyers were prevented from calling expert witnesses, and the judge never provided an explanation for how he arrived at the extensive damages."
  17. ^ Mise à mort du Journal Hebdomadaire : une semaine pour payer trois millions de dirhams de dommages et intérêts Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine, Reporters sans frontières, 23 December 2006
  18. ^ A record libel judgment against Le Journal , Human Rights Watch, May 2006
  19. ^ "Freedom House: Freedom of the Press 2007 - Morocco". Archived from the original on 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2019-01-26.
  20. ^ Konstantina Isidoros. Western Sahara and the United States’ geographical imaginings // ACAS Concerned Africa Scholars, BULLETIN N°85 - SPRING 2010
  21. ^ William Racimora (ESISC's Vice-CEO), The Republic of Azerbaijan: A model of good governance, 9 September 2013
  22. ^ 'The enforcer' who heads Syria’s dreaded army division France 24, 1 March 2012
  23. ^ A Wasted Decade: Human Rights in Syria during Bashar al-Asad’s First Ten Years in Power Human Rights Watch, 16 July 2010
  24. ^ L'opposition syrienne a-t-elle les moyens de ses ambitions ? ESISC, archived introduction, 2010
  25. ^ Claude Moniquet, The situation in Syria: an assessment, ESISC, 15 April 2011
  26. ^ a b "The Armenian Connection: How a secret caucus of MPs and NGOs, since 2012, created a network within the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to hide violations of international law". www.esisc.org. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  27. ^ "The Armenian Connection. Chapter 2: " Mr X ", Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights". www.esisc.org. Retrieved 2017-04-26.
  28. ^ Merchants of Doubt or investigating Corruption // ESI, 21 April 2017
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