President says Obama appointment of holdouts lobbyist to government post is a ‘state issue’ Relations between Buenos Aires and Washington — already going through a low point — look set to undergo further turbulence as President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has asked US President Barack Obama to clarify if he had appointed someone to a US government position who was also part of the American Task Force Argentina (ATFA) lobby group.

Saturday, November 1, 2014

CFK blasts Obama for ‘vulture’ official

Nancy Soderberg speaks at the Current Strategies Forum of the United States Naval War College.

President says Obama appointment of holdouts lobbyist to government post is a ‘state issue’

Relations between Buenos Aires and Washington — already going through a low point — look set to undergo further turbulence as President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has asked US President Barack Obama to clarify if he had appointed someone to a US government position who was also part of the American Task Force Argentina (ATFA) lobby group.

Fernández de Kirchner may have couched her language, warning of “grave implications” for bilateral relations, but there is no doubt about the answer — yes, it is the same person.

Nancy Soderberg is also a co-chair of ATFA, the lobby group that represents the interests of holdout creditors such as Elliott Management, itself linked to the NML Capital hedge fund that have engaged in a years-long dispute with Argentina over defaulted debt that was the product of the 2001 economic collapse.

Nancy Soderberg is also the chair of the Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB), a position she has held since 2012.

The PIDB is an advisory committee established by Congress in 2000, to promote the fullest possible public access to significant US national security decisions and activities.

According to the letter, dated October 30 but only made public yesterday, Fernández de Kirchner asks President Obama to clarify if indeed the two Soderbergs are one and the same while also stressing that there would be “grave implications” if that were confirmed.

Although Fernández de Kirchner expressed hope that the matter was related to namesakes, a simple review of the profiles for the Nancy Soderberg of the PIDB and the Nancy Soderberg reveal they are the same, a fact confirmed by people who have worked with the lobby group.

The US State Department yesterday did not respond to a request for comment.

‘Inadmissible’

The letter in no uncertain terms asserts that the Nancy Soderberg that is known to be part of ATFA, has “conducted a defamatory and slanderous campaign of unprecedented proportions against the people and authorities of my country and specifically against myself, with a view to damaging the Argentine Republic for the benefit of a handful of vulture funds that seek to make exorbitant profits while curtailing the sovereign right of my country to restructure its external debt.”

The holdout creditors, often called “vulture funds,” have sought repayment in full on bonds that were defaulted in 2001. The hedge funds leading the legal fight against Argentina have staunchly refused to enter into the debt swaps offered in 2005 and 2010 that were accepted by almost 93 percent of bondholders.

The holdout creditors, led by Elliott Management and Aurelius Capital, have obtained a positive decision from Judge Thomas Griesa, who said Argentina cannot service its restructured debt without also paying the holdouts. The move led to an embargo on US$539 million that Buenos Aires has distributed to restructured creditors.

ATFA has led an increasingly virulent campaign seeking payment, harshly criticizing Fernández de Kirchner and her government through newspaper advertisements placed around the world.

For the president, the slanderous campaigns carried out by the lobbying group “would become a question of state if they were carried out by a government official. That would be the case if the ATFA officer were to be the same person working in the White House and this were not a mere case of namesakes.”

The PIDB has access to classified US government files and archives and it is mandated to provide recommendations to the US president on the suitability of dissemination and declassification of those materials when it is in the public interest. Those materials include information about US national security decisions, prompting Fernández de Kirchner to emphasize that it would be “inadmissible” for the same person to be leading the PIDB while also participating in an organization “devoted to attacking and defaming in the worst possible terms a sovereign nation that wishes to have productive relations with your country.”

Recent turbulence

The letter fit within a recent trend of turbulent relations between the Argentine and US government that have revolved around the legal battle with the holdouts and the role the US legal system has played in the issue.

During an address to the United Nations General Assembly in late September, the president firmly placed the strategy employed by the vulture funds within the US legal system, noting that “today, Argentina with the complicity of the legal system of this country, is being harassed by these vulture funds.” She also accused the funds of “carrying out a formidable lobby” against her in the US Congress, painting her as an ally of the Islamic Republic of Iran at a time of political tensions between Teheran and Washington.

Those accusations were followed up only days later when the president said during a national broadcast that “if something were to happen to me, don’t look toward the (Middle) East — look North,” uttering the words shortly after referring to a supposed plot against her by the ISIS terrorist group that has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria.

Instead of escalating tensions, the US diplomatic response sought to play down the comments, restricting itself to a statement from US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson which recognize a “tough period” in relations between Argentina and the US.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman had threatened to declare US Chargé d’Affaires in Buenos Aires Kevin Sullivan a persona non grata for any further “intrusions” after the Argentine government considered that Sullivan had made comments about the country’s battles with the holdouts that amounted to improper meddling in Argentine domestic affairs.

Furthermore, the US has not backed any of the United Nations resolutions that have called for negotiations toward the establishment of a new multilateral legal framework for the resolution of sovereign debt disputes that have been sponsored by Argentina or its diplomatic allies.

Nonetheless, the strongly-worded request for clarification also included an overture for dialogue between Buenos Aires and Washington at the sidelines of the upcoming G20 summit to be held in Brisbane, Australia starting on November 15.

Fernández de Kirchner has labelled the summit “a good opportunity to work together against the vulture funds, to strengthen the restructuring of sovereign debt and to eliminate tax havens.”

Herald staff