Thread by @Lily__Ray

🧵Who is Brenda Shaffer?
#DontBeShaffer

@RFERL "ran a piece shedding light on Brenda Shaffer, a visiting researcher at Georgetown University who has used the media to promote the 🇦🇿i government as a partner of the West without disclosing that she had served in the past as a SOCAR advisor."
foreignpolicy.com/2014/12/06/the…

"The rise of Brenda Shaffer as a scholar and oft-quoted expert in the field of energy politics illustrates just how vulnerable the American foreign policy establishment is to manipulation by foreign agents."
occrp.org/en/corruptista…

"...records show that Shaffer has worked as an advisor to SOCAR, the state-owned State Oil Company of 🇦🇿.
Neither Shaffer nor #SOCAR responded to emails asking for details on their relationship, including the start date of her contract."
occrp.org/en/corruptista…

"Shaffer & Starr have plenty of equally compromised companions, so Caspian watchers beware: the next time you see or hear an “independent” American expert talking about how the region's rulers are implementing bold reforms, check the expert's credentials."
archive.vn/MQBL#selection…

"“There is a privacy law in America” Shaffer said, when was asked if she is connected with SOCAR?
Brenda Shaffer, a professor of the Univ. of Haifa in 🇮🇱, who is engaged in the propaganda of🇦🇿 in the American media, was asked" about her relations w/ SOCAR
caviar-diplomacy.net/azerbaijan/en_…

This is a MUST read article
Shaffer got her own section in the article called
"The Case of Brenda Shaffer"
Nanore Barsoumian did an amazing digging into why western media is publishing pro-Azerbaijan articles
armenianweekly.com/2020/10/24/wha…

Another MUST read article by Till Bruckner.
"Because if anyone had bothered to look, Brenda Shaffer could have been outed a long time ago.
As noted above, Shaffer had first been identified as an ‘academic for hire’ with SOCAR connections back in 2006."
medium.com/@TillB/distort…

"Pro-Azerbaijan rhetoric in US mass media
The one, who had a great impact on Azerbaijani agenda promotion in US mass media is Brenda Shaffer."
medium.com/@517design/lob… via @SedrakMkrtchyan

"A political scientist’s ties to Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy giant SOCAR sparked a testy exchange at a Columbia University discussion on European energy on October 23 [2014] when a student asked the scholar about her ties to the firm."
covcasbulletin-info.hhd.am/?p=934

"In addressing Baku's often-criticized human rights record, Shaffer said "... in many parts of the world, elements of civil society are connected to foreign countries, which have no interest in democracy or stability"
rferl.org/a/azerbaijan-l…

"For more than 10 years, while 🇦🇿’s ruling family has progressively clamped down its opposition, Professor Brenda Shaffer has been publicly arguing that 🇦🇿 is about to embrace democracy and freedom, and that it deserves the full support of the U.S."
huffpost.com/entry/brenda-s…

"@Georgetown’s Dr. Brenda Shaffer has in the past been involved with improving 🇦🇿’s public image... the PR agency’s staff “introduced” her [Shaffer] to the media in Dec. 2012 & met with her in Feb. 2013 “to discuss possible future writings on 🇦🇿 issues.”
thecaravelgu.com/blog/2019/11/2…

#DontBeShaffer