Firm details payments on Libya visits

Others were paid far more. British journalist David Frost, best known for his interviews of Richard Nixon, was paid $91,429 in connection with what appears to be a single visit to Libya. Benjamin Barber, who wrote a landmark book, “Strong Democracy,’’ and who served on the board of a nonprofit run by Khadafy’s son Saif, received just over $100,000 during those years. British sociologist Anthony Giddens, director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, was paid more than $67,000.

Many of the payments appear to relate to a highly-publicized debate on democracy between Giddens, Barber, and Khadafy hosted by Frost in Libya in 2007.

The documents, which represent the culmination of a three-month internal investigation by Monitor into its own activities in Libya, were filed retroactively to comply with a federal law that requires firms that lobby or do public-relations work on behalf of a foreign government to submit public disclosures. The firm, which ended its work in Libya in 2008, had said it will no longer take on public-relations work, which is outside of its core area of expertise.

“Today’s disclosures reflect the work of a thorough, expert investigation and our commitment to provide facts and data as required by’’ federal law, Steven Jennings, Monitor’s managing partner, said in a statement. The statement said involvement in public-relations work for a foreign government “without registration was a mistake we have acknowledged and have vowed not to repeat. Today’s disclosures, and the corrective actions we are taking inside the firm, should help put the matter behind us.’’

Yesterday, Nye said he had no problem with the public disclosure that Monitor paid him his usual business consulting fee of $25,000 - plus $2,500 for late payment - but that he felt misled by the firm about its secret public-relations agenda.

“I was told my visit was to help promote reform,’’ Nye wrote in an e-mail to the Globe yesterday. “The documents I was shown in preparation for my trip were plans to reform the Libyan economic and political system.’’