Tucked away among the million-dollar lobby campaigns to preserve the status quo in the Middle East is a $10,000-a-year push by a group of revolutionaries looking to the United States to back their dreams of independence. The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) first hired the New York-based lobby firm Independent Diplomat in 2007 and renewed its contract three years later amid expectations that President Barack Obama might prove to be more open to its aspirations for Western Sahara than his Republican predecessor had been. The disputed territory has been the source of fighting between Morocco, which claims sovereignty over the area, and the independence-seeking Polisario Front, the political force behind the self-declared republic, since Spain withdrew as the colonial power in 1975.

To make its case, the Polisario is relying on the unique talents of a non-profit lobby firm that has taken on such nonconventional clients as South Sudan, Somaliland and the Syrian opposition. Run by former British diplomat Carne Ross, Independent Diplomat has pressed Congress and the State Department to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by Morocco against the indigenous Saharawi people. The firm's advice “has had a significant impact on the SADR’s foreign policy,” Independent Diplomat asserts, “in particular on efforts to highlight escalating human rights abuses in the territory and the illegal exploitation of phosphates and fisheries by Morocco and complicit foreign entities.” The campaign has had mixed results.

The Obama administration appeared ready to break with US precedent last year during negotiations over the renewal of MINURSO, the UN mission in charge of overseeing a future Western Sahara referendum, which has been in limbo since 1991 amid disputes between Morocco and the Polisario over who should be eligible to vote. The United States contributes about $17.5 million a year to the mission. The Obama administration included a human rights-monitoring component as part of a draft resolution renewing it, Reuters reported at the time. After an outcry from Morocco and its ally France, however, the administration backed down. The 2014 renewal of MINURSO likewise did not include such a mechanism.

Obama further let down independence advocates when he expressed support for a proposal by Morocco that would replace the referendum on self-determination with autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. The Polisario Front says nothing short of self-determination is acceptable and has accused Morocco of eyeing the region's resources, notably phosphates. “Morocco's autonomy plan is serious, realistic and credible,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in Nov. 2013 before a meeting between Obama and King Mohammed VI in Washington. “It represents a potential approach that can satisfy the aspirations of the people in the Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity.”