Posted on 07/31/2017 3:09:56 PM PDT by Lorianne
The United Arab Emirates has one of the most repressive governments in the world. The Gulf dictatorship brutally cracks down on internal dissent and enables abusive conditions for its massive migrant labor force. It also plays a key role in the bloody war in Yemen, running a network of torture prisons in the “liberated” parts of the country.
That makes it all the more shocking that the UAE is so rarely criticized by leading U.S. think tanks, who not only ignore the Gulf dictatorship’s repression, but give a privileged platform to its ambassador, Yousef Al-Otaiba. Otaiba is a deeply influential voice in U.S. foreign policy circles, and is known in Washington for using his pocketbook to recruit allies.
Last month, hackers began releasing screenshots of emails from a Hotmail account that Otaiba used for official business. The hackers have sent the screenshots to various news websites, including the The Intercept, the Daily Beast, Al Jazeera, and HuffPost. The hackers refer to themselves as “GlobalLeaks,” and have previously claimed to be affiliated with the website “DCLeaks.” The U.S. intelligence community has accused the Russia government of operating DCLeaks, and it’s unclear if the “GlobalLeaks” hackers are affiliated with Russia or just trying to give that impression. When asked about their motivations for an earlier Intercept story, the hackers responded in broken English by email that they were “not affiliated with any country or religion,” but added that their goal was to “make America great again.”
The latest batch of hacked emails passed to The Intercept and other outlets by “GlobalLeaks” provide insight into how Otaiba manages to find — or buy — so many friends in D.C. think tanks. The documents offer a glimpse into how a small, oil-rich monarchy can obtain such an outsized influence on U.S. foreign policy, showing the ambassador obtaining favors from Obama administration veterans — including Hillary Clinton’s presumptive Defense Secretary — and making large payments in return.
A $250,000 Invoice
One of the documents obtained by The Intercept was an invoice from the Center for New American Security, an influential national security think tank founded in 2007 by alumni from the Clinton administration. The invoice, dated July 12, 2016, billed the UAE embassy $250,000 for a paper on the legal regime governing the export of military-grade drones. It was signed by Michele Flournoy, a senior Pentagon official under President Barack Obama; Hillary Clinton was widely expected to name Flournoy as her secretary of defense. Flournoy co-founded CNAS and, in addition to outside work as a management consultant, currently serves as the think tank’s CEO.
SNIP
MANY abused Filipina reports out of the UAE
They have completely taken over Europe and now they are working on the US
The Arab funding of American Think Tanks is insidious and very worrying
American think tanks formulate policy and provide substantiating research reports that shape most of our government policy and legislation
Bill and Hillary Clinton have carefully cloaked the foreign money they’ve accepted in the garb of charitable fundraising. But alongside the hundreds of millions donated to the Clinton Foundation were tens of millions in personal income from foreign sources, devoid of disguise, a naked example of using political power for personal enrichment. Nowhere has this transaction been as apparent as in the Clintons’ relationship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In return for millions in speaking and consulting fees, which went right into their personal bank accounts, the former president and former secretary of State — and possible future president — showered favors on the rulers that run this repressive and anti- Semitic government.
It’s hard to grasp the distinction — if there is any — between fees Bill Clinton earned and outright payments to his wife for her influence. For example, during his wife’s tenure as secretary, Bill Clinton collected $1,175,000 for three speeches in the UAE. One, for the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative, at a cost of $500,000, was OKed by the State Department ethics police.
That was the quid (along with the millions sent to the foundation by the UAE). The quo was an ongoing campaign to rehabilitate the image of a regime that ranks in Freedom House’s second-lowest category in human rights. After the revelation that two of the 9/11 hijackers — and much of the money that financed them in the U.S. — came from the UAE, the Emirates needed a major image upgrade.
Enter Bill Clinton.
In 2002, he began speaking in the UAE and recognized the potential gravy train there. That’s also when he joined billionaire Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Co. That was the Clintons’ real gold mine, netting them more than $15 million from 2002 to 2007. His buyout in 2008 was estimated at up to $20 million.
The former president was indispensable: He delivered Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, prime minister of Dubai, to Yucaipa, and a three-way partnership among Burkle, Clinton and the sheik to create an offshore sovereign fund began.
In 2005, Clinton advised Dubai on the controversial Dubai port deal. Hillary Clinton publicly opposed the deal, but didn’t oppose the $10 million that had already gone into their accounts from Yucaipa.
Clinton continuously raised the profile of the UAE by creating a Clinton scholarship program at the American University in Dubai and partnering with two other Dubai-based firms: GEMS schools and the Varkey Foundation. His take from them is unknown. He made introductions and brought in close associates as investors in the UAE like Teneo, NYU and McLarty Associates.
Bill Clinton’s a real regular over there. On Monday, he was in Dubai, speaking alongside the sheik at the Hult International Business School, a partner of the Clinton Global Initiative.
But it was Hillary Clinton who did the heavy lifting in delivering to the UAE what it most craved: international respect. In September of 2012, the secretary of State hosted a Global Infrastructure Conference at the State Department for 90 CEOs or high-level American executives to learn about investment opportunities in the UAE and three other countries. Seven UAE officials joined Hillary Clinton herself in addressing the conference.
Several months later, the former first lady promoted the first Global Entrepreneurship Summit, also sponsored by the State Department, in Dubai, bringing investors and entrepreneurs from all over the world into the UAE. The UAE was publicly legitimized by the U.S. in Hillary Clinton’s last days in office.
Bill and Hillary Clinton set up a gigantic money-making machine, trading on her power as secretary of State and her potential to be the next president. The question for us is: Are we willing to let them take it to the next level?
Easy peasy.
Liberal think tank ((oxymoronus maximus) = muslim buttkisser.
Any questions?
And the UAE and its money is behind the war in Syria with Russia on the other side.
Hence it is in the UAE’s interest to promote hostility towards Russia and the UAE is not alone.
On the other hand, the UAE at least had the temerity to accurately list CAIR and a bunch of Muslim Bro groups as terrorist organizations when our own government refused to do so.
no doubt
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