Joe Wilson - working for Saudi Arabia?

FR ^ | 10/3/03 | ME

[swilhelm73]

So we all know Joe Wilson is a former Ambassador. We all, at least here at Free Republic, know he is a left wing war opponent with ties to a number of high ranking Democrats.

Some people in reference to the public revelation of his wife's name have pointed out that she is mentioned in his biography for the Middle East Institute.

http://www.mideasti.org/html/bio-wilson.html

I think a far more important point is being missed here in reference to the MEI, however. They are, at least in part, a Saudi Arabian funded front group;

http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:IRKdQ1Ptv7sJ:www.iht.com/articles/56717.htm+%22Middle+East+Institute%22+saudi+arabia+espionage&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

The institute also receives funds from Saudi Arabia, which opposes the INC specifically and Bush's approach to regime change in Iraq in general.

The Saudis, for their part, have even admitted to trying to keep former diplomats on their payroll to keep said officials' "friendship"

http://www.la.utexas.edu/chenry/oil/press02/Oil%20for%20Security%20Fueled%20Close%20Ties%20(washingtonpost_com).htm

Walker, the former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, is president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, which promotes understanding with the Arab world. Its board chairman is former senator Wyche Fowler, ambassador to Riyadh in the second Clinton administration. Saudi contributions covered $200,000 of the institute's $1.5 million budget last year, Walker said.

[Saudia Arabian Prince] Bandar has told associates that he makes a point of staying close to officials who have worked with Saudi Arabia after they leave government service. "If the reputation then builds that the Saudis take care of friends when they leave office," Bandar once observed, according to a knowledgeable source, "you'd be surprised how much better friends you have who are just coming into office."

I think with this information it is high time to see what role the Saudis have played in this whole affair. And it is time for the media to consider the far bigger scandal here.

There have been numerous demands outside of beltway and the mainstream media for just how the seemingly unqualified diplomat was chosen for an important investigative mission. Some have windered what role his wife played exactly in choosing Wilson.

The far more important question now before us, though, is what if any role a foreign government may have played in choosing Wilson, or in coloring Wilson flawed investigation. Certainly, the choice and results of this trip could not have worked out better for the government of Saudi Arabia.

[swilhelm73]

Some important information, to my mind, not made public before...

[Support Free Republic]

Aww man! Enough of the fundraiser posts!!!

Only YOU can make fundraiser posts go away. Please contribute!

[TBP]

And he is also a member of EPIC, the pro-Saddam peacenik organization that hates President Bush and America.

[M1Tanker]

We keep mentioning this and keep writing editors of papers, congressmen, and "News" programs. Why are we the only ones doing this? Where are the "investigators" and where is the "Investigative Journalism"??

Of course, we already know the answer....

[swilhelm73]

Well, I forwarded this info over to Opinion Journal, and the Corner at NRO. It seems pretty important to me, but I've had no luck in such endeavors with either of these sources before.

I guess the former we would have to wait until monday to see if they do anything with it.

As for investigating this story - outside of "who leaked Plame's name" the Democrat's press could care less.

[Ann Archy]

Yes...WHERE ARE THE JOURNALISTS????? THEY ARE LAZY!!!

[M1Tanker]

No, just to blinded by National Socialist ideas of a world socialist "utopia" to care about truth and reality.

[Shermy]

Saudi/OPEC front groups.

It's not about "democracy" or "Arab honor" and such.

The root cause and funder of the anti-war position was oil. Keeping Iraq off-line is a profitable business strategy for other oil producers.

Political cover this time around was with left-wing agitation and appealing to left-wing angst. Didn't stop the war in the end, so the smart business decision now is to physically attack Iraq's oil transport pipelines.

Minimal investment, huge returns so far.

[cookcounty]

All we know, from this thread, is that he has "some" link to the Middle East Institute (what is the nature of that link?). ... And connected to EPIC, which I never heard of before.

It's hard to get "the facts" out when "the facts" are so sparse. And who is "Walker" and what does he have to do with Wilson?

[Cicero]

We keep mentioning this and keep writing editors of papers, congressmen, and "News" programs. Why are we the only ones doing this? Where are the "investigators" and where is the "Investigative Journalism"??

Several answers. They are lazy. They are leftist. And some of the ones who work in Middle Eastern affairs are probably also on the Saudi payroll, in some fashion. Saudi money is all over the place.

[swilhelm73]

Wilson is part of the MEI, his bio, including Plame's name are listed on their website - if you read the link you would see that.

The MEI is funded by the Saudis, and Prince Bandar's statement suggests, as part of an effort to keep American ex-diplomats "friendly" to Saudi concerns.

Walker and Fowler are both other former officials part of the MEI.

I'd suggest you start reading the text printed, especially the sections I quoted from the original sources.

[M1Tanker]

Your post was already answered, but there are many sources. Just type Wilson's name into Google. Look him up on Drudge. Real journalists are trying to get to the truth, but I doubt it will see the light of day.

[swilhelm73]

PING

Thought you might be interested...

[MizSterious]

Interesting link...

[MonroeDNA]

"Most of the Saudi money, though, goes indirectly to former State officials, most commonly by means of think tanks. This approach pays dividends in many ways: Foggy Bottom retirees get to have their cake — without the public realizing they’re eating it — and the Saudis get to have “indirect” lobbyists, who promote the Saudi agenda under the cover of the think tank label. Three organizations in particular are the primary beneficiaries of Saudi petrodollars, and all are populated with former State officials: the Meridian International Center, the Middle East Policy Council, and the Middle East Institute. "

From this thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/994699/posts

[Wolfstar]

Yes, very interesting. I tried to find a website for Wilson's company, but found none. The Middle East Institute is easy to find, however. It's website is bland and not terribly descriptive of what they do, but the institute has been around since 1946. Following is all they provide about their history:

The Middle East Institute (MEI) was founded in 1946 by Christian Herter, who became secretary of state in the following decade, and George Camp Keiser, an architect interested in the Islamic world, whose collection of books formed a library that he later donated to the Institute. The Institute's beginnings were simple. It was first an adjunct to the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), itself a fledgling organization. The purpose was to expand American knowledge and understanding of this complex and critically important region, as the United States prepared for its new responsibilities following the conclusion of World War II.

Ten years later, MEI established its own headquarters at its current location in two interconnected townhouses on historic N Street in northwest Washington. Beyond a garden centered around a Damascene fountain, a charming red-brick carriage house was renovated for the George Camp Keiser Library and Sultan Qaboos Center. Since 1981 MEI has owned the grounds and buildings, sold to it most generously by the late Mrs. Nancy Keiser.

Today, many of the Institute's activities—including approximately 150 annual programs, conferences and seminars, language classes, a quarterly journal, and a greatly augmented Keiser Library—have five decades of experience behind them. Now, the Institute is readying itself to respond to the challenges of the next 50 years.

Here's a link to their "MEI Officers" page. They appear to be a private non-profit. I only recognize a couple of names on their Board of Governors: James R. Schlesinger and William Webster.

[genefromjersey]

swilhelm, it might be wiser not to go there !

I'm in the middle of reading Robert Baer's latest best seller: Sleeping With the Devil, and , unless he is doing a deliberate smear job, it looks as if Republicans and Democrats have been nursing at the Saudi teat for decades.

[anglian]

http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/cgi-bin/fecimg/?99990049155
Pictures/address of VW's house

http://cryptome.org/plame-eyeball.htm It also has a Watergate address rented out to "Valerie Plame". CIA safe house?
http://cryptome.org/four-eyeballs.htm ____________________________________________________________May 2003, Joseph Wilson's email address:joewilson@rockcreekcorp.com
(See the May 2003 symposium on Africa at www.sahel-club.org/doc/conflict_sem0305_en.doc) ____________________________________________________________Mr Wilson's affiliation at several recent foreign policy conferences was listed as Rock Creek Corp. See ,e.g.,
http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/forums_chcs/30.asp
and
http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/forums_chcs/30.asp
(Search for "Wilson" --e.g Iraqi Town Hall seminar on April 2003 ____________________________________________________________Saudi Net's list of firms doing business in Saudi Arabia, you see Rock Creek Corporation
see http://www.the-saudi.net/business-center/links-usa.html
____________________________________________________________The Center for Contempory Arab Studies, member of their Board is the President of Rock Creek Corporation --Mr Elias Aburdene . see
http://www.ccasonline.org/events/Board.html
____________________________________________________________Rock Creek Corporation is what is tactfully called a "private equity firm" See
http://www.cohengroup.net/team-amb.html ____________________________________________________________An October 1996 article in the Washington Business Journal notes re Mr Elias Aburdene:
"Franklin National Bank in Washington has hired the former head of Palmer National Bank's international private banking unit, in an effort to attract deposits from well-heeled foreign investors.

Since opening Sept. 1, Franklin's new international private banking division has garnered about 50 customers and $15 million in deposits. Elias Aburdene, advisor to the division, headed a similar department for five years at Palmer, which became a subsidiary of George Mason Bankshares in May.

Franklin, with $450 million in assets, has started a foreign exchange operation to accommodate the new business. But mostly, Aburdene said, international private banking means plain-vanilla services like checking, delivered with personal service.

"They [international clients] are looking for intangibles -- discretion, confidentiality, competence," Aburdene said. Clients also like to have access to top executives at the bank, giving smaller institutions like Franklin an edge, he added. "

Who the "well-heeled foreign investors" are and the nature of the "intangibles" they want is left as an exercise for the reader.

However, the name "Palmer National Bank" of Washington DC should make any spooks out there grin knowingly.
See http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/S&L_Scandal_CIA.html
and search for "Palmer".


Elias Aburdene, Joseph Wilson's boss:
consider this blurb at the bottom of
an October 1997 article by
the "Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs" :
"National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) President Khalil Jahshan and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) co-chaired a fact-finding visit to the Middle East between March 22 and April 5. The group, which also consisted of NAAA Board Chairman George Gorayeb

and Executive Vice-Chairman Elias Aburdene,(NOTE!!)

visited Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Lebanon and Syria, after which Jahshan went on his own to Jordan, Israel and Palestine....."
Ref: Bottom of page at
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0697/9706014.html

Those wanting to find out more about the National Association of Arab Americans are invited to Google. Here's one place to start:
http://www.cafearabica.com/organizations/org12/orgnaaa.html

"The National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) is a foreign policy lobbying group dedicated to the formulation and implementation of an objective and nonpartisan U.S. foreign policy agenda in the Middle East."

[palmer]

Here's a link to their "MEI Officers" page.

I popped some of the governers through opensecrets.org They seem to give equally to dems and reps. One woman gave to HRC, and another guy Thomas E. Meurer is a Hunt Oil executive and gives the max to his Sam Johnson R-TX every year. Looks like an old oil boys club to me.

[mickie]

A good investigating reporting to send this important infomation to would be Paul Sperry.