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Kushner's Saudi deal must be scrutinized to protect U.S. democracy
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/04/14/saudi-arabia-kushner-deal-protect-us-democracy/
The Saudi Arabia business managers knew the deal didn’t make sense, but Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved it, perhaps knowing that what he was buying couldn’t be measured as a simple dollars-and-cents return on investments. That’s how Saudi Arabia ended up giving $2 billion to Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the former president who served as a senior adviser to Donald Trump in the White House. The deal has raised alarms for the obvious corruption in reflects — but the implications could be even more consequential.
Managers of the Saudi Public Investment Fund objected to the investment, citing “the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management” — the firm was founded just last year by Kushner — and other risk factors. But MBS was quick to overrule their objections and ordered the transfer.
For MBS, Kushner represents another powerful domestic proxy to interfere in American politics. The crown prince has not forgiven President Biden for speaking ill of him during the campaign and now he is out for blood. MBS has picked a side and has carefully cultivated ties with Republican leaders and former Trump officials.
Link to tweet
MBS expects a substantial return for the billions he is showering on Republican figures. Of course, Saudi interference in U.S. elections is not new. Donations made by foreign agents hired to act on behalf of Saudi interests exceeded $1.6 million in the 2018 election cycle, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.
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Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt. The leaders of these countries were all involved.
Three of these six nations—Russia, Israel, the UAE—had infiltrated deep into the Trump campaign by March 2016: Russia through Dimitri Simes; the UAE through Yousef al-Otaiba; Israel through Kushner, Groner, and Birnbaum. The campaign understood the plan these nations had.
EXCLUSIVE: The secret yacht summit that realigned the Middle East
Arab leaders from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan plotted to counter Turkey and Iran, and replace the GCC and Arab League
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-secret-yacht-summit-realigned-middle-east
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How Trump was key to plans
The secret summit on the Red Sea took place towards the end of King Salman’s first year in power, when his son MBS was only deputy crown prince. His chief obstacle to the Saudi throne lay in the form of his elder cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, who was crown prince and a favourite of Washington’s security establishment. MBS would become crown prince in June 2017, only after his father deposed Bin Nayef. Trump had only announced his candidacy months before in June 2015 when the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was leading in all the polls. She was thought by the Saudis and Emiratis to be more likely to ring fence the nuclear deal Barack Obama made with Iran, and to be generally more sceptical of their plans for a push back in the region.
Significantly, these Arab leaders decided in late 2015 that a wildcard presidential candidate in the shape of Trump could be the key to their plans to become the new regional hegemons. Months later, in January 2016, King Abdullah of Jordan briefed US Congressional leaders that Turkey presented the main threat to regional security. As MEE reported, the king told US congressmen in a closed meeting that Turkey exported terrorists to Europe, comments he was to deny publicly later. But Jordan then fell out dramatically with the group which had gathered on the yacht: Saudi Arabia decided that Amman did not go far enough in enforcing the blockade against Qatar, which was imposed in June last year. The split between Saudi and Jordan widened further when Jordan voted against Trump’s move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which threatens Jordan’s role as custodian of the Holy Places in the city.
Nader the go-between
Nader has recently emerged as a key back channel between Bin Zayed and Trump. The New York Times has reported that Mueller is actively chasing financial links in order to establish whether the Emiratis illegally contributed funds to Trump’s presidential campaign. It reported that in recent weeks Mueller’s investigators have questioned Nader and pressed witnesses about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to Trump’s presidential campaign. On Friday, reports emerged of a slew of convictions that Nader had on charges of sexually abusing underage boys and possessing child pornography. Newsweek reported that Nader had been sentenced to six months on child pornography charges in Virginia. According to federal court records seen by Newsweek, Nader was convicted of bringing child pornography into the US from Germany. This was in addition to a conviction on 10 counts of sexually abusing underage boys in the Czech Republic for which he served one year in prison in 2003.
Despite this criminal history, Nader was actively used by Trump. He attended a meeting with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Steve Bannon, his chief political strategists at Trump Tower in New York in December 2016. A month later Nader, Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater, and a Russian banker all attended a meeting in the Seychelles with Bin Zayed. Nader has long-standing connections with Israel. During the presidential elections bin Zayed sent Nader to meet Israeli officials to discuss how the two states can co-operate, a source told MEE. Nader established ties with Israel through an American Jewish fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, who is close to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the NYT, Broidy owns a private security company with hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts with the UAE. Broidy was removed as chairman of the Tel Aviv-based Markstone Capital Partners after admitting paying nearly $1m in bribes to pension fund managers in New York State. Broidy became deputy chairman of Trump’s fundraising campaign. Citing a memorandum made by Broidy, and passed to the newspaper by “someone critical of the Emirati influence in Washington”, the NYT reported that Broidy lobbied Trump to meet Bin Zayed “in an informal setting”, to back the UAE’s policies, and to push him to fire his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. In response to the leaking of his memorandum, Broidy accused “registered and unregistered agents of Qatar” for the hacking. Broidy made the accusation through his press spokesman and in a letter to the Qatari ambassador in Washington.
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Israeli, Saudi, and Emirati Officials Privately Pushed For Trump To Strike A Grand Bargain With Putin
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/israeli-saudi-and-emirati-officials-privately-pushed-for-trump-to-strike-a-grand-bargain-with-putin
https://archive.ph/QPfJW
During a private meeting shortly before the November, 2016, election, Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, floated to a longtime American interlocutor what sounded, at the time, like an unlikely grand bargain. The Emirati leader told the American that Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, might be interested in resolving the conflict in Syria in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Current and former U.S. officials said that bin Zayed, known as M.B.Z., was not the only leader in the region who favored rapprochement between the former Cold War adversaries. While America’s closest allies in Europe viewed with a sense of dread Trump’s interest in partnering with Putin, three countries that enjoyed unparallelled influence with the incoming Administration—Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E.—privately embraced the goal. Officials from the three countries have repeatedly encouraged their American counterparts to consider ending the Ukraine-related sanctions in return for Putin’s help in removing Iranian forces from Syria.
Experts say that such a deal would be unworkable, even if Trump were interested. They say Putin has neither the interest nor the ability to pressure Iranian forces to leave Syria. Administration officials have said that Syria and Ukraine will be among the topics that Trump and Putin will discuss at their summit in Helsinki on July 16th. White House officials did not respond to a request for comment.
The special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his F.B.I. team, tasked with probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, have been investigating whether the U.A.E. facilitated contacts between Trump’s team and Russian officials and sought to influence U.S. politics. Nine days before Trump’s Inauguration, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and a confidant of Steve Bannon, met at M.B.Z.’s resort in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, whom the Emiratis used as a go-between with Putin. (An April, 2017, Washington Post story that I co-wrote revealed the Indian Ocean encounter and stated that “the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.”)
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Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein’s investment in an Israeli start-up reveals a myriad of links to Donald Trump and Israeli spies.
https://narativ.org/2019/07/27/building-big-brother/
It’s been thirty-two years since the “Pollard Affair” pierced the seemingly impenetrable facade of U.S.-Israeli relations. Now, two suspected Israeli agents are in jail – indicted on separate charges of sex trafficking of minors. Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on July 6 and charged with trafficking minors across state lines. George Nader – a key witness for Robert Mueller – was arrested last month for possession of child porn and transporting a minor for sex from Europe.
Epstein and Nader share a personal network that includes Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Erik Prince, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and his UAE counterpart, Mohamed Bin Zayed. But their association goes further than powerful friends and proclivities for teenage boys and girls. Epstein and Nader are believed to be agents for Israeli Intelligence. Narativ has independently confirmed with two separate sources who were in a position to know that Epstein worked for Israeli military intelligence.
Both men also have ties to a burgeoning Israeli tech sector which is bringing Mossad-style military intelligence to the private sector and endangering the global balance of power. The Haaretz newspaper has previously reported that Epstein, who was Donald Trump’s friend through the ’80s and ’90s, partnered in an Israeli start-up alongside former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Barak is seeking to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister in the upcoming re-run elections scheduled for September. Since 2015, he has been the front-man for Carbyne, an Israeli start-up which purports to be a high-tech solution for 911 emergency call centers, but the platform’s architecture and investors raise serious privacy concerns. Narativ undertook an extensive investigation into Carbyne, and can now reveal a myriad of troubling connections between the start-up and people connected to Donald Trump.
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Three of these six nations—Russia, Israel, the UAE—had infiltrated deep into the Trump campaign by March 2016: Russia through Dimitri Simes; the UAE through Yousef al-Otaiba; Israel through Kushner, Groner, and Birnbaum. The campaign understood the plan these nations had.
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EXCLUSIVE: The secret yacht summit that realigned the Middle East
Arab leaders from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan plotted to counter Turkey and Iran, and replace the GCC and Arab League
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-secret-yacht-summit-realigned-middle-east
snip
How Trump was key to plans
The secret summit on the Red Sea took place towards the end of King Salman’s first year in power, when his son MBS was only deputy crown prince. His chief obstacle to the Saudi throne lay in the form of his elder cousin Mohammed bin Nayef, who was crown prince and a favourite of Washington’s security establishment. MBS would become crown prince in June 2017, only after his father deposed Bin Nayef. Trump had only announced his candidacy months before in June 2015 when the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was leading in all the polls. She was thought by the Saudis and Emiratis to be more likely to ring fence the nuclear deal Barack Obama made with Iran, and to be generally more sceptical of their plans for a push back in the region.
Significantly, these Arab leaders decided in late 2015 that a wildcard presidential candidate in the shape of Trump could be the key to their plans to become the new regional hegemons. Months later, in January 2016, King Abdullah of Jordan briefed US Congressional leaders that Turkey presented the main threat to regional security. As MEE reported, the king told US congressmen in a closed meeting that Turkey exported terrorists to Europe, comments he was to deny publicly later. But Jordan then fell out dramatically with the group which had gathered on the yacht: Saudi Arabia decided that Amman did not go far enough in enforcing the blockade against Qatar, which was imposed in June last year. The split between Saudi and Jordan widened further when Jordan voted against Trump’s move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, which threatens Jordan’s role as custodian of the Holy Places in the city.
Nader the go-between
Nader has recently emerged as a key back channel between Bin Zayed and Trump. The New York Times has reported that Mueller is actively chasing financial links in order to establish whether the Emiratis illegally contributed funds to Trump’s presidential campaign. It reported that in recent weeks Mueller’s investigators have questioned Nader and pressed witnesses about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing money to Trump’s presidential campaign. On Friday, reports emerged of a slew of convictions that Nader had on charges of sexually abusing underage boys and possessing child pornography. Newsweek reported that Nader had been sentenced to six months on child pornography charges in Virginia. According to federal court records seen by Newsweek, Nader was convicted of bringing child pornography into the US from Germany. This was in addition to a conviction on 10 counts of sexually abusing underage boys in the Czech Republic for which he served one year in prison in 2003.
Despite this criminal history, Nader was actively used by Trump. He attended a meeting with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and Steve Bannon, his chief political strategists at Trump Tower in New York in December 2016. A month later Nader, Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater, and a Russian banker all attended a meeting in the Seychelles with Bin Zayed. Nader has long-standing connections with Israel. During the presidential elections bin Zayed sent Nader to meet Israeli officials to discuss how the two states can co-operate, a source told MEE. Nader established ties with Israel through an American Jewish fundraiser, Elliott Broidy, who is close to the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to the NYT, Broidy owns a private security company with hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts with the UAE. Broidy was removed as chairman of the Tel Aviv-based Markstone Capital Partners after admitting paying nearly $1m in bribes to pension fund managers in New York State. Broidy became deputy chairman of Trump’s fundraising campaign. Citing a memorandum made by Broidy, and passed to the newspaper by “someone critical of the Emirati influence in Washington”, the NYT reported that Broidy lobbied Trump to meet Bin Zayed “in an informal setting”, to back the UAE’s policies, and to push him to fire his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. In response to the leaking of his memorandum, Broidy accused “registered and unregistered agents of Qatar” for the hacking. Broidy made the accusation through his press spokesman and in a letter to the Qatari ambassador in Washington.
snip
Israeli, Saudi, and Emirati Officials Privately Pushed For Trump To Strike A Grand Bargain With Putin
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/israeli-saudi-and-emirati-officials-privately-pushed-for-trump-to-strike-a-grand-bargain-with-putin
https://archive.ph/QPfJW
During a private meeting shortly before the November, 2016, election, Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, floated to a longtime American interlocutor what sounded, at the time, like an unlikely grand bargain. The Emirati leader told the American that Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, might be interested in resolving the conflict in Syria in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed in response to Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Current and former U.S. officials said that bin Zayed, known as M.B.Z., was not the only leader in the region who favored rapprochement between the former Cold War adversaries. While America’s closest allies in Europe viewed with a sense of dread Trump’s interest in partnering with Putin, three countries that enjoyed unparallelled influence with the incoming Administration—Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E.—privately embraced the goal. Officials from the three countries have repeatedly encouraged their American counterparts to consider ending the Ukraine-related sanctions in return for Putin’s help in removing Iranian forces from Syria.
Experts say that such a deal would be unworkable, even if Trump were interested. They say Putin has neither the interest nor the ability to pressure Iranian forces to leave Syria. Administration officials have said that Syria and Ukraine will be among the topics that Trump and Putin will discuss at their summit in Helsinki on July 16th. White House officials did not respond to a request for comment.
The special counsel, Robert Mueller, and his F.B.I. team, tasked with probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, have been investigating whether the U.A.E. facilitated contacts between Trump’s team and Russian officials and sought to influence U.S. politics. Nine days before Trump’s Inauguration, Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater and a confidant of Steve Bannon, met at M.B.Z.’s resort in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, whom the Emiratis used as a go-between with Putin. (An April, 2017, Washington Post story that I co-wrote revealed the Indian Ocean encounter and stated that “the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions.”)
snip
Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein’s investment in an Israeli start-up reveals a myriad of links to Donald Trump and Israeli spies.
https://narativ.org/2019/07/27/building-big-brother/
It’s been thirty-two years since the “Pollard Affair” pierced the seemingly impenetrable facade of U.S.-Israeli relations. Now, two suspected Israeli agents are in jail – indicted on separate charges of sex trafficking of minors. Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on July 6 and charged with trafficking minors across state lines. George Nader – a key witness for Robert Mueller – was arrested last month for possession of child porn and transporting a minor for sex from Europe.
Epstein and Nader share a personal network that includes Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Erik Prince, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and his UAE counterpart, Mohamed Bin Zayed. But their association goes further than powerful friends and proclivities for teenage boys and girls. Epstein and Nader are believed to be agents for Israeli Intelligence. Narativ has independently confirmed with two separate sources who were in a position to know that Epstein worked for Israeli military intelligence.
Both men also have ties to a burgeoning Israeli tech sector which is bringing Mossad-style military intelligence to the private sector and endangering the global balance of power. The Haaretz newspaper has previously reported that Epstein, who was Donald Trump’s friend through the ’80s and ’90s, partnered in an Israeli start-up alongside former Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Barak is seeking to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister in the upcoming re-run elections scheduled for September. Since 2015, he has been the front-man for Carbyne, an Israeli start-up which purports to be a high-tech solution for 911 emergency call centers, but the platform’s architecture and investors raise serious privacy concerns. Narativ undertook an extensive investigation into Carbyne, and can now reveal a myriad of troubling connections between the start-up and people connected to Donald Trump.
snip
Ukrainian-born Viktor Vekselberg is close to Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen. He’s been in business with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for 5 years.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak (center) with the three co-founders of Carbyne (formerly Reporty). Alex Dizengof, Amir Elichai and Lital Leshem. All four are tied to Israeli military intelligence or cybersecurity.
A rare photo of Joel Zamel obtained by Narativ (center), Erik Prince of Frontier Resource Group (left) and George Nader (right). All three men attended a meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. on August 3 2016 to discuss a social media manipulation plan by Zamel’s Psy Group.
