In a previous post (or in a conversation I had with a friend), I wondered about how much Obama was beholden to the Saudi Lobby, and what the results of that would be.
The Saudi Lobby, of course, is the powerful, yet rarely-mentioned result of Saudi oil money spread liberally among former Federal employees, particularly diplomats and ex-administration members. Saudi money has reached as high as the presidential level. Saudi money funds the Carter Center. Jimmy Carter travels the world, blaming Israel for all the ills of the Middle East. Saudi money funds the Clinton library. The Sauds and the Bushes—well, I don’t think I need to say more. Saudi money was behind the BCCI scandal (Bert Lance, Carter administration), Marc Rich, infamous Clinton pardonee, and Clark Clifford, serving presidents from Truman to Carter). Harvard University accepted $20 million from the Saudis to establish an Islamic Studies program.
Now the Saudi Lobby has managed to insert a virulently anti-Israel former diplomat into a position to filter the National Intelligence Estimates before they get to the president. And the Saudi Lobby has inserted its teachings into American public schools.
What does the Middle East Policy Council do? We do three things. We raise politically incorrect questions for public discussion. We tend to be well ahead of the curve on raising issues. We publish views that don’t find a voice elsewhere in Middle East policy, the most often-cited journal in the field. And an edited transcript of this session will appear as the lead item in the next issue of Middle East policy.
And finally, invisible in Washington, but perhaps most significantly, we train high school teachers throughout the country – trained about 18,000 – how to teach about Arab civilization and Islam.
“How to teach”—not teaching—the exact words are “how to teach.” Translation: teaching American students what the MEPC wants them to learn. And the MEPC is now owned by Saudi money.
George Mitchell, President Obama’s new Middle East envoy, is chairman emeritus of lobbying firm DLA’s global board. DLA’s customers include Saudi Arabia.
Hillary Clinton, now Secretary of State, took a long time to declare the funding for the Clinton Library. This may be because the Saudis have donated tens of millions of dollars to her husband. But no, that won’t affect her views on the Middle East.
Who else has Obama appointed or nominated that is—or was—taking Saudi money? I think it’s time to start a tally. In fact, I think it’s time the American public was made more aware of the Saudi Lobby’s influence on our politicians and the think-tanks they rely on to shape policy.
Let’s talk lobbies, then, shall we? Walt & Mearsheimer ignored completely the Saudi money that is funneled into Washington. We continue to do this at our peril.
The Saudi funding of MEPC’s teacher training should be the subject of scrutiny. You can be certain that if any teacher got his/her curriculum from Israel’s foreign ministry, there’d be howls of protest.
The other thing about MEPC – as previously noted – is that they made sure to publish “The Lobby.” Your post makes the case that it was misdirection!
From Powerline (Paul Mirengoff) regarding “Charles Freeman, the “Saudi-Manchurian candidate,”
“It’s clear now that Obama does not consider the Mearsheimer-Walt thesis — that American Jews have a stranglehold on the U.S. Congress, and use it to advance Israeli interests at the expense of those of the U.S. — beyond the pale.”
Drill here, nuke there, problem solved.