Saudi Arabia and the US: Dirty Money?

An examination of Xiemen Ltd., a company based in Canada, may shed light on further foreign influence on American foreign policy from Saudi or Emirati donors to the Trump campaign. In a May 21, 2018 Associated Press article written by Desmond Butler and Tom LoBianco entitled “The Princes, the President, and the Fame Seekers”, Xiemen is stated to be connected to UAE-influenced legislation pushed through the US congress to declare Qatar, once an ally of the US in the Middle East, a state sponsor of terror. A second article by the same authors in the Lebanese Daily Star details that Xiemen Investments acted as a go-between for a $25 million investment into the Donald Trump campaign.

Top Trump fundraiser Eliott Broidy received the donation through Xiemen, coming from UAE political advisor and Lebanese-American George Nader, and set up by “a friend of Broidy’s” in April 2017. Broidy and Nader are reported to have met at Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2017. Nader is reported to have funneled this money to Broidy in support of a bill to reverse US foreign policy position on the state of Qatar, declaring them a state sponsor of terror. This comes on the heels of a Saudi blockade of the Qatari state, which the Qatari Emir has referred to as a violation of Qatari sovereignty. Qatari news in the form of Al Jazeera is being blocked throughout the Muslim world, and Qatari ships and airplanes are being diverted, trade is restricted entirely, in what political experts are calling an attempt to force Qatar to withdraw its closeness and support with both Iran and Russia, and direct them more toward a pro-Saudi, pro-US direction.

George Nader is also a witness in the Robert Mueller investigation into the Trump-Russia connection. A month after Broidy received the money, he began pushing the anti-Qatar legislation. Ironically, Saudi Arabia is also considered by international bodies to be a terrorist-supporting state. Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Ed Royce of California received gifts amounting to $5,400 as part of nearly $600,000 given by Broidy to various GOP congressmen to push forward the legislation “according to an AP analysis of campaign finance disclosure records.”

While the Associated Press does not believe at this time that Broidy broke any laws, his company Circinus received a $200 million contract from UAE investors, appearing to be after the legislation passed House Representative Royce’s committee in late 2017, awaiting acceptance by the House Financial Services Committee (Recent events suggest that it was passed entirely). Pressure on US lawmakers to cut ties with Qatar is coming from both Emiratis and Saudis. Both Qatar and the UAE have accused each other of hacking for political purposes. While this is evidence of foreign influence, there is no indication from AP that the Mueller probe is focusing on countries other than Russia at this time. However, UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and George Nader have been spotted at meetings at Trump Tower with Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, around the time of Trump’s inauguration into the presidency.

Nader and the UAE prince were later spotted in the Seychelles, meeting with Erik Prince, founder of the private military corporation Blackwater, and the head of a Russian sovereign wealth organization, Kirill Dmitriev. Criminally speaking, Nader has ten prior convictions in a Czech court in 2003 for multiple counts of sexual abuse of minors, serving one year in Czech prison, before being deported. Broidy has prior convictions for bribery, for criminal acts relating to a New York state employee’s pension fund, appearing to be an investment scam. Xiemen appears to be owned by a friend of Broidy’s, who officially donated money for consulting, advising and marketing purposes, but the money was directly funded into Broidy’s personal account from Xiemen, which he immediately used for the anti-Qatari legislation. Soon after, Ed Royce publically supported the legislation, arguing that Qatar is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s connection to the Islamic Front, ISIS/ISIL, al-Qaeda, and perhaps even the Taliban, are both widely reported on and speculated over.

After these events, Broidy reportedly approached two different conservative think tank groups, the Hudson Institute and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, with Broidy willing to finance both organizations’ conferences on the subject of labeling Qatar a state sponsor of terror. Both organizations deny that Broidy used any foreign funds, however AP reports that, “…Neither Broidy nor Nader registered with the U.S. government under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law intended to make lobbyists working for foreign governments disclose their ties and certain political activities. The law requires people to register even if they are not paid but merely directed by foreign interests with political tasks in mind. Violating the federal law carries a maximum $10,000 fine or up to five years in prison.”

This may suggest that these foreign funds were used illegally. Anonymous sources have claimed that millions of Broidy’s own funds were funneled into the anti-Qatar legislation. Less than two weeks after Royce introduced the legislation, Saudi Arabia embargoed and blockaded Qatar, with President Trump tweeting about Qatar’s alleged terrorist activities soon after. Broidy is financially connected to top GOP lawmakers, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Ed Royce. By August 2017, Qatar was alleged to be connected to Palestinian group Hamas, arming and funding them, which may suggest an anti-Palestinian angle as well; this suggests a connection to the overall Syrian Civil War.

The Syrian Civil War taking place between pro-Assad state forces and anti-Assad rebels is a complex and difficult to understand matter. It appears that Syrian rebels called the Free Syrian Army, originally from the Arab Spring, have been receiving help from the Kurdish YPG, a supposedly communist army of the displaced Kurdish state, fighting to reinstate their home and reclaim Kurdish land that was seized by Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. ISIS forces have been engaged in combat with Kurdish militias, while the Turkish government has also began fighting the YPG. The Islamic Front is a combination of various Islamist splinter groups and is funded by Saudi Arabia, currently fighting against both the Syrian military and Islamic State forces.

Private military contractors from both America and Russia appear operating and killing each other in this civil war, with perhaps over a dozen groups or more engaged in combat with each other. This conflict has the US, Russia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Kurdistan, and the Islamic State all involved economically, as well as militarily. Some have called this civil war the battlefield for the New Cold War, with America and Russia using the Middle East to flex their power and threaten each other. The US Democratic Party’s accusations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election has been criticized by some as worrying sabre rattling against the Russians, something Democratic incumbent Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in the election, would support. Clinton has stated that she sees Russia as a hostile threat, and wants to go to war with them. Clinton has also been speculated to be connected to the PMC, Blackwater.

The influence of the war seems to be at play in this Qatar blockade, as Qatar, Palestine, Iran, Syria, Yemen, and Russia are all connected, seen as the “bad guys” in this Middle Eastern regional Cold War; with the US, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the UAE, and perhaps Bahrain and Egypt as well, as the “good guys”. The Hamas connection with Qatar is not fully proven, however, and US Ambassador Nikki Haley has denied the connection, which is counter to the opinions of Defense Secretary James Mattis and other officials. The AP continues to report that “UAE was operating ‘black sites’ in Yemen, where its soldiers have tortured prisoners - including, in some cases, tying them to a spit and roasting them over open fires. Qatar has a troubled record as well. International human rights groups have dinged the country for its treatment of migrant workers preparing the country for the 2022 World Cup.”

This story will be updated as events continue.