It’s been in the news lately that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated to the Jordanian Petra News Agency that his country has funded greater than 20 percent of Hillary Clinton’s presidential election campaign costs.
After this was reported on the agency’s website, the quote was deleted, but a snapshot of the original report in Arabic was republished later by the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, D.C.
“Saudi Arabia has always sponsored both Republican and Democratic Parties of America and… the kingdom also provides with full enthusiasm 20 percent of the cost of Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the U.S. presidential elections despite the fact that some influential forces within the country don’t have a positive look toward supporting the candidate because she is a woman,” the prince was quoted as saying.
The comment was reported as the prince, Saudi Arabia’s number-two man in power, was traveling to Washington to meet with officials in the Obama administration. This is in the wake of President Obama’s recent trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with the prince’s father, Saudi Arabian King Salman.
Ostensibly, one of the topics of discussion was the possibly imminent release of the “missing 28 pages” of the 9/11 Commission Report detailing the kingdom’s involvement in the financing of a number of the terrorist attack’s hijackers.
Both Hillary and Bill Clinton have received money directly from the oil-rich Gulf state regime, both personally and through their Clinton Foundation.
That by itself should be considered a conflict of interest for Hillary Clinton’s presidency.
Over the years the Clinton Foundation has taken in tens of millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and numerous other Middle Eastern countries, including Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. In 2008, the Clinton Foundation took $25 million from Saudi Arabia alone.
Both Clintons have extensive personal ties to the Saudi kingdom, with Bill Clinton having gone to Georgetown University with the current head of the Saudi Arabian intelligence agency that’s the equivalent of the U.S. CIA.
When Bill Clinton was governor of Arkansas, he petitioned his friend Prince Bandar bin Sultan (a former head of the Saudi intelligence agency and longtime Saudi Arabian ambassador to the U.S.) to provide funds for a Middle Eastern Studies program at the University of Arkansas.
It was later revealed that Bandar bin Sultan’s wife, Princess Haifa, sent money to Osama Bassnan and Omar al-Bayoumi, both of whom had financed 9/11 hijackers Nawaf Alhamzi and Khalid Almihdhar.
The suspect Saudi connections to Bill Clinton don’t end there. Bill Clinton made at least one speech for which he received $500,000 during the time when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State and had approved American defense contractor arms deals with the kingdom, despite the State Department criticizing it for extensive human and women’s rights abuses.
Hillary Clinton’s closest aide and personal assistant, Huma Mahmood Abedin, was raised and spent 17 years in Saudi Arabia, and her mother, Saleha Abedin, is the director of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA) in Jeddah there.
The IMMA is an organization affiliated with the Muslim World League, a so-called charity funded by the Saudi Arabian government that’s been connected to terrorist financing of groups like Al Queda. Hillary Clinton has avoided questions related to Huma Abedin and her role at the IMMA’s academic publication, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs.
Huma was employed by the Journal for more than 10 years, and both her brother and sister still work there. The Journal is a fierce advocate of the standard Muslim practices of child marriage and female genital mutilation, among other human rights abuses.
Tony Podesta, the brother of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, Jon Podesta, is a fundraiser for Clinton’s campaign and is also the head of consulting and lobbying firm The Podesta Group.
The Podesta Group is one of eight such firms that the Saudis retain in Washington for diplomatic and public relations purposes. The Podesta Group works on retainer for the kingdom to the tune of $140,000 per month. Other Clinton campaign fundraisers have deep ties to Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
Recently, Hillary Clinton was quoted as saying that she wouldn’t have a problem with Saudi Arabia and/or other Middle Eastern states acquiring big pieces of America’s largest banks.
In the past, sales of fighter jets or other weaponry to the kingdom didn’t bother Clinton’s conscience, particularly if her foundation was receiving donations from the Saudi government or its citizens simultaneously.
“This is classic influence peddling,” stated Craig Holman, who works for Public Citizen, a campaign finance watchdog organization.
Smelling blood in the water, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has called on Hillary Clinton to return $25 million — admittedly a drop in the bucket for the kingdom — that she’s received from the Saudis, but such a plea likely has fallen on deaf ears.
Unless the media continues to trumpet Trump’s admonition, it’s probable that Clinton’s standard response of obfuscation, denial and claims of ignorance will carry the day.
~American Liberty Report
