Hillary Clinton, the Podesta Group and the Saudi Regime: A Fatal Ménage à
Trois
Thursday, 01 September 2016 00:00 By Medea Benjamin, Truthout | Op-Ed
Tony Podesta, high-profile lobbyist, at his office in Washington, DC, on
June 24, 2010. (Luke Sharrett / The New York Times)
For decades, the United States has supported Saudi Arabia despite the latter
country's record of human rights abuses and working against American
interests. What explains this alliance that has endured across multiple US
presidential administrations? Fearless firebrand Medea Benjamin tackles this
question in her new book Kingdom of the Unjust. Get it now by making a
donation to Truthout!
If I told you that Democratic Party lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose brother
John Podesta chairs Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, is a registered
foreign agent on the Saudi government's payroll, you'd probably think I was
a Trump-thumping conspiracy theorist. But it's true.
The lobby firm created by both Tony and John Podesta in 1988 receives
$140,000 a month from the Saudi government, a government that beheads
nonviolent dissidents, uses torture to extract forced confessions, doesn't
allow women to drive, and bombs schools, hospitals and residential
neighborhoods in neighboring Yemen.
The Podesta Group's March 2016 filing, required under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act of 1938, shows that Tony Podesta himself oversees the Saudi
account. At the same time, Tony Podesta is also a top campaign contributor
and bundler for Hillary Clinton. So while one brother runs the campaign, the
other brother funds it with earnings that come, in part, from the Saudis.
Also see: Saudi Arabia Is the Most Gender-Segregated Nation in the World
John and Tony Podesta have been heavyweights in DC insider politics for
decades. John Podesta served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff,
founded the influential DC think tank Center for American Progress (which
regularly touts Saudi "reforms"), and was counselor to President Obama. Tony
Podesta was dubbed by The New York Times as "one of Washington's biggest
players" whose clients "are going to get a blueprint for how to succeed in
official Washington."
The brothers seem to have no problem mixing their roles into the same pot.
Tony Podesta held a Clinton campaign fundraiser at his home featuring
gourmet Italian food cooked by himself and his brother, the campaign
chairman. The fundraiser, by the way, came just days after Tony Podesta
filed his Saudi contract with the Justice Department, a contract that
included an initial "project fee" payment of $200,000.
The Saudis hired the Podesta Group in 2015 because it was getting hammered
in the press over civilian casualties from its airstrikes in Yemen and its
crackdown on political dissidents at home, including sentencing blogger Raif
Badawi to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam." Since
then, Tony Podesta's fingerprints have been all over Saudi Arabia's advocacy
efforts in Washington DC. When Saudi Arabia executed the prominent
nonviolent Shia dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, causing protests throughout
the Shia world and inflaming sectarian divisions, The New York Times noted
that the Podesta Group provided the newspaper with a Saudi commentator who
defended the execution.
The Podesta-Clinton-Saudi connection should be seen in light of the recent
media exposes revealing the tawdry pay-to-play nature of the Clinton
Foundation. Top on the list of foreign donors to the foundation is Saudi
Arabia, which contributed between $10 million and $25 million.
What did the Saudis get for their largesse and access? WikiLeaks revealed a
2009 cable by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying:"More needs to
be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for Al
Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar e-Tayyiba and other terrorist groups." Instead
of sanctioning the Saudis, Clinton did the opposite: She authorized enormous
quantities of weapons to be sold to them. On Christmas Eve in 2011, Hillary
Clinton and her closest aides celebrated a massive $29.4 billion sale to the
Saudis of over 80 F-15 fighter jets, manufactured by Boeing, a company which
coincidentally contributed $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation. In a chain of
enthusiastic emails, an aide exclaimed that it was "not a bad Christmas
present." I'm sure the Yemenis at the receiving end of the Saudi bombings
would not be so enthusiastic.
The Clintons have said that if Hillary Clinton gets elected, the foundation
will stop taking foreign donations. But what about no longer taking campaign
contributions from people who are paid by the Saudi government to whitewash
its image? The Podesta Group should be blacklisted from contributing to
Clinton's campaign until they drop the monarchy as a client and return their
ill-gotten gains. If Hillary Clinton wants to be a meaningful symbol for
human rights and women's empowerment, her campaign must live up to the
values she claims to represent, and this would be one step in the right
direction.
This article appears elsewhere and may not be reprinted without permission
of the author.
MEDEA BENJAMIN
Medea Benjaminis co-founder of CODEPINK and the fair trade advocacy group
Global Exchange, she is the author of Drone Warfare (OR Books, 2012) and has
played an active role in the Green Party. She has a Master's Degree in both
public health and economics. In 2012, she was awarded the U.S. Peace
Memorial Foundation's Peace Prize; she is also recipient of the 2014 Gandhi
Peace Award and the 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the
Fellowship of Reconciliation.
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By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | Video Interview
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Riyadh's Loyalty?
By Nermeen Shaikh, Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | Video Interview
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Hillary Clinton, the Podesta Group and the Saudi Regime: A Fatal Ménage à
Trois
Thursday, 01 September 2016 00:00 By Medea Benjamin, Truthout | Op-Ed
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Tony Podesta, high-profile lobbyist, at his office in Washington,
DC, on June 24, 2010. (Luke Sharrett / The New York Times)
For decades, the United States has supported Saudi Arabia despite
the latter country's record of human rights abuses and working against
American interests. What explains this alliance that has endured across
multiple US presidential administrations? Fearless firebrand Medea Benjamin
tackles this question in her new book Kingdom of the Unjust. Get it now by
making a donation to Truthout!
If I told you that Democratic Party lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose brother
John Podesta chairs Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, is a registered
foreign agent on the Saudi government's payroll, you'd probably think I was
a Trump-thumping conspiracy theorist. But it's true.
The lobby firm created by both Tony and John Podesta in 1988 receives
$140,000 a month from the Saudi government, a government that beheads
nonviolent dissidents, uses torture to extract forced confessions, doesn't
allow women to drive, and bombs schools, hospitals and residential
neighborhoods in neighboring Yemen.
The Podesta Group's March 2016 filing, required under the Foreign Agents
Registration Act of 1938, shows that Tony Podesta himself oversees the Saudi
account. At the same time, Tony Podesta is also a top campaign contributor
and bundler for Hillary Clinton. So while one brother runs the campaign, the
other brother funds it with earnings that come, in part, from the Saudis.
Also see: Saudi Arabia Is the Most Gender-Segregated Nation in the World
John and Tony Podesta have been heavyweights in DC insider politics for
decades. John Podesta served as President Bill Clinton's chief of staff,
founded the influential DC think tank Center for American Progress (which
regularly touts Saudi "reforms"), and was counselor to President Obama. Tony
Podesta was dubbed by The New York Times as "one of Washington's biggest
players" whose clients "are going to get a blueprint for how to succeed in
official Washington."
The brothers seem to have no problem mixing their roles into the same pot.
Tony Podesta held a Clinton campaign fundraiser at his home featuring
gourmet Italian food cooked by himself and his brother, the campaign
chairman. The fundraiser, by the way, came just days after Tony Podesta
filed his Saudi contract with the Justice Department, a contract that
included an initial "project fee" payment of $200,000.
The Saudis hired the Podesta Group in 2015 because it was getting hammered
in the press over civilian casualties from its airstrikes in Yemen and its
crackdown on political dissidents at home, including sentencing blogger Raif
Badawi to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam." Since
then, Tony Podesta's fingerprints have been all over Saudi Arabia's advocacy
efforts in Washington DC. When Saudi Arabia executed the prominent
nonviolent Shia dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, causing protests throughout
the Shia world and inflaming sectarian divisions, The New York Times noted
that the Podesta Group provided the newspaper with a Saudi commentator who
defended the execution.
The Podesta-Clinton-Saudi connection should be seen in light of the recent
media exposes revealing the tawdry pay-to-play nature of the Clinton
Foundation. Top on the list of foreign donors to the foundation is Saudi
Arabia, which contributed between $10 million and $25 million.
What did the Saudis get for their largesse and access? WikiLeaks revealed a
2009 cable by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
saying:http://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/242073"M
ore needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support
base for Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar e-Tayyiba and other terrorist
groups." Instead of sanctioning the Saudis, Clinton did the opposite: She
authorized enormous quantities of weapons to be sold to them. On Christmas
Eve in 2011, Hillary Clinton and her closest aides celebrated a massive
$29.4 billion sale to the Saudis of over 80 F-15 fighter jets, manufactured
by Boeing, a company which coincidentally contributed $900,000 to the
Clinton Foundation. In a chain of enthusiastic emails, an aide exclaimed
that it was "not a bad Christmas present." I'm sure the Yemenis at the
receiving end of the Saudi bombings would not be so enthusiastic.
The Clintons have said that if Hillary Clinton gets elected, the foundation
will stop taking foreign donations. But what about no longer taking campaign
contributions from people who are paid by the Saudi government to whitewash
its image? The Podesta Group should be blacklisted from contributing to
Clinton's campaign until they drop the monarchy as a client and return their
ill-gotten gains. If Hillary Clinton wants to be a meaningful symbol for
human rights and women's empowerment, her campaign must live up to the
values she claims to represent, and this would be one step in the right
direction.
This article appears elsewhere and may not be reprinted without permission
of the author.
Medea Benjamin
Medea Benjaminis co-founder of CODEPINK and the fair trade advocacy group
Global Exchange, she is the author of Drone Warfare (OR Books, 2012) and has
played an active role in the Green Party. She has a Master's Degree in both
public health and economics. In 2012, she was awarded the U.S. Peace
Memorial Foundation's Peace Prize; she is also recipient of the 2014 Gandhi
Peace Award and the 2010 Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the
Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Related Stories
As Saudi Arabia Executes Sheikh al-Nimr, Will US Respond by Cutting $50
Billion in Weapons Sales?
By Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | Video InterviewAs Saudis Continue Bombing
Yemen, Is Obama Trading Cluster Munitions for Riyadh's Loyalty?
By Nermeen Shaikh, Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! | Video InterviewHow Blocking
the Saudi Arms Deal Can Help Stop a Lame Duck TPP
By Robert Naiman, Truthout | Op-Ed
Show Comments