My position about the Saudis (Crypto-Jews) was consolidated all along after I vowed, while still a teenager, never to set foot in Occupied Arabia or even perform Hajj as long as Arabia remained occupied by foreign powers, mainly the USA-Israel, the UK-Judah, and France-Israel. But, most Muslim "Hajjis" are fanatics, and are all after an inexistant Heavenly Paradise, serving corrupt leaders, and do not give a damn at what is really happening on this static disk called Earth! Or this Tilted Spinning Globe with an unproven Gravity?
Dieudonné - Les pleurniches de Sarkozy // Mouammar Kadhafi, Alain Soral, Algérie
DAVID ICKE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iGvsHnBGH8&t=822s
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Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election
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By Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman and David D. Kirkpatrick
WASHINGTON
— Three months before the 2016 election, a small group gathered at
Trump Tower to meet with Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son.
One was an Israeli specialist in social media manipulation. Another was
an emissary for two wealthy Arab princes. The third was a Republican
donor with a controversial past in the Middle East as a private security
contractor.
The meeting was convened
primarily to offer help to the Trump team, and it forged relationships
between the men and Trump insiders that would develop over the coming
months — past the election and well into President Trump’s first year in
office, according to several people with knowledge of their encounters.
Erik
Prince, the private security contractor and the former head of
Blackwater, arranged the meeting, which took place on Aug. 3, 2016. The
emissary, George Nader, told Donald Trump Jr. that the princes who led
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were eager to help his father
win election as president. The social media specialist, Joel Zamel,
extolled his company’s ability to give an edge to a political campaign;
by that time, the firm had already drawn up a multimillion-dollar
proposal for a social media manipulation effort to help elect Mr. Trump.
The
company, which employed several Israeli former intelligence officers,
specialized in collecting information and shaping opinion through social
media.
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It
is unclear whether such a proposal was executed, and the details of who
commissioned it remain in dispute. But Donald Trump Jr. responded
approvingly, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting, and
after those initial offers of help, Mr. Nader was quickly embraced as a
close ally by Trump campaign advisers — meeting frequently with Jared
Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, and Michael T. Flynn, who became the
president’s first national security adviser. At the time, Mr. Nader was
also promoting a secret plan to use private contractors to destabilize
Iran, the regional nemesis of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates.
After
Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Nader paid Mr. Zamel a large sum of money,
described by one associate as up to $2 million. There are conflicting
accounts of the reason for the payment, but among other things, a
company linked to Mr. Zamel provided Mr. Nader with an elaborate
presentation about the significance of social media campaigning to Mr.
Trump’s victory.
The
meetings, which have not been reported previously, are the first
indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance
to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election.
The interactions are a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller
III, the special counsel, who was originally tasked with examining
possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia in the election.
Mr.
Nader is cooperating with the inquiry, and investigators have
questioned numerous witnesses in Washington, New York, Atlanta, Tel Aviv
and elsewhere about what foreign help may have been pledged or
accepted, and about whether any such assistance was coordinated with
Russia, according to witnesses and others with knowledge of the
interviews.
Image
The
interviews, some in recent weeks, are further evidence that special
counsel’s investigation remains in an intense phase even as Mr. Trump’s
lawyers are publicly calling for Mr. Mueller to bring it to a close.
It
is illegal for foreign governments or individuals to be involved in
American elections, and it is unclear what — if any — direct assistance
Saudi Arabia and the Emirates may have provided. But two people familiar
with the meetings said that Trump campaign officials did not appear
bothered by the idea of cooperation with foreigners.
A
lawyer for Donald Trump Jr., Alan Futerfas, said in a statement that
“prior to the 2016 election, Donald Trump Jr. recalls a meeting with
Erik Prince, George Nader and another individual who may be Joel Zamel.
They pitched Mr. Trump Jr. on a social media platform or marketing
strategy. He was not interested and that was the end of it.”
The
August 2016 meeting has echoes of another Trump Tower meeting two
months earlier, also under scrutiny by the special counsel, when Donald
Trump Jr. and other top campaign aides met with a Russian lawyer after
being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton. No evidence
has emerged suggesting that the August meeting was set up with a similar
premise.
Image
The
revelations about the meetings come in the midst of new scrutiny about
ties between Mr. Trump’s advisers and at least three wealthy Persian
Gulf states. Besides his interest in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates, Mr.
Mueller has also been asking witnesses about meetings between White
House advisers and representatives of Qatar, Saudi Arabia’s bitter
rival.
A lawyer for Mr. Zamel denied
that his client had carried out any campaign on Mr. Trump’s behalf.
“Neither Joel Zamel, nor any of his related entities, had any
involvement whatsoever in the U.S. election campaign,” said the lawyer,
Marc L. Mukasey.
“The D.O.J.
clarified from Day 1 that Joel and his companies have never been a
target of the investigation. My client provided full cooperation to the
government to assist with their investigation,” he said.
Kathryn
Ruemmler, a lawyer for Mr. Nader, said, “Mr. Nader has fully cooperated
with the special counsel’s investigation and will continue to do so.” A
senior official in Saudi Arabia said it had never employed Mr. Nader in
any capacity or authorized him to speak for the crown prince.
Image
Mr. Prince, through a spokesman, declined to comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Advisers to the Court
Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, the de facto ruler of
the United Arab Emirates, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi
Arabia, the king’s main adviser, had long opposed many of the Obama
administration’s policies toward the Middle East. They resented
President Barack Obama’s agreement with Iran over its nuclear program,
his statements of support for the Arab Spring uprisings and his
hands-off approach to the Syrian civil war.
News
outlets linked to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates fiercely
criticized Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, when she was
secretary of state, and diplomats familiar with their thinking say both
princes hoped for a president who would take a stronger hand in the
region against both Iran and groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.
Mr.
Nader had worked for years as a close adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed
of Abu Dhabi, and Mr. Zamel had worked for the Emirati royal court as a
consultant as well. When Mr. Trump locked up the Republican presidential
nomination in early 2016, Mr. Nader began making inquiries on behalf of
the Emirati prince about possible ways to directly support Mr. Trump,
according to three people with whom Mr. Nader discussed his efforts.
Image
Mr.
Nader also visited Moscow at least twice during the presidential
campaign as a confidential emissary from Crown Prince Mohammed of Abu
Dhabi, according to people familiar with his travels. After the
election, he worked with the crown prince to arrange a meeting in the
Seychelles between Mr. Prince and a financier close to President
Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Companies
connected to Mr. Zamel also have ties to Russia. One of his firms had
previously worked for oligarchs linked to Mr. Putin, including Oleg V.
Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev, who hired the firm for online campaigns
against their business rivals.
Mr.
Deripaska, an aluminum magnate, was once in business with the former
Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has pleaded not guilty in the
special counsel investigation to charges of financial crimes and
failing to disclose the lobbying work he did on behalf of a former
president of Ukraine, an ally of Mr. Putin. Mr. Rybolovlev once
purchased a Florida mansion from Mr. Trump.
Mr.
Nader’s visits to Russia and the work Mr. Zamel’s companies did for the
Russians have both been a subject of interest to the special counsel’s
investigators, according to people familiar with witness interviews.
Image
A String of Meetings
Mr.
Zamel and Mr. Nader were together at a Midtown Manhattan hotel at about
4 p.m. on the afternoon of Aug. 3 when Mr. Nader received a call from
Mr. Prince summoning them to Trump Tower. When they arrived, Stephen
Miller, a top campaign aide who is now a White House adviser, was in
Donald Trump Jr.’s office as well, according to the people familiar with
the meeting.
Mr. Prince is a
longtime Republican donor and the brother of Betsy DeVos, the education
secretary, and Mr. Prince and Mr. Nader had known each other since Mr.
Nader had worked for Blackwater as a business agent in Iraq in the years
after the American invasion. Mr. Prince has longstanding ties to the
Emirates, and has frequently done business with Crown Prince Mohammed.
Mr.
Prince opened the meeting by telling Donald Trump Jr. that “we are
working hard for your father,” in reference to his family and other
donors, according to a person familiar with the meeting. He then
introduced Mr. Nader as an old friend with deep ties to Arab leaders.
Mr.
Nader repeatedly referred to the Saudi and Emirati princes as “my
friends,” according to one person with knowledge of the conversation. To
underscore the point, he would open his mobile phone to show off
pictures of him posing with them, some of which The New York Times
obtained.
Image
Mr.
Nader explained to Donald Trump Jr. that the two princes saw the elder
Mr. Trump as a strong leader who would fill the power vacuum that they
believed Mr. Obama had left in the Middle East, and Mr. Nader went on to
say that he and his friends would be glad to support Mr. Trump as much
as they could, according to the person with knowledge of the
conversation.
Mr. Zamel, for his
part, laid out the capabilities of his online media company, although it
is unclear whether he referred to the proposals his company had already
prepared. One person familiar with the meeting said that Mr. Nader
invited Donald Trump Jr. to meet with a Saudi prince — an invitation the
younger Mr. Trump declined. After about half an hour, everyone
exchanged business cards.
“There
was a brief meeting, nothing concrete was offered or pitched to anyone
and nothing came of it,” said Mr. Mukasey, the lawyer for Mr. Zamel.
By
then, a company connected to Mr. Zamel had been working on a proposal
for a covert multimillion-dollar online manipulation campaign to help
elect Mr. Trump, according to three people involved and a fourth briefed
on the effort. The plan involved using thousands of fake social media
accounts to promote Mr. Trump’s candidacy on platforms like Facebook.
Image
There
were concerns inside the company, Psy-Group, about the plan’s legality,
according to one person familiar with the effort. The company, whose
motto is “shape reality,” consulted an American law firm, and was told
that it would be illegal if any non-Americans were involved in the
effort.
Mr. Zamel, the founder of
Psy-Group and one of its owners, has been questioned about the August
2016 meeting by investigators for the special counsel, and at least two
F.B.I. agents working on the inquiry have traveled to Israel to
interview employees of the company who worked on the proposal. According
to one person, the special counsel’s team has worked with the Israeli
police to seize the computers of one of Mr. Zamel’s companies, which is
currently in liquidation.
In the
hectic final weeks of the campaign and during the presidential
transition, several of Mr. Trump’s advisers drew Mr. Nader close. He met
often with Mr. Kushner, Mr. Flynn and Stephen K. Bannon, who took over
as campaign chairman after Mr. Manafort resigned amid revelations about
his work in Ukraine.
In December
2016, Mr. Nader turned again to an internet company linked to Mr. Zamel —
WhiteKnight, based in the Philippines — to purchase a presentation
demonstrating the impact of social media campaigns on Mr. Trump’s
electoral victory. Asked about the purchase, a representative of
WhiteKnight said: “WhiteKnight delivers premium research and high-end
business development services for prestigious clients around the world.
WhiteKnight does not talk about any of its clients.”
After the inauguration, both Mr. Zamel and Mr. Nader visited the White House, meeting with Mr. Kushner and Mr. Bannon.
At
that time, Mr. Nader was promoting a plan to use private contractors to
carry out economic sabotage against Iran that, he hoped, might coerce
it to permanently abandon its nuclear program. The plan included efforts
to deter Western companies from investing in Iran, and operations to
sow mistrust among Iranian officials. He advocated the project, which he
estimated would cost about $300 million, to American, Emirati and Saudi
officials.
Last spring, Mr. Nader
traveled to Riyadh for meetings with senior Saudi military and
intelligence officials to pitch his Iran sabotage plan. He was
convinced, according to several people familiar with his plan, that
economic warfare was the key to the overthrow of the government in
Tehran. One person briefed on Mr. Nader’s activities said he tried to
persuade Mr. Kushner to endorse the plan to Crown Prince Mohammed in
person on a trip to Riyadh, although it was unclear whether the message
was delivered.
Asked about Mr.
Nader’s plans to attack Iran, the senior Saudi official said Mr. Nader
had a habit of pitching proposals that went nowhere.
Mr.
Nader was also in discussions with Mr. Prince, the former head of
Blackwater, about a plan to get the Saudis to pay $2 billion to set up a
private army to combat Iranian proxy forces in Yemen.
Since
entering the White House, Mr. Trump has allied himself closely with
Saudi Arabia and the Emirates. His first overseas trip was to Riyadh. He
strongly backed Saudi and Emirati efforts to isolate their neighbor
Qatar, another American ally, even over apparent disagreement from the
State and Defense Departments.
This
month, Mr. Trump also withdrew from an Obama administration nuclear deal
with Iran that both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had
campaigned against for years, delivering them their biggest victory yet
from his administration.
Mark
Mazzetti reported from Washington, Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv and
David D. Kirkpatrick from London. Maggie Haberman contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Inquiry Grows to Include Contacts in Gulf. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
