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Tribune News Network
Doha
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is on pace to contribute $20 million over the course of 2016 and 2017 to the Middle East Institute, one of Washington's leading think tanks, according to The Intercept.
The outsized contribution, which the UAE hoped to conceal, would allow the institute, according to the agreement, to"influence" the US government policymakers and"convene regional leaders for discreet dialogue", the documents obtained by The Intercept revealed.
The UAE, according to the Associated Press, operate a network of torture pens in Yemen where detainees are grilled alive.
MEI was founded in 1946 and has long been an influential player in Washington foreign policy circles. It serves as a platform for many of the US' most influential figures, allowing them to regularly appear on cable news, author papers and host private briefings.
The document was included in a trove of diplomatic correspondence pilfered from the email account of UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef al Otaiba, either by hackers or somebody with access to the inbox, and subsequently provided to The Intercept.
Otaiba has made no secret of his disdain for Qatar, and his desire that the US take a hard line against Iran.
Otaiba is one of the two or three most influential diplomats in Washington, and he has forged a close bond with US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
He has long been close with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, and has built personal relationships with key figures in the House, Senate and White House. The UAE has used its outsized role to bend US policy in a more militant direction toward the country's foes: Iran, Qatar, the Houthis in Yemen, and a coalition government in Libya that has got backing from Qatar.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also leading a unjust blockade against Qatar, rooted in a fabricated comments attributed to the Emir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani. Qatar said the comments were fake and the result of a hack of its official news agency, and US intelligence sources have told the Washington Post that the UAE was behind that cyberattack, The Intercept said.
