U.S. Code Title 22 Chapter 39 Subchapter I § 2752 (b) Responsibility for supervision and direction of sales, leases, financing, cooperative projects, and exports Under the direction of the President, the Secretary of State (taking into account other United States activities abroad, such as military assistance, economic assistance, and the food for peace program) shall be responsible for the continuous supervision and general direction of sales, leases, financing, cooperative projects, and exports under this chapter, including, but not limited to, determining whether there will be a sale to or financing for a country and the amount thereof; whether there will be a lease to a country;

whether there will be a cooperative project and the scope thereof; and

whether there will be delivery or other performance under such sale, lease, cooperative project, or export, to the end that sales, financing, leases, cooperative projects, and exports will be integrated with other United States activities and to the end that the foreign policy of the United States would be best served thereby. Clinton supervised the Department of State, the agency that is responsible for regulating U.S. arms exports. State Department exports approvals substantially increased to governments that donated to the Clinton Foundation. Federal law explicitly designates the Secretary of State as “responsible for the continuous supervision and general direction of sales” of arms, and early in her term, the State Department called one arms deal a “top priority” for Clinton. Clinton Foundation Donors Include: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia $10,000,001 – $25,000,000 Friends of Saudi Arabia $1,000,001 – $5,000,000 Sheikh Mohammed H. Al-Amoudi $5,000,001 – $10,000,000 State of Qatar $1,000,001 – $5,000,000 Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee $250,001 – $500,000 Qatar Foundation International $100,001 – $250,000 The Government of Brunei Darussalam $1,000,001 – $5,000,000 The Sultanate of Oman $1,000,001 – $5,000,000 United Arab Emirates $1,000,001 – $5,000,000 Dubai Foundation (UAE) $1,000,001 – $5,000,000 Dubai Financial Market (UAE) $10,001 – $25,000 Abraaj Holdings (UAE) $500,001 – $1,000,000 State of Kuwait $5,000,001 – $10,000,000 National Bank of Kuwait SAK $25,001 – $50,000 OCP Corporation (Morocco) $1,000,001 – $5,000,000 BMCE Bank (Morocco) $100,001 – $250,000 Bahrain Petroleum Company $10,001 – $25,000 Kingdom of Bahrain $50,001 – $100,000 Gulf Finance House (Bahrain) $50,001 – $100,000 US approved $40 billion in 2009 private arms sales | WASHINGTON POST | MAR 11 2011 The U.S. government approved $40 billion in worldwide private arms sales in 2009, including more than $7 billion to Mideast and North African nations that are struggling with political upheaval, the State Department reported. From 2008 to 2009, the U.S. authorized increasing sales of military shipments to the now-toppled Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak and the embattled kingdom of Bahrain. The $40 billion figure during the first year of the Obama administration reflects a rise in total approved arms sales over the final year of the Bush administration in 2008, when the State Department licensed $34.2 billion. The $7.3 billion in U.S.-approved defense sales to Mideast and North African countries in 2009 totaled up to nearly a fifth of the entire $40 billion in licensed sales – indications of both the region’s strategic importance and their governments’ willingness to pay top dollar for American defense equipment. Iraq, where U.S. forces are still drawing down and the fledgling government is struggling against militants, was the biggest buyer ($1.51 billion), closely followed by Turkey ($1.50 billion) and the United Arab Emirates ($1.09 billion). U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market | AUG. 26, 2012 | NY TIMES Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Persian Gulf allies. Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion. The American weapons sales total was an “extraordinary increase” over the $21.4 billion in deals for 2010, the study found, and was the largest single-year sales total in the history of United States arms exports. The previous high was in fiscal year 2009, when American weapons sales overseas totaled nearly $31 billion. Increasing tensions drove a set of Persian Gulf nations – Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman to purchase weapons at record levels. The agreements with Saudi Arabia included the purchase of 84 advanced F-15 fighters, a variety of ammunition, missiles and logistics support, and upgrades of 70 of the F-15 fighters in the current fleet. Sales to Saudi Arabia last year also included dozens of Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, all contributing to a total Saudi weapons deal from the United States of $33.4 billion, according to the study. The United Arab Emirates purchased a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, an advanced antimissile shield that includes radars and is valued at $3.49 billion, as well as 16 Chinook helicopters for $939 million. Oman bought 18 F-16 fighters for $1.4 billion. Here’s who buys the most weapons from the U.S. | CNN | MAY 25, 2016 The U.S. is responsible for nearly 33% of worldwide exports — by far the top arms exporter on the planet — but which countries does the U.S. sell the most weapons to? Saudi Arabia was the top recipient of American-made arms from 2011-2015, followed closely by the United Arab Emirates. Experts believe the Middle East will remain a top destination for weapons for some time — it currently accounts for about 40% of U.S. arms exports — especially given the rise of ISIS. The American exports include everything from small arms to fighter jet aircraft and tanks, to Patriot Missile batteries. U.S. defense companies were explicit in their desire to boost international exports in the wake of recent defense budget cuts. CEO of U.S. defense giant Lockheed Martin, Marillyn Hewson, said, “One area where we expect the majority of our growth potential to come from in the years ahead is our international customers.” Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton’s State Department | INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES | MAY 26, 2015 Even by the standards of arms deals between the United States and Saudi Arabia, this one was enormous. A consortium of American defense contractors led by Boeing would deliver $29 billion worth of advanced fighter jets to the United States’ oil-rich ally in the Middle East. At press conferences in Washington to announce the department’s approval, an assistant secretary of state, Andrew Shapiro, declared that the deal had been “a top priority” for Clinton personally. In the years before Hillary Clinton became secretary of state, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia contributed at least $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. Just two months before the deal was finalized, Boeing — the defense contractor that manufactures one of the fighter jets the Saudis were especially keen to acquire, the F-15 — contributed $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation, according to a company press release.

Morocco

“Donations” to the Clinton Foundation

OCP Corporation (Morocco) $1,000,001 – $5,000,000

BMCE Bank (Morocco) $100,001 – $250,000

Kingdom of Morocco requests permission to purchase 200 M1A1 Abrams Tanks | DSCA | JUN 18, 2012

The prime contractor will be General Dynamics Land Systems in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Estimated cost $1.015 billion.

Morocco receives Abrams tanks from U.S. Army | ARMY.MIL | AUG 22, 2016

Twenty-two M1A1 (situational awareness configuration) Abrams tanks were officially handed over to the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces during a ceremony in Nouaceur, Morocco, July 26.

An additional 200 vehicles will be delivered to the Moroccan Army through the United States’ foreign military sales program and will include radios, training ammunition, spare parts, tools and test equipment, personnel training, training aids and simulators.

WIKILEAKS: Hillary Got $12 Million for Clinton Charity As Quid Pro Quo For Morocco Meeting | DAILYCALLER | OCT 10, 2016

The Moroccan monarch’s funds went to the Clinton Foundation’s endowment and to CGI.

The actual meeting was paid for by OCP, the Moroccan-government-owned mining company that has been accused of serious human rights violations. Clinton vigorously supported the Moroccan King as Secretary of State and the U.S.-financed Export-Import Bank gave OCP a $92 million loan guarantee during her tenure.

The mining company also contributed between $5 million to $10 million to the Clinton Foundation, according to the charity’s web site.

The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice charged OCP with “serious human rights violations,” including exploitation of workers by not “adequately compensating the impoverished people who live there.”

“OCP is the first beneficiary of the war and the first beneficiary of the occupation — it is the one that is cashing in on the misery of thousands of refugees and hundreds of political detainees for the past 40 years.”

Donald Trump accuses Hillary Clinton of ‘pay for play’ in Morocco after email hack | CNN | OCT 21, 2016

Donald Trump on Friday accused his rival Hillary Clinton of engaging in “pay for play” for accepting an invitation to speak at a Clinton Global Initiative event in Morocco in exchange for a $12 million donation pledge to the Clinton Foundation from that country’s king.

Fox News Just Landed A Brutal, Clean Hit On Hillary Clinton’s Campaign | HUFFINGTON POST | OCT 23, 2016

In the beforetime, in the long, long ago of 2015, a woman named Hillary Clintonwas about to launch her campaign for president. She was also trying really hard to secure $12 million for her family’s charitable foundation from King Mohammed VI of Morocco. And her campaign was freaking out about it.

Campaign manager Robby Mook and longtime Clinton confidant John Podesta thought the deal ― in which Clinton had committed to speak at an event for the king on the condition of his $12 million donation ― would look bad. Clinton aide Huma Abedin tried to explain that it was simply too late to back out.

“This was HRC’s idea,” Abedin wrote in an email to Podesta. “Our office approached the Moroccans and they 100 percent believe they are doing this at her request. The King has personally committed approx $12 million both for the endowment and to support the meeting. It will break a lot of china to back out now when we had so many opportunities to do it in the past few months.”

My apologies | WIKILEAKS PODESTA 4335 | NOV 19, 2014

Email correspondence between Huma Abedin, Cheryl Mills, John Podesta, Robby Mook, Jake Sullivan regarding the Clinton Global Initiative meeting in Morocco Huma Abedin:

“Morocco: No matter what happens, she will be in Morocco hosting CGI on May 5-7, 2015. Her presence was a condition for the Moroccans to proceed so there is no going back on this. Important that you know background.”

CGI AFRICA | WIKILEAKS PODESTA 22030 | JAN 1 2015

“Just to give you some context, the condition upon which the Moroccans agreed to host the meeting was her participation.”

“This was HRC’s idea, our office approached the Moroccans and they 100 percent believe they are doing this at her request. The King has personally committed approx $12 million both for the endowment and to support the meeting.”

“She created this mess and she knows it.”

Why was that meeting so important to Clinton?

Controversial Clinton-Tied Moroccan Mining Firm Supported by Ex-Im Bank | FREE BEACON | MAY 15, 2015

A controversial state-owned Moroccan mining firm that has poured money into Hillary Clinton’s foundation has received more than $92 million in U.S. taxpayer support, public records show.

The firm, OCP, has been accused of violating U.S. and international law. According to a Friday report in Politico, it has also donated $6 million to the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

In September, the U.S. Export-Import Bank guaranteed a $92 million Citibank loan to OCP to purchase equipment from two American manufacturers.

That federal support came despite controversial practices by the state-owned company, detailed by Politico in a story on the Clinton Foundation’s OCP-sponsored event in Marrakech.

Former employees of the company decried what they described as its discriminatory and abusive practices.

They say the company, formerly called the Office Chérifien des Phosphates, forced them to retire early and slashed their pensions, leaving them struggling to scrape by while hiring ethnic Moroccans for more senior jobs. The miners also told me how they had witnessed first-hand multiple examples of the “arbitrary and prolonged detention” and “physical and verbal abuse” that the U.S. State Department says Moroccan authorities mete out to Sahrawis advocating for independence in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara.

FOREIGN EX-IM BANK BENEFICIARY HOSTS LAVISH CLINTON FOUNDATION EVENT | EX-IM EXPOSED

This week the Clinton Foundation held an event at a five-star luxury hotel in Morocco.

The event was hosted and funded by OCP, a Moroccan government-owned mining corporation that has been criticized for “serious human rights violations” by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice, specifically for removing resources “without adequately compensating the impoverished people who live there.”

The lavish conference for major American politicians aside, OCP also managed to secure more than $92 million in Export-Import Bank subsidies in 2014 alone. And, in yet another coincidence, Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton remains a staunch Ex-Im supporter. It was great deal for this company, the Moroccan government, and the Clintons—but a bad deal for American taxpayers.

Freedom Partners spokesman James Davis issued the following statement:

“American taxpayers are subsidizing the foreign corporation that funded this week’s Clinton Foundation event. The Export-Import Bank authorized more than $92 million in subsidies for OCP, a foreign government-owned mining corporation, and somehow the company can afford to pump more than $1 million into the Clinton Foundation. It’s no wonder Hillary Clinton supports the New Deal-era program: the bank props up foreign companies, and foreign companies prop up the Clinton Foundation. We urge Congress to take a principled stand against Ex-Im instead of with Hillary Clinton and the corporate special interests pushing for its reauthorization.”

This Week’s Clinton Foundation Event Was Funded By A Multimillion-Dollar Foreign Ex-Im Beneficiary:

The State-Owned Corporation Funded The Event With More Than $1 Million. “The Clinton Foundation is accepting a major donation from a Moroccan government-owned company to hold a high-profile conference next month in Marrakech with the king of Morocco — an event likely to reignite concerns about the foundation’s acceptance of foreign money just as Hillary Clinton prepares to announce her presidential candidacy. . . . The event is being funded largely by a contribution of at least $1 million from OCP, a phosphate exporter owned by Morocco’s constitutional monarchy, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the event.” (Kenneth Vogel, “Moroccan Cash Flows To Clinton Foundation,” Politico, 04/08/15)

Moroccan cash flows to Clinton Foundation | POLITICO | APR 8, 2015

During her State Department tenure, Clinton visited Morocco, and later launched an ongoing U.S.-Morocco strategic dialogue (the latest installment of which is set to occur in Washington this week), praising the country in 2012 “as a leader and a model.”

Clinton Foundation limits foreign donations | POLITICO | APR 15, 2015

The lavish conference for major American politicians aside, OCP also managed to secure more than $92 million in Export-Import Bank subsidies in 2014 alone.

And, in yet another coincidence, Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton remains a staunch Ex-Im supporter. It was great deal for this company, the

Moroccan government, and the Clintons—but a bad deal for American taxpayers.

King Mohammed reportedly gave money directly to the Clinton Presidential Library. | THE NEW YORK SUN | NOV 22, 2004

The New York Sun reported back in 2004 that King Mohammed VI personally gave between $100,000 – $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation. The record of this donation has since been scrubbed from the Foundation website.

Morocco is an international trafficking hub | CIA

One of the world’s largest producers of illicit hashish; shipments of hashish mostly directed to Western Europe; transit point for cocaine from South America destined for Western Europe; significant consumer of cannabis

Phosphates– Morocco is the number one producer of phosphates and phosphate products. | BLOOMBERG



Sarin, mustard and VX gases are common chemical weapons. Sarin and VX are organophosphate compounds.

Libya

German Jailed for Aiding Libya’s Chemical Weapons Program | AP | OCT 1, 1996

The United States accused Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi of building the world’s largest underground chemical weapons plant in a mountain at Tarhunah, 40 miles southeast of Tripoli.

In the 1980s, German companies helped build the largest chemical weapons factory in the world. Libya said it was designed to produce drugs, not poison gas.

Current Libya situation:



Clinton and Obama overthrew the Libyan government, sending Libya into chaos.



The United Nations imposed an arms embargo on Libya.

We lost track of Gadhafi’s weapons, including chemical weapons. It turns out he had more than we knew about.

Obama and Clinton gave many of them to ISIS using a Qatari arms trafficking network. The rest were up for grabs.

Beyond Gadhafi’s weapons, Obama gave Qatar his approval to transfer of 20,000 tons of weapons from Qatar to… Well we’re not exactly sure who still. Basically everyone.

Since then, The Obama Administration has approved over $9 billion in US arms exports to Qatar.

Libya is now a strong hold for ISIS.

ISIS is controlling the human trafficking network in Libya, profiting immensely.

Libya, the country that once acted as the gatekeep for Europe, has become a major immigration hub for emigrants headed to Europe.

Some of Gadhafi’s Sarin gas was taken to Syria, and used.



Obama and Clinton were working behind the scenes to topple Assad’s government in Syria.

Sourced:

February 26, 2011 – The UN imposed sanctions on Libyan authorities, including an arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban. | UN NEWS

In March of 2011, Reuters reported that the Obama administration had signed secret orders authorizing secret help for rebels fighting against Gadhafi’s government. Fulfillment of such order would be a clear violation of the UN arms embargo. | REUTERS

A rebellion backed by money and military strength from foreign nations waged a successful civil war against the Libyan state. | WORLD POST

FRANCE, UK, ET AL, JOCKEYING IN LIBYA/OIL | WIKILEAKS

US OK’d sending arms to Libya | BOSTONGLOBE

Clinton State Department approved U.S. weapons shipment to Libya despite ban | REUTERS

Libya’s government no longer exists and the country is in chaos. | BBC

Drug And Human Trafficking In ‘Lawless’ Libya Is Funding Isis | IB TIMES

Calm Seas, Libya’s Lawless State Open Door For Migrant Flows | REUTERS

‘Real armed commando’: Police bust ISIS terror cell preparing ‘chemical attack’ in Morocco | RT

Why Is Libya So Lawless? | BBC

ISIS now has a foothold in Libya. | BBC

Top ISIS commanders are taking refuge in Libya. | BBC

Islamic State is planning to use Libya as a gateway to Europe. | TELEGRAPH

Under Clinton’s leadership, the State Department approved $165 billion worth of commercial arms sales to 20 nations whose governments have given money to the Clinton Foundation | IBTIMES

Clinton Charity Received About $12,000,000 from the King of Morocco and Various Moroccan Owned Entities | DAILYCALLER | CNN | HUFFPOST

‘How US Ambassador Chris Stevens May Have Been Linked To Jihadist Rebels In Syria’ | BIZ INSIDER

Muslim Brotherhood Official, Former Clinton Foundation Employee Arrested | FREE BEACON | WA TIMES

TIMELINE

A closer look the WMDs & Qatar’s ‘help’

Nightmare In Libya: Thousands Of Surface-To-Air Missiles Unaccounted For | ABC | SEP 27, 2011

The White House announced today it planned to expand a program to secure and destroy Libya’s huge stockpile of dangerous surface-to-air missiles, following an ABC News report that large numbers of them continue to be stolen from unguarded military warehouses.

“I think the probability of al Qaeda being able to smuggle some of the stinger-like missiles out of Libya is probably pretty high,” said Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism advisor and now a consultant to ABC News.

Just so you understand, the White House announcement came after the ABC News report.

‘Libya’s Cache of Toxic Arms All Destroyed’ | NYT | FEB 2, 2014

Since November, Libyan contractors trained in Germany and Sweden have worked to destroy the weapons in a region where extremists linked to Al Qaeda are gaining greater influence. The last artillery shell was destroyed on Jan. 26, officials said.

Libyan officials announced the discovery in November 2011 and February 2012 of two hidden caches of mustard, or nearly two tons, that had not been declared by Colonel Qaddafi’s government That brought the total declared amount of chemical to 26.3 tons.

Unlike the majority of Libya’s mustard agents, which were stored in large, bulky containers, the new caches were already armed and loaded.

Keep this in mind: Autopsy Reveals Why Two Died on ‘Captain Phillips’ Ship | TIME | FEB 25, 2014

An autopsy revealed that the two former NAVY Seals found dead last week onboard the Maersk Alabama—the container ship that inspired the movie Captain Phillips—died of respiratory failure and suspected heart attacks.

Seychelles police said Tuesday that they are investigating whether the two 44-year-old American security officers consumed a substance that triggered the failure. “The police preliminary investigation report includes suspicion of drug use, as indicated by the presence of a syringe and traces of heroin which were found in the cabin,” police said in a statement.

The deceased, Jeffrey Reynolds and Mark Kennedy, were hired to deter pirates. The ship was hijacked in 2009 off the coast of East Africa. Those events inspired the 2013 Oscar nominated film Captain Philips.

Different event, but keep this in mind also: Families of Navy SEALs killed in 2011 attack say government is to blame | FOX NEWS | MAY 10, 2013

The families of Navy SEAL Team 6 members killed in a disastrous August 2011 helicopter crash in Afghanistan blamed the government for the tragedy, during an emotional press conference in Washington Thursday.The family members, speaking at the National Press Club, tried to reopen the book on the crash, in which 30 Americans were killed, most of them belonging to the same unit as those who carried out the raid on Usama bin Laden earlier that year. The helicopter was shot down by insurgents.During the event organized by a group called Freedom Watch, family members and former military personnel claimed President Obama turned the SEALs group into a Taliban target after the administration revealed they had conducted the bin Laden raid.

Doug Hamburger, whose son Patrick was killed, called the incident an “ambush” that could have been prevented.“We’re very concerned that the administration had disclosed that the Navy SEALs had carried out a successful attack on bin Laden’s compound resulting in his death. And you know, never before in the history of our county (had) a sitting president released that type of information to the public, especially when he was talking about special forces. Their names and their missions had never been revealed before. And we really feel that this put our guys in an unnecessary risk,” Hamburger said.

Again, keep this is mind: Obama stonewalls SEAL Team 6 helicopter crash probe, watchdog says | WASHINGTON TIMES | AUG 5, 2015

The Obama administration is violating a judge’s order to turn over documents in the Aug. 6, 2011, shootdown of a U.S. helicopter — call sign Extortion 17 — that killed members of SEAL Team 6 in Afghanistan, a watchdog group is charging.

On the fourth anniversary of the worst one-day loss of military life in the war on terror, families of the dead say they are aghast that the government will not honor basic requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

“It has now been four years since Extortion 17 was shot down,” said Doug Hamburger, whose Army air crew son, Patrick, was one of the 30 Americans killed. “I find it quite disturbing that the government is not willing to give us the answers we deserve. I find it very irritating that we will not question the Afghans about their knowledge of what took place that night.”

Returning to Libya:

As ISIS closed in, a race to remove chemical-weapon precursors in Libya | WA POST | SEP 13, 2016

While some precursor materials were destroyed in 2015, nearly 500 tons of dual-use, toxic industrial chemicals remained at Ruwagha.

In mid-July, Libyan officials piled about 20 barrels onto a small convoy of trucks and drove them across the desert to the coastal city of Misrata.

In late August, the materials were loaded at the port of Misrata onto a Danish ship bound for the German city of Münster.

Dynasafe equipment destroys Libyan chemical weapons | DYNASAFE

Syrian Chemical Weapons Elimination Project | PARSONS

Using $45 million from the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which has helped rid the former Soviet Union of thousands of nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War, the Pentagon and its Defense Threat Reduction Agency tapped the Parsons Corporation, a construction firm based in Pasadena, Calif., to work with Libya to oversee the rebuilding and safeguarding of the Libyan disposal site, which had been ransacked during the civil war.

Security Council imposes sanctions on Libyan authorities in bid to stem violent repression | UN NEWS CENTRE | FEB 26, 2011

The Security Council today voted unanimously to impose sanctions against the Libyan authorities, slapping the country with an arms embargo and freezing the assets of its leaders, while referring the ongoing violent repression of civilian demonstrators to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Arming Libya rebels not allowed by UN resolutions, legal experts warn US | THE GUARDIAN | MAR 30, 2011

After Hillary Clinton said it would be legal to send arms to support the uprising, lawyers analysing the terms of the UN’s 26 February arms embargo said it would require a change in the terms for it not to breach international law.

“The embargo appears to cover everybody in the conflict which means you can’t supply arms to rebels,” said Philippe Sands QC, professor of international law at University College London.

Asked whether the US itself would arm Libya revolutionaries, Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, said: “We have not made that decision but we’ve not certainly ruled that out.”

February’s UN security council resolution 1970 on the arms embargo states that all member states must prevent the supply to the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya – the Libyan nation – of arms including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment and spare parts. The embargo also relates to the provision of technical assistance, training or financial and bans the provision of mercenaries.

Lawless: Obama authorizes secret help for Libya rebels | REUTERS | MAR 31, 2011

President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

The CIA, which declined comment on the Obama authorization, has inserted small groups of clandestine operatives to gather intelligence for air strikes as part of a shadow force of Westerners that the United States hopes can help bleed Gadaffi’s military, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed American officials.

In addition to the CIA operatives, dozens of British special forces and MI6 intelligence officers are also working in Libya, the newspaper said.

U.S.-Approved Arms for Libya Rebels Fell Into Jihadis’ Hands | NEW YORK TIMES | DEC 5, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.

The experience in Libya has taken on new urgency as the administration considers whether to play a direct role in arming rebels in Syria, where weapons are flowing in from Qatar and other countries. The Obama administration did not initially raise objections when Qatar began shipping arms to opposition groups in Syria, even if it did not offer encouragement, according to current and former administration officials. But they said the United States has growing concerns that, just as in Libya, the Qataris are equipping some of the wrong militants. The United States, which had only small numbers of C.I.A. officers in Libya during the tumult of the rebellion, provided little oversight of the arms shipments. Within weeks of endorsing Qatar’s plan to send weapons there in spring 2011, the White House began receiving reports that they were going to Islamic militant groups. They were “more antidemocratic, more hard-line, closer to an extreme version of Islam” than the main rebel alliance in Libya, said a former Defense Department official. The Qatari assistance to fighters viewed as hostile by the United States demonstrates the Obama administration’s continuing struggles in dealing with the Arab Spring uprisings, as it tries to support popular protest movements while avoiding American military entanglements. Relying on surrogates allows the United States to keep its fingerprints off operations, but also means they may play out in ways that conflict with American interests.

Arms Airlift to Syria Rebels Expands, With Aid From C.I.A. | NEW YORK TIMES | MAR 24, 2013

With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.

How Qatar is funding the rise of Islamist extremists | TELEGRAPH | SEP 20, 2014

Western officials have tracked the Qatari arms flights as they land in the city of Misrata, about 100 miles east of Tripoli, where the Islamist militias have their stronghold. Even after the fall of the capital and the removal of Libya’s government, Qatar is “still flying in weapons straight to Misrata airport”, said a senior Western official.

Boeing Delivers Qatar Emiri Air Force’s 4th C-17 Globemaster III | BOEING | DEC 10, 2012

“The C-17’s reliability, along with its unique strategic and tactical capabilities, has expanded our reach and ability to support missions worldwide on a moment’s notice,” said Brig. Gen. Ahmed Al-Malki, head of Qatar’s airlift committee. “Doubling our fleet strengthens our ability to support humanitarian, disaster-relief and peacekeeping missions.”

Qatar’s C-17s earlier this year supported the NATO-led operation in Libya and provided relief for drought victims in Kenya. In early 2010, QEAF C-17s delivered humanitarian aid to Haiti and Chile following devastating earthquakes.

Qatari arms shipments continued long after the fall of Libyan government in Tripoli, suggesting involvement beyond what was publicly known.

Tiny Kingdom’s Huge Role in Libya Draws Concern | WALL STREET JOURNAL | OCT 17, 2011

Between APRIL AND AUGUST, at least 18 cargo planes left Qatar for Libya, filled with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and other small arms, as well as military uniforms and vehicles, say people familiar with the situation.

With the blessing of Western intelligence agencies, Qatar flew at least 18 weapons shipments in all to anti-Gadhafi rebel forces in 2012, the majority directly to militias run by Islamist leaders.

About a dozen other Qatari-funded shipments came via Sudan, according to previously undisclosed Libyan intelligence documents.

Further, since these transfers, Qatar has become a major buyer of US military hardware.

After the collapse of the Libyan government, Gadhafi’s arms stockpiles were raided, and arsenals of weapons also found their way into the hands of Islamist rebels in Syria.

In Turnabout, Syria Rebels Get Libyan Weapons | NEW YORK TIMES | JUN 21, 2013

During his more than four decades in power, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya was North Africa’s outrageously self-styled arms benefactor, a donor of weapons to guerrillas and terrorists around the world fighting governments he did not like.

Many of the same people who chased the colonel to his grave are busy shuttling his former arms stockpiles to rebels in Syria. The flow is an important source of weapons for the uprising and a case of bloody turnabout, as the inheritors of one strongman’s arsenal use them in the fight against another.

Those weapons, which slipped from state custody as Colonel Qaddafi’s people rose against him in 2011, are sent on ships or Qatar Emiri Air Force flights to a network of intelligence agencies and Syrian opposition leaders in Turkey. From there, Syrians distribute the arms according to their own formulas and preferences to particular fighting groups, which in turn issue them to their fighters on the ground, rebels and activists said.

Qatari C-17 cargo aircraft have made at least three stops in Libya this year — including flights from Mitiga airport in Tripoli on Jan. 15 and Feb. 1, and another that departed Benghazi on April 16, according to flight data provided by an aviation official in the region. The planes returned to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The cargo was then flown to Ankara, Turkey, along with other weapons and equipment that the Qataris had been gathering for the rebels, officials and rebels said.

Military intel predicted rise of ISIS in 2012, detailed arms shipments from Benghazi to Syria | FOX | MAY 18, 2015

Seventeen months before President Obama dismissed the Islamic State as a “JV team,” a Defense Intelligence Agency report predicted the rise of the terror group and likely establishment of a caliphate if its momentum was not reversed.

Hillary Clinton Knew BACK IN 2011 About US Weapons Shipments from Libya to Syria | GW PUNDIT

In 2013, Hillary Clinton testified before congress that she did not know anything about arms transfers out of Libya.

‘Abandoned’ barrels containing deadly sarin seized in rebel-held Syria | RT | JUL 8, 2014

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon informed Security Council members on Monday that two cylinders reportedly seized by Syrian government forces in an opposition-held region appeared to contain the deadly nerve agent sarin.

Sarin materials brought via Turkey & mixed in Syrian ISIS camps | RT | DEC 14, 2015

Islamic State terrorists in Syria received all necessary materials to produce deadly sarin gas via Turkey, Turkish MP Eren Erdem has told RT, insisting there are grounds to believe a cover up has taken place.

Weapons were sent to ISIS in Syria via Turkey | BIZ INSIDER | DEC 12, 2012

The Obama administration has decided to launch a covert operation to send heavy weapons to Syrian rebels, Christina Lamb of The Sunday Times of London reports.

Diplomatic sources told the Sunday Times that the U.S. “bought weapons from the stockpiles of Libya’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.”

The heavy arms include mortars, rocket propelled grenades, anti-tank missiles and the controversial anti-aircraft heat-seeking SA-7 missiles, which are integral to countering Bashar Al-Assad’s bombing campaign.

Weapons shipments highlight the ambiguous roles of Qatar and Turkey in the fight against Islamic militants | ITALY 24

An investigation by Il Sole 24 Ore-Italy24 shows that Turkey’s and Qatar’s interests are in conflict with those of the West, and that those two countries probably have been arming militant groups associated with terrorists. Our investigation shows also that the United States may have facilitated shipments of weapons to Islamists in Syria, the land of the Caliphate.

For years, Washington has worried about Ankara and Doha arming Islamists both in Libya and in Syria. But a series of flights by military cargo planes reported by The New York Times and investigated by the UN suggests that the US helped them to do so.

The suspicion that those planes were carrying weapons hasn’t yet been supported by hard evidence, but a number of facts have been established. We know for example that the C-17 used for those cargoes belonged to the Qatar Air Force, that the planes’ final destination was Turkey and that a US company provided logistical support for the flights. Not just any US company, but one that was called by the US media “the CIA’s travel agent,” which leads to the conclusion that the cargo of those planes did not consist of humanitarian goods.

EAGER TO ‘HELP’ | QATAR BECOMES 1ST ARAB COUNTRY TO FLY OVER LIBYA | WASHINGTON TIMES | MAR 25, 2011

“TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Tiny Qatar became the first Arab country to fly combat missions over Libya on Friday after NATO agreed to take command of the no-fly zone part of air operations against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime.”

QATAR’S EMIR VISITS GAZA, PLEDGING $400,000,000 TO HAMAS | NEW YORK TIMES | OCT 23, 2012

JERUSALEM — The emir of Qatar on Tuesday became the first head of state to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas took full control of it in 2007, the latest step in an ambitious campaign by the tiny Persian Gulf nation to leverage its outsize pocketbook in support of Islamists across the region — and one that threatened to widen the rift between rival Palestinian factions.

U.S. APPROVED ARMS FOR LIBYA REBELS FELL INTO JIHADIS’ HANDS | NEW YORK TIMES | DEC 5, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration secretly gave its blessing to arms shipments to Libyan rebels from Qatar last year, but American officials later grew alarmed as evidence grew that Qatar was turning some of the weapons over to Islamic militants, according to United States officials and foreign diplomats.

QATAR ISLAMIC CHARITY OFFICIALS GAVE MILLIONS TO AL-QAEDA, U.S. SAYS | WA POST | DEC 22, 2013

When Qatar’s royal family was looking for advice on charitable giving, it turned to a well-regarded professor named Abd al-Rahman al-Nu’aymi. The 59-year-old educator had a stellar résumé that included extensive fundraising experience and years of work with international human rights groups.

But one apparent accomplishment was omitted from the list: According to U.S. officials, Nu’aymi also was working secretly as a financier for al-Qaeda, funneling millions of dollars to the terrorist group’s affiliates in Syria and Iraq even as he led campaigns in Europe for greater freedoms for Muslims.

Nu’aymi was one of two men identified by Treasury Department officials last week as major financial backers of al-Qaeda and its regional chapters across the Middle East. Although U.S. officials routinely announce steps to disrupt terrorist financing networks, the individuals named in the latest case are far from ordinary. Both men have served as advisers to government-backed foundations in Qatar and have held high-profile positions with international human rights groups. The second man, a Yemeni, is heavily involved in his country’s U.S.-backed political transition.

FORMER HEAD OF HUMAN RIGHTS CHARITY ACCUSED OF LEADING DOUBLE LIFE AS TERRORIST FUNDRAISER | TELEGRAPH | SEP 20, 2014

“Abdul Rahman al-Nuaimi accused of sitting at centre of web of funding for al-Qaeda affiliates in countries ranging from Yemen to Syria, to Iraq to Somalia.”

“Mr Nuaimi, 60, has previously worked as a professor of history at Qatar University and even as president of the Qatar Football Association.”

“A leaked cable from the US Embassy in Doha in 2007 describes him as an “Islamist hardliner” and states that he was briefly jailed in 2000, for criticising the wife of Qatar’s then ruler for her role in public life.” US DIPLOMATIC CABLE | WIKILEAKS

He also was a founding board member of the Eid bin Mohammed Al Thani Charitable Association and a past board member of Qatar Islamic Bank.

EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN JOHN PODESTA & HILLARY CLINTON ACKNOWLEDGING QATAR’S AND SAUDI ARABIA’S INVOLVEMENT IN TERROR FUNDING | WIKILEAKS | AUG 29, 2014

“While this military/para-military operation is moving forward, we need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”

“The Qataris and Saudis will be put in a position of balancing policy between their ongoing competition to dominate the Sunni world and the consequences of serious U.S. pressure. By the same token, the threat of similar, realistic U.S. operations will serve To assist moderate forces in Libya, Lebanon, and even Jordan, where insurgents are increasingly fascinated by the ISIL success in Iraq.”

Qatar’s Support of Islamists Alienates Allies Near and Far | NEW YORK TIMES | SEP 7, 2014

Standing at the front of a conference hall in Doha, the visiting sheikh told his audience of wealthy Qataris that to help the battered residents of Syria, they should not bother with donations to humanitarian programs or the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.

“Give your money to the ones who will spend it on jihad, not aid,” implored the sheikh, Hajaj al-Ajmi, recently identified by the United States government as a fund-raiser for Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate.

Qatar is a tiny, petroleum-rich Persian Gulf monarchy where the United States has its largest military base in the Middle East. But for years it has tacitly consented to open fund-raising by Sheikh Ajmi and others like him. After his pitch, which he recorded in 2012 and which still circulates on the Internet, a sportscaster from the government-owned network, Al Jazeera, lauded him. “Sheikh Ajmi knows best” about helping Syrians, the sportscaster, Mohamed Sadoun El-Kawary, declared from the same stage.

HOW QATAR IS FUNDING THE RISE OF ISLAMIST EXTREMISTS | TELEGRAPH UK | SEP 21, 2014

Western officials have tracked the Qatari arms flights as they land in the city of Misrata, about 100 miles east of Tripoli, where the Islamist militias have their stronghold. Even after the fall of the capital and the removal of Libya’s government, Qatar is “still flying in weapons straight to Misrata airport”, said a senior Western official.

GOVERNMENT DONATION TO MUSLIM CHARITIES FORUM DENOUNCED AS “MADNESS” | TELEGRAPH | SEP 23, 2014

A government department donated £18,000 to a charity coalition with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a group whose activities Britain has vowed to curtail following concerns over their extremist links in the Middle East, it has been claimed.

The Case Against Qatar | FOREIGN POLICY VOICE | SEP 30, 2014

The tiny, gas-rich emirate has pumped tens of millions of dollars through obscure funding networks to hard-line Syrian rebels and extremist Salafists, building a foreign policy that punches above its weight. After years of acquiescing — even taking advantage of its ally’s meddling — Washington may finally be punching back.

BANKER WHO FINANCED 9/11 MASTERMIND NOW FUNDING TERRORISTS IN SYRIA AND IRAQ | TELEGRAPH | OCT 4, 2014

Khalifa Muhammad Turki al-Subaiy – a Qatari citizen who was said to have provided ‘financial support’ for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – was jailed for terrorist offences in 2008 but released after only six months.A terrorist financier from Qatar is at the centre of a jihadi network linking him to al-Qaeda fighters in Syria and Iraq.

AL-QAEDA TERROR FINANCIER WORKED FOR QATARI GOVERNMENT | TELEGRAPH | OCT 12, 2014

An al-Qaeda money man was employed by the Qatari government despite being officially designated a terrorist by the US.

Salim Hasan Khalifa Rashid al-Kuwari channelled hundreds of thousands of dollars to al-Qaeda through a terrorist network while working in the Gulf state’s Ministry of Interior.

STATE DEPARTMENT DEFENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH HAMAS-SUPPORTING QATAR | CNS NEWS | DEC 2, 2014

“We continue to interact closely with the Government of Qatar and will reinforce that such assistance should not go to Hamas.”

Qatar’s assistance to Hamas included a 2012 pledge of more than $400 million, supposedly for construction projects. Israel told the U.N. this year that Qatari money funded rockets as well as the cross-border tunnel network built by Hamas to carry out terror attacks inside Israel.

On Al Jazeera, Congressman Calls Out Network’s Qatari Owners for Funding Hamas War Crimes | THE TOWER | JUL 7, 2014

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also slammed the network’s coverage of the latest round of fighting between Hamas and Israel during his recent appearance on the network.

“Every one of those rockets [fired by Hamas into Israeli cities] is a war crime, almost every one,” Sherman said, noting that Hamas seeks to hit civilian targets. “Of course it’s a war crime committed by Hamas. And of course the owners of this TV network help fund Hamas.”

U.S. ALLY QATAR SHELTERS JIHADI MONEYMEN | THE DAILY BEAST | DEC 10, 2014

The world’s most two-faced nation fights ISIS while letting terrorists raise money. Why won’t Washington stop them?

WASHINGTON, D.C.—It has been dubbed the most two-faced nation in the world, backing the U.S.-led coalition against the militants of the Islamic State while providing a permissive environment, in the words of one top American official, for terrorist financiers to operate with impunity. And despite a growing furor on both sides of the Atlantic, Qatar, the tiny but super-wealthy Gulf emirate, shows scant willingness to clamp down on the jihad moneymen. Indeed, it may never unless Western powers start raising the political stakes.

“Abdulrahman al-Nuaymi, a Qatari who has been accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of transferring millions of dollars to al Qaeda affiliates in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen, was described by the former emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani, as an “old friend” who helped to keep him in touch with “men of Islamic political thought,” according to the Arab press. Those thinkers included a former mentor of Osama bin Laden, Abulmajeed al-Zindani, and the founder of Palestine’s Hamas movement, Ahmed Yassin.”

Should Qatar be Judged by the Company they Keep? | CONSORTIUM AGAINST TERRORISM FINANCING | SEP 10, 2015

A 2015 report by the Consortium Against Terrorist Finance (CATF) called attention on Qatar Islamic Bank’s correspondents claiming that some of them “have controversial histories of affiliation with or support of terrorist or extremist activities.”

Qatar Islamic Bank’s (QIB) controversial correspondents include:

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) | WIKIPEDIA despite evidence suggesting they have also engaged in terrorist financing.

The presence of IBBL among QIB’s financial partners is not surprising given that Al Rajhi Bank had a 37% direct ownership in IBBL.

Moneyjihad reported that in 2011 “the Bangladeshi home ministry intelligence revealed that 8 percent of the bank’s profits were diverted as corporate zakat to support jihad in Bangladesh.”

Lobbying fees paid to Podesta Group: $390,000

2015 | Islami Bank Bangladesh | $300,000

2016 | Islami Bank Bangladesh | $90,000

TERRORIST FINANCE: ACTION REQUEST FOR SENIOR LEVEL ENGAGEMENT ON TERRORISM FINANCE | WIKILEAKS 09STATE131801_a

While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) takes seriously the threat of terrorism within Saudi Arabia, it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority.

Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups, including Hamas. Riyadh has taken only limited action to disrupt fundraising for the UN 1267-listed Taliban and LeT-groups that are also aligned with al-Qa’ida and focused on undermining stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

While the GOK has demonstrated a willingness to take action when attacks target Kuwait, it has been less inclined to take action against Kuwait-based financiers and facilitators plotting attacks outside of Kuwait. Al-Qa’ida and other groups continue to exploit Kuwait both as a source of funds and as a key transit point.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based donors have provided financial support to a variety of terrorist groups, including al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, LeT and other terrorist groups, including Hamas.

Pakistan’s intermittent support to terrorist groups and militant organizations threatens to undermine regional security and endanger U.S. national security objectives in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Qatar has adopted a largely passive approach to cooperating with the U.S. against terrorist financing. Qatar’s overall level of CT cooperation with the U.S. is considered the worst in the region. Al-Qaida, the Taliban, UN-1267 listed LeT, and other terrorist groups exploit Qatar as a fundraising locale. Although Qatar’s security services have the capability to deal with direct threats and occasionally have put that capability to use, they have been hesitant to act against known terrorists out of concern for appearing to be aligned with the U.S. and provoking reprisals.

Why don’t news releases from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency make note of this?

FOREIGN MILITARY SALE REQUEST NOTIFCATION | DSCA | JUL 12, 2012

“WASHINGTON, July 12, 2012 – The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress July 10 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Qatar for 24 AH-64D APACHE Block III LONGBOW Attack Helicopters and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $3.0 billion.”

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been, and continues to be, an important force for political and economic progress in the Middle East.”

“The helicopters will provide a long-term defensive and offensive capability to the Qatari peninsula as well as enhance the protection of key oil and gas infrastructure and platforms …”

The prime contractors will be The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Electric, Longbow Limited Liability Corporation, and Raytheon Corporation.

“There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.”

FOREIGN MILITARY SALE REQUEST NOTIFCATION | DSCA | NOV 5, 2012

“WASHINGTON, November 5, 2012 – The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress November 2 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Qatar for two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Fire Units and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $6.5 billion.”

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.”

“There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale at this time.”

FOREIGN MILITARY SALE REQUEST NOTIFCATION | DSCA | NOV 7, 2012

“WASHINGTON, November 7, 2012 – The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress Nov. 6 of a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Qatar for the sale of 11 PATRIOT Configuration-3 Modernized Fire Units and associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support for an estimated cost of $9.9 billion.”

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of an important ally which has been, and continues to be, a force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East. This sale is consistent with U.S. initiatives to provide key allies in the region with modern systems that will enhance interoperability with U.S. forces and increase security.”

The prime contractors will be Raytheon Corporation and Lockheed-Martin.

“There are no known offset agreements proposed in connection with this potential sale.”

Definition of offset agreement | FINANCIAL TIMES | LEXICON

“An offset agreement is a type of side deal, sometimes best described as a sweetener. This is an agreement between two or more parties that provides additional benefits and is ancillary to another negotiated contract.”

“The deal is between a government and company, often a defence company but it can also be used in big civil deals for items such as infrastructure and transport.

“Companies do this because it boosts their chance to win lucrative government contracts, particularly in developing countries.”

“A company’s offset obligation is usually worth 50-100 per cent of the value of the contract and can be direct or indirect. Direct offsets are linked to the original defence contact. Companies often agree to transfer relevant technological knowhow or use local suppliers to build the equipment they are selling to the government.”

APPROVED | LOCKHEED MARTIN, RAYTHEON DEAL | DSCA

The Pentagon approved the sale to Qatar of $9.9 billion worth of Patriot fire units, radars, and various Raytheon and Lockheed missiles in November 2012.

In March of 2014, Qatar confirmed the purchase of $9.9 billion Patriot missile defense system built by Raytheon equipped with PAC-3 missiles made by Lockheed; advanced daytime, high-definition sensors and radars for Apache helicopters; and Javelin missiles built by a Lockheed-Raytheon joint venture.

Qatar buys helicopters, missiles in $23 billion arms deals | REUTERS | MAR 27, 2014

Qatar announced contracts worth about $23 billion on Thursday to buy attack helicopters, guided missiles, tankers and other weapons from Boeing Co, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon.

Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Longbow, General Electric Deal | DEFENSE SECURITY COOPERATION AGENCY

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the U.S. body which oversees foreign arms sales, had notified lawmakers in July 2012 of a possible sale of Apache helicopters to Qatar. Estimated contract value $3 billion.

In March of 2014, Qatar announced that Boeing was awarded the contract for 24 Apache Attack Helicopters. They will be fitted with Longbow radar equipment made by a joint venture of Lockheed and Northrop Grumman Corp. General Electric is also among the prime contractors.

These sales were approved. There are dozens more, similar to these, for other countries recognized as host to terrorists.

How did Qatar get so rich?

Liquefied Natural Gas Makes Qatar an Energy Giant | NEW YORK TIMES | AUG 5, 2015

Expanding Trade Routes

In less than 20 years, Qatar has become the world’s leading supplier of liquefied natural gas, accounting for about a third of the global L.N.G. trade. Five Asian countries purchased more than 70 percent of global L.N.G. imports in 2014.

Looking to the example of Malaysia and Indonesia, Qatar and Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who was then its emir, started promoting L.N.G. in the mid-1990s. Exxon Mobil was the important early investor; Shell, Total and ConocoPhillips soon followed.

Qatar and its energy partners took the business to a new level, developing far bigger and more efficient plants. Last year, Qatar produced about a third of all liquefied natural gas, although Australia and the United States have big export ambitions.

It is a lucrative business that has made Qatar the world’s wealthiest country by output per capita. While industry growth has recently been flat, worldwide volumes have roughly quadrupled in the last two decades to about 240 million metric tons a year, or 264 million short tons, accounting for about one-third of overall gas exports. Annual sales are estimated at $180 billion.

“With the full development of Qatar, L.N.G. came of age,” said Michael Stoppard, chief gas strategist at IHS, a market research firm. “Qatar made L.N.G. a bigger business — bigger projects, bigger ships, bigger volumes and a much bigger global footprint.“

The Qataris originally planned to deliver much of their L.N.G. to the United States and Europe, but those plans were frustrated by the shale gas boom in North America. Instead, three-quarters of Qatari gas flowed last year to Asian countries like China, India and South Korea. Japan was Qatar’s largest customer as its electric utilities substituted natural gas generation for nuclear after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Podesta knocks greens on gas | POLITICO | MAR 19, 2014

White House adviser John Podesta took aim Wednesday at environmentalists who have criticized the Obama administration’s support for natural gas.

What else is Qatar doing with all that money? Investing in art and foreign corporations.

Islamic art museum marks cultural shift in Gulf | THE GUARDIAN | NOV 24, 2008

The Gulf states are famous for their shopping malls and skyscrapers, but now they are intent on promoting their cultural heritage with an ambitious plan to open a string of museums after Qatar unveiled a spectacular showcase for Islamic art at the weekend.

The collection housed in the Museum of Islamic Art may not be the biggest in the world but it is a contender for being the most impressive.

Built on an artificial island on reclaimed land, the museum, designed by one of the world’s leading architects, IM Pei, holds 800 artistic and historical treasures from three continents and illustrates Islamic culture spanning 1,100 years.

The inauguration was attended by heads of state and celebrities, including the Hollywood actor Robert De Niro, who will bring his long-established Tribeca film festival to Qatar next year, it was announced yesterday.

Qatar sets scene for film industry | FINANCIAL TIMES| FEB 11, 2009

Tribeca Film Festival Doha is the brainchild of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, daughter of Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar’s emir.

Sheikha Mayassa knows the Tribeca festival well. While a student at Duke University, North Carolina, a few years ago, she became an intern at TFF because she was interested in adapting a novel to film and wanted production experience.

Ms Rosenthal, producer of films such as Wag the Dog, Analyse That and Meet the Parents, did not foresee that TFF would become a cultural ambassador on a global scale. The festival initially began as a one-off event to help heal New York and revive a devastated neighbourhood. Ms Rosenthal had worked in the New York neighbourhood for nearly 20 years and in 1988 co-founded the Tribeca Film Center with Mr De Niro, a long-time collaborator and friend. When the first hijacked aircraft struck the World Trade Centre, she was just a couple of blocks away. “The horror was right in front of me,” she recalls. Mr De Niro, Ms Rosenthal and her husband Craig Hatkoff, hatched the idea for TFF and launched it just four months after 9/11. The three were intent on bringing people back to lower Manhattan to “get back to normal”, Ms Rosenthal says.

Most Powerful Women in New York 2007: Jane Rosenthal | CRAIN’S | 2007

Tribeca Productions/Tribeca Enterprises Jane Rosenthal is the business brains behind the wheel of New York’s most famous taxi driver: Robert De Niro. The duo, who founded Tribeca Productions in 1989, has produced 22 movies. Perhaps Ms. Rosenthal’s most important contribution to the city, however, came in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. She and Mr. De Niro, along with Ms. Rosenthal’s husband, real estate financier Craig Hatkoff, launched the Tribeca Film Festival to help revive downtown. “As filmmakers, the only thing we knew how to do was to screen pictures,” says Ms. Rosenthal, 50. The first festival, in 2002, attracted 150,000 visitors. The event has grown into an annual celebration of worldwide film and culture that most recently brought in 500,000 people for screenings, concerts, family events and panel discussions. “We are everybody’s festival,” says Ms. Rosenthal. “You don’t just have to be in the movie industry to come to TriBeCa.” In addition to her dealings downtown, Ms. Rosenthal is active in Democratic Party politics as a fundraiser–she’s backing Sen. Hillary Clinton for the 2008 presidential race. Top mayoral aide Patricia Harris, who has worked with Ms. Rosenthal since the first festival, says, “Anytime the city needs her help, she is always ready to lend a hand.” —Adrianne Pasquarelli

Tribeca Film Festival and Qatar Museums Authority To Launch ‘Tribeca Film Festival Doha’ in November 2009 | NEWSWIRE | NOV 24, 2009

DOHA, Qatar, Nov. 24 /CNW/ — Qatar Museums Authority (QMA), the organization edicated to developing the cultural resources of this Arabian Gulf state as a platform for international dialogue and understanding, has announced a groundbreaking agreement with New York’s world-renowned Tribeca Film Festival (TFF), to launch a world-class international film festival, Tribeca Film Festival Doha. The first festival will take place November 10 – 14, 2009 and be presented at Doha’s celebrated new Museum of Islamic Art and in cinemas across Doha.

The announcement of the cultural partnership was made at a special ceremony at the new Museum of Islamic Art, which was attended by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority Board of Trustees, and Abdullah Al Najjar, Chief Executive Officer of the Qatar Museums Authority. Joining on behalf of the Tribeca Film Festival were the co-founders, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff.

Building Museums, and a Fresh Arab Identity | NEW YORK TIMES | NOV 26, 2010

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — It is an audacious experiment: two small, oil-rich countries in the Middle East are using architecture and art to reshape their national identities virtually overnight, and in the process to redeem the tarnished image of Arabs abroad while showing the way toward a modern society within the boundaries of Islam.

To a critic traveling through the region, the speed at which museums are being built in Abu Dhabi — and the international brand names attached to some of them — conjured culture-flavored versions of the overwrought real-estate spectacles that famously shaped its fellow emirate, Dubai. By contrast, Doha’s vision seemed a more calculated attempt to find a balance between modernization and Islam. But in both cases leaders also see their construction sprees as part of sweeping efforts to retool their societies for a post-Sept. 11, post-oil world. Their goal is not only to build a more positive image of the Middle East at a time when anti-Islamic sentiment continues to build across Europe and the United States, but also to create a kind of latter-day Silk Road, one on which their countries are powerful cultural and economic hinges between the West and rising powers like India and China.

Qatar Purchases Cézanne’s The Card Players for More Than $250 Million, Highest Price Ever for a Work of Art | VANITY FAIR | FEB 2, 2012

With this landmark score, the tiny, oil-rich nation joins a massively exclusive club: only five Card Players exist, and the other four are in world-class collections such as the Musée d’Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The purchase is just the latest bid in Qatar’s effort to become an international intellectual hub.

The tiny, oil-rich nation of Qatar has purchased a Paul Cézanne painting, The Card Players, for more than $250 million. The deal, in a single stroke, sets the highest price ever paid for a work of art and upends the modern art market.

If the price seems insane, it may well be, since it more than doubles the current auction record for a work of art. And this is no epic van Gogh landscape or Vermeer portrait, but an angular, moody representation of two Aix-en-Provence peasants in a card game. But, for its $250 million, Qatar gets more than a post-Impressionist masterpiece; it wins entry into an exclusive club. There are four other Cézanne Card Players in the series; and they are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée d’Orsay, the Courtauld, and the Barnes Foundation. For a nation in the midst of building a museum empire, it’s instant cred.

Qatar (and its capital city, Doha) isn’t just a destination for those with private jets. It’s also a burgeoning intellectual and media hub. It hosts the headquarters of Al Jazeera, the Mideast campuses of Georgetown, Texas A&M, and Northwestern Universities—and of one the most ambitious sets of cultural goals since the robber barons and empire builders of America founded so many grand institutions a century ago.

Qatar does big things in a spectacular way. In 2008 when it opened the Museum of Islamic Art, a grand limestone behemoth by I. M. Pei, a flotilla of vintage ships sailed in V.I.P. guests representing the world’s great museums. Later, Robert De Niro floated up from the sea in a revolving open-air elevator to announce the Tribeca Film Festival was starting a Doha outpost.

In 2010, Qatar opened its Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the Qatar National Museum, currently closed for renovation by superstar architect Jean Nouvel, will reopen in 2014. That’s where the Cézanne could end up, flanked by some famous Rothkos, Warhols, and Hirsts that the Qataris have been snapping up in a buying spree.

How did Qatar get the Cézanne? For years, Greek shipping magnate George Embiricos had owned and treasured the painting, rarely lending it. He was “entertained” but unmoved, according to one art dealer, by occasional offers for it that climbed ever higher alongside the art market in past decades. A few years ago, the painting was listed by artnews magazine as one of the world’s top artworks still in private hands.

Shortly before his death in the winter of 2011, Embiricos began discussions about its sale, which was handled by his estate. Two art dealers—William Acquavella and another, rumored to be Larry Gagosian—offered upward of $220 million for the painting, people close to the matter said. But the royal family of Qatar, without quibbling on price, outbid them, at $250 million.

The region’s glamorous arts expansion takes place in the shadow of the Arab Spring, of course, but that hasn’t stopped the showmanship game. This is a play for fame, tourism, and immortality—and the buyers are well versed in Hollywood-style hype. The daughter of Qatar’s emir, 28-year-old Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, now heads the Qatar Museums Authority. But her first job was working as an intern in New York for the Tribeca Film Festival. (She once bragged, laughing, that her job was picking up breakfast pastries for Jane Rosenthal.) Next week, she’s hosting the opening of the Murakami exhibition.

Is the buying spree over? Not a chance. Qatar made another major acquisition last year, hiring Christie’s chairman Edward J. Dolman as executive director of the Museums Authority.

Jane of All Trades | NEW YORK MAGAZINE | MAY 6, 2002

“Jane is a high-powered executive, but she’s very much a girl,” says the blonde Isham; the two of them have a running joke about the blonde versus brunette view of life. A world-class networker, Rosenthal has a loyal cadre of girlfriends who include Wasserstein, Caroline Kennedy, Comedy Central Films vice-president Patty Newburger, and veteran TV reporter Perri Peltz

The intensely wired Rosenthal met her easygoing husband when he was representing De Niro on a real-estate project. “Jane is a doer, and our entire marriage has been about working on projects together,” says Hatkoff, citing the construction of their Bridgehampton home, and their decision to hold a political salon in their living room, where framed photos of the Clintons perch on a side table. Rosenthal and Hatkoff became involved with Democratic fund-raising in 1997 at the instigation of Hatkoff’s older sister, Susan Patricof, and her husband, venture capitalist Alan Patricof, who befriended the Clintons back in 1991. “We asked Jane and Craig to do a fund-raiser,” says Susan, “because we were looking for a younger crowd, for people who hadn’t been exposed to the political scene.” Rosenthal, of course, pulled out all the stops: Her first foray featured De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio at the height of his Titanic fame, and a cast of movers-and-shakers for a $25,000-per-person dinner at which Clinton played the saxophone.

A vast network for donors | WASHINGTON POST | MAR 18, 2015

Craig M. Hatkoff $100,001 – $250,000

Craig Hatkoff (husband of Jane Rosenthal) | WIKIPEDIA | APR 17, 2017

Hatkoff is Chairman of Turtle Pond Publications which owns or invests in a number of new media, entertainment and publishing ventures.[6] Hatkoff is the co-founder of Capital Trust and served on the board of Directors.[7] He also serves on the Boards of the Taubman Centers Inc., Wildlife Direct, the NYU Child Study Center, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Sesame Workshop and The Borough of Manhattan Community College Foundation.[8][9][10][11]

The Child Mind Institute | Board of Directors | APR 17, 2017

Brooke Garber Neidich, Co-Founder and Chair

Debra G. Perelman, Co-Founder and Vice Chair

Arthur G. Altschul Jr.

Lisa Domenico Brooke

Phyllis Green & Randolph Cōwen

Mark Dowley

Elizabeth & Michael Fascitelli

Margaret Grieve

Jonathan Harris

Craig Hatkoff

Joseph Healey

Ellen & Howard Katz

Christine & Richard Mack

Anne Welsh McNulty

Julie Minskoff

Valerie Mnuchin

Daniel Neidich

Amy & John Phelan

Josh Resnick

Linnea Roberts

Jane Rosenthal

Jordan Schaps

Linda Schaps

Zibby Schwarzman

David Shapiro

Preethi Krishna & Ram Sundaram

Clinton & the Child Mind Institute (NYU Child Study Center) | JohnGraysonBlog

TL;DR: Hillary specifically requests a staffer to switch to a personal email. Said staffer receives spam, yet her entire email address isn’t disclosed (even though it’s not classified). Spam pertains to an advocacy thinktank, founded by a man who personally advocates for pushing drugs on children, yet his institution runs on the belief of the concept DBT (which is completely the opposite approach). Founded by a man who was fired from a public institution with a very cozy relationship to Bill Clinton. Thinktank claims to be impartial, independent, and non-funding – yet they previously hired Hillary PAC staffer. Second Wikileak email highlights cozier-than-normal relationship between founder of dubious institute and Hillary Clinton.

Qatari Riches Are Buying Art World Influence | NEW YORK TIMES | JUL 22, 2013

The prices have been record breaking, and startling.More than $70 million for Rothko’s “White Center” in 2007, a high-water mark for that artist.More than $20 million later that year for a Damien Hirst pill cabinet, then a record for a living artist.And $250 million for Cézanne’s “Card Players” in 2011, the highest known price ever paid for a painting.

Given the secrecy of the art market, few knew at the time who had laid out such unprecedented sums.But it has become increasingly clear that those masterpieces and many more have been purchased by Qatar, a tiny Persian Gulf country with enormous wealth and cultural ambitions to match: it is buying art at a level never seen before.

The purchasing is directed through intermediaries by Sheika al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, chairwoman of the Qatar Museums Authority and a sister to Qatar’s new emir. At age 30 she has become one of the most influential players in the art world.

No one knows exactly how much Sheika al Mayassa has spent on behalf of her family or the museum authority since she was named chairwoman by her father, the former emir, in 2006. But experts estimate the acquisition budget reaches $1 billion a year and say the Qataris have used it to secure a host of undisputed modern and contemporary masterpieces by Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons.

Where all this art will eventually end up remains something of a mystery. But it seems clear that, just as Qatar has used its oil riches to boost its influence in the Middle East with ventures like arming Syrian rebels, its wealth is also being deployed to help the country become a force in the world of culture.

Auction houses and galleries will often wine and dine these collectors before a big sale. Significant works will be flown to their homes. The Qataris don’t take part in this. They delegate their purchasing to a handful of experienced art advisers who do it for them — initially the dealers Philippe Ségalot and Franck Giraud and now Guy Bennett.

Mr. Bennett, a former co-head of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art department worldwide, is known as a master dealmaker. He is just one of a number of Christie’s alumni who have taken on roles with Qatar. In June 2011 Edward Dolman, the auction house’s former chairman, was named executive director of the Qatar Museums Authority. Jean-Paul Engelen, the director of public art programs for the authority, is also a Christie’s veteran.

The Qatar team typically buys from dealers, though some of its most major purchases have been at auction. Experts said that another intermediary may act on Mr. Bennett’s behalf so that the sales cannot be traced to the Qataris, who want to keep their buying private to prevent driving up the market and fueling speculation about their plans.

“They are very secretive about their purchases and activities in the art market and I am not quite sure why,” Mr. Nash said.

What Are The Top 10 Al-Thani Family Art Acquisitions? | ARTNET | NOV 14, 2014

1. Paul Cézanne, The Card Players, $250 million

This masterpiece is supposedly the most expensive work ever sold.

2. Mark Rothko, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender), $72.8 million

This “Rockefeller Rothko” was reportedly purchased by the Al-Thani family at a Sotheby’s auction in May 2007.

3. Andy Warhol, The Men in Her Life, $63. 4 million

Philippe Ségalot reportedly orchestrated the acquisition of Warhol’s 1962 work. It was sold at Phillip’s in New York in November 2010.

4. Fabergé egg, $9.57 million

The egg was bought at a Christie’s auction in New York in 2002.

5. James John Audubon, Birds of America, $8.8 million

The late Sheikh Saud Al-Thani purchased this masterpiece, which at the time was the world’s most expensive book.

6. The Clive of India Flask, $5 million

During Sheikh Saud’s shopping spree in London, he beat London’s V&A museum to purchase the £3m Clive of India flask.

7. Girault de Prangey, The Temple of Jupiter in Athens, $922,490

When Sheikh Saud purchased this photograph in 2003, he set a new record (beating one of his own previous purchases) for the most expensive price paid for a daguerreotype and for a photograph.

8. J. Ezra Merkin’s 11 Rothkos, $310 million

The family supposedly bought 11 Rothko paintings from financier J. Ezra Merkin when he had to liquidate the largest Rothko collection in the world due to his involvement with the Madoff scandal.

9. Werner Bokelberg‘s Photography collection, $15 million

Sheikh Saud in 2000 bought up Bokelberg’s 136 photograph collection which included masterpieces by Man Ray and Alfred Stieglitz.

10. Damien Hirst, Lullaby Spring, $19 million

Damien Hirst‘s pill cabinet was purchased in the spring of 2007 at Sotheby’s.

9/11 wicked but a work of art, says Damien Hirst | THE GUARDIAN | SEP 10, 2002

The artist Damien Hirst said last night he believed the terrorists responsible for the September 11 attacks “need congratulating” because they achieved “something which nobody would ever have thought possible” on an artistic level.

Hirst, who is no stranger to controversy, said many people would “shy away” from looking at the event as art but he believed the World Trade Centre attack was “kind of like an artwork in its own right”.

In an interview, Hirst told BBC News Online: “The thing about 9/11 is that it’s kind of an artwork in its own right. It was wicked, but it was devised in this way for this kind of impact. It was devised visually.”

Describing the image of the hijacked planes crashing into the twin towers as “visually stunning”, he added: “You’ve got to hand it to them on some level because they’ve achieved something which nobody would have ever have thought possible, especially to a country as big as America.

“So on one level they kind of need congratulating, which a lot of people shy away from, which is a very dangerous thing.”

Tony Podesta owns entire collections of Damien Hirst pieces | NGA | OCT 24, 2016

Paint the Town: Final Collector’s View at the Podesta’s | WASHINGTON LIFE MAGAZINE | JUN 18, 2010

“I’ve been collecting since the early 80s,” said Tony, when asked about his start. “I worked for Ted Kennedy when he ran for president in 1980. The campaign wasn’t as successful as we had hoped, and rather quickly they cut everybody’s salary in half. And at the end of the campaign, the way the campaign stayed afloat was to get artists – like Warhol, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein – to make art for the campaign. They sold the art to keep the campaign afloat. And at the end of the campaign, they kept track of how much the other half of the salary was that we didn’t get and I walked out with a big tube of Warhols, Rauschenbergs and Lichtensteins! And that’s how I started collecting art. It was involuntary collecting!”

Inside Homes: Private Viewing | WASHINGTON LIFE MAGAZINE | JUN 5, 2015

Inside power lobbyist, philanthropist and contemporary art collector Tony Podesta’s Kalorama home.

Lobbyists Set to Fight Royalty Bill for Artists | NEW YORK TIMES | MAR 23, 2014

Lawyers for Sotheby’s auction house paid an unusual visit to a few lawmakers on Capitol Hill this month and brought along some high-powered lobbying muscle. They had come to complain about a new bill that even some supporters acknowledge faces a difficult road in this divided Congress: a proposal to give visual artists — or their estates — a cut of the profits when their work is resold at public auction.

Despite the long odds, Sotheby’s and Christie’s have spent about $1 million in the last couple of years to hire well-known legal and lobbying talent in Washington such as Paul D. Clement, the former solicitor general under President Obama, and the Podesta Group, run by the Democratic super-lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose brother, John D. Podesta, recently joined the Obama administration as a top aide.

“We’re taking it seriously, even though we don’t think it’s going to pass,” said Jane A. Levine, Sotheby’s director of worldwide compliance.

Brother of Hillary Clinton’s Top Campaign Aide Lobbied for Fracked Gas Export Terminal Co-Owned by Qatar | DESMOG BLOG | APR 30, 2015

Anthony “Tony” Podesta began lobbying in late 2013 on behalf of a company co-owned by ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum aiming to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the global market. Tony is the brother of John Podesta, former top climate change adviser to President Barack Obama and current top campaign aide for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 bid for president.

Qatar, the Persian Gulf country which shares a border with Saudi Arabia, is the top exporter of LNG in the world. It has also come under fire for human rights abuses and for maintaining one of the most long-standing dictatorships on the planet.

The Clinton Foundation, whose finances are currently under increased scrunity due to the looming release of the book “Clinton Cash,” took between $250,000-$500,000 from Qatar in 2014.

Paul Gauguin Painting Sells for Record $300 Million to Qatar Museums in Private Sale | ARTNET | FEB 5, 2015

A new record price for an artwork, nearly $300 million, may have been achieved with the sale of a Paul Gauguin canvas by a Swiss collector. The buyer is rumored to be the Qatar Museums.

The seller, Rudolf Staechelin, a retired Sotheby’s executive who now lives in Basel, confirmed the sale this afternoon to the New York Times, but declined to identify the buyer or disclose the price.

Sources tell the Times that Qatar Museums is the purchaser. Qatar is already home to the painting that set the previous record for most expensive artwork, Paul Cézanne’s The Card Players, purchased by its royal family in 2011 for a price said to have been $250 million. The late Qatari ruler Sheikh Saud Al-Thani was a prolific collector (see Qatar’s Sheikh Saud Died of Complications Related to Heart Condition and What Are The Top 10 Al-Thani Family Art Acquisitions?), and other Qatari buyers have made major art purchases in recent years. The country’s acquisitions allegedly include Cézanne’s La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue du Bosquet du Château Noir, offloaded by Detroit’s Edsel & Eleanor Ford House to the tune of $100 million in 2013 (see Secret $100 Million Cézanne Sale in Detroit).

The sale was arranged after a dispute with the local government over whether Staechelin’s collection could travel while the institution was closed; the loan contract stipulated that the work must remain on public view. “We are painfully reminded that permanent loans are still loans. The people of Basel do not own these, and they can be taken away at any moment,” said the museum in a statement bemoaning the work’s loss. Staechelin acquired the painting, along with the rest of his collection, from his grandfather and namesake, a Swiss merchant who collected during World War I and the following years

Staechelin told the Times he initiated the Gauguin sale “mainly because we got a good offer. The market is very high and who knows what it will be in 10 years. I always tried to keep as much together as I could, [but] over 90 percent of our assets are paintings hanging for free in the museum. It’s not a healthy financial risk distribution. . . . For me they are family history and art. But they are also security and investments.”

Distinguished Artists to Join Curators, Art Collectors and Museum Directors at the New York Times ‘Art For Tomorrow’ Conference | NEW YORK TIMES | JAN 20, 2016

Artist Marina Abramović, Art Basel global director Marc Spiegler, UNESCO’s Francesco Bandarin among diverse mix of art-world leaders to appear in Doha March 12-15

Qatar: The Shape of Tomorrow | BLOUINART | JUN 19, 2016

Doha: Plastic and ready-made, it’s a city built for Jeff Koons. When I run into him in March at the elevator bank at the W Doha Hotel, it feels staged. House music plays at a tasteful volume for nine o’clock in the morning. Koons’s smile is cartoonish and his gray skinny tie impeccably knotted. A frequent guest of the Qatari royal family, the artist is in the desert peninsula’s capital to headline the New York Times Art for Tomorrow conference.

“I love the readymade because of the idea of acceptance,” Koons tells me, “that everything is in play and that everything is perfect in its own being.” It’s little wonder that he is attracted to Qatar.

“I’ve heard stories of an artist being in prison,” Koons told me, as we sat on white couches in the W. “My idea of participating and of art having a moral responsibility, I think, comes from my experience of growing up,” he said, “in that first you have a concept of self and of transcendence of the self, and then you become aware of your place within the community and your responsibility to the community, and that just gets played out on larger scales later in life, depending upon your desire for participation.”

Qatar’s oil boom created the world’s most extravagant art scene—and also led to its demise | QUARTZ | AUG 24, 2016

Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Naomi Campbell made their way through the VIP crowd, past the fleet of Bentleys, and toward the waiting helicopter.

Hirst—the English artist best known for his multi-million dollar sculpture of a shark floating in formaldehyde—was in town on official business. Qatar Museums (QM) had ponied up over $20 million to fund a retrospective of his work and commission a series of pieces. He had spent the last hour showing QM’s chairperson, Sheikha Mayassa (who is also the daughter of the Emir), around the exhibition, pointing out exactly how her country’s money had been spent. The other two were just tagging along, presumably. Besides, the after-party sounded promising: QM had organized a pop-up Prada shop in the middle of the desert, and guests were being ferried there via private helicopter.

As the rotor blades sprang to life and the unlikely trio was lifted into the sky, the South-Asian laborers working nearby stopped to watch the spectacle. They were being paid $11 a day to swing pickaxes in the desert sun and lay the groundwork for the new Qatar National Museum.

These purchases—perhaps destined to gather dust in a museum basement—nonetheless endeared Qatar to the international art market and provided the media with a compelling, feel-good narrative about the young princess who was helping transform the region via art and museums. That may have been true, but the reality of day-to-day life for the staff at QM was a series of temper tantrums, meltdowns, threats, and people running to the bathroom in tears. But I guess that’s to be expected when you throw a couple hundred expats into a 14-story tower in the desert, pair them up with local bureaucrats, and tell them to launch a series of ludicrous exhibitions and international conferences in a country where a single shipping form or budget request can take months to process.

Like all other aspects of Qatar society, life within the tower followed a very clear hierarchy based on a person’s passport, skin color, and surname. While Qatar isn’t as religiously conservative as neighboring Saudi Arabia, it’s also not that far removed. All Qataris are expected to wear their “national uniform” while in public (a black abaya for women, a white thobe for men). Workplaces pause for daily prayers, and fraternizing between members of the opposite sex is generally discouraged.

South Asia ‘shares blame’ for Gulf migrant abuses | ASIAN REVIEW | JUN 30, 2016

Amid growing concern about Qatar’s treatment of South Asian migrants building the infrastructure for the 2022 soccer World Cup, activists are warning that labor abuses are widespread throughout the Gulf, and that workers’ home countries share the blame.

Concerns have been raised over working conditions with Emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s authoritarian ruler.

Amnesty International, a human rights group, said that almost all of more than 200 laborers it interviewed on two World Cup-related construction sites in Doha were being exploited by their employers.

However, Qatar is neither the top Gulf destination for South Asian migrant workers nor the worst alleged violator of their rights. Indian embassies received more than 7,000 labor complaints from Gulf countries in the 11 months to November 2015, mostly from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told parliament in New Delhi in December.

Revealed: Qatar’s World Cup ‘slaves’ | THE GUARDIAN

Dozens of Nepalese migrant labourers have died in Qatar in recent weeks and thousands more are enduring appalling labour abuses, a Guardian investigation has found, raising serious questions about Qatar’s preparations to host the 2022 World Cup.

This summer, Nepalese workers died at a rate of almost one a day in Qatar, many of them young men who had sudden heart attacks.

The investigation found evidence to suggest that thousands of Nepalese, who make up the single largest group of labourers in Qatar, face exploitation and abuses that amount to modern-day slavery, as defined by the International Labour Organisation, during a building binge paving the way for 2022.

Jeff Koons Koons, Gaga, Abramovic

It turns out, Jeff Koons has been a donor to Democratic causes and candidates for a long time.

Jeff Koons donated contributed to Correct the Record | FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION

Jeff Koons donated $50,000 USD to correct the record, a political hit squad founded by David Brock, a close associate of John Podesta and James Alefantis.

Jeff Koons Endorses Hillary Clinton for President, Says Trump Not ‘Suitable’ | ARTNET | OCT 20, 2016

Jeff Koons joins a growing list of artists and art world personalities who are endorsing Hillary Clinton in the upcoming American presidential election.

Speaking to the German art magazine Monopol, the artist argued that the Democratic candidate will do more to support the visual arts in America than Republican nominee Donald Trump. He revealed that he has supported Clinton since meeting her at the White House 20 years ago. The two have had a number of interactions since then; for instance, in 2012, Clinton presented him with the Medal of Arts.

“Hillary Clinton has always supported the arts,” Koons said, adding that she “closely follows the developments in the art world.”

Artists raise millions for Hillary Clinton | THE ART NEWSPAPER | NOV 3, 2016

“Jeff Koons has donated more than $50,000 in cash and through his work to support the US presidential candidate”

“Jeff Koons’s donation of $50,000 to Correct the Record, a “Super Pac” (Public Action Committee) backing Hillary Clinton, is the biggest cash donation by an artist to this year’s US presidential campaign. According to reports from the Federal Election Committee, Koons made the donation on 17 June this year.”

“But the artist has potentially donated significantly more in kind: he created a print in an edition of 40, Gazing Ball (da Vinci Mona Lisa), which was given to those who bought a $50,000 ticket to an auction hosted by Larry Gagosian in September.”

“If all 40 of those prints sold, it would raise $2m for the Hillary Victory Fund, however a spokesman for the campaign said it could not release such donor information.”

“Koons was not available for comment, but recently told Monopol magazine that he had supported Clinton for 20 years. She awarded him with the Medal of Arts in 2013, when she was Secretary of State.”

“Other prominent artists to have supported the Clinton campaign according to the FEC reports, through cash donations or auctioned works—many given as part of September’s Gagosian auction—include Marina Abramovic ($2,700 cash donation made in May), Glenn Ligon ($30,000 “joint fundraising contribution” in September), Ed Ruscha ($12,500 contribution in September), Richard Serra ($28,000 contribution in September), Cindy Sherman ($33,400 and $75,000 contributions in August and September) and Sarah Sze ($21,000 contribution in September).”

“Art dealers including Gagosian and David Zwirner have also donated to the Clinton campaign.”

He’s With Her: Larry Gagosian to Host Fundraising Auction for Hillary Clinton at 21st Street Gallery | ARTNEWS | AUG 29, 2016

ARTnews has learned that on September 12, Larry Gagosian will host “Art for Hillary Auction 2016” at the Gagosian Gallery space on West 21st Street in Chelsea, presiding over a benefit sale that will raise money for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Jeff Koons | International Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Director | RELATIONSHIP SCIENCE | ICMEC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The International Center for Missing & Exploited Children held its first Board of Directors meeting in May 1998. It was officially launched in April 1999 by Hillary Clinton, then-First Lady of the United States, and Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. ICMEC HISTORY / FOUNDING

Dakis Joannou, (& Jeff Koons) Board of Directors | International Center for Missing & Exploited Children | AUG 16, 2007

Joannou & Paraskevaides is a Cypriot international building, civil and electromechanical engineering contractor with an involvement in the energy (oil and gas) and industrial sectors operating in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Asia.

J&P has built several airports in the Middle East, including Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan & UAE.

They also build roads, tunnels, bridges, islands etc.

The company was founded by his father Stelios Ioannou along with his partner George Paraskevaides.

Mr. Paraskevaides founded the Cyprus Kidney Association, the Surgical and Transplant Foundation and the Cyprus Heart Association.

Dakis Joannou and Jeff Koons have been very close friends for at least 2 decades.

A Fool for Art | THE NEW YORKER | NOV 12, 2007 Jeffrey Deitch and the exuberance of the art market. A wave of new American and European collectors, many of them youngish hedge-fund managers, has driven auction prices to unprecedented, almost unimaginable levels—$104 million for Picasso’s “Boy with a Pipe,” at Sotheby’s in 2004—and even higher prices have been registered in private sales. (The billionaire hedge-fund owner Steven A. Cohen is said to have paid $143.5 million last year for a painting by Willem de Kooning.) More recently, money pouring in from non-American sources—Russian oligarchs, mysterious collectors in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, India, and South Korea—has pushed prices even higher, and confirmed the ever-expanding art market as a global enterprise. A huge portion of the new money in this market is being spent on contemporary art… Clinton Event Produces Support for Road Safety, Clean Water, and Other Global Issues | PHILANTHROPY | SEP 23, 2010 A $3.75-million grant from the Coca-Cola Company to start eight water projects in Morocco, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and other African countries that have large Muslim populations. The grant is part of a $7.5-milion project that is also being supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.N. Development Program. ”Guilty” by Ivana Porfiri for Dakis Joannou | YATZER | OCT 03, 2008 Dakis Joannou is a Greek Cypriot industrialist and one of the leading collectors of European contemporary art. The earliest work in his collection is from 1985 and the latest one is his own yacht which name is Guilty, a project of Ivana Porfiri and exterior camouflage design by Jeff Koons. Dakis Joannou’s Guilty Pleasure | NOWNESS | MAR 7, 2010 The Yacht That Koons Designed As far as nautical luxury goes, it would be hard to outdo Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou’s “Guilty.” The yacht was built in 2008 by specialist Cantieri Navali Rizzardi , the Italian company that showed the first superyacht longer than 100 feet at the Cannes International Boat and Yacht Show of 2002 (owner Gianfranco Rizzardi refers to his vessels as the “haute couture” of pleasure boats). With an exterior by Jeff Koons , the 115-foot floating hulk is something of a museum-worthy masterpiece. Koons’s design was inspired by the “dazzle”camouflage of WW1 ships—complex geometric patterns that created opticalillusions to confuse enemy gunners. The interior, designed by Milan’s IvanaPorfiri, is no less wowing, with works by artists such as Martin Creed andSarah Morris, whose text painting Guilty inspired the yacht’s name. In between overseeing his Athens-based, non-profit DESTE Foundation, which has supportednumerous projects since 1983, and liaising with major art world figures (Larry Gagosian, Marian Goodman and Maurizio Cattelan all attended the christening of “Guilty”), Dakis Joannou sails his prized boat to his villa in Corfu, where he spent ten days with Koons last summer. When Joannou is in Greece, “Guilty” can often be seen mooredon the island of Hydra—the site of the new DESTE projectspace. Too Big to Sail? | VANITY FAIR | OCT 13, 2010 The financial crisis sent panic through the world of super-yachts, with over-leveraged tycoons abandoning ship, and sales in a deep freeze. Two years later, the author delves into the motives, means, and lifestyles of the oligarchs, operators, and sea-lovers who are still riding the waves. Choose your vessel: from the naked aggression of Roman Abramovich’s record-size Eclipse, the floating advertisement of the Candy brothers’ Candyscape II, and the eye-popping Jeff Koons exterior of Dakis Joannou’s Guilty to the pure romance of Tara Getty’s historic Blue Bird. Last Mile Project for Medicines | CLINTON GLOBAL INITIATIVE | 2013 In 2013, the Coca-Cola Company committed to working over two years with partners, including the Last Mile Project, to create consistent availability of medical resources in hard-to-reach areas of Tanzania and Mozambique. The focus of the partnership is to systematically extract learning from Coca-Cola’s successes and approaches in supply chain and marketing in these areas; thereby building significant capability within entities that distribute critical medicines on behalf of Ministries of Health across Africa. As a result, these entities will be able to significantly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their organizations as they significantly improve availability of critical medicines throughout the markets they serve. The Collection As a Dialogue | ART TERRITORY | MAY 05, 2014 Joannou is a little over 70 years old, and his name can be found in ArtReview’s Power 100, a list of the world’s most influential figures in the art world. Last year he was ranked #37, and he’s been on the list every year since it was formed. Born in Cyprus, Joannou studied engineering in the United States and later studied architecture in Rome, after which he joined his family’s construction business. The company, J&P Group, was established by Joannou’s father in 1941 and has since grown into a global empire. Joannou is the chairman of the board at J&P Group but also owns shares in more than 20 other companies ranging from the shipping sector to tourism to real estate. He is a shareholder in one of the largest distributors of Coca-Cola products in 27 countries, including Greece, Russia and Nigeria. He owns the YES! network of boutique hotels, which includes Semiramis (designed by Karim Rashid) and New Hotel (designed by the Brazilian design company Campana Brothers) in Athens.

Ambassador Maura Harty | President & CEO, ICMEC

Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley

International Center for Missing & Exploited Children | Director

Regis College | B.A. in French & Spanish (graduated 1974)

Department of State | Congressional Liaison Officer (1977 – 1979)

Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe | Congressional Liaison (1980 – 1981)

Department of State | Ambassador to Portugal (1994 – 1997)

Department of State | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (1997 – 2001) during which time she established and headed the Office of Media Programming Acquisition in the “newly independent” Balkan States and served as Senate liaison for NATO Enlargement.

Department of State | Special Representative for Global Partnerships (2009 – 2013)

Department of State | Senior Advisor for Secretary’s Initiatives in the Office of the Secretary of State under John Kerry

U.N. General Assembly | U.S. Representative

US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy | Vice Chair

Democratic National Committee | Chair, National Advisory Board

Council on Foreign Relations | Associate Director, Task Force on Democracy

Foreign Affairs Museum Council | Member

The Atlantic Council of the United States | Member, Board of Directors (Current)

Securing America’s Future Energy | Co-Chair, Diplomatic Council on Energy Security

National Democratic Institute for International Affairs | Member, Board of Directors (Current)

The American Ireland Fund | Member, Board of Directors (Current)

Smith Bagley, Inc. | Director

Clinton Community Library | Chair, Board of Trustees (past)

Clinton Foundation Donations

Smith and Elizabeth 