[embedyt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2ryuHF4yl8[/embedyt]
Marquel, TPVs NYTimes Corruption Section correspondent, was finishing his five-course lunch when he read Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks. Prominent Washington think tanks, nonprofits known for their impartiality, have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments while pushing United States government officials to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities, an investigation by The New York Times has found.
The compromised formerly neutral academic institutions include
- the Brookings Institute,
- the Center for Global Development,
- the Center for Strategic and International Studies,
- the Middle East Institute,
- the German Marshall Fund of the U.S.,
- Inter American Dialogue,
- the Stimson Center,
- the World Resource Institute,
- the Atlantic Council, and many others.
Marquel wondered why these groups weren’t required by U.S.law to register as representatives of foreign governments under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a 1938 law passed to prevent the Nazis from doing what the think tanks are doing now.
Marquel visited several of the think tanks who together have received over $100 million in the past four years, to ask about this corruption of the think tanks’ neutrality. All of the buildings and offices were positively the grandest he’d ever been to in North America. It was like being in Monaco.
“Why do all your expert reports always favor Qatar,” I asked the man at Brookings.
“I haven’t counted them up,” he said, “but our experts are all independent. If they favor Qatar it’s because the facts favor Qatar.”
“But Qatar is the most repressive state in the region. They fund the Muslim Brotherhood. They lash people. They treat women like dogs. I think they behead people.”
“If they do, it’s their heads,” he said.
“What do you mean their heads?” I asked.
“I mean in terms of citizenship. If they’re Qatari, they’re Qatar heads. They ought to be able to do what they prefer with their own heads. We wouldn’t want Qatar telling us what to do with our heads.” He explained.
“But they stone people, they violate all the U.N.human rights treaties. Basically they’re animals.” I said.
“If they’re animals, why would they give us $100 million?” He asked.
“I thought it was 14 million.” I said, remembering the Times article.
“They asked us to say it was 14. And actually to Qatar, $100 million is just like $14 million to you and me.”
“Speak for yourself,” I retorted. “Don’t you think the reason Brookings is favoring Qatar is because of the money they give you?”
“Oh no, our only currency is trust. Without trust we’re out of business.” He asserted.
“Not really, you just lost all our trust and you’re millions richer, so trust has nothing to do with it.”
“Well I hope you’re right,” he said cryptically.
“But doesn’t it bother you to be a spy against the U.S.?” I wondered.
“What are you talking about?” He asked.
“Well under the foreign agents registration act, you’re a foreign agent. Just like the old Nazi Bund when they tried to influence U.S. policy.”
“We’re not Nazis.” He insisted.
“Nobody said you were. I said you’re spies.”
“Well nobody but you has suggested that. Qatar just gave several million dollars to the U.S. attorneys office and when I met with them they said we were certainly not spies. We don’t hide out, have secret meetings, talk in code, nor drop off large sums of money in railroad station toilets.” He spouted.
“But you represent a backward brutal Middle Eastern nation that has been ruled by the same ignorant family since 1825. Doesn’t that say something?” I asked.
“I suppose it says they’re fairly stable and we can expect to do pretty well for many years.” He said.
“And us?” I questioned.
“You?” He asked.
“What are we going to do with our foreign policy determined by people Congress and the State Department trust as experts when they’re really just shilling for the richest nation, per capita, in the world?”
“I think you’re exaggerating. We just got the World Cup to agree to hold their next games in Doha. Let me give you some tickets.” He said with a touch of pride.
“That’s all right,” I said, “for the first time in my life I think I prefer the NFL.”
We parted.
***
BY MARQUEL: Hired Guns Cannot Jump but They Do Harm
Excellent.
perfect pitch
ditto
ditto2
loved it
Yes, you are right M, why aren’t they treated as spied? Experts my ass
wanting just money. easy money. that’s all we seem to want from top to not that top.
Excellent piece