Report outlines UAE's 'immensely influential' lobbying in US

The Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative (FITI), a program of the Center for International Policy, analyzed every Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Supplemental  Statement filed in 2018 by organizations working on behalf of clients in the United Arab Emirates. From this analysis we found:

• 20 different firms served as registered foreign agents in the U.S. for clients in the UAE;
• Over $20 million in payments from UAE clients to these firms;
• 3,168 reported political activities done on behalf of the UAE by those firms;
• UAE foreign agents contacted more than 200 Congressional offices, 18 think tanks, and most mainstream media outlets;
• Considerable interactions between UAE foreign agents and think tanks funded by the UAE;
• Nearly $600,000 in campaign contributions from these firms and their registered foreign agents

UAE - bunch of motherfuckers.

Link here.

Ready, Fire, Aim: U.S. Interests in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria

"It is widely claimed that the United States was inadequately engaged in the Syrian maelstrom. Nonsense! Since 2014, we have spent well over $50 billion in appropriated funds to train, arm, and otherwise support various factions in the conflict, including some with direct links to al Qaeda. This fiscal year alone, DoD has budgeted $15.3 billion and the Department of State about $1 billion for Syria. In total disregard of international law, we have carried out well over 11,000 air and missile strikes against both government and rebel forces in Syria and deployed about 2,000 U.S. troops there to support secessionist factions. We cannot escape a considerable measure of moral responsibility for both the perpetuation of the conflict in Syria and some of the 200,000 undocumented and 375,000 documented Syrian dead, about 125,000 of whom have been verified as pro-government, 133,000 as anti-government, and 112,000 as noncombatant, neutral civilians. But we have made it clear we will not contribute to Syria’s reconstruction."

Link here.