Mike Froman, ex-Dep National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs – US National Security Council
If the Malaysian authorities have genuinely taken possession of the entire Justo dossier on the relationship between 1MDB, Jho Low and PetroSaudi, they will be able to verify for themselves that on 26th Oct 2010 a certain Nawaf Obaid wrote a very strange email to the then Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs in the US National Security Council, Michael Froman.
The email to Mike Froman was entitled ‘CONFIDENTIAL Alert’. Nawaf then forwarded it to his brother, Tarek Obaid, the CEO of PetroSaudi, who in turn sent it on the same afternoon to none other than Jho Low, the man who had negotiated the 1MDB joint venture with PetroSaudi on behalf of Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Warning to Hilary Clinton
We reproduce that email in full, because it makes plain that its purpose was to prevent the then US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, from meeting with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, by alleging that he was supporting terrorism:
From: nawafobaid@aol.com
To: Michael_B._Froman@nsc.eop.gov
Sent: Tue, Oct 26, 2010 8:00 pm
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL Alert
To: Mr. Michael B. Froman
Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs
US National Security Council
Washington DC.
—–Original Message—–
From: nawafobaid@aol.com
To: Michael_B._Froman@nsc.eop.gov
Sent: Tue, Oct 26, 2010 8:00 pm
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL Alert
Michael :-
I was just reading the morning papers and came across an article talking about Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s, upcoming visit to South-East Asia and to Malaysia in particular. In the spirit of our openness and deep trust that we have developed over the past two years of working together on various economic and financial issues dealing with the IMF/World Bank,G-20 and Energy in the context of the wider US-Saudi special “strategic” bilateral relationship, I think I should alert you on a possible deeply embarrassing situation that Secretary Clinton could find herself in.
The confidential secret assessment that I had come to see you about two weeks ago is nearly complete and I hope to be able to pass you a copy with a lot of hard supporting intelligence next week when we meet. Basically, this assessment has uncovered beyond any doubt the existing close ties between Malaysian controversial politician Anwar Ibrahim and the Muslim Brotherhood network. More alarmingly, we have found proof of Mr. Ibrahim’s ties with some of the leading brotherhood ideologues and financiers around the globe, such as Youssef Al Qaradawi, Yassin Qadi, Youssef Nada and others. The International Institute of Islamic thoughts in Virginia that was raided on numerous occasions by the federal authorities in the past several years and the nerve center of brotherhood financing in the US has Mr. Ibrahim as a founding member.
This came to our attention through a friendly country who informed us that the Malaysians were concerned that senior Saudi officials and the Saudi government were involved in supporting and funding Mr. Ibrahim’s political agenda. After a thorough investigation this has of course proven to be completely untrue and we were able to trace these misleading claims and their purposes. But the issue is that he has got himself involved with basically a lot of the names that were investigated by the US government after 9/11 with “potential ties to terrorism funding” and we have a trove of evidence to support this.
So, as this assessment will be shared with various governments as the data is collected from various countries (including the US, especially from the 9/11 investigation reports), I am concerned that the substance of the report or most of the report will be made public at some point which could cause embarrassment for Secretary Clinton and other senior US officials who might ask to see him publically. I do not think I will be able to turn over the entire assessment and supporting evidence before the end of next week, so I just thought it prudent to send you this very confidential email to alert you and your colleagues.
I that you will treat this email and the content with full secrecy when you pass it on.
I am available to talk if you about this issue whenever you want. I look forward to seeing you next week.
Respectfully,
Nawaf
Nawaf Obaid
So, who is this provider of secret Saudi assessments to US officials, because, as jubilant emails later showed, the brothers were soon congratulating themselves on the fact that Hilary Clinton did indeed scotch plans to see Anwar on that trip?
Subject:
Clinton-Ibrahim NO Meeting
From:
nawafobaid@aol.com <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Date:
19/11/2010 13:56
To:
Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com
I have just been told to look for this Reuters story that appeared two weeks ago. In fact, Secretary Clinton was made aware the weekend before her trip to Malaysia about “the assessment” and was advised NOT to meet him in person. On arriving in KL, she had no plans on seeing him or having the picture taken with him. The issue of conflicts of her agenda was never the reason as she could of met with him if she really had insisted. To avoid giving the true reason (due to the understanding we have with our friends), a close advisor to her used an excuse of timing and simply said she would talk to him by phone, which she ended up NOT doing.NO
Clinton calls for fair trial for Malaysia’s Anwar
Photo
Tue, Nov 2 2010
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Tuesday for Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to get a fair trial but carefully sought to avoid offending the Malaysian government.
Anwar, on trial for sodomy in what Washington views as a politically motivated case, has denied the charge and says it is a repeat of a government conspiracy that saw him dismissed as deputy prime minister in 1998.
Clinton is in Malaysia for meetings with top officials of a country that has seen its relations the United States improve significantly in recent years despite the disagreement over Anwar’s treatment.
“It’s well known that the United States believes that it is important for all aspects of the case to be conducted fairly and transparently and in a way that increases confidence in the rule of law in Malaysia,” Clinton told reporters at a news conference with Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.
Clinton said she has discussed Anwar’s prosecution with the Malaysian government but it was unclear whether she had done so on Tuesday or in the past.
“I have raised it and we have continued to raise it and it is a part of our ongoing dialogue,” she said.
Anifah said his government wanted to ensure that Anwar received a fair trial and would not interfere in the case.
“What surprises me is that if there is a political prosecution … the Malaysian national government is much smarter. We may as well stop Anwar before he becomes a member of parliament rather than bring it to the open trial in the court,” Anifah told reporters.
“It is my interest and our interest to make sure that Anwar get a fair trial because if there is such thing as a political prosecution — if it can happen to Anwar — it can happen to the rest of us,” he said.
“I have faith in the independence of the judiciary … it doesn’t bother us one bit whether Anwar will be getting a federal judgment or otherwise, but what bothers us is that there will be a fair and open trial,” he added.
Clinton did not meet Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is ill, during her visit to the South East Asian nation but spoke to him by telephone from his hospital room and will hold talks with the foreign minister later on Tuesday.
In what appeared to be a carefully calibrated effort to ensure symmetry, two U.S. officials said Clinton would speak to Anwar on the telephone but would not meet him face to face.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
Currently back in the US as a visiting fellow at Harvard
Nawaf is the brother of PetroSaudi Director, Tarek Obaid. They are among three sons of a former businessman and arms dealer, Essem Obaid, who made and lost a fortune in Saudi Arabi before he died, according to an informant close to the family.
Setting up a ‘strategic studies institute’, called the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, Nawaf has operated as a private ‘think tank’, specialising in providing supposed intelligence and insight on Saudi Arabia to baffled westerners.
Last year, the Obaid brothers emulated Jho Low and set up a foundation in the name of their parents, which they have been heavily promoting as a philanthropic institution. Nawaf is also the CEO of this outfit, but the money for it notably emerged after the 1MDB PetroSaudi deal. Beforehand, the brothers were well connected but not wealthy.
Nawaf had developed his academic links and spent time in Washington, temporarily as an advisor to Ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal in 2005. However, a provocative opinion piece in the Washington Post (suggesting the potential for war between Saudi extremists and America) reportedly soon lost him this job.
So, Nawaf was back in Riyadh by 2010, cultivating his Western contacts and providing his ‘op eds’ (opinion pieces) to news organisations whenever he could. He also at this time had a job in the Saudi Royal Household in Riyadh, which was viewed as providing considerable access, as did Tarek’s handy friendship and business partnerships with King Abdullah’s 7th son, Prince Turki bin Abdullah.
Nawaf is now a visiting fellow at Harvard
The PetroSaudi database has provided extensive information showing that during this period Nawaf Obaid became heavily involved in providing a series of favours for Najib, on behalf of Tarek and Jho Low in the aftermath of the PetroSaudi deal.
These included fixing visits to Mecca and brief audiences with the King, helping draft speeches by the Prime Minister and even working on an extravagant project proposed by Najib, whereby the King of Saudi Arabia would lend 1MDB US$10 billion, in return for a whole series of grandiose projects to be launched in his name.
Nawaf’s comment to Tarek, who forwarded this latest suggestion drawn up between Jho Low and his so-called “BB” (Najib Razak) was scathing:
“No No N, just ask for 1 Trillion dollars in this case and save everyone the hasstle! Someone is taking some sever and I mean sever DRUGS!” (sic)
Subject:
Re: Spoke to BB, some ideas. Let’s discuss first before we talk further to BB.
From:
nawafobaid@aol.com <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Date:
30/10/2010 12:37
To:
Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com
No No N, just ask for 1 Trillion dollars in this case and save everyone the hasstle!
Someone is taking some sever and I mean sever DRUGS!
—–Original Message—–
From: Tarek Obaid <Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com>
To: NawafObaid@aol.com <NawafObaid@aol.com>
Sent: Sat, Oct 30, 2010 11:22 am
Subject: FW: Spoke to BB, some ideas. Let’s discuss first before we talk further to BB.
Thought we could just wire it straight out…..
—— Forwarded Message
From: “LOW, Jho (Personal)” <jho.low@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <jho.low@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:57:47 +0200
To: Tarek Obaid <Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com>
Subject: Re: Spoke to BB, some ideas. Let’s discuss first before we talk further to BB.
Sorry sent empty msg earlier. Spoke to BB, some ideas. Let’s discuss first before we talk further to BB.
– A special 7 day high profile visit to Malaysia end nov, early jan with a entourage of 500 people and the most senior religious leader to be accompanying King Abdullah.
Potential commitments include:
– 30 year loan of usd10b islamic debt to 1MDB/GOM at 1.1% interest. If to GOM, a portion (more than 50%) to be recommitted to 1MDB from GOM at same terms
– USD1b to build the King Abdullah Institute of Islamic Finance in KLIFD
– USD1b to build the King Abdullah Science & Tecnology University in Bandar Malaysia
– USD1b for the world first full fledged Islamic Mega Bank License issued by Central Bank of Malaysia
– USD250m to build the King Abdullah University of Islamic Studies in a location of GOM’s choice to be managed by 1MDB
– USD15/TBCm to build Permata Schools (gifted kids) in a location of Permata’s choice to be managed by 1MDB
– J/V between a Saudi Company and 1MDB of USD1b to invest in Langkawi to promote Langkawi as a tourism hub accompanied by PM and TDM
– USD (TBC)m to build Saudi Royal Summer Palace in Langkawi to be managed by 1MDB
– USD (TBC)m King Abdullah Chair/Scholarship in major Malaysian University for Islamic Studies in KSA
– USD (TBC)m donation by King Abdullah to Yayasan 1MDB
– Signing (potentially private) between PetroSaudi and Petronas (contents to be confirmed). Oil & Gas concessions and purchase of assets both ways
– Friday prayers at major mosque with top islamic cleric and HM with PM to be broadcasted nationwide
– A new special honorary award created for HM King Abdullah
– 1 and a half day official visit coupled by a 5 and a half day private holiday. PM and family will join the weekend holiday in Malaysia (Four Seasons Langkawi and perhaps also jungle)
– PM and all ministers to receive King Abdullah and entourage personally at airport coupled with full guard of honour and military parade with F-18 fly-by. All roads to be cleared
– anything else to add?
Nawaf was right to be cynical, since the money was never forthcoming. Najib’s equally fanciful Middle Eastern donor is plainly not from Saudi Arabia!
Meanwhile, the email evidence indicates that the main area where Nawaf was being detailed to assist was on the anti-Anwar propaganda campaign, targeted at breaking down western liberal sympathies for the Malaysian opposition leader by painting him as a terrorist.
The emails show that these efforts by Nawaf and Tarek Obaid were at the behest of Jho Low, who regularly described the Prime Minister as his “BB” (big boss). Low had poured US$300 million into PetroSaudi and paid Tarek a US$85 million brokerage fee for acting as “a front” in the scheme to siphon a total US$1.4 billion out of the 1MDB joint venture. It appears that he expected these favours in return.
Remember Josh Trevino and Chuck Devore?
Josh Trevino was paid by Najib to defame Anwar in the US
This campaign involving the Obaid brothers coincided with other black PR operations being waged by BN against Anwar, which have already been exposed by Sarawak Report.
In 2010-11 SR had also found itself the victim of a blogging campaign orchestrated by the American opinion writer Josh Trevino, whom we discovered was being paid by the PM’s office to attack Anwar Ibrahim using made-to-order Texas based blogs, such as New Ledger and Malaysia Watcher.
Trevino, who has far right, anti-Palestinian views, was also working for the Texas politician Chuck Devore. SR uncovered how Trevino and the UK company FBC Media were being paid tens of millions of dollars by the PM’s office to issue black propaganda, first against Anwar and then by Taib Mahmud against Sarawak Report. The material was then being fed back into local Malaysian media outlets, as if they were reflecting mainstream US opinion.
After our exposes, which also showed that FBC Media was illegally promoting Malaysia on its current affairs programmes, Trevino’s operation and FBC Media were closed down and major enquiries were held into media manipulation in the UK and US.
Now we can show (thanks to Justo’s PetroSaudi database) how closely the PetroSaudi team were working with these commercial conspirators in pushing the same stories onto the US agenda and with Najib’s office.
On the very same day, Oct 26 2010, that Nawaf emailed his National Security Council contact Mike Froman about Anwar, Josh Trevino’s political master Chuck Devore published a parallel paper also designed to warn Hilary Clinton away from relations with Anwar.
Nawaf emailed his brother Tarek on the matter a few days later on 2nd November, under the title “This is getting traction in the United States”. He attached the article from the Foreign Affairs journal Foreign Policy by Chuck Devore dated Oct 26th, threatening Clinton over Anwar’s alleged terrorist leanings, which he claimed he was hiding behind a liberal “charade”.
The article had originally been forwarded by Nawaf to Newsweek to try to get their correspondent to pick up on this story as well:
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:
Fwd: This is beginning to get traction inside the US
From:
nawafobaid@aol.com <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Date:
02/11/2010 10:35
To:
Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com
—–Original Message—–
From: Christopher Dickey <christopherdickey@gmail.com>
To: nawafobaid@aol.com
Sent: Tue, Nov 2, 2010 10:19 am
Subject: Re: This is beginning to get traction inside the US
Yep. Am on the case.
On Awlaki, have to write this week. So if you can’t Skype or phone, maybe there’s some other guidance you could give me.
Cheers, Chris
Christopher Dickey
Newsweek Paris Bureau Chief / Mideast Editor
christopherdickey@gmail.com
christopher.dickey@newsweek.com
www.christopherdickey.com
French cell phone: +33 6 80 33 94 87
US cell phone: +1 917 297 7613
On Nov 1, 2010, at 5:51 PM, nawafobaid@aol.com wrote:
Secretary of State Clinton Should Steer Clear of Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim
Posted by Chuck DeVore Oct 26th 2010 at 8:18 am in Foreign Policy, Islam |
Malaysia is on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s agenda this week as she swings through Asia. When she visits with Malaysian leaders, she might meet with Anwar Ibrahim, a supposed democracy and reform leader who, it is said, has been unfairly maligned by an overbearing government. Clinton shouldn’t, as Malaysia is no Myanmar and Ibrahim is no Aung San Suu Kyi.
Once a British colony, Malaysia has been independent since 1957. It has transformed itself from a raw materials exporter to a nation with a strong economy boasting a per capita income of $14,900, roughly quadruple that of its larger neighbors: the Philippines and Indonesia. Malaysia’s 26 million people are 60 percent Muslim, 19 percent Buddhist, 9 percent Christian and 7 percent Hindu. The legal system is based on English common law with Islamic law (Sharia) applying to Muslims in the matters of family law and religion. Islam in Malaysia, as in much of the Asian Pacific region, has been less prone to violence as it came to the region more as a function of peaceful trade rather than bloody conquest. Malaysia’s economy has steadily improved, and, under Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, so too has press freedoms and application of rule of law. It has a distance yet to travel, but a victory by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in next year’s elections would not advance the cause of democracy.
Serving as deputy to former long-time Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad, Ibrahim helped steer Malaysia through the Asian financial crisis in 1997. But, when Ibrahim tried to leverage his success into the Prime Minister’s office, Mahathir would have none of it, striking back with charges of corruption and sodomy. Ibrahim saw his political career sidetracked with his convictions on both charges (the sodomy charge was later reversed in 2004, but new sodomy charges were filed in 2008).
There’s no denying that Anwar Ibrahim knows how to manipulate Western press and politicians. Ibrahim has fashioned himself a sympathetic profile in the West by leveraging the sodomy charges the nominally Muslim government has twice maladroitly leveled against him while claiming to be two things he isn’t: a government reformer and a moderate Muslim.
Ibrahim’s passion for government reform was suspect from the start. While riding the crest of his popularity in 1998, his allies called for a debate on “cronyism and nepotism” which Malaysia’s former strongman Prime Minister Mahathir quickly turned on its head by producing lists of those who benefited from by receiving shares from privatized government corporations. The lists showed Ibrahim, his allies, his brothers and his father owned million of shares in newly privatized companies. Tellingly, Ibrahim’s corruption conviction was never overturned.
Selling Ibrahim as a moderate Muslim is altogether a different challenge. While Ibrahim enjoys the support of Al Gore and Paul Wolfowitz, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith calls him out as an anti-Semitic demagogue unworthy of meeting with the U.S. Secretary of State. Tellingly, when Ibrahim was recently in New York, shadowing a visit there by Prime Minister Najib Razak, he met with the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). Ibrahim was a co-founder of IIIT which listed the Malaysian politician as a trustee as recently as last year.
The problem is that IIIT is a Muslim Brotherhood front that has repeatedly been tied to terrorist network financing. In their 2001 book “Violence” IIIT called the state of Israel a “foreign usurper” that must be attacked with “fear, terror and lack of security.” Only three years ago, Malaysian Muslim feminist Zainah Anwar called out IIIT for suppressing moderate Koranic teachings. Of direct concern to Americans should be that the Muslim Brotherhood’s new “Supreme Guide” or leader, Muhammad Badi, called for violent jihad against both the U.S. and Israel in a September 30 sermon, saying it was a commandment of Allah that cannot be disregarded. Ibrahim met with IIIT leaders in New York only days after this sermon.
Anwar Ibrahim is simply one in a long line of Islamist leaders who know how to say one thing to a Western audience who longs to hear soothing words, while saying and acting differently when they think no one from the West is paying attention. If Ibrahim’s People’s Justice Party (run by his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail) comes to power in 2011, it will likely mark another occurrence of democracy being used to destroy democracy. Secretary of State Clinton, if she meets with Ibrahim, will act to boost his destructive charade.
Revealingly, a few days earlier on 13th October Nawaf forwarded his brother Tarek another email drawing attention to a separate article in exactly the same vein from the propaganda
Omar Mustafa of Ethos one of Najib’s closest advisors
blog Malaysia Watcher, which was directly paid for by Najib and run by Chuck Devore’s aide Josh Trevino.
The article was called “Anwar and the Terror Financiers” and had originally been sent to Nawaf by Omar Mustapha, who is the head of Ethos & Company and was acting as one of Najib’s key consultants responsible for drawing up his speeches (code name Oscar – 868460wqm77@gmail.com).
According to his email, Oscar was waiting for the completion of an ‘internal report’ by Nawaf – the same one that Nawaf had indicated was being completed by his contacts to Mike Froman?
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:
Fwd: Please check out link below. We should meet soon once your internal repo…
From:
NawafObaid@aol.com <NawafObaid@aol.com>
Date:
13/10/2010 15:29
To:
Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:
Please check out link below. We should meet soon once your internal report is ready.
From:
Oscar <868460wqm77@gmail.com>
Date:
13/10/2010 05:08
To:
nawafobaid@aol.com
http://malaysiawatcher.com/2010/10/13/anwar-and-the-terror-financiers/
The email trail confirms therefore that the Obaid brothers were in extremely close contact with the team running Najib’s PR over these attempts to pin terrorism allegations on Anwar.
Indeed, as early as September Nawaf had emailed Omar Mustapha to copy him into an initial approach to Michael Froman asking to meet with him “about a delicate matter that has come up regarding a certain international financial network that is literally using Saudi Arabia as a cover without the knowledge of the Saudi government”.
This email was also sent on to his brother Tarek and proves that the entire scheme to accuse Anwar of terror financing had been orchestrated together with the Prime Minister’s closest advisors from the start. The “friendly government” referred to by Nawaf in his Oct 26th email, can only have been Malaysia.
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:
Fwd: Meeting
From:
nawafobaid@aol.com <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Date:
27/09/2010 03:55
To:
Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com
—–Original Message—–
From: NawafObaid@aol.com
To: 868460wqm77@gmail.com
Sent: Tue, Sep 14, 2010 1:11 pm
Subject: Fwd: Meeting
Michael B. Froman
Deputy National Security for International Economic Affairs
National Security Council & National Economic Council
The WHITE HOUSE
Washington D.C.
Attached Message
From: NawafObaid@aol.com
To: Michael_B._Froman@nsc.eop.gov
Subject: Meeting
Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:04:36 EDT
Michael :-
I hope your well and had a nice restful month of August.
I would like to come over and see you about a delicate matter that has come up regarding a certain international financial network that is literally using Saudi Arabia as a cover without the knowledge of the Saudi government or the senior officials claimed by the culprits to being their sponsors and protectors. This issue has recently come to our attention and we will deal with it drastically. But there is a substantial US component to this network and hence why I would like to see you.
How does the last week of this month sound. The week starting with Monday the 27th? Many Thanks!
Respectfully,
Nawaf
Again, the week before Nawaf emailed Froman in October, he and a Saudi advisor were demanding official red carpet treatment to be arranged by Tarek and Jho Low (who continues to claim he no longer had any involvement in 1MDB or government matters by this period) during a visit to KL. Tarek explained to Jho Low that the advisor was working with Nawaf on getting “official endorsement on the bad apple stuff” – an obvious referrence to the ‘assessment’ being orchestrated with the PM’s office.
—— Forwarded Message
From: “LOW, Jho (Personal)” <jho.low@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <jho.low@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:52:12 +0200
To: Tarek Obaid <Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com>
Subject: Re: Advisor Arrival
Got it. In this case, I’ll get shihab to take care of them both since vvip. Give them the full works. Thanks.
From: Tarek Obaid <Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:45:31 +0200
To: LOW, Jho (Personal)<jho.low@gmail.com>
Subject: FW: Advisor Arrival
Pls Make sure this guy is in good hands.
He works in our BB office. His helping with the official endorsement of the bad apple stuff.
—— Forwarded Message
From: “NawafObaid@aol.com” <NawafObaid@aol.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:39:43 +0200
To: <kkt.kee@gmail.com>
Cc: Tarek Obaid <Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com>
Subject: Advisor Arrival
Kee :-
I have asked a close advisor to me to join me in Kuala Lumpur for the visit. His name is Dr. Saud Al Sarhan and he will be arriving on Sunday afternoon (ahead of me). I will send you all his details in another email, but please book him a room next to my suite or preferably connecting to the suite if possible for arrival Sunday afternoon and departing Tuesday evening. Please also make sure someone picks him up at the airport.
Many thanks,
Nawaf
Hawking the story about Anwar
So what exactly was this ‘intelligence’ which Nawaf as a supposed Saudi royal insider was passing to America’s politicians?
The emails which passed between the two brothers and Jho Low on the PetroSaudi database are informative on this front, because even though Nawaf indicated to Mike Froman that his ‘assessment’ document was highly secret, he was, in fact, passing it round as many journalists as he could, in order to get negative publicity against Anwar into the top US and UK media outlets.
One early score was with CNN’s Nic Robertson, who published a story almost immediately on Nawaf’s obscurely sourced ‘dossier’. Extensive emails between Robertson and Nawaf make clear that Nawaf had provided Nic with the material and was goading him to write something on the “assessment” before another media outlet took it up:
—–Original Message—–
From: Nic Robertson <nic.robertson@turner.com>
To: Nawaf Obaid <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Sent: Wed, Jan 12, 2011 12:24 pm
Subject: Re: Assessment Update
Nawaf, hi, as typical here I am getting diverted to other stories, Monday — Pakistan, Tuesday – Assange – , today Afghanistan, China and Lebanon..
I STILL PLAN TO GET TO IT THIS WEEK, BUT THANK YOU FOR THE HEADS UP.
Best,
Nic
On 1/12/11 5:07 PM, “Nawaf Obaid” <nawafobaid@aol.com> wrote:
Nic :-
Greetings from NYC!
ABC has been snooping around the assessment and the issue discussed in it.
I denied the assessment was for public use. They seems very interested in it after the Washington Times story.
Please let me know estimated time when you expect to write a story about it.
Many thanks,
NAWAF
Eventually CNN ran the story in late January, after which an email from Tarek to Nawaf observed “he owes you very big now, very big” – meaning Jho Low?
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:
Fwd: Here with the link
From:
nawafobaid@aol.com <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Date:
27/01/2011 13:47
To:
Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com
He owes you very big now, very big!
—–Ursprüngliche Mitteilung—–
Von: Nic Robertson <nic.robertson@turner.com>
An: Nawaf Obaid <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Verschickt: Do., 27. Jan. 2011, 14:38
Thema: Here with the link
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/01/27/saudi.terror.funding/index.html <http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/01/27/saudi.terror.funding
**********************
This ‘exclusive’ by CNN did not stop Nawaf trying to spread the story about Anwar’s terror funding on to other outlets, using the same techniques of implying that he had obtained the secret “assessment” from his inside intelligence contacts in Saudi Arabia.
Members of Josh Trevino’s blogging team seemed angry that CNN held back from reporting that Anwar supported terrorists through the Muslim Brotherhood
His next target was the New York Times, to whom he showed the CNN article and explained he could provide further “exclusive” information. Again, he forwarded this email correspondence entitled “Brotherhood Project” to his PetroSaudi director brother Tarek:
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:Re: Brotherhood Project
From:”Robert Worth” <worth@nytimes.com>
Date:31/01/2011 22:03
To:nawafobaid@aol.com
nawaf thanks, this is great. i am in cairo right now, and my editors want me to write something on the cairo/tunis stuff. i will have to report that first, but am eager to look at the report as soon as i have a minute.
thanks and best, B
On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 2:23 AM, <nawafobaid@aol.com> wrote:
Bob :-
I hope your well?
Please have a look at the following link. This is basically what we discussed last week over breakfast in DC. If interested, I would be more than happy to send you the assessment
as well as the entire intelligence package for you to have a look at and start your investigation. This would be a superb topic for a long investigative article
for The New York Times Magazine now that the Mubarak regime is slowly falling apart and the Brotherhood is waiting in the wings. If you agree to the project, this would be an
exclusive to you and I would supply you with never seen documents as well as officials and advisors in the main countries concerned with this issue and that took part in the
secret assessment.
Respectfully,
NAWAF
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/01/27/saudi.terror.funding/index.html <http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/01/27/saudi.terror.funding
The New York Times, in the end, appeared too busy to read the dossier. Likewise, Jeremy Bowen of the BBC. However, the email exchange in this case could not have been more telling.
Pressed by Nawaf to report on his assessment Bowen responded “the most common response I am getting is from people who suggest this is another attempt to damage Anwar Ibrahim’s reputation”.
Forwarding that blunt exchange on to his brother Tarek Nawaf remonstrated that he should tell his “accidental friend” [Jho Low] “how difficult it has been to get serious news organization to run with this subject”!
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:
Fwd: Update
From:
nawafobaid@aol.com <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Date:
23/12/2010 11:57
To:
Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com
TO :-
You should at some point also show this to your “accidental” friend to show him
how difficult it has been to get serious news organization to run with this subject.
Only do this when the stories start coming out!
NO
—–Original Message—–
From: Jeremy Bowen <jeremy.bowen@bbc.co.uk>
To: nawafobaid@aol.com
Sent: Thu, Dec 23, 2010 2:51 pm
Subject: Re: Update
Nawaf
Sorry for delayed reply.
Unfortunately I have been rather ill, not working now for almost a month (though I did do an obituary for my colleague Brian Hanrahan).
Anyway I’m now much better, and have found your email. My chasing of your dossier was on hold while I was on my sickbed.
As yet, the most common response I am getting is from people who suggest this is another attempt to damage Anwar Ibrahim’s reputation.
I am also struck by the fact that Saleh Kamel appears to be as much the subject of the dossier as Anwar Ibrahim.
Anyway I continue to try to corroborate but thus far don’t have anything I can take to air.
Even if I did, I would not be able to get it on until the New Year. Our news programmes shrink during the holiday period and won’t be back to normal until the first week of January.
Hope you escaped our snow.
Best wishes to you and your family
Jeremy
From: nawafobaid@aol.com [mailto:nawafobaid@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 09:26 AM
To: Jeremy Bowen
Subject: Update
Jeremy :-
Any updates? I have not heard back at all from you and wondering
what happened? Please let me know cause this is a priority for us
especially with the backdrop of the cables leaks and the sensitivity
of the assessment?
Thanks,
NAWAF
This did not stop Nawaf continuing to circulate the dossier. After all it had had a satisfactory effect in worrying US senior politicians.
His next target, just before Christmas 201o was the Washington Times. Nawaf forwarded what seemed like positive response from the journalist who was trying to get to grips with his ‘intelligence assessment’ to his brother Tarek in an email entitled “Here You Go, Merry Christmas”!
In this exchange the Washington Times reporter provides a useful summary of the gist and purpose of Nawaf’s secret assessment, which he had been painstakingly circulating around the world media:
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:
Here you go, Merry Christmas!
From:
nawafobaid@aol.com <nawafobaid@aol.com>
Date:
16/12/2010 21:14
To:
Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com
—–Original Message—–
From: Shaun Waterman <swaterman@washingtontimes.com>
To: nawafobaid@aol.com
Sent: Thu, Dec 16, 2010 9:45 pm
Subject: RE: AFP Exclusive: In Saudi, Israeli ‘new historian’ slams Netanyahu
Thanks Nawaf. I am writing the story this afternoon.
To confirm, what I have is a translation of an assessment produced by Saudi officials in response to allegations that senior members of the royal family were involved in funding Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim. The assessment clears the royals of involvement, but shows Ibrahim’s links to the large and complex web of financial organizations established by a group of leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, a number of whom have been indicted or designated as terrorists by US authorities.
The official who shared the assessment with The Washington Times said he had provided it to illustrate the scale of the challenge Saudi authorites face in trying to interdict funds provided by wealthy individuals for extremists, when the funds flow through a huge network of charities and other organizations, many of which are involved in funding non-violent Islamist political activities.
Is that about right?
Shaun Waterman
Reporter
The Washington Times
There is no evidence that the Washington Times actually ran the story. However eventually there seems to have been coverage in the Huffington Post and Newsweek based on what was described as described as an “extensive dossier, compiled last year by Arab analysts with close ties to Saudi intelligence“, but again failed to produce the desired attack on Anwar.
Instead, Nawaf resorted in February to sending on to his brother a vicious critique of these publications entitled ‘The Left Discovers the Muslim Brotherhood’s Transnational Network of Extremists–and Supports Them Anyway’, written by the writer Seth Mandel, one of Josh Trevino’s team of Malaysian funded bloggers for an obscure and now defunct site called RealNewsBlog.
Nawaf highlighted in bold Mandel’s accusations that the Newsweek article did not attack Anwar enough. Tarek then sent the email on to Jho Low with the comment “Please make BB read”.
It seems, therefore, the main impact of this collaboration between Nawaf and the Trevino team of paid bloggers was to convince Najib that he was changing world opinion.
ForwardedMessage.eml
Subject:
FW: NewsRealBlog: The Left Discovers the Muslim Brotherhood’s Transnational Network of Extremists–SEE IN BOLD
From:
“Tarek Obaid” <Tarek.Obaid@Petrosaudi.com>
Date:
14/02/2011 23:03
To:
jho.low@gmail.com
Pls make BB read
_____
From: nawafobaid@aol.com [nawafobaid@aol.com]
Sent: 14 February 2011 17:24
To: nawafobaid@aol.com
Subject: NewsRealBlog: The Left Discovers the Muslim Brotherhood’s Transnational Network of Extremists–SEE IN BOLD
– NewsReal Blog – http://www.newsrealblog.com –
The Left Discovers the Muslim Brotherhood’s Transnational Network of Extremists–and Supports Them Anyway
Posted By Seth Mandel On February 10, 2011 @ 8:00 am In Anti-Semitism,Email,Feature,Right to Exist | 2 Comments
Here’s a riddle for you: How many rocket, mortar, and missile attacks can Hamasniks in Gaza launch without breaking a cease-fire?
You might think the obvious answer is zero–you cannot be firing rockets at civilians while still abiding by a cease-fire. But the world is more complex than that, or so I learned after reading the latest installment of Peter Beinart’s ongoing attempt at rehabilitating the reputations of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
Hamas, Beinart writes, “has been basically observing a de-facto cease-fire for two years now.” As of early this week, Hamasniks have launched 43 attacks on Israeli civilians so far in 2011. I assume that Beinart inserted the word “basically” to account for the fact that Hamas has not completely ceased firing, but are making an effort. Yet considering they are averaging one attack per day thus far this year, it is a positively Clintonian abuse of the weasel word.
What’s more likely, however, is that Beinart simply has no idea what’s really going on over there. And we can give the Daily Beast the benefit of the doubt by assuming that when they merged with Newsweek, the Daily Beast acquired Newsweek’s fact-checkers, which explains this type of monumental mistake making it into print.
Speaking of Newsweek: The magazine recently ran an article that echoed Beinart’s opinion that the Muslim Brotherhood is no real threat to Israel or the broader West. Beinart informs us that “The Muslim Brotherhood is not al Qaeda: It abandoned violence decades ago, and declared that it would pursue its Islamist vision through the democratic process.”
Beinart takes the Muslim Brotherhood at its word, just as he takes Hamas’s word for the cease-fire they are respecting by attacking Israel every single day. And the Newsweek reporters tell us that in a democracy, the “mystique” of the Brotherhood will rapidly fade:
“When, finally, Arab governments come to understand that, the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood may well be over.”
But perhaps the Daily Beast/Newsweek idea of keeping the Muslim Brotherhood out of power by putting the Muslim Brotherhood in power isn’t the best idea. Perhaps, that is, they should not be taken at their word.
For evidence to back up our skepticism, we look to… Newsweek? Yes, that same article that tells us to trust the Muslim Brotherhood also includes this gem:
“NEWSWEEK has obtained an extensive dossier, compiled last year by Arab analysts with close ties to Saudi intelligence, that argues that a well-financed global Muslim Brotherhood network uses ‘moderate-seeming politicians to further its extremist agenda’ as far away as Malaysia.”
This would not have been news to Newsweek had they made a regular habit of reading our site. That “moderate-seeming” politician in Malaysia is Anwar Ibrahim, whose connections to the Muslim Brotherhood, anti-Semitism, and all-around bad habits we have documented here, here, here, and here.
And that is just one example. Let’s remember that the Brotherhood operates in 70 countries worldwide. And that brings us to the most significant issue with the constant exhortations not to worry about the Muslim Brotherhood. They have a transnational network of terror-supporting Islamist anti-Semites like Anwar Ibrahim and his supporters. What do you suppose the foreign policy of an organization like the Muslim Brotherhood would be if they gained power in Egypt? With whom, do you suppose, would they ally themselves?
When it comes to Malaysia–a country our government considers an important ally in the war on terror–the Brotherhood has Anwar Ibrahim in the opposition. In Israel, the Brotherhood has its affiliate Hamas.
So now that we know the type of groups the Brotherhood associates with, and considering their stated goal remains to bring about Sharia law in each country in which the Brotherhood operates, how should we feel about the Brotherhood affiliates in the West? Britain, Germany, and France all have prominent chapters. The U.S. has many–including beloved CAIR.
These organizations have tremendous influence already, which would only increase were the Muslim Brotherhood to take even a significant slice of the power up for grabs right now in Egypt. As Stephen Coughlin, Vice President of Strategic Communication Initiatives for the Strategic Engagement Group, told me, the best recent example of the Brotherhood’s influence in Western countries would be the French riots of 2006. Though the Brotherhood did not start the riots, he said:
“The Muslim brotherhood stepped into that situation, and knew how to take control of it. And it didn’t end until the French government asked the Muslim Brotherhood-associated imams to tell people to stop. And then of course the Muslim Brother imam did, and it stopped immediately. So what did they get? They got the French to recognize that if you want to work with the Muslims in France you have to go through the Brotherhood.”
The Brotherhood considers itself the gatekeeper, as it were, to the Muslim communities around the world. And it has demonstrated it knows how to take advantage of a populist uprising it did not spur or even join at the outset. That is because the Brotherhood is, as the Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano told me, “fanatically well-organized and well-financed.”
The point of Beinart’s essay, by the way, was to propose that Israel ease its restrictions on Hamas, thus giving them more land, more weapons, more resources, and more political power. He is suggesting to Western leaders that they allow for the rise to power of Hamas