{"id":14948,"date":"2015-12-01T16:51:53","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T21:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=14948"},"modified":"2015-12-01T16:51:53","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T21:51:53","slug":"inside-saudi-arabias-campaign-to-charm-american-policymakers-and-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=14948","title":{"rendered":"Inside Saudi Arabia\u2019s Campaign to Charm American Policymakers and Journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Inside Saudi Arabia\u2019s Campaign to Charm American Policymakers and Journalists<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Soon after launching a brutal air and ground assault in Yemen, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began devoting significant resources to a sophisticated public relations blitz in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

The PR campaign is designed to maintain close ties with the U.S. even as the Saudi-led military incursion into the poorest Arab nation in the Middle East has killed nearly 6,000 people, almost half of them civilians.<\/p>\n

Elements of the charm offensive include the launch of a pro-Saudi Arabia media portal operated by high-profile Republican campaign consultants; a special English-language website devoted to putting a positive spin on the latest developments in the Yemen war; glitzy dinners with American political and business elites; and a non-stop push to sway reporters and policymakers.<\/p>\n

\"SaudiArabia-TheIntercept1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Graphic: The Intercept<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

That has been accompanied by\u00a0a spending spree on American lobbyists with ties to the Washington establishment. The Saudi Arabian Embassy, as we\u2019ve\u00a0reported<\/a>, now retains the brother of Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign chairman, the leader of one of the largest Republican\u00a0Super PACs in the country, and\u00a0a law firm with deep ties to the Obama administration. One of Jeb Bush\u2019s top fundraisers, Ignacio Sanchez, is also lobbying for the Saudi Kingdom.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Saudi Arabia\u2019s relationship with the U.S. has come under particular strain in recent years as the government has not only launched the brutal war in Yemen, but has embarked on a wave of repression. Following the appointment of Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud to the Saudi throne in January, the Kingdom\u00a0sharply increased<\/a>\u00a0the number of people executed \u2014 often by beheading and crucifixion \u2014 for daring to protest or criticize the government or for crimes as minor as adultery or \u201cwitchcraft.\u201d\u00a0On November 17, a Saudi court\u00a0sentenced<\/a>\u00a0Ashraf Fayadh, a famed poet, to death for \u201capostasy.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Inside Saudi Arabia\u2019s Campaign to Charm American Policymakers and Journalists Soon after launching a brutal air and ground assault in Yemen, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia began devoting significant resources to a sophisticated public relations blitz in Washington, D.C. The PR campaign is designed to maintain close ties with the U.S. even as the Saudi-led […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[512,655,701,10890,865],"class_list":["post-14948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-media","tag-propaganda","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-unites-states","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14948"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14949,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14948\/revisions\/14949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}