Now that Hillary Clinton is now officially the Democratic presidential nominee, it’s worth pointing out that she reportedly has connections to the Saudi Arabian government.
Back in October 2015, Yahoo! News chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff reported that the Saudi government hired the Podesta Group “to provide “public relations” and other services on behalf of the royal court of King Salman.”
The firm is run by Tony Podesta, a top donor to Clinton. His brother, John Podesta, also happens to run Clinton’s presidential campaign. David Adams, who is leading the firm’s work for the Saudis, was Clinton’s top congressional lobbyist during her last two years as Secretary of State, further suggesting that there may be ties to Hillary Clinton.
“I’ve never had a conversation with Hillary Clinton or anybody in the campaign about the work of the firm,” Podesta told Yahoo! News. “We represent a dozen foreign governments around the world — we do good work for them. And it has nothing to do with the Hillary Clinton campaign.”
This is not Clinton’s only reported connection to the Saudis, as Isikoff has chronicled:
The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is among the largest donors to the Clinton Foundation, contributing between $10 million and $25 million, according to the foundation’s website (which discloses figures only in broad categories, not precise sums). Bill Clinton has also received hefty fees for speeches in Saudi Arabia, including $600,000 for two talks while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. Last Sept. 4, Bill Clinton met with King Salman for what was described by one source as a “brief courtesy visit” at the Four Seasons Hotel. Two weeks later, on Sept. 18, the Podesta Group filed papers with the Justice Department reporting that it had been retained by an entity called “the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court.”
Zero Hedge has also reported that according to a Jordanian News Agency, the Saudis have funded 20 percent of Clinton’s campaign, which if true would be a disturbingly substantial amount and would also be illegal. However, the Jordanian News Agency claimed they were hacked.
Regardless, the reported connections between Clinton and the Saudis are troubling, to say the least. The Saudi government believes in a strict interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism, the same set of beliefs that ISIS adheres to.
A film called Saudi Arabia Uncovered exposes the daily beheadings and executions that occur in the country, as the number of instances that warrant execution include “murder, rape, armed robbery, repeated drug use, apostasy, adultery, witchcraft and sorcery” that are “carried out by beheading with a sword, stoning or firing squad.” Various mosques and schools indoctrinate the populace with bigotry and violence toward Jews, Christians, and Shia Muslims. Any dissent towards the Saudi regime faces the risk of jail time and lashings. Women are also treated as second-class citizens, where they’re not even allowed to drive.
Additionally, recently released documents suggest that there may have been some sort of connection between the 9/11 hijackers and the Saudi government, although a concrete link has not been established yet.
Given these reported Clinton connections to the Saudi government, it does raises questions as to how the brutal regime would influence her presidency.
“Hillary Clinton has a strong record of standing up for human rights, and has spent her career fighting for women and girls around the world. She’s proven that she cannot be intimidated — let alone influenced — to sacrifice these core principles,” Clinton campaign spokesman Josh Schwerin wrote to Yahoo! News in an email. “And so as president she will continue to stand up to countries like Saudi Arabia that don’t allow women to have equality. … Make no mistake, when it comes to U.S. national security, she is guided only by the best interests of our country.”
And yet these connections suggest otherwise.
