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More dirt on Kushner

Loren Pechtel said:
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/21/jared-kushner-saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman/

If true, is this treason?
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It may fall under 18 U.S. Code § 794 - Gathering or delivering defense information to aid foreign government (aka, “espionage”). Here are the relevant sections:

Whoever, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used...to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates...to any foreign government, or to any faction or party...within a foreign country, whether recognized or unrecognized by the United States, or to any representative, officer, agent, employee, subject, or citizen thereof, either directly or indirectly, any...information relating to the national defense, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life...
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The question being, of course, did any of the information he passed on relate to our “national defense”? This recent case may shed some light.

And then there is this from the Intercept piece:

What exactly Kushner and the Saudi royal talked about in Riyadh may be known only to them, but after the meeting, Crown Prince Mohammed told confidants that Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the crackdown. Kushner, through his attorney’s spokesperson, denies having done so.

“Some questions by the media are so obviously false and ridiculous that they merit no response. This is one. The Intercept should know better,” said Peter Mirijanian, a spokesperson for Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell.
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That would be a non-denial denial. Iow, that just confirmed that Kushner did in fact do as accused.

It seems to me that whatever information Kushner allegedly provided would have had to have been of a nature that the Crown Prince did not already know and only our intelligence community did. Considering that information evidently proved their “disloyalty”—to the point of it causing the reaction it did—in turn would mean they must have been working with our intel community or the like. If not, then they must have been doing something (or things) that were very serious and very secret. Revealing that information could in turn have constituted a breach to our national defense as it would necessarily entail revealing our methods of knowing such information.

I doubt seriously the Crown Prince would have simply taken Kushner’s word that there were disloyal members—or thought mere disloyalty to be so serious an affront—unless it constituted something more than just “your cousins are jealous.” Iow, something he couldn’t have figured out on his own and/or something unknown to his own internal security/intell community.

But even if that were the case, it still would have indicated—at the very least—who we were spying on and what kind of information we were interested in, etc. Iow, our methods, the reveal of which could be argued to be a threat to our national defense. Etc.

The other issue, of course, would be was there any quid pro quo? What did Kushner stand to gain by giving this information? The implication in the piece has to do with his idiotic purchase of the 666 building.
 
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Treason is only for people without certain financial means.

I was trying to figure out the weird stance the Trump administration took towards Qatar when it happened at the time. Recent possible revelations about the Kushner family and their big stupid financial hole in the ground seem to make sense, and that is a shame. I wish we knew the truth of it. The really sad thing is, with this administration, you have to admit it's a possibility. Trump is fond of saying "his generals" and "his military". We are dealing with the most self-obsessed and indulgent administration ever. It isn't much of a stretch for them to believe that the entire machinations of the United States exist for them to personally use and to profit from.
 
There’s a LOT more to do with Qatar than meets the eye. This is a post from a thread I started over at Sec Cafe (that I’m hoping will be archived/available here once the merger is completed):

Koyaanisqatsi said:
Time has passed, but...

ETA: For shits and giggles I tried to find out what "DT Marks Qatar, LLC" does and it's actually a Delaware LLC, so why it would be listed under positions held outside of the US is a mystery, unless it is a shell company that does business in Qatar, of course. There are several companies that appear to be affiliates of a parent company; i.e., DT Marks Qatar Member Corp., LLC and a shit load of companies beginning with DT around the world, which evidently stands for Donald Trump. Iow, they're his shell companies.

Why is that important? Russia Sells Stake in Oil Giant Rosneft to Glencore, Qatar:

The Switzerland-based mining company said it was in “final-state negotiations” about the deal, and said it was committing €300 million. It also received a five-year right to purchase an additional 220,000 barrels of oil a day from Rosneft for its trading business.

The balance of the purchase price would be provided by Qatar and bank lending, Glencore said. Glencore said the deal’s structure meant its risk is limited to its €300 million investment, equivalent to about 0.54% of Rosneft.

Mr. Sechin said Glencore and the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign-wealth fund would each take half of the 19.5% stake.
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Anyone care to bet whether or not one of the DT Marks Qatar LLCs is somehow invested in the Qatar Investment Authority sovereign-wealth fund? Or Glencore, for that matter?

ETA: I've found this so far: Qatar Investment Authority. Not sure yet how it's structured.

ETAETA: That has led me to this: EXCLUSIVE - Qatar's secretive sovereign fund to restructure, say sources, which notes:

Qatar Investment Authority, one of the world's most aggressive sovereign wealth funds, will set asset allocation targets for the first time and restructure internal decision-making, sources say, in response to a drop in oil prices that has crimped available funds as competition for assets grows.

In a cryptic reference on QIA's website, a tab saying 'QIA Review - Coming Soon' leads to a page which does not yet exist. The sources, who all either work in Qatar or for foreign institutions which work with the QIA, said the review process was currently ongoing.
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The fund was run between 2008 and July 2013 by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani - a charismatic dealmaker who was also prime minister and foreign minister for most of his tenure and often used the QIA as a foreign policy tool, deploying its cash into areas which would help boost Qatar's power and prestige.

Setting targets now could result in the fund exiting areas like food and mining where it overlaps with specialist funds such as Hassad Food and Qatar Mining. QIA is already evaluating its investments in some mining assets, sources told Reuters last week.

The review could also see tens of billions of dollars flow into new geographies to diversify a fund which in late-2013 was believed to be around 80 percent invested in European assets.

That would crystallise a recently-announced shift towards the developed markets of Asia and North America. The fund said in April it would open an office in New York in light of its growing portfolio in the United States and last November announced plans to invest $20 billion in Asia over the next five years.

Those funds are likely to flow in particular to sectors where QIA has a penchant such as financial services, real estate and consumer goods, said a second source, a senior Doha-based banker.
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Its current director Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani - former chairman of telecommunications firm Ooredoo for 14 years prior to joining the QIA.
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Next I'll see if any of them are connected to Trump, though there seem to be enough crumbs already.

ETAETAETA: Well, fuck me royal. I just found this from December 13th: Qatar sovereign fund tells Washington will invest $10 billion in U.S. infrastructure: sources:

The head of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has told U.S. officials it will invest $10 billion in infrastructure projects inside the United States, sources said, in an apparent boost to the economic plans of president-elect Donald Trump.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani, chief executive of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), delivered the message to officials including Charles Rivkin, U.S. assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs, in Doha on Monday, a Qatari official and another source close to the QIA told Reuters.

No time frame was given for the investment. Both the QIA, one of the world's largest sovereign funds, and a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Qatar declined to comment.

The QIA had previously said it intended to invest $35 billion in unspecified projects in the United States between 2016 and 2021, and it was not clear if the $10 billion would form part of that larger amount, the official said.

Trump has said his economic plans include a major boost to infrastructure investment. In one of the presidential debates against Hillary Clinton, Trump contrasted the gleaming airports of Qatar and Dubai with more shabby U.S. facilities such as LaGuardia and Newark.

The investment by Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East, could help to cement ties with the Trump administration at a time of uncertainty in the Gulf, where Arab states fear any retreat of U.S. power could benefit regional foe Iran.

Trump has signaled he may halt U.S. support to Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad. Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia, has been among the top backers of the rebels.
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:eek: All of that was just a shot in the dark to see where it would lead.

ETnauseam: There's MORE. This from October of this year: Qatar’s new NYC strategy:

Speaking at a conference hosted by Euromoney Magazine in Qatar in 2014, Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani called for a moment of silence.

“Silence at times may be golden,” he told the business executives at the event, which took place the month before he was named chief of Qatar’s notoriously secretive sovereign wealth fund. “But I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that the noise we are making here in Qatar is already being heard around the world.”

Indeed, two years later, the Qatar Investment Authority has made more than enough noise in the New York real estate market to draw the industry’s attention.
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In some ways, the fund has become even more private since it’s eaten losses recently on failed (non-real estate) investments in companies such as the commodity-trading and mining giant Glencore...
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Jeesus! How fucking deep is the rabbit going?

A 2014 survey of sovereign wealth funds by GeoEconomica, a political risk-management firm based in Switzerland, found QIA, which doesn’t publish annual reports or disclose how much money it manages, to be the least transparent of all sovereign funds.
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Fuckin A! Glencore is in Switzerland!

EEEEE: It concludes (long read):

But while investing in New York real estate may be safer than some of QIA’s recent bets, sources said it hasn’t been easy. That’s partly because the U.S. government doesn’t hold as much clout when it comes to major investments in real estate as its European counterparts. And when major public-private partnerships such as Hudson Yards do arise, they’re usually awarded to U.S.-based firms.

“When you’re dealing with U.S. private equity funds, they are usually selling all the big deals to American funds or banks,” said the QIA’s adviser. “There are so many buyers in the U.S., they don’t care about the Arab market. Whatever deals the Arabs got were always secondary deals. They tried to compete with U.S. funds to try to get assets and couldn’t.”

That might explain why QIA has taken such pains to align itself with companies such as Brookfield and ESRT.
“I would imagine the big allure with ESRT was the Empire State Building, but it was interesting that they made an investment in the company and not the asset itself,” BMO’s Kim said. “Part of the reason [for that], I think, is that ESRT wouldn’t sell a stake in the Empire State Building.”

QIA’s advisor agreed: “Qatar couldn’t beat people like Brookfield to deals, so they bought a stake in them to get access to those deals,” he said. “Qatar is looking to set up vehicles alongside big players in the U.S.”
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If Cheeto Mussolini gave Kushner permission to release the info, there's not much that can be done.
 
ZiprHead said:
If Cheeto Mussolini gave Kushner permission to release the info, there's not much that can be done.
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Things get complicated, as the timing of all of this, including the Qatari blockade by Saudi Arabia came almost immediately after. While pushing the intel might have been legal because Trump is President, doing stuff in their financial interests is still very against the law.
 
ZiprHead said:
If Cheeto Mussolini gave Kushner permission to release the info, there's not much that can be done.
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Yep. Unless the idiot said something to the Crown Prince (that was recorded or otherwise overheard) that would prove he did not (i.e., something like, “I am not authorized to tell you this”). But of course Trump could just lie and say he told Kushner to say that too.
 
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