By Joseph Solis-Mullen

In a piece of news that shocked the mainstream media, but which shocked no one familiar with the academic industry writ large, retired US Army general John Allen was forced to resign as president of the Brookings Institution after it was revealed the FBI was investigating him for lobbying on behalf of the Qatari monarchy.

Of course, the real news, scarcely noted by the Washington PostNew York Times, or any other purported paper of record, is that Allen was only really in trouble because he hadn’t fulfilled the pro forma legal requirements for those lobbying the US government on behalf of a foreign agent or government.

The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), under which such activities are regulated, includes several exceptions that allow for such activities without declaring a conflict of interest. Think tanks, a misnomer if ever there was one, operate under an “academic exception” that allows for engagement in “bona fide religious, scholastic, academic, or scientific pursuits or the fine arts.”



Anyone who has ever picked up one of the many deadly dull social science journals where actual, bona fide empirical academic work is done knows this constitutes perhaps a fraction of what think tanks almost daily churn out.

Rather think tank commentary, touted as objective analysis, is regularly featured or cited by publications and outlets as apparently diverse as the Wall Street Journal and NPR.

Of course, think tanks are hardly alone. As Ben Freeman, a specialist on foreign influence on US policy, has documented, such democratic bastions of liberal values as the UAE and Saudi Arabia donate hundreds of millions, even billions, to universities around the country.

Of course, from a libertarian perspective, who is to say who should be giving money to whom and for what? Further, FARA’s provisions are so nebulous that virtually anyone could be targeted for virtually any reason, an obvious opportunity for unaccountable federal officials to impinge on Americans’ civil liberties.

But the blatant hypocrisy of it all is what really stands out, as the same universities and think tanks regularly decry the apparently perfidious influence of countries like China, which they breathlessly warn uses our “open institutions” for its own gain. Should any of their number dare to go off message and report, for example, on the well-documented and wholly negative influence of countries like Israel on US foreign policy, they are tarred as anti-Semites, racists, or foreign agents themselves!

The truth is the powerful Israel and Saudi Arabia lobbies have been able to steer US policy in directions clearly at odds with the best interests of the American people for decades. Unsurprisingly, perhaps nowhere has the deleterious effect of their money been more felt than in US policy toward Iran, with the Saudis, Israelis, and Emiratis dumping literally billions of dollars into attacks on a country the United States should have normalized relations with decades ago.

The Uyghur lobby is another such interest group that enjoys an open door in Congress and the op-ed pages of prominent papers—this while its nakedly paramilitary arm advocates the violent overthrow of the Beijing government! And what are we, or foreign governments like China, to think when the parent organization of such extremists, the World Uyghur Congress, takes funding from the US government itself?

We aren’t supposed to think about it at all.

Just like we aren’t supposed to question any of the other nakedly self-serving policies. Who, for example, is surprised to learn there is a large and active Ukraine lobby in Washington? That has paid off handsomely, with our government now handing over $130 million daily to Kyiv with little to no oversight.

And of course, most maddeningly, any critically thinking American who even dares to question the US government’s obviously dangerous and counterproductive policies, bought and paid for by literal foreign agents, are themselves accused of being in the pay of Moscow, Beijing, or Tehran.

Never mind that all the evidence points in the opposite direction.

Again, the American people aren’t expected to think at all, only to stay in line and keep the money flowing.

This is the sad state of foreign policy in America, and it happens right out in the open.

A graduate of Spring Arbor University and the University of Illinois, Joseph Solis-Mullen is a political scientist and graduate student in the economics department at the University of Missouri. An independent researcher and journalist, his work can be found at the Ludwig Von Mises Institute, Eurasian Review, Libertarian Institute, Journal of the American Revolution, Antiwar.com, and the Journal of Libertarian Studies. You can contact him through his website http://www.jsmwritings.com or find him on Twitter @solis_mullen.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Ferdinand (second installment)
    Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.

    The above mentality is where it all went wrong

  2. Ferdinand.
    We are no longer allowed our roots. The Unionists in the North object to the speaking of our language. All languages welcome, just not the Irish one. (nothing from the EU on that one)
    The Crown destroyed our national archives during the Civil War, wiping out 800 years of our history. We’ve been raped, abused, sold and forced abroad by the Crown and also by our own politicians, police, church and schools. Zionists or whomever may be involved, but l only see the hand of the Crown.
    All institutions of the State and it’s affiliates are involved in the suppression of freedom. Everything is planned in advance and we believe we have freedom of choice. Society today is full of empty headed, self entitled, morally and intellectually lazy, self important narcissists.
    Our politicians here have transformed from symbolic gestures by the people of Ireland to enjoy self rule for a change, to narcissistic, greasy liberal globalists that behave in a manner similar to mafiosas with zero accountability or regard for the law. The toxic brand of North American democracy really set the bar low for that one.
    Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.
    And as a side note, I bought 80kg of coal and a few bales of turf briquettes today

  3. I sincerely doubt that we can chalk everything up to KSA/Israeli kontrol…although it may technically be correct recently…it is not inclusive enough. Both Israel and KSA are creations of…? J_T_C cut to the chase with his post. I partook in a conversation on elections, with one guy saying all the Dems had to go, to destroy the Dem party. He was even a fairly middle of the road guy too. I asked what difference it would make since the only difference between them was their facade. I said that all the Dems had to go and so did all the Repugs and Inds as well. Did not Obama continue GWs bank giveaway? Did Trump, in his 4 years out the Ukr slaughter? the labs? their massive weapons build up? Did not Biden continue Trumps JCPOA demands and tactics? Needless to say the only thing these creatures have in common is the desire to do the same…and collect their money. They all gotta go. If we want to send a message, likely this is the only kind we can send…as the messengers we ‘elected’ damn sure ain’t going to. Dump them all, require new electees to vow to get rid of TPA,TSA, DHS and reinstate Glass-Steagle for starters…and hold them to it. Good luck with that, eh?

  4. “The truth is the powerful Israel and Saudi Arabia lobbies have been able to steer US policy in directions clearly at odds with the best interests of the American people for decades.”

    Actually, those Zionist entities are steering US policy in directions that will destroy the USA as a constitutional republic and turn it into some sort of sectarian theocracy. You can hardly call it Christian when their dark eschatological scenario includes a catastrophic war with Russia which will go nuclear in hours. 50 million of them have their rapture suits all pressed and ready to go.

  5. Just who is behind the Saudi (oil) connection and the Israeli (rapture) connection. Look no further than the insurance cabal from the City of London. Hell-bent on world domination, these cockroaches have been hiding in the woodwork since Roman times. The Israelis and the Saudis are just another front in the multi-layered power structure. And never lose sight of the simple fact the City of London has owned the USA since 1776 and prior.

  6. The same with Europe. We have unelected politicians travelling to and from two different parliaments every 3 weeks. Thousands of staff, equipment, etc relocating every 3 weeks from Strasbourg to Brussels (the pedophile capital of the world).
    The fascists in europe now want to curtail our individual human rights in case we abuse our human rights. Duty to the government and responsibility to society trumps your individual rights. They also wish to get rid of our veto in matters of foreign affairs.
    We are in a housing crisis in Ireland and our government has block booked hotels for two years to accomodate Ukrainians. Building hi-spec modular homes and allocating social housing to these so called innocent refugees who are now complaining that the electrical sockets aren’t close enough to their beds. They pay for nothing, are fast tracked through the system and receive all social supports and housing and they are not even part of the rules based european union. Meanwhile the wrong colour refugees are held in stasis for years, and the Irish should just shut up, tighten their belts, put on an extra sweater, learn how to use flint and sleep in their cars or on their friends sofas, prepare for the worst, it’s going to get worse and it’s all the Russians fault.
    My blood is boiling this morning

    • Well, your boiling blood may keep you warm this winter when Euro heating fuel prices go off the charts. Those of us of Irish descent understand racism. Unfortunately, many here in America have lost contact with their roots and become stooges and suckers of the Zionist controlled Anglo world.

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