https://m.gulfnews.com/us-document-reveals-cooperation-between-washington-and-brotherhood-1.1349207

For the past decade, two successive US administrations have maintained close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Libya, to name just the most prominent cases.

The Obama administration conducted an assessment of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2010 and 2011, beginning even before the events known as the “Arab Spring” erupted in Tunisia and in Egypt. The President personally issued Presidential Study Directive 11 (PSD-11) in 2010, ordering an assessment of the Muslim Brotherhood and other “political Islamist” movements, including the ruling AKP in Turkey, ultimately concluding that the United States should shift from its longstanding policy of supporting “stability” in the Middle East and North Africa (that is, support for “stable regimes” even if they were authoritarian), to a policy of backing “moderate” Islamic political movements.

To this day, PSD-11 remains classified, in part because it reveals an embarrassingly naïve and uninformed view of trends in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

The revelations were made by Al Hewar centre in Washington, DC, which obtained the documents in question.

Through an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, thousands of pages of documentation of the US State Department’s dealings with the Muslim Brotherhood are in the process of being declassified and released to the public.

Attributed to the NYT, but I have hit the limit so far this month

“We really pushed the question of who was taking the lead in reform,” said an official. “Would pushing reform harm relations with the Egyptian military? Doesn’t the military have an interest in reform?”

Mr. Obama also pressed his advisers to study popular uprisings in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia to determine which ones worked and which did not. He is drawn to Indonesia, where he spent several years as a child, which ousted its longtime leader, Suharto, in 1998.

While the report is guiding the administration’s response to events in the Arab world, it has not yet been formally submitted — and given the pace of events in the region, an official said, it is still a work in progress.

Chinagate and a tie in to the other Sec.of State.

http://www.independentsentinel.com/lest-we-forget-hillarys-china-gate-scandal/

Lest We Forget Chinagate, The Most Serious Scandal in US History

https://spectator.org/the-hero-priest-of-pearl-harbor/

In this week’s Newsweek, crack investigative reporter Michael Isikoff — in an article entitled “Cash and Kerry” — unveils letters from Kerry to Johnny Chung, a star of the 1996 campaign-finance scandals, who pleaded guilty to giving $28,000 illegally to Kerry’s and Bill Clinton’s campaigns (the money turned out to have come from wire transfers by the head of Chinese military intelligence). In 1996, Kerry — in the fight of his life for re-election against then-Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld — helped grease the way for getting a corporation run by one of Chung’s cronies listed on the stock exchange by arranging a private meeting with the SEC. Kerry’s reward: Chung raised him $10,000 at a Beverly Hills fund-raiser. Kerry has always claimed he never knew Chung until the fund-raiser — but the Newsweek revelations show Kerry, in a handwritten“Dear Johnny” letter, wrote to Chung months earlier that “It means a lot to have someone like you on my team as I face the toughest race of my career.” Newsweek adds that Kerry used his position as a member of the Senate Finance Committee to collect $3 million from firms with an interest in the committee’s work.

https://www.laweekly.com/news/the-two-john-kerrys-2137733

Johnny Chung

In 1996, then Senator John Kerry was in a tough re-election fight against Republican Governor Bill Weld. In July, Kerry met with businessman Johnny Chung and his Chinese partner Liu Chaoying. Johnny was born in Taiwan and later became an American citizen.

When John Kerry met with them in his Washington office, he had no idea that Liu Chaoying was a Lt. Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army.

Johnny Chung told Kerry that Liu wanted one of her companies listed on the Stock Exchange. Senator Kerry’s people were happy to help and immediately sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission.