Cutting off the swamp's Chinese money

On September 6, 2014, the New York Times rolled out a story, "Foreign Powers Buy Influence at Think Tanks."

 

The story began, "The agreement signed last year by the Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs was explicit: For $5 million, Norway’s partner in Washington would push top officials at the White House, at the Treasury Department and in Congress to double spending on a United States foreign aid program.

"But the recipient of the cash was not one of the many Beltway lobbying firms that work every year on behalf of foreign governments.

"It was the Center for Global Development, a nonprofit research organization, or think tank, one of many such groups in Washington that lawmakers, government officials and the news media have long relied on to provide independent policy analysis and scholarship."

That is pretty explosive stuff. Combined with the $89.6 million [747 million kroner] Norway gave the Clinton Foundation when Hillary was Secretary of State, and you have some pretty explosive stuff. Norway after all gave Obama a Nobel Peace Prize and the more than a million dollar emolument that came with it. Congress OK'd the emolument, as required by the Constitution.

But the story faded fast, which is a shame because the story showed how Washington is selling out our country.

The story said, "The think tanks do not disclose the terms of the agreements they have reached with foreign governments. And they have not registered with the United States government as representatives of the donor countries, an omission that appears, in some cases, to be a violation of federal law, according to several legal specialists who examined the agreements at the request of The Times."

And the story said, "Most of the money comes from countries in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia, particularly the oil-producing nations of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Norway, and takes many forms. The United Arab Emirates, a major supporter of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, quietly provided a donation of more than $1 million to help build the center’s gleaming new glass and steel headquarters not far from the White House. Qatar, the small but wealthy Middle East nation, agreed last year to make a $14.8 million, four-year donation to Brookings, which has helped fund a Brookings affiliate in Qatar and a project on United States relations with the Islamic world."

These think tanks fund officials in the party that loses the White House, creating employment for people who will return to power when the color of the White House changes from red to blue, or blue to red, or whatever the color scheme is now.

President Donald John Trump's election disrupted that, which is one of the reasons they hate him to the core.

The Times story said, "After questions from The Times, some of the research groups agreed to provide limited additional information about their relationships with countries overseas. Among them was the Center for Strategic and International Studies, whose research agenda focuses mostly on foreign policy; it agreed last month to release a list of 13 foreign government donors, from Germany to China, though the organization declined to disclose details of its contracts with those nations or actual donation amounts."

You do not bite the hand that feeds you, and foreign governments fed them plenty. The story debunked the myth of think tanks as high-minded intellectual oases in the American wasteland. Brookings and the rest are just renting themselves out to Red China and the rest of their johns.

But for 6 years, the story was dormant.

Today, the Trump administration finally took action. 

Agence France Presse reported, "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday asked Washington's think tanks to disclose foreign funding, warning of Chinese and Russian backing for the institutions known for wide influence on US policy.

"Washington's think tanks have for decades served as homes in waiting for US experts when they are out of government and most aggressively seek funding -- although foreign money is most likely to come from nations friendly to the United States.

"Pompeo called on think tanks that seek to cooperate with the State Department to disclose 'prominently' on their websites any foreign funding, including by state-supported entities."

This should have been done 2 years ago or earlier. But the Mueller witch hunt and the slow-walking resistance of the deep state delayed this reform until it was almost too late.

Politico reported, "The Brookings Institution said: 'Consistent with our policies on research independence and careful scrutiny of foreign funding, Brookings does not accept any funding from the governments of China or Russia, or from any of their state-run or affiliated enterprises. Brookings is proud of our strong track record of transparency in our funding relationships.'"

If the scrutiny is so careful, surely Brookings won't mind disclosing every damned cent or kroner it received.