The "Marshall Plan Of The Mideast" Is Roadmap To Foreign Interference In 2016

It seems that much of the world, including the world's greatest kleptocrats, but with the exception of most of the mainstream media and around 45% of the US public, understood that the entire Trump campaign was simply a great grift machine. At its outset, the Trump campaign was merely a branding exercise that was designed to further raise the Trump profile by making a respectable, but not winning, showing in the Republican primaries. But it increasingly seems that the emergence of Mike Flynn as a major force within the campaign expanded the horizons of potential profit for everyone involved in and associated with the Trump/Kushner project.

Flynn, of course, was merely grifting himself, leveraging his closeness to the candidate in order to drum up business for himself and his family. Like everyone in Trump's orbit, they had no expectation or probably even desire to win the election as that would make reaping their expected profits far more difficult. This was clearly illustrated by both the fact that Trump had no acceptance speech ready for election night and Flynn was publishing an op-ed piece promoting his Turkish benefactors on the day of the election.

But it was most likely Flynn who originally floated the idea of the so-called "Marshall plan for the Mideast" that brought the Russians, Saudis, Emiratis, and Israelis together with the Trump campaign. The crux of the scheme was to lift the Russian sanctions so that the bloc of anti-Iranian states could then avail themselves of the Russian know-how to build nuclear reactors and buy Russian-made weapons, all of which would be brokered by Flynn and his associates. Israel was willing to sign off on this plan in return for Saudi, Emirati, and Egyptian support for abandoning the Palestinians as well as the fact that it further constrained the Iranian regime while adding multiple threats to it.

This opened up new potential grifts for Trump and his team. Rolling back the sanctions increased the likelihood of Trump Tower Moscow. Opening up the channel to the Gulf States allowed Kushner to potentially find another source, if not Russia, to bail him out of his disastrous investment in 666 Fifth Avenue.

More importantly for Trump, the Russians, Saudis, and Israelis leveraged their money and technological know-how to influence the election and support his campaign. In addition to the Russian Internet Research Agency, the campaign may have had help from the Israeli firm Psy-Group. The connection to the Gulf States also brought in George Nader and Elliot Broidy, who were also grifting for themselves in the form of large consulting contracts.

Despite the fact that sanctions haven't been lifted, many of those involved in the Marshall plan deal have gotten what they wanted. The Israelis have had a free hand with the Palestinians. Trump backed the Saudis and Emiratis in their attack on Qatar and still supports the Saudi war in Yemen even after the murder of Khashoggi. All three countries benefited from Trump's withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal and the re-imposition of sanctions. The Russians are becoming players in the Mideast again, selling large amounts of weaponry and signing other business deals, as well as getting a free pass in Crimea.

While Trump hasn't gotten the Trump Tower Moscow, he has gotten lots of business for his hotels from multiple countries, including hundreds of thousands from the Saudis and their associates. Kushner got bailed out of 666 Fifth Avenue by the Qataris, requested by Kushner before the Saudi and Emirati attack and remarkably paid after that attack ended. That payment was also remarkable for being paid shortly after the Qataris acquired a significant stake in the Russian oil giant Rosneft, reportedly at a discount, which leads to speculation that the Qataris were merely a cutout for a Russian payment to Kushner.

There are many strands to the foreign interference in the 2016 election as well as the pay-to-play foreign policy implemented by the Trump transition and subsequent administration. Many of those strands come together when the outline of the "Marshall plan for the Mideast" is illuminated. Mike Flynn is one of the architects of the plan and was intimately involved in its implementation. The fact that he has been fully cooperative with the Mueller investigation for well over a year should concern much of Trump's inner circle, especially Kushner and Don Jr.