[Salon] Jaredgate and the hacking of 10 Downing Street

[Chas Freeman <cwfresidence@gmail.com>]

Jaredgate and the hacking of 10 Downing Street

Summary: MbS paying Jared Kushner US$2 billion and the UAE hacking the UK Prime Minister’s office attracts little comment from Western policymakers.

Though the relationship between the Arab Gulf states and the West is strategically and economically important for both sides, it has always been a paradoxical alliance between the world’s most open democracies on the one hand and on the other some of the most secretive and corrupt absolute autocracies in the world.

This paradox has often been explained away by defenders of the relationship as necessary and important because it allows the West to exert a ‘moderating influence’ over the way these regimes behave. But as history shows and as Arab Digest has often reported, the reality is that in today’s world this process more often appears to work in reverse, meaning that usually it is the Arab regimes who get to influence the internal processes and decision-making of Western democracies rather than vice versa.

In recent weeks two extraordinary instances of such interference have once again shown this to be the case, even though like last year’s revelations about the UAE hacking hundreds of phones in the UK they have thus far attracted little comment from Western policymakers.

The first was uncovered by Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto whose mission is to undertake research on digital threats against civil society. On April 18 Citizen Lab’s founder/director Ronald Deibert announced:

During the course of our investigations into mercenary spyware, we will occasionally observe cases where we suspect that governments are using spyware to undertake international espionage against other governments. We confirm that in 2020 and 2021 we observed and notified the government of the United Kingdom of multiple suspected instances of Pegasus spyware infections within official UK networks. These included The Prime Minister’s Office (10 Downing Street) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The suspected infections relating to the FCO were associated with Pegasus operators that we link to the UAE, India, Cyprus and Jordan. The suspected infection at the UK Prime Minister’s Office was associated with a Pegasus operator we link to the UAE.

The same day in the New Yorker, Ronan Farrow published the results of his investigation into how Pegasus is used to spy on citizens in democracies:

"When we found the No. 10 case, my jaw dropped,” John-Scott Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, recalled. “We suspect this included the exfiltration of data,” Bill Marczak, another senior researcher there, added. The official told me that the National Cyber Security Centre, a branch of British intelligence, tested several phones at Downing Street, including Johnson’s.  It was difficult to conduct a thorough search of phones — “It’s a bloody hard job,” the official said — and the agency was unable to locate the infected device. The nature of any data that may have been taken was never determined.

The second brazen assault on Western democracy in recent weeks was first reported by the NYT on April 10 and concerns Jared Kushner receiving a US$2 billion investment in his fledgling investment fund Affinity Partners from Saudi Arabia six months after leaving the White House, despite objections from the fund’s advisers about the merits of the deal.

The NYT reported:

A panel that screens investments for the main Saudi sovereign wealth fund cited concerns about the proposed deal with Mr. Kushner’s newly formed private equity firm, Affinity Partners, previously undisclosed documents show.

Those objections included: “the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management”; the possibility that the kingdom would be responsible for “the bulk of the investment and risk”; due diligence on the fledgling firm’s operations that found them “unsatisfactory in all aspects”; a proposed asset management fee that “seems excessive”; and “public relations risks” from Mr. Kushner’s prior role as a senior adviser to his father-in-law, former President Donald J. Trump, according to minutes of the panel’s meeting last June 30. 

But days later the full board of the $620 billion Public Investment Fund — led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler and a beneficiary of Mr. Kushner’s support when he worked as a White House adviser — overruled the panel.

The new documents reviewed by the NYT include a letter dated July 5 2021 from staff at the PIF explaining to a board member who had questioned the size of the investment why it could not be cut back.

“This investment aims to form a strategic relationship with the Affinity Partners Fund and its founder, Jared Kushner,” the letter said. A reduction of the size of its US$2 billion stake “may negatively or fundamentally affect the framework of the agreed strategic and commercial relationship.”

The Intercept subsequently published a slide deck Affinity Partners used to make its pitch to other investors which nakedly touts Kushner’s work with Saudi Arabia and his links to several Trump-era Saudi deals.

Though Kushner broke no law accepting the Saudi investment and it is normal that former officials profit from their connections after leaving government, ethics experts have decried his relationship with the Saudis.

“If people actually cared about corruption by the president's family members, Saudi Arabia giving Jared Kushner $2 billion would be the biggest story in America right now” tweeted Citizens for Ethics, a Washington-based non-profit that targets government officials who sacrifice the common good to special interests and personal gain.

“It’s damn hard to not see the $2 billion investment as either a payoff for past services rendered or a pre-emptive bribe should Trump manage to regain the White House” wrote David Corn, Washington, DC, Bureau Chief at Mother Jones. “And it could be both. It’s a wonder that the disclosure of this deal hasn’t created more of a fuss and prompted congressional investigations.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren said she thought the US Department of Justice ought to “take a really hard look” to see if any laws were violated. “I think this is a moment when Congress needs to do a lot more about corruption,” she added.

On April 13, 30 members of Congress, all Democrats, sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken asking him to review Saudi-U.S. relations and chart a new path that addresses concerns long ignored by the United States. The letter denounces continued support for the Al Saud citing repression in the kingdom, the targeting of critics all over the world, the war in Yemen and the backing given to fellow authoritarian regimes in the MENA region. Such support “runs counter to U.S. national interests and damages the credibility of the United States to uphold our values.”

The letter concludes

We stand at an inflection point. The United States can continue our status-quo of seemingly unconditional support for an autocratic partner, or we can stand for human rights and rebalance our relationship to reflect our values and interests. How we move forward will send a strong message to democracies, activists fighting for democracy, and human rights defenders and will play an important role in our fight against authoritarianism around the world. 

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