Middle East

Advisor to Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Faces Charges including sex trafficking

Axios, an American website, said that a federal court in Virginia, United States, has charged George Nader with sex trafficking, child pornography and abominable acts.

The website added that the charges were added to charges against him last month, days after his arrest, including possession and promotion of child pornography.

George Nader, an adviser to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, was one of the key witnesses in the investigations led by Robert Mueller on what was known as Russia’s intervention in the 2016 US presidential election, which was won by Donald Trump.

Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, was a link between Trump and Russian officials ahead of the election. Reports said he had organized a meeting in Seychelles between a Turkish partner and a Russian official with strong ties to the Russian presidency.

The website pointed out that Nader was presenting himself as a close associate of Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, the de facto ruler of the UAE.

Nader was arrested at the beginning of June at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Later, he was brought to trial in the same state before being transferred to a federal court in Virginia, where he was first charged.

Sources confirmed Nader’s possession of pornographic films and sex tapes of children on his phone. A federal judge in Virginia refused to release the accused on bail because it poses a threat to the security of the community as he said. The judge expressed fear of the possibility of escape of Nader if he was released due to his relations with influential politicians in the Middle east.

Prosecutors said the evidence in Nader’s phone confirmed his direct contact with MbZ, as well as representatives of the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Nader, who presents himself as MbZ adviser, suddenly turned into the focus of the American media and the special investigator Robert Mueller. Mueller team conducted questioning sessions with Nader to investigate whether the United Arab Emirates is likely to buy political influence in America.

During the 1990s, George Nader was the president and editor of the Middle East Insight magazine, which focused heavily on Middle East issues, Washington’s role and influence in the region. The magazine turned into a platform where Arabs, Israelis, and Iranians expressed their views to the US Republican.

His then-American partner, Jonathan Kessler, was the editor-in-chief of the magazine before he was the director of the development and leadership department of the American public affairs committee known as AIPAC.

Nader began to appear in the 1990s, seeking through the magazine and his participation in some conferences to push for peace with Israel, including Syria and Lebanon.

In 1996, less than a month after Netanyahu become the Israeli prime minister, Nader hosted Netanyahu on July 10 in an event, alongside Ehud Olmert, who was the mayor of Jerusalem at that time.

In the same period, the administration of former US President Bill Clinton convinced him that he had valuable contacts with the Syrian government. He played a secret role in trying to mediate a peace process between Israel and Syria and had ties with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

In the middle of the last decade, he spent most of his time in the Middle East, especially in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, and developed relations with White House security officials under the Bush administration. “He has been on the margins of international diplomacy for three decades.”

During these years, Nader has made ambiguous ties with the Zionist lobby in the United States and the Mossad.

By the end of 2016, Nader has presented himself in the corridors of US policy as an adviser to the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. After the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, he approached White House figures like Elliot Broidy, director of Cercinas Security Services.

According to the New York Times, Nader has been on the White House more than once during the first months of the Bush administration and met close associates, including Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner, to discuss US policy in the Gulf region ahead of the president’s visit to Saudi Arabia, on May 2017.

While Mueller team was preoccupied with the Russian role in the US elections, the New York Times reported in its March 4, 2018 report that Muller had begun to consider the potential role of the UAE in buying political influence in the US. The newspaper said that Muller focused Nader because he is known for his links with UAE officials, and revealed that the investigation team conducted interviews with him.

The newspaper, based on eyewitness accounts, said the questions were about a potential role for Abu Dhabi in buying political influence in the US and providing funds for Donald Trump’s campaign.

“The investigators also looked into Mr. Nader’s role in policy-making in the White House,” the New York Times wrote in its report. The newspaper added that the focus on George Nader “could trigger an audit of how money flows from many countries and how it affected Washington during the Trump era.”

The New York Times indicated that one example of Nader’s strong links is that last fall he received a detailed memo from Elliott Broidy, a senior donor to the Trump campaign, about a private meeting with the president at the White House.

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