The Passionate Attachment

By Maidhc Ó Cathail
The Passionate Attachment
October 24, 2012

Writing in The National Interest yesterday, Susan Schmidt alerts American readers to an apparently egregious instance of foreign lobbying through the silver screen. Observes Schmidt:

Hollywood movies, the bête noire of conservative Muslim culture, are an unusual investment for Middle Eastern oil magnates. But the United Arab Emirates, the fourth-largest energy producer in the world, has committed $1 billion to bankroll films, some of which conveniently advance its economic interests.

Noting the ostensibly anti-drilling environmental message of films such as “Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hour” and “Promised Land” being funded by the UAE, Schmidt avers:

The politics of these filmmakers are no secret, but the source of some of the funding may be surprising. Image Nation is owned by a government that stands to benefit by ensuring that the United States remains dependent on Middle Eastern oil for decades.

“Is this a new form of foreign lobbying?” she asks, pointing out that there are laws against this sort of thing.

Unlike American companies, foreign entities are generally required to disclose to the Justice Department not only lobbying but also efforts to influence public opinion in the United States.

The Justice Department’s national-security division, which administers the Foreign Agent Registration Act, faces a host of new challenges in keeping up with public-relations campaigns given the proliferation of social media and television programming, some of it news, sponsored by foreign entities.

So who is this Susan Schmidt that appears to be so concerned about undue foreign influence in the United States?

Apart from being a former longtime reporter for the Washington Post, she just happens to be a visiting fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. And as those familiar with the preeminent case of foreign influence in America know all too well, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) is one of the key groups that make up the Israel lobby.

After drawing attention to the oil royals’ growing media empire, the FDD fellow concludes her commentary thus:

But funding Hollywood movies? The Emiratis are more Westernized than most foreign investors. They seem to know the value of public opinion in this country—and maybe the best way to buy it.

As for the pro-Israelis funding Schmidt’s visiting fellowship, they of course knew the value of influencing American public opinion years before the UAE even existed. And with a top Hollywood producer having doubled as an intelligence agent for the Jewish state, the Emiratis still have a lot to learn from the foreign entity in whose national interest she is paid to write disingenuous pieces like this.

Maidhc Ó Cathail is an investigative journalist and Middle East analyst. He is also the creator and editor of The Passionate Attachment blog, which focuses primarily on the U.S.-Israeli relationship.