Rex Tillerson foiled Saudi plan to invade Quatar. Was fired for it

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US foreign negotiator and probable Saudi agent Jared Kushner couldn't get a security clearance in Trump 1.0, but that didn't stop him from getting the Israel-Palestine foreign policy portfolio and heading up a COVID committee -- he was kinda connected to the boss

Seems the kerfuffle about the intercepted foreign agents phone call mentioned Kushner

FBI/NSA are routinely supposed to be informed about stuff like this, but DNI Tulsi Gabbard instead took it straight to Susie Wiles, Trump's Chief of Staff

I have a feeling this could turn out to be a big deal

(Gift link, but you have to do a free subscription)

https://www.wsj.com/politics/nationa...hare_permalink

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Tulsi hid it for eight months

U.S. intelligence officials are treating the material in the complaint with the utmost secrecy, contending that disclosure of the underlying intelligence report at issue could severely damage national security.


A heavily redacted version of the complaint was seen by select lawmakers in Congress last week after the Journal first reported on its existence and that it had stalled within Gabbard’s office. Democrats have questioned why the complaint was held up for eight months and indicated it raises national-security concerns that deserve more investigation. Republicans have defended Gabbard and said the attention on the complaint has been orchestrated to undermine the Trump administration.


The complaint specifically accused Gabbard of limiting the sharing of the intelligence concerning the conversation for political purposes. Shortly after the intelligence was collected last year, Gabbard met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles to discuss the matter. The whistleblower complaint alleges that following that meeting, Gabbard worked to limit the sharing of the intelligence, people familiar with the complaint said.



A Gabbard spokeswoman has described those allegations as “baseless and politically motivated,” and said that the claims pertaining to Gabbard were deemed by the former acting inspector general to be not credible.


A second allegation in the complaint alleges that the NSA’s general counsel’s office failed to report a potential crime to the Justice Department that was raised by the content of the intercepted conversation, and did so for political purposes. A career official in that office determined the referral wasn’t necessary because the allegations lacked merit, a senior administration official said.


The intelligence community inspector general didn’t determine whether that allegation against the NSA was credible.

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The allegations in the conversation about Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, would be significant if verified, according to other U.S. officials familiar with its contents.

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Jared Kushner is currently a pure volunteer, he holds no official US post

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If Joe Biden's son-in-law was flying around the Middle East as an unofficial Secretary of State while also working on business deals for his company with the same people he was meeting with on behalf of the US government, I'm pretty sure it would be a bigger story

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*crickets*

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the self-enrichment of Jared Kushner under color of national service is orders of magnitude worse than anything alleged about Hunter Biden

As the Trump administration & Congress last year moved to repeal sanctions on Syria, the Qatar-based family that most stood to benefit was privately negotiating a real-estate partnership with Jared Kushner and proposing a Trump golf course in Syria

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/19/u...

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One reason that we cannot have professional diplomats representing the interests of the United States is that it would disrupt a pattern of personal enrichment for the Presidents allies and families.

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media mostly asleep at the switch on the blatant conflict of interest

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lol

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The Saudi investment proved fruitful. Despite Kushner’s insistence during the 2024 campaign that he would have little involvement in a second Trump term, he is once more at the center of almost every major geopolitical event. In the occupied Palestinian territories, he’s point man for what should supposedly emerge from the rubble—a “New Gaza” that promises to restore jobs, prosperity, and peace. He was dispatched to Moscow with special envoy Steve Witkoff to seek a diplomatic solution to Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. In January, he and Witkoff were appointed executive board members of Trump’s new Board of Peace, itself a breathtaking attempt to monetize foreign relations. The following month, Trump named Kushner his “special envoy for peace,” shortly before dispatching him and Witkoff to lead the administration’s disastrous negotiations with Iran. To each of these assignments, Kushner has brought a mind-boggling array of ethical conflicts. His financial entanglements span the globe, touching on the diplomatic hotspots where he is supposed to be negotiating on America’s behalf. He has made an art of cashing in on his foreign relationships, which, for those partners, are also paying off as never before.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics...-ivanka-trump/

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Albania is getting rocked by anti-Kushner protests

tl:dr

Kushner did a development deal (luxury resort) in a protected wetland. Albanians hate it and their government is in trouble over it

This is bigger than birds. A protected wetland belongs to everyone. It is not an asset a government can sell to a foreign billionaire in the dark. What is happening at Vjosa-Narta is a test of something more fundamental: whether Albania’s ins utions exist to serve its people, or to serve its deals. Albania wants to join the European Union, a club with rules, built on the premise that governments are accountable to citizens and the law means something. Vjosa-Narta is a stress test of exactly that premise.


Now with hundreds of thousands of protesters filling Tirana’s streets, the world is watching.

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2...-environmental

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The $1.4 billion Trump-Kushner resort is slated for construction on a remote island and the nearby delta of the Vjosa River, a shelter for an assortment of wildlife, including about 3,000 flamingos, Dalmatian pelicans, Loggerhead sea turtles and critically endangered Mediterranean monk seals.


The Vjosa, one of Europe’s last wild rivers, empties into the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Albania with its delta composed of the ample Narta Lagoon, sand dunes, beaches and wetlands. Just over 5 miles offshore from the lagoon sits Sazan Island, a large but uninhabited island with two high peaks. It served as a naval base during the Cold War and is covered in a network of bunkers and tunnels.



An undated photograph shows flamingos in the Vjosa-Narta nature preserve in Albania. (Photo by Rajmond Kola courtesy of Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania)

In early 2024, Kushner revealed plans to turn Sazan Island and areas around the Narta Lagoon into a resort. The scheme involves Kushner’s Affinity Partners, Saudi investors and others.

The plans are vast: Reports describe as many as 10,000 hotel rooms and villas spread across Sazan Island and the Vjosa-Narta coastal area near Vlorë, a city of about 115,000 people.

https://www.courthousenews.com/as-bu...luxury-resort/

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Albania's prospective EU membership is endangered by the Kushners' shady real-estate deal

MEPs have warned Albania that EU accession talks are at risk if the government does not “change course” over plans for a luxury resort backed by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.Tineke Strik, the Dutch MEP heading a European parliament fact-finding mission to the Balkan nation, said Albania’s leadership was “playing with fire” by pursuing the €1.4bn (£1.2bn) real-estate venture that would, she said, wreak havoc on virgin coastline.Opposition to the project has spurred a wave of unprecedented unrest known as the “flamingo revolution” amid mounting calls for the resignation of the Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama.“If Rama is really serious about his EU ambitions, he should step back from this trajectory and say to the Trump clan: ‘Sorry, the EU is my first priority,’” Strik said. “Right now, they’re endangering a process that is so dear to them … They’re playing with fire.”

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Kushner's real-estate deal in Albania might bring down the government there, so maybe there's a strategy behind giving him the Iran portfolio in war negotiations

Businessman who sold land for Kushner resort in Albania suspected of faking the deeds

www.reuters.com/world/europe...