Alan Jones | 1776 Channel
America’s strategic infrastructure compromised:
Did Clinton pay-to-play arrangement hand over port container operations inside national security nexus to wealthy foreign associates?
By Alan Jones | May 24, 2015
(L to R) Former Special Assistant to President Clinton, former White House Chief of Staff under President Obama and current U.S. Secretary of Treasury Jack Lew, chairman of Gulftainer’s executive board Badr Jafar, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton (Image credits: Wikimedia Commons)
(1776 Channel) Beginning next month, ocean shipping container operations at Florida’s deep-water Port Canaveral, teeming with U.S. Navy nuclear submarines, NATO-ally nuclear submarines, and record numbers of cruise ships, and situated close to Kennedy Space Center, will be controlled by Gulftainer, a foreign company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with close ties to former President Bill Clinton.
Port Canaveral is home to critical national security operations and infrastructure. A plethora of space and defense installations and programs, many of them highly classified, are situated either inside the port or within the immediate vicinity:
• NASA Kennedy Space Center and Visitor Complex
• Patrick Air Force Base
• Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
• U.S. Navy Trident submarine base (Trident Turning Basin)
• Top secret Air Force space plane
• National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) spy satellites
• Department of Defense/Boeing GPS satellites
• SpaceX resupply missions to the International Space Station
• SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket
• NASA Orion deep space capsule project and test launches
• United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy Rocket
• United Launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket
• Nuclear submarines resupply operations
• Lockheed Martin Fleet Ballistic Missile Eastern Ranger Operations
• Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) – Seismic, hydroacoustic and satellite monitoring of nuclear treaty signatory nations
• Air Force Space Command/45th Space Wing
• Air Force 920th Rescue Wing (Combat Search and Rescue)
• Craig Technologies Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing Center
• Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS)
• U.S. Coast Guard Station Port Canaveral
• Department of Homeland Security – Customs and Border Protection
• Numerous defense contractors (too many too list)
The Gultainer deal, which has alarmed the military, was approved by Treasury Secretary Jacob ‘Jack’ Lew, a former senior adviser to President Clinton.
An unnamed source tells 1776 Channel that “the defense establishment is unhappy” about the deal between Gulftainer and Port Canaveral.
Gulftainer’s exclusive arrangement with Port Canaveral was negotiated in secret under the code name ‘Project Pelican.’
The 35-year lease grants Gulftainer exclusive rights to operate an intermodal container terminal inside Port Canaveral, near sensitive Department of Defense and NASA installations.
Recently-installed Port Canaveral CEO John Walsh concealed the Pelican Project and the identity of Gulftainer from the public until June 24, 2014, by which time Gulftainer officials from the UAE had already arrived in Florida for a signing ceremony.
The abruptly-announced deal between Gulftainer and the port immediately became a lightning rod for criticism due to multiple security concerns.
To deflect those objections, Port Canaveral CEO Walsh employed the Obama administration’s standard talking point: “We can’t be racist.”
Joe Kasper, Chief of Staff to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), when asked today by 1776 Channel to comment on the “We can’t be racist” argument made by CEO Wash made last summer, objected strongly:
“That claim is b***s**t — only an irrelevant and ignorant person would say that” – Joe Kasper – Chief of Staff to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
Rep. Hunter sits on the House Armed Services Committee and is also chairman of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation subcommittee.
Last summer Port Canaveral CEO John Walsh and other port authority officials appeared to dodge questions about the deal from the conservative Washington Times.
The connections between the wealthy UAE family that owns Gulftainer and former President Bill Clinton and his associate Jack Lew appear to have remained undetected last summer, despite the availability of information from open-source documents and websites.
Treasury Secretary Lew eventually rubber-stamped the controversial Gulftainer deal with no national security oversight or review.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) of the House Armed Services Committee opposed the Gulftainer lease on national security grounds. Rep. Hunter expressed his concerns about Gulftainer in a letter to Secretary Lew, to no avail.
Hunter’s Chief of Staff Joe Kasper also commented today to 1776 Channel about the absence of a Gulftainer – Port Canaveral deal national security review:
“There were no assurances whatsoever that this … arrangement was thoroughly reviewed and considered for national security risks. The request was made but I don’t think the administration gave it any real attention” – Joe Kasper, Chief of Staff to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
PORT CANAVERAL, FL April 22, 1994 A port quarter view of the British nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine HMS Vanguard (SSBN-50) arriving in port. NASA’s giant Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center and various space launch pads can be seen in the distance. UAE’s Gulftainer is building an intermodal container terminal on the same side of the port as the U.S. Navy submarine base. (Image credit: U.S. Navy/OS2 John Bourvia/Wikimedia Commons)
Map of Port Canaveral, Florida showing Gulftainer’s area of operations, US Navy Trident submarine base and Canaveral Air Force Station.
Map of North Merritt Island, Florida showing the proximity of Port Canaveral, Florida to US Navy Trident submarine base, USAF Canaveral Air Force Station and NASA Kennedy Space Center (Image credit: NASA)
Gulfainer USA (GT USA) is a unit of UAE’s privately-held intermodal container terminal operator Gulftainer, which in turn is a unit of Crescent Enterprises, part of the Crescent Group conglomerate.
The UAE’s Jafar family, which owns and controls both the Crescent Group and Gulftainer, has both direct and indirect connections to former President Clinton, a 1776 Channel investigation has discovered.
Two brothers, Majid Jafar and Badr Jafar, stand at the helm of the Jafar family business empire.
Majid Jafar, 38, is CEO of UAE-based Crescent Petroleum, the petroleum unit of the Crescent Group.
Badr Jafar, 35, is Managing Director of the Crescent Group, President of Crescent Petroleum and CEO of Crescent Enterprises, the parent of Gulftainer.
Majid co-Chairs, alongside former President Clinton, Business Backs Education, a United Nations UNESCO-run global educational campaign. The campaign is funded by the Varkey GEMS foundation, a contributor to the Clinton Global Initiative.
“The Varkey GEMS Foundation has helped to facilitate more than 2,300 commitments through the Clinton Global Initiative to date. Upon funding and implementation, these commitments will have a total value of over $70 billion.” – Varkey Foundation Website
Majid Jafar met with former President Bill Clinton and other global leaders, including the Director-General of UNESCO , at the Global Education and Skills Forum, held in Dubai from March 15-17, 2014.
A group photograph taken during the forum provides key evidence that Crescent executive Majid Jafar not only served as co-Chair of the Business Backs Education campaign alongside former President Bill Clinton, but also physically stood next to former President Clinton at a time when Gulftainer was secretly seeking to establish operations at Port Canaveral. That deal would soon require approval from Clinton’s long-time friend, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.
President Bill Clinton launching Business Backs Education at the Global Education & Skills Forum 2014.
(From left to right) Sunny Varkey, Chairman, Varkey GEMS Foundation; Hani Ashkar, Middle East Senior Partner, PwC; Majid Jafar, CEO Crescent Petroleum; President Clinton; Jim Hagemann-Snabe, CEO SAP; Iyad Malas, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Group; Shaker Ismail, Senior Vice President, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (Image source: Global Education and Skills Forum)
“It has been my honor to know Jack, his wife and his family for a long time now” Bill Clinton told an audience at the Clinton Global Initiative’s CGI America 2013 conference in Chicago. Clinton interviewed Secretary Lew on stage during that event.
Treasury Secretary Lew granted approval to the Port Canaveral Gulftainer deal, without a national security review, on September 26, 2014, almost exactly six months after Bill Clinton and Crescent Petroleum CEO Majid Jafar stood on stage together at the Global Education & Skills Forum 2014 in Dubai.
American Shipper announced that “in an e-mail to American Shipper, Canaveral Port Director John Walsh said he has been notified by the Treasury Department that the concession agreement with Gulftainer is considered a simple lease, not an asset sale, and does not warrant further review on national security grounds.”
The question is, did Bill Clinton engage the Jafars/Crescent in quid pro quo skid-greasing to ram the Gulftainer deal through the U.S. Treasury Department in exchange for the Clinton’s favorite commodity: cash?
The Clintons have a history of accepting money in the UAE.
“Bill and Hillary Clinton have carefully cloaked the foreign money they’ve accepted in the garb of charitable fundraising. But alongside the hundreds of millions donated to the Clinton Foundation were tens of millions in personal income from foreign sources, devoid of disguise, a naked example of using political power for personal enrichment. Nowhere has this transaction been as apparent as in the Clintons’ relationship with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In return for millions in speaking and consulting fees, which went right into their personal bank accounts, the former president and former secretary of State — and possible future president — showered favors on the rulers that run this repressive and anti-Semitic government.” – Quote from opinion piece by Dick Morris, former adviser to President Bill Clinton, published on March 17, 2015 at TheHill.com
It is an established fact that Bill and Hillary Clinton have demonstrated little to no interest in protecting U.S. national security. The reality is quite the opposite, in fact.
Case in point: Bill Clinton’s “transfer of sensitive missile technology to China.”
Helping Arab companies trying to get an initial toehold on a U.S. port is not a new phenomenon for Bill Clinton either. “Bill Clinton helped Dubai on ports deal” headlined the Financial Times in 2006.
Badr Jafar reportedly dated supermodel Naomi Campbell from 2005 until 2006 according to the New York Daily News.
Campbell was romantically linked to Bill Clinton in 2002 by the London Evening Standard, citing a report from the New York Post, although Campbell’s representatives denied the allegations.
Campbell reportedly flew aboard now-convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s aircraft with President Clinton in 2002, according to flight logs.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell flew aboard now-convicted billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s jet with former President Bill Clinton in 2002, according to flight logs. Campbell would go on to become the girlfriend of Crescent Enterprises CEO Badr Jafar from 2005 until 2006, according to the NY Daily News
Handing over a critically sensitive, strategically important port that plays an integral role in America’s national security infrastructure, that is laden with military and government installations, to a foreign entity, is an invitation to terrorism.
SOURCE: 1776 BLOG
Alan Jones
Alan Jones is an investigative journalist who published a series of groundbreaking stories at the Washington Times Communities. Several of those stories were subsequently covered by other media outlets, including World Net Daily, Infowars, Daily Caller, and New American.