One of the most prominent and politically active left-wing think tanks in the United States, the Center for American Progress, has announced that it will no longer accept funding from the United Arab Emirates, the Guardian reported Friday.
“With a rising undemocratic tide around the world, and serious questions about which side of that struggle our own president stands on, it seemed clear that all Americans should take extra steps and leave no doubt where they stand,” a spokesperson for the liberal organization told the Guardian.
The spokesperson added, “This funding never impacted any CAP position or policy, but everybody here agrees it’s just the right thing to do.”
CAP, which was established in 2003 by former President Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff John Podesta, has reported receiving UAE funding between $500,000 and $1 million, making the foreign entity one of the think tank’s top donors.
Why would UAE donate to such a group? It ain’t rocket science. CAP’s staunch opposition to domestic fracking and oil and gas exploration generally works to the benefit of several foreign powers, including all OPEC members and Russia. Naturally, CAP is just the sort of organization whose voice a foreign power such as the UAE would want to amplify in the American political debate. Think of it as a way of meddling in foreign politics, just as Russia has done by subsidizing left-wing anti-oil organizations in the U.S. and in Europe.
It’s not that the foreign money would influence such a group’s anti-oil position — CAP would promote the UAE-friendly position even without it. It’s that the anti-fracking and anti-ANWR position by its very nature serves the interests of foreign powers. It’s a happy coincidence — a convergence of political bedfellows.
And someone must have just said, hey, why not take the money?
Though internal documents reviewed by the Guardian show CAP has discussed putting distance between itself and the UAE since at least the summer of 2018, the Guardian also suggests that the final decision came down to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Intercept published a report theorizing that CAP’s response to the journalist’s murder was influenced by its UAE funding, which the think tank denied. Now, CAP says it’ll no longer accept funds from the Persian Gulf country.
CAP’s decision to break off the relationship may have also been partly influenced by the UAE’s role in the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen or the UAE’s record of human rights abuses. But the timing of the announcement points to the Khashoggi murder, and the subsequent “democracy pledges” that critics have urged Washington think tanks to agree to, as the thing that pushed the liberal organization to pull the trigger on breaking it off with the UAE.
It’s good that CAP is going to forgo UAE funds. But forgive me for being suspicious as to whether this is a decision that’ll last beyond the time it takes for everyone to forget that the UAE is a violent dictatorship.
CAP had no problem taking the UAE’s money even when multiple human rights groups were screaming that the Gulf country is an extreme violator of human dignity. CAP benefited handsomely from the UAE even as its human rights abuses were well-known and widely publicized.
It’s only now, after a great deal of adverse news coverage, that CAP sees the ethical dilemma in taking its money. Uh-huh.
