Ben Freeman is the director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy and cochair of the center’s Sustainable Defense Task Force.
By enlisting community members across the US to peddle the best version of the Kingdom, the Saudi lobby has given its brand an American-as-apple-pie shine.
Countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been influencing Washington through lobbyists, think tanks, journalists, and academia—and it’s all perfectly legal.