AP Analysis: Mideast showed Hillary Clinton US power's limit

In the wake of the Orlando killings this week, Hillary Clinton had harsh words for America's Gulf allies, criticizing them for funding institutions that radicalize young Muslims.

"It is long past time for the Saudis, the Qataris and the Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organizations," the presumptive Democratic Party nominee told an Ohio crowd. "And they should stop supporting radical schools and mosques around the world that have set too many young people on a path toward extremism." [...]

Tellingly, the comments were received without protest from most regional leaders who consider the messenger as much as the message. However, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in Washington on Friday that his government has tight control over charitable giving and has designated entities and individuals suspected of terror finance. He also said that it's unfair to point a finger at Saudi Arabia if a mosque that it funded years ago begins advocating intolerance and violence. [...]

Yet in all of it, she's learned the limits of American power in a region rich in history but impoverished by multiple wars and conflicts.

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Los Angeles Review of Books: How Aid Became Big Business

“The development and humanitarian aid business is there, it’s significant business, and we’re here to help you win some of that,” Peters grinned. A slide projected beside him bore the names of global aid agencies and development institutions like the World Bank and the UK’s Department of International Development (DfID). The men and women in the audience sat straight and still in their seats, focused on every word, moving only to take notes or get a closer look at the screen. “Welcome to the world of aid-funded business,” said Peters to applause. [...]

There has long been an “aid industry” — the swarm of for-profit companies and consultants that take cuts of government aid earmarked for the world’s poorest people. In some donor countries, aid has been officially “tied”: aid-funded contracts that are required to go to companies from the rich country that is “giving” this money. In the United States, the world’s largest official donor, “tying” aid has led to extreme cases of giant multinationals profiting off this protected business. Among the main beneficiaries of the multimillion dollar US food aid budget are the huge grain traders Cargill, ADM, and Bunge, who have won the lion’s share of the contracts to provide wheat and other commodities to be shipped from America to poor countries on US-flagged ships. (The shipping industry also benefits.)

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