Whitmer went on Gulf junket with anti-Israel activist Osama Siblani
On a recent trip to the Middle East accompanied by a prominent supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D.) inked an investment deal with a Gulf sheikh accused of waging “hack-and-leak” operations against business associates and journalists who exposed his ties to Iran.
Whitmer signed a memorandum of understanding between her state and Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al-Qasimi, the ruler of Ras al-Khaimah (RAK), one of the seven United Arab Emirates. The agreement stipulates that the emirate will work with the University of Michigan and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to “advance global innovation, entrepreneurship, economic growth, and job creation.”
In a press release, in which Whitmer included pictures of herself seated with the robed sheikh, she said the agreement would facilitate “student exchanges, internships, and joint programs between Michigan and Ras al-Khaimah-based academic institutions” to drive bilateral investments between Michigan and the small Gulf nation.
(Ras Al Khaimah Government Media Office)
Saud, a University of Michigan graduate who hosted the governor during her visit, is a controversial figure in the United States. The dictator, who was until recently represented by Dechert’s Andrew Levander, threatened to sue the Washington Free Beacon for reporting on litigation that accused him of using a network of lawyers, lobbyists, private eyes, and hackers to wage smear campaigns against former business associates and journalists.
In 2013, Jay Solomon, then a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, reported that Saud and his allies sold a Georgian hotel as part of a money laundering scheme designed to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions. One of Solomon’s sources was Iranian-American businessman Farhad Azima, then an ally of Saud. After the report was published, Georgian officials blocked the sale of the hotel, a steep financial setback for Saud. It also put Saud on the radar of American authorities for potential sanctions violations.
Azima and Solomon have since sued Saud, accusing him of ordering a “hack-and-leak” operation against them targeting critics of the emirate. They accused Saud’s law firm, Dechert, and an Iranian-American oil executive linked to the Atlantic Council and Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Amir Handjani, of orchestrating the operation through Indian hackers.
The Journal fired Solomon in 2017 after his emails were leaked online and to various news outlets. He has said his emails were distorted to suggest that he had an undisclosed business arrangement with Azima—claims he has strongly denied.
Saud has allegedly deployed the same methods against other foes. A former official at a RAK investment fund, Oussama el Omari, also sued Saud and Dechert, accusing them of hiring a private eye to hack and publish his emails as payback for criticizing the regime.
Saud has denied ordering the hacks. While Dechert initially denied involvement in the hacking operation—and Levander threatened to sue the Free Beacon over its reporting on details of the lawsuit—the firm settled two lawsuits last year with Azima, one in New York for an undisclosed sum and the other in London for nearly $4 million. Levander left Dechert in 2022 and is now a lecturer at Columbia Law School.
Whitmer has already faced scrutiny over the Gulf junket. Among the Michiganders who accompanied her was Osama Siblani, a prominent activist in Michigan’s Arab-American community who openly supports Hamas’s and Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, the Free Beacon reported.
At a rally in Dearborn on Sept. 25, Siblani hailed then-Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as a “hero.” When chants of “death to Israel” broke out during Siblani’s speech, he responded, “Believe me, they will take care of the job,” an apparent reference to Hezbollah, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute.
Siblani warned Jewish Israelis against fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. “We will take you back to Poland,” he said.
Whitmer has long courted Siblani, the publisher of the Arab American News. They held a private meeting at his office in Dearborn, Mich., in 2022 after Siblani publicly complained about Whitmer’s visit to Israel. Later that year, Whitmer attended a banquet with Siblani and Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, the head of Michigan’s Islamic House of Wisdom. The controversial cleric allegedly maintains ties to the Iranian government, has pushed pro-Tehran views, and mourned the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
Whitmer’s office and the University of Michigan did not respond to requests for comment about the agreement with Saud.
The monarch graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in economics in 1984. He donated $50,000 to the school in both 2022 and 2023, according to school records.
