General John Allen — a retired general who served in key leadership roles in the US Central Command and now serves as the head of Brookings Institutions, one of Washington’s premium think tanks — was a lobbyist for the Qatar government and lied about his role, according to a report in The New York Times.
The news report is based on filings by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to a court and pertains to Allen’s role in 2017, when he had retired from military service and was yet to join Brookings.
Allen collaborated with Richard Olson, a former US ambassador to Pakistan, and Imaad Zuberi, a Pakistani-American venture capitalist and political fundraiser, who is serving a prison sentence for falsifying records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying US government officials, tax evasion and illegal campaign contributions.
A spokesperson for Allen told the Times that the former general had not received any fees, was protecting US interests, and had voluntarily participated in the investigation. US law requires lobbyists for foreign governments to register with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which Allen had not done.
Allen was allegedly involved in lobbying to help Qatar against United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia’s economic embargo. According to the filings reported by the Times, Allen travelled to Doha, negotiated a payment of $20,000 as speaking fees, and pursued another contract which would have provided him a million dollars though it is not clear if he received it.
In this period, he met top officials of the Donald Trump administration. But Allen neither disclosed his lobbying efforts nor showed documents that revealed his financial interests.
Allen took over as the president of Brookings in 2017.
The report triggered questions about the functioning and finding sources of the world of think tanks in DC, which often accept grants from foreign governments.
Ryan Evans, the founder of warontherocks.com, a respected analysis site on international and security affairs, tweeted, “These accusations against John Allen should be a wake up call for DC think tanks about foreign funding, including and especially from autocratic and/or highly corrupt countries and donors close to them. We all know who the worst offenders are in this town of ours.”
