Arabs Intensify Efforts to Affect Policies of U.S. Business, Education

Arab efforts to affect the policies of American corporations, banks, colleges and universities are continuing at a record rate, according to Petro Impact, a newsletter published by the American Jewish Committee.

In its second issue, just released, the publication, which reports on growing Arab involvement in American affairs, describes a series of five meetings held between April 17 and May 3 in five major U.S. cities–New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Houston and Chicago–in which leaders of Arab and U.S. Chambers of Commerce, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) officials, and Arab and American businessmen discussed the problems of doing business with each other.

Although the announced purpose of the session was to “stimulate Arab-U.S. trade by bringing buyers and sellers together,” Petro Impact stated, “there was a distinct political undertone to the meetings and also a rumble of secret deals. The conferences also served as forums for intense Arab lobbying efforts against U.S. anti-boycott regulations and for the proposed sale of fighter planes to Saudi Arabia.”

EMERGENCE OF PRO-ARAB SPOKESMEN

A significant result of increased commercial relations between the Arab nations and U.S. companies, the publication states, is the emergence of pro-Arab spokesmen among U.S. suppliers of goods or technical services to the Arabs. “These companies, in their zeal to cooperate with oil-rich countries, are in effect a hidden lobby, helping to shape American perceptions and attitudes,” it declares. Petro Impact presents the names of American companies, bankers, corporation executives and public relations practitioners who are doing business in millions–sometimes billions–of dollars with or for the Arabs.

The publication also details the current status of the effort of former Budget director Bert Lance and four Arab investors to take control of Financial General Bankshares, Inc.–the largest bank holding company in Washington, D. C. A law suit, in which Financial General is seeking to block further sale of company stack to the Lance group, is pending in the U.S. District Court.

The article states that the defendants in the suit, in addition to Lance, include, among others, J. W. Middendorf, II, a former U.S. Navy Secretary; Jackson T. Stephens, a prominent member of the Democratic National Committee; and Agha Hassan Abedi, “who was reportedly the middleman in the sale of Lance’s holdings in the National Bank of Georgia to Saudi businessman Ghaith Pharaon, and also paid off Lance’s $3.5 million loan from the First National Bank of Chicago with no formal papers drawn.”