George Nader

Nader, an influential yet under-the-radar operative who edited a foreign-policy magazine in the 1990s. Lebanese-American businessman spent decades ingratiating himself with people in power in D.C. and across the Middle East. Nader and his deputy at "Middle East Insight", Jonathan Kessler, ceased publication in 2002. Nader was born and raised in Lebanon before moving to the United States as a teen. Nader went on to attend Cleveland State University. But he didn’t last: Nader dropped out in 1980, according to a 1981 article, to start International Insight Inc. and a magazine of the same name. It was soon renamed Middle East Insight. In the late 1990s, he helped lead back-channel negotiations between Syria and Israel. Nader brought the Syrian views to the table, while Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics company executive and former U.S. ambassador to Austria, brought the Israeli views. Nader also had ties to pro-Israel interests: Jonathan Kessler, who worked under Nader as executive editor of Middle East Insight, had come from the lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). And then, in the early 2000s, Nader and Middle East Insight disappeared. Nader reportedly tried to leverage his ties to Syrian officials into contacts with the Obama administration, and later became an adviser to Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Erik Prince once hired Nader, the bin Zayed’s supposed adviser, as a “business development consultant” in Iraq. Nader introduced bin Zayed to Elliott Broidy, a top Trump fundraiser and the owner of a private security company. Charges brought against Nader in 1985 stemmed from a package delivered to his company, International Insight. The package, which was opened by a U.S. Customs inspector on suspicion that it had been imported illegally, contained two pictures and two magazines that depicted nude boys, according to the court ruling. It also included a film, four magazines, and an advertisement, materials that “depicted nude boys engaged in a variety of sexual acts.” The Customs inspectors soon obtained a search warrant for Nader’s home. Charges against Nader were ultimately dismissed on the eve of his trial. The lead prosecutor on the case declined to comment.