American ghostwriter targets Iran for Emirates' Sheikh
English blogs against Iran can be sometimes lucrative! In a recent article on LA Review of Books, Michael Janofsky shares details of a well-paid stint as a a ghostwriter for a United Arab Emirate (UAE)'s Crown Prince (Sheikh) who despised his half-brother's cozy relations with Iran. Janofksy does not identify the Sheikh but indicates:
"The Sheikh’s plan was to use the blogs to point out dangers that Iran posed for the people of his emirate. He also wanted to signal Washington and other western governments that he was open to modernizing his emirate and recognizing Israel as a prelude to peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
He opposed Iranian hegemony in the region, but first and foremost, he wanted to drive his half-brother out of power, and take what he saw as his rightful place running his emirate."
Power struggle in UAE's royal family is not new. The late Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, former U.A.E. president and the country's founding father, had 19 sons from several different wives. Two of his sons died in mysterious accidents in 2008 and 2010. Another Prince was arrested in 2009 for cruel torture and rape of an Afghan businessman, but later released by the government, outraging the victim and human rights activists.
Janofsky's interesting article and his blog writing job for an "unknown" Sheikh, however, opens up a rare window to internal affairs of UAE and the degree of Iran's influence on them:
" .. the blogs needed to reflect the basic themes of the campaign while pointing out the virtues of modernization and the evils of Iran, both of which the Sheikh knew would appeal to Western governments. ... One blog campaigned against the emirate’s efforts to stage the America’s Cup, citing possible shenanigans by Iranian military boats and smugglers moving illegal arms and parts for Iran’s nuclear weapon efforts. I won’t take credit for it, but the Cup races were staged elsewhere that year. .. We slapped Iran around quite a bit. Several blogs examined ownership of two specs of land in the Gulf, which has been disputed for centuries, these days, by the emirate and Iran. We always insisted that they are property of the emirate and Iran should vacate."
Janofsky also shares an interesting situation when he was told "His Highness would like you to write about his reflections on Ramadan.” As a Jewish person, Janofsky found this a bit of a challenge: "Hours of research ensued. I tried to put myself in the Sheikh’s mindset to imagine what he would like to say. ... What resulted was a respectful blog that talked about faith, family, and good deeds. It was also the first time in 35 years of journalism that I ever typed letters that formed the word Allah... The blog ran as I wrote it."
Janofsky shared the ending of his stint: "The day after his father died, [the Sheikh] (Crown Prince) returned to the emirate, only to be arrested at the palace under orders of the half-brother, now the emirate’s acknowledged ruler by U.A.E. leaders. The Sheikh’s security guy, a former British soldier who was with him in Beverly Hills, was also detained."
Link to full article here: The Sheikh and I: Ghostwriting for a Crown Prince in Exile
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