Saudis, Russians, and Italians: the murky world of Joseph Mifsud Source This article links Mifsud with the Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Obiad family, the International Red Cross, Mayo Clinic, CNN, 1MDB, Hillary Clinton, Russians and more. The Centre for War and Peace Studies was established in Rome last May “to support experts, academics, researchers, diplomats, governments, and civil society activists in their attempts to help countries in conflict, crisis and transition around the world”. It sounded like a worthy if over-ambitious project but what made it truly remarkable was the man chosen to be its first director — Joseph Mifsud, the mysterious “professor” who has since emerged as a central figure in the Trump-Russia affair. Mifsud, who vanished as soon as his role in Trump-Russia was revealed, is widely thought to be some kind of Russian agent. True or not, he had certainly been a frequent visitor to Moscow and claimed to have high-level contacts there. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election in the United States, Mifsud was in contact with George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign.  The Centre for War and Peace Studies was a joint creation by two seemingly unlikely partners: Link Campus University in Rome and a charitable foundation run by a wealthy Saudi family. Link Campus is a private (for-profit) university with accreditation from Italy’s education ministry. There are six Italian politicians on its governing body — two of them former foreign ministers — and it is also reputed to have links with Italian intelligence services. One of the university’s courses is an MA degree in Intelligence and Security. As for the Saudi charity, the Essam & Dalal Obaid Foundation (EDOF), its chief executive is known as a security and intelligence consultant with long-standing connections to Prince Turki al-Faisal, the kingdom’s former head of intelligence. In addition to its partnership deal with the relatively obscure Link Campus, EDOF has formal ties with several well-known organisations. Based in Geneva, it works with the International Committee of the Red Cross to help victims of the conflict in Syria, it supports reconstructive surgery at the famous Mayo Clinic in the United States, it campaigns against human trafficking in partnership with the American media giant CNN and it provides funding to the National Council on US-Arab Relations (NCUSAR) in Washington. EDOF is run by four members of the Obaid family — Dalal, Nawaf, Tarek and Karim. Nawaf is chief executive and his brother, Tarek, holds the title of “founder”. In 2005, in partnership with a son of the Saudi king, Tarek Obaid formed a private company called PetroSaudi. This not only succeeded in attracting some high-profile business figures as advisers but also managed to recruit former British prime minister Tony Blair whose consultancy firm did “a few months of advisory work for PetroSaudi” around 2010. Blair’s role seems to have mainly aimed at developing relations between PetroSaudi and China. No less controversially, PetroSaudi entered into a joint venture with 1MDB, Malaysia’s state development fund which has long been the subject of corruption allegations. These centre around a Malaysian financier who is said to have siphoned off vast sums of money. There are ongoing investigations and legal actions in various countries. Last month, for example, a $250m luxury yacht was seized in Indonesia. PetroSaudi, however, has not been accused of any crimes and denies any wrongdoing. Tarek’s brother, Nawaf Obaid, is Visiting Fellow for Intelligence and Defense Projects at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. Educated in the US, he previously worked for two prominent American think tanks — the Washington Institute (WINEP) and the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). In 2015 he delivered a presentation entitled “Saudi Arabia Ascendant” at the National Council on US-Arab Relations (NCUSAR) in Washington. A few days later NCUSAR announced that it was honouring him with the title of “Distinguished International Affairs Fellow” and giving him a seat on NCUSAR’s advisory committee. As mentioned earlier, NCUSAR is one of the organisations funded by the Obaid family through EDOF. Outside the US, Nawaf Obaid also acquired the titles of “visiting fellow” at the London Academy of Diplomacy (at a time when Joseph Mifsud was its director) and “senior fellow” at the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, which is headed by Prince Turki al-Faisal. Prince Turki ran the kingdom’s foreign intelligence service for almost a quarter of a century, from 1977 until 2001. In 2002, the prince became Saudi ambassador in London and, three years later, ambassador in Washington. During that period — from 2004 to 2007 — Nawaf worked for Prince Turki as “Special Adviser for National Security Affairs” and/or “Special Adviser for Strategic Communications” (there are differing accounts of his job title). He also worked as a counsellor to the prince’s successor at the London embassy. Leaked emails show that in 2010 Nawaf Obaid was working behind the scenes to prevent Hillary Clinton — who was Secretary of State at the time — from meeting Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim during an overseas trip. Read more on this article here about Mifsud's Russian connections.  And for more info this twitter thread and this thread continues to explore the connections.