Grassley Breaks New Huawei Bogeyman Ground

Libeling Huawei has become a sport in DC these days. 

Newest entry in the field?

Iowa Republican Senator Grassley who, per the Washington Times, wielded Huawei FUD - marrying last year’s vapid Congressional “Intelligence” Committee report with the more recent slandering of Huawei by PRISM-midwife Mike Hayden in his attempt to subvert competition in Australia – against an Obama nominee for a senior Department of Homeland Security slot, as well as Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and, for good measure, Hillary Clinton’s brother.

You just can’t make this shit up.

The hullaballoo is related to some Huawei executive having apparently applied for and been granted an EB-5 immigrant visa.  EB-5 is a special program under which people can invest $500,000 to $1 million in certain U.S. companies in exchange for a Green Card.  The program’s been around for years – under various names – and is akin to similar programs in Canada and across the developed world. 

The “scandal” that Grassley has birthed revolves around the suggestion that the Obama DHS nominee – currently the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services – somehow influenced the Huawei exec’s visa application, which was associated with an investment (as required by the EB-5 visa class) in a company owned by Secretary Clinton’s brother, a company that also happens to be (per the Times) the fundraising arm of another company founded by would-be Virginia Governor McAuliffe.

If you’re a Republican in today’s ueber-partisan Washington, this is the sort of three-fer you can only dream about, especially when you can wrap in Sinophobia.

Ignoring the fact that immigrant visas are applied for and granted to individuals, not companies, Grassley cavalierly plays the Huawei-bogeyman card, citing, as mentioned above, last year’s vacuous HPSCI report and the more recent utterly-unsubstantiated comments made by has-been spook Hayden as reasons to question the issuance of the visa to the Huawei executive.

Really?

Really.