PrintSeptember 10, 2007
Hillary aide: international woman of mystery
The New York Observer provided a look into the background of Hillary's "traveling chief of staff" and Middle East advisor, Huma Abedin.
Very little is publicly known about her, which of course leaves plenty to talk about. And the rumors abound. According to various accounts from Huma acquaintances interviewed for this story: She's Lebanese, she's Jordanian, she's Iranian, she's 26, she's 36, she has two children, she lives with the Clintons."No one knows anything about her," said one political aide. "She's like Hillary's secret weapon."In point of fact, many people from countless different corridors across the globe know something of Huma Abedin. But apparently she has a rare knack for letting people in without really letting them in.
One of the reasons people are seemingly fascinated by her is that she appears to be utterly unflappable, apparently not even perspiring in very hot weather. Another reason is that she is young, beautiful, smart, single, dresses very fashionably ("Robert Barnett, the Clintons' longtime attorney, said that in 11 years of knowing her, he has never seen her wear the same outfit twice") and has been said by the press to have dated movie star John Cusak.
How she manages to pay for all those designer duds is a bit of a mystery. Her Congressional salary is found here (notice, incidentally, that a number of the reported pay periods total up to just below a $10,000 threshold for some reason) and couldn't by itself pay for new designer outfits every day. Maybe her work for the Hillary campaign is more lucrative. Or maybe her parents have unusually lucrative careers. The NYO reports:
[Her father] founded his own institute devoted to Western-Eastern and interfaith understanding and reconciliation and published a journal focusing on Muslim minorities living in the diaspora. Her mother, a renowned professor in Saudi Arabia, is Pakistani.
The Saudi connection can sometimes be extremely lucrative to people whose message is congenial to the Wahhabis that run the place. Ms. Abedin was born in the US, but after the age of two she was raised in Saudi Arabia. Nothing wrong with that, of course, by itself.
All in all, a most interesting women. If she were working for a Republican candidate like Rudy, there would be extensive investigative reporting underway by the MSM.
Hat tip: Clarice Feldman
