Leaked emails reveal UAE ambassador to Washington's hyper-sexual 'double life'

The United Arab Emirate's ambassador to Washington Yousef al-Otaiba, whose recent leaked emails revealed Abu Dhabi's attempts to covertly shape US foreign policy, has reportedly been living a "double life" - which allegedly led to the exploitation of sex workers and plans to have sex with underage girls.

Al-Otaiba's leaked emails - which have not been independently verified by The New Arab - were purportedly hacked in June by a group which calls itself "GlobalLeaks" and uses a Russian email account. They revealed extensive backchannels taken by Abu Dhabi to influence US policy towards the Middle East.

This latest set of leaked emails claim to have dug into al-Otaiba's personal life to an insight into the diplomat's hyper-sexuality and extortionate secret life, according to a report published by The Intercept.

Before his appointment, he and his friends had allegedly been frequenting "gentlemen's clubs", spending six-to-eight hours a day in such establishments, both in the US and abroad, hiring $10,000-a-night prostitutes - and had at some point even contemplated having sex with underage girls and making them sign a "contract" stating they were over 18.

In his previous position, as director of international affairs for the court of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, al-Otaiba had played a pivotal role in convincing Arab leaders to back the US escalation of the Iraq war in 2007.

Gentlemen, this is gonna get messy!!

In celebration, he planned a trip to Las Vegas with his long-time party crew.

"Not sure if its fear or sheer excitement that I'm experiencing right now," he allegedly wrote as he prepared them for a weekend in the MGM Grand's exclusive penthouse Skylofts. "Gentlemen, this is gonna get messy!!"

Upon asking if al-Otaiba's diplomatic immunity was valid in Vegas, his friend Byron Fogan - later sentenced for pilfering more than $1 million dollars, allegedly induced by a secret gambling and alcohol addiction - apparently planned to draw up a "portable contract", should they end up having sex with underage girls.

"I, (insert name of dumb girl), agree to let (insert name of one of us filthbags) hit it. I (insert dumb broad's name again-if her drunk ass can remember it), am at least 18 years old. Signed (little chicks signature)

"Everything is nice and legal…. :)", read one leaked email, which, again, The New Arab has been unable to independently verify.

Vegas, baby: One of the purported emails from Byron Fogan, who was then at law school, reportedly obtained via the GlobalLeaks hacking group [The Intercept]

It's worth noting that Fogan appears to have the audacity to talk about sex with underage girls in an email bearing a quote from Rumi, Islam's beloved poet, scholar and Sufi mystic.

Fogan and al-Otaiba had studied together at Georgetown University. Fogan graduated in 1995, whereas there are no records in Georgetown indicating al-Otaiba completing his studies at the prestigious institution, The Intercept has reported.

Months later, when he was on the cusp of assuming his ambassadorial role, he allegedly sent an old email exchange with someone who found him high-price escorts to Fogan, saying he would miss "those days" - to which Fogan replied, assuring him that he would "find a way around missing anything".

Al-Otaiba replied, asking him to delete the message.

According to The Intercept, al-Otaiba had even sent prostitutes to Abu Dhabi for his friends. Some of whom were reported to have been trafficked.

I opened the door and she ran into my room and she just buried herself in the corner, almost shivering

For a number of years, al-Otaiba's friend Roman Paschal, who dropped out of the friendship group in 2007, says he was flown into Abu Dhabi by al-Otaiba to have sex with various luxury sex workers, who would enter a luxury apartment dressed in abayas to conceal their profession. Paschal was then free to choose a woman with whom he wanted to sleep.

However, over the years, Paschal began to suspect that the sex he was having was not always consensual.

Paschal said that a Russian woman, to whom he was originally a client, gave him her number and offered to sit and talk. They did so a number of times before she began to open up about the darker side of her life as an escort.

"I opened the door and she ran into my room and she just buried herself in the corner, almost shivering," Paschal said, according to The Intercept.

"I was like, 'Dude, what are you doing?' She told me she had just seen a guy who had beat her friend, and her friend was in the hospital, and then she told me how she had gotten there, and someone had taken her passport."

Taking someone's passport is one sign that the person has become a human trafficking victim.

While Paschal maintains al-Otaiba was not himself a trafficker, he does admit that some of the girls sent to him were trafficked.

From the emails, it is unclear whether the women were trafficked with al-Otaiba's knowledge or not, or whether he actually engaged in sexual acts with underage girls using the purported "portable contracts". If the alleged leaks are true, they reveal a dark and dubious double-life of the man currently orchestrating Washington-Abu Dhabi relations.

Follow us on Twitter: @The_NewArab