Ari Ben-Menashe (Hebrew: ארי בן מנשה‎; born 4 December 1951)[1] is an Iranian-born Israeli-Canadian businessman, security consultant, and author. He was previously an employee of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate from 1977 to 1987 and an arms dealer.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ari_Ben-Menashe

This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center. Here is the story of how I came to be on a military-guided tour in Myanmar and what took place over the course of this surreal, controversial and heavily-choreographed week. This is a long-form version of an article co-published with the Washington Post.

“Why don’t you come see for yourself?” Ari Ben-Menashe, the foreign lobbyist hired by Myanmar’s new military junta regime, asked bluntly.

It was with this one question that I became involved in the now-infamous military PR tour in Myanmar.

Over the course of the week, I, along with CNN, was paraded around Yangon and Naypyidaw, escorted at all times by military staffers. In a highly-choreographed effort, the tour was an effort by the regime to remake its global image amidst rising international sanctions and condemnation for their crackdowns on anti-coup protesters.

Military lobbyist Ben-Menashe was the ringleader.

During my first conversation with him for a separate article I was writing, he had been making unsubstantiated claims belittling the protest movement that had erupted in opposition to the country’s February 1 coup. He wanted me to see firsthand that he was right and the international media was wrong. If anything, the trip further confirmed just how misguided he was.

A few days later, after sending over a copy of my passport, I got a phone call.

“Hi Allegra, it’s Ari Ben-Menashe. I just wanted to let you know that we have submitted your request and it is now with the highest levels of people. I mean the highest of levels,” seemingly referencing authorities within Myanmar’s junta regime.

While still suspicious, I was beginning to think that this Canadian-Israeli PR man, who had worked with some of the world’s most brutal figures, including Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe and Libyan general Khalifa Haftar, was in fact going to keep his word.

Ben-Menashe, or his assistant, would call me regularly – often once a day. Many times during these phone calls he would yell and reprimand me for asking simple questions about security provisions and itineraries.

“Why don’t you listen when I speak?” he growled at me during one particularly angered phone call. “Are you a child? Do you need permission from your parents?”

And yet, despite this, after a few weeks, Ben-Menashe’s assistant called again to say my visa was ready to be picked up at the Myanmar embassy in Phnom Penh. By evening on March 25, I had a single-entry business visa for Myanmar securely stamped into my passport.

....more at link, long story

Noted. So Ari Ben-Menashe is a 70 year old career criminal mercenary hired gun. Send him to hell along with all the other elderly cunts.

The backing of the military isn't China persay. In fact it goes to BlackRock. There is a huge reserve of natural gas where the Rohingyas were located along the coast of the Bay of Bengal as well as other mineral and rare earth deposits. The military got funded quietly to remove them. Especially when the Rohingyas had mostly spilled in from Bangladesh. No sooner have the military seized power like they always have done in Myanmar history. The people funding was an American Corp linked to an India multinational the Adani group who were after the rights. The Chinese might be in on it now to push competitors out. I think the military sells to the highest bidder. They were funded by almost everybody including Dutch pensions.