Tag: Saudi Arabia

Trump administration authorized nuclear energy companies to share technological information with Saudi Arabia

Secretary of Energy Rick Perry behind President Trump at the 2017. Credit: Steve Helber, AP

The Trump administration has kept secret seven authorizations it has issued since November 2017 allowing U.S. nuclear energy companies to share sensitive technological information with Saudi Arabia, even though the kingdom has not yet agreed to anti-proliferation terms required to construct a pair of U.S.-designed civilian nuclear power plants.

The Energy Department and State Department have not only kept the authorizations from the public but also refused to share information about them with congressional committees that have jurisdiction over nuclear proliferation and safety.

The authorizations, issued to at least six companies, cover “Part 810” information, named for a regulatory clause that allows U.S. companies to divulge some design information to compete for contracts with foreign buyers. The regulations for Part 810 technology-sharing provide a list of “generally authorized destinations.” Saudi Arabia is not on the list.

View the complete March 28 article by Steve Mufson on The Washington Post website here.

Saudi Arabia’s anti-dissident death squad wants a bonus — and Donald Trump is silent

A new report reveals that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman kept his anti-dissident death squad so busy in 2018 that its members requested bonuses.

This is one of many revelations about the extent of Prince Mohammed’s use of the hit squad reported Monday by the New York Times. According to the article, Mohammed’s alleged ordering of the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October was only one part of a larger campaign to silence dissidents. Dubbed the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group by American officials, the group is believed to have been involved in at least a dozen violent campaigns starting in 2017. Their actions ranged from forcibly repatriating Saudi Arabians who had fled to other countries to torturing prisoners in palaces owned by Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman. On one occasion, a university professor who had written about the status of women in Saudi Arabia attempted suicide due to the extreme psychological torture she had experienced.

Although in theory Saudi Arabian law prohibits torture, that apparently hasn’t dissuaded the prince known around the world as MBS from allegedly ordering and endorsing the practice. Yet the prince’s power may now be diminishing, according to a recent report by the Guardian. MBS has not been involved in recent important ministerial and diplomatic meetings over the past two weeks, that article reports, and has also lost some of his authority over financial and economic matters. While this diminution of his power may only be temporary, it is nevertheless significant given that he had been seen as the dominant figure in the Saudi monarchy.

View the March 18 article by Matthew Rozsa with Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Senate votes to end U.S. military support for Saudi-led war in Yemen

The Senate voted on Wednesday 54-46 to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, likely setting up the first veto of President Trump’s presidency.

Why it matters: The bill is a rebuke of Trump’s foreign policy amid broader pushback over his defense of Saudi Arabia, whose role in the conflict has been under heightened scrutiny since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The war waged by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 80% of the population in need of some sort of aid or protection.

Details: The bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), leans on the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which states that if American troops are entangled in “hostilities” overseas “without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be revoked by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution.”

View the complete March 13 article by Gigi Sukin on the Axios website here.

Top Trump appointees promoted selling nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia over objections from national security officials, House Democratic report says

The Trump White House has balked at endorsing intelligence reports suggesting that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in the killing of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 2, 2018, in Istanbul. Credit: Bandar Algaloud, EPA-EFE, Shutterstock)

Key members of the Trump administration pushed a plan to sell nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia in the months after the inauguration despite objections from members of the National Security Council and other senior White House officials, according to a new report from congressional Democrats.

The 24-page report from the House Oversight and Reform Committee is based on internal White House documents and the accounts of unnamed whistleblowers. It said the objectors — including White House lawyers and National Security Council officials — opposed the plan out of concern that it violated laws designed to prevent the transfer of nuclear technology that could be used to support a weapons program.

Of greater concern to some were potential conflicts of interest on the part of Michael Flynn, the retired Army lieutenant general who was President Trump’s first national security adviser and who had advised a firm pitching the nuclear plan. Yet the effort persisted even after Flynn resigned and left the White House, the report alleges.

View the complete February 19 article by Tom Hamburger, Steve Mufson and Ellen Nakashima on The Washington Post website here.

Trump confidant Thomas Barrack apologizes for saying U.S. has committed ‘equal or worse’ atrocities to killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a billionaire real estate investor who is one of President Trump’s closest confidants, apologized Wednesday after defending Saudi Arabia in the wake of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killing and saying the United States has committed “equal or worse” atrocities.

Barrack’s remarks on Khashoggi, made Tuesday at a summit in Abu Dhabi organized by the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Milken Institute think tank, were first reported by Dubai’s Gulf News.

“Whatever happened in Saudi Arabia, the atrocities in America are equal or worse to the atrocities in Saudi Arabia,” Barrack told the crowd at the Milken Institute’s MENA Summit, according to audio provided by Gulf News reporter Ed Clowes.

View the complete February 13 article by Felicia Sonmez and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

House passes measure to end U.S. military involvement in Yemen, repudiating Trump’s backing of Saudi-led coalition

Houthi Shiite rebels inspect the rubble of the Republican Palace that was destroyed by Saudi-led airstrikes, in Sanaa, Yemen, in 2017. Credit: Hani Mohammed, AP

The House on Wednesday passed a resolution to end U.S. military support for the Saudi-led coalition operating in Yemen, a repudiation of President Trump’s continued cooperation with and defense of the kingdom and its crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

The measure passed 248 to 177, and was supported by 230 Democrats and 18 Republicans. It marks the end of a months-long campaign from the legislation’s sponsors, whom House Republican leaders blocked last year from bringing the measure to the floor — even as a bipartisan majority of the Senate voted to approve it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had promised a vote when Democrats took over the House this year.

The war-powers legislation now heads back to the Senate, where sponsors said they are “hopeful” that similar numbers of Republicans and Democrats will vote for it when the measure comes up in the next few weeks. But even if they manage to pass the resolution in that body, Trump is already threatening to veto the measure — and Congress does not have the votes to overcome it.

View the complete February 13 article by Karoun Demirjian on The Washington Post website here.

Trump shields the Saudi crown prince

The end of last week was the final date for the Trump administration to submit a congressional report answering whether the Saudi crown prince was responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October. The administration let the deadline pass with little acknowledgment.

The snub drew outrage on the Hill. Under the terms of the Magnitsky Act — U.S. human rights legislation lawmakers had triggered shortly after Khashoggi’s killing — Trump had 120 days to respond to the request and then possibly move to impose further punitive sanctions. Anger over the killing of the Saudi citizen, a contributor to The Washington Post’s Global Opinions page, forged an unusual bipartisan consensus in Congress.

So far, the White House has doggedly refused to turn on its allies in Riyadh. It didn’t matter that the CIA’s own assessment was that the operation to abduct the dissident writer on a visit to Turkey was probably ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself; a senior administration official released a statement arguing that the president “maintains his discretion to decline to act on congressional committee requests.”

View the complete February 13 article by Ishaan Tharoor on The Washington Post website here.

GOP livid with Trump over ignored Khashoggi report

“It’s not a good way to start the new Congress in its relationship with the Foreign Relations Committee,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of President Donald Trump’s decision to disregard Congress’ will on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Credit: Alex Wong, Getty Images

Senate Republicans are fuming at President Donald Trump for telling lawmakers he would disregard a law requiring a report to Congress determining who is responsible for the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The uproar among Republicans is just the latest example of their deep discontent with the president’s foreign policy. It could prompt even more defections in favor of a Democrat-led resolution coming before the House and Senate this month to cut off U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen’s civil war.

“It’s not a good way to start the new Congress in its relationship with the Foreign Relations Committee,” said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican on that panel, in an interview. “It violates the law. And the law is clear about those timelines. I’m urging them and I expect them to comply with the law.”

View the complete February 11 article by Andrew Desiderio and Burgess Everett on the Politico website here.

The Wooing of Jared Kushner: How the Saudis Got a Friend in the White House

Prince Mohammed bin Salman with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump in Riyadh last year. Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Senior American officials were worried. Since the early months of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, had been having private, informal conversations with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favorite son of Saudi Arabia’s king.

Given Mr. Kushner’s political inexperience, the private exchanges could make him susceptible to Saudi manipulation, said three former senior American officials. In an effort to tighten practices at the White House, a new chief of staff tried to reimpose longstanding procedures stipulating that National Security Council staff members should participate in all calls with foreign leaders.

But even with the restrictions in place, Mr. Kushner, 37, and Prince Mohammed, 33, kept chatting, according to three former White House officials and two others briefed by the Saudi royal court. In fact, they said, the two men were on a first-name basis, calling each other Jared and Mohammed in text messages and phone calls.

View the complete December 8 article by David D. Kirkpatrick, Ben Hubbard, Mark Landler and Mark Mazzeti on The New York Times website here.

Trump’s gamble on MBS looks worse by the day

Credit: Marcos Brindicci

More than two months after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, the Trump administration is desperate to sweep the whole episode under the rug. It won’t be easy.

On Wednesday, Michelle Bachelet, the former Chilean president and current U.N. high commissioner for human rights, became the latest voice to call for an international investigation into his killing. “I do believe it is really needed in terms of ensuring what really happened and who are the [people] responsible for that awful killing,” she said at a news conference in Geneva.

The possibility of an outside inquiry into the affair has also been floated by Turkish authorities, who are still pursuing their own investigation. As my colleague Kareem Fahim reported on Wednesday, a Turkish court issued arrest warrants for two officials close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri and Saud al-Qahtani. The new Turkish arrest warrants, noted Fahim, appeared to be part of an effort to “pressure Saudi Arabia to reveal more details about Khashoggi’s killing, as well as to isolate the crown prince.”

View the complete December 7 article by Ishaan Tharoor on The Washington Post website here.