Tag Archives: Saudi Arabia

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is preparing to circumvent Congress to allow the export to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates of billions of dollars worth of munitions that are now on hold, according to current and former American officials and legislators familiar with the plan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other senior aides are …

Britain’s Metro newspaper reports: Five of the 37 men beheaded by Saudi Arabia were gay, according to a confession heard by the Sharia law court. The country sparked outrage several days ago for the mass execution of the men, who were mainly minority Shia Muslims. Human rights groups have complained that confessions of terrorism and spying for Iran were obtained …

The Washington Post reports: Saudi Arabia said Tuesday it had executed 37 people convicted of terrorism-related offenses, bringing the number of executions there in the first four months of the year to 105, according to the Saudi interior ministry and Reprieve, a human rights group that tracks the use of the death penalty in the kingdom. It was the largest …

The Daily Beast reports: The U.S. Department of Energy has approved six authorizations for U.S. companies seeking to conduct nuclear related work in Saudi Arabia, according to two sources with knowledge of those approvals. Federal law stipulates that companies obtain clearance from the U.S. government for exporting nuclear technology to or engaging in the production or development of special nuclear …

The Huffington Post reports: Erik Prince, former head of mercenary business Blackwater, revealed in a bombshell interview Friday that he attended a meeting in Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. and a representative of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss “Iran policy” during the presidential campaign. The interview marked the first time Prince has publicly acknowledged such …

The Daily Beast reports: Officials and staffers in the U.S. embassy in Riyadh said they were not read in on the details of Jared Kushner’s trip to Saudi Arabia or the meetings he held with members of the country’s Royal Court last week. And that’s causing concern not only in the embassy but also among members of Congress, according to …

The New York Times reports: President Trump ordered his chief of staff to grant his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, a top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials and the White House’s top lawyer, four people briefed on the matter said. Mr. Trump’s decision in May so troubled senior administration officials that at least one, …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Kushner Cos., the family real-estate company of President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, said it has acquired a portfolio of rental apartments for $1.1 billion in the firm’s largest transaction in more than a decade. The purchase comes less than a year after the company unloaded a Manhattan office tower at 666 Fifth …

Salon reports: A new report issued by House Democrats this week claims that key Trump administration appointees overrode the objections of top national security officials and attorneys to promote the sale of nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia — and these sales could have directly benefited Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. “The Cummings report notes that one of the power plant …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Former national-security adviser Mike Flynn and others within the White House ignored repeated legal and ethical warnings as they pushed early in President Trump’s tenure an ambitious plan to build dozens of nuclear-power reactors in Saudi Arabia, according to a report released Tuesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The report describes …

The Week reports: Tom Barrack, a billionaire financier who GOP operative Roger Stone once called President Trump’s “best friend”, defended Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman on Tuesday while speaking in Dubai on Tuesday. When CNN’s Becky Anderson asked Barrack about the effect the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has had on Saudi Arabia’s global reputation, Barrack first …

The Wall Street Journal reports: The dust-up between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and National Enquirer parent American Media LLC has raised questions about the media company’s connections to Saudi Arabia. American Media has had plenty of contacts with Saudi Arabia in recent years, including seeking financial backing from Saudi investors to fund acquisitions and producing a magazine celebrating the country’s …

The New York Times reports: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia told a top aide in a conversation in 2017 that he would use “a bullet” on Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist killed in October, if Mr. Khashoggi did not return to the kingdom and end his criticism of the Saudi government, according to current and former American and …

The Washington Post reports: The Senate voted, 57-38, to end U.S. military involvement in Yemen as lawmakers continue to express outrage and frustration with the president’s refusal to condemn Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi despite the CIA’s finding that Mohammed likely is responsible. Thursday’s action is largely symbolic, as the resolution is …

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared on Fox & Friends this morning where he appeared to deny that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Brian Kilmeade noted that many members of Congress are convinced of Salman’s guilt, especially after CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed lawmakers about the evidence collected by her team. To this point, Kilmeade …

The New York Times reports: Mr. Kushner’s support for Prince Mohammed in the moment of crisis is a striking demonstration of a singular bond that has helped draw President Trump into an embrace of Saudi Arabia as one of his most important international allies. But the ties between Mr. Kushner and Prince Mohammed did not happen on their own. The …

The Week reports: In a Tuesday appearance on CNN, House Intelligence Committee member Chris Stewart (R-Utah) backed up Trump’s previous dismissal of CIA findings, saying the information he received about Khashoggi’s death “was not definitive.” He then questioned why people seemed so fixated on Khashoggi’s death, seeing as “journalists disappear all over the country,” as well as in Mexico, China, …

ABC News reports: Following a briefing to senators by CIA director Gina Haspel Tuesday on the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi leading Republicans told reporters that there was “zero question” that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal murder. Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said “I have zero question in my mind …

The Guardian reports: The secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has said that downgrading US ties with Saudi Arabia over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi would be a mistake for national security and would not push Saudis in a better direction at home. After repeated calls from members of Congress for a strong US response, Pompeo and the defense secretary, …

He surely didn’t need very much convincing. ABC News reports: President Donald Trump’s reluctance to hold Saudi leadership accountable for the brutal murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi stemmed from an aspirational $110 billion arms deal between the U.S. and Saudia Arabia that was inflated at the direction of Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, according to two U.S. officials …