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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPompeo ordered officials to find a way to justify Saudi arms sale being probed by fired watchdog
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pushed State Department officials to find a way to justify the emergency declaration that he had already decided to implement in order to fast-track the $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia last year -- stunning career diplomats, four sources have told CNN.
"They seemed to have a game plan and it had to be justified," said a State Department official who told CNN they had communicated what happened to the State Department's Office of the Inspector General during an interview late last year, as part of the watchdog's investigation into Pompeo's move to fast track the sale.
"The attitude was very Trumpian," the official added.
Pompeo's demand meant State Department officials had to reverse engineer the situation to provide the justification for a decision which was made in an aggressive and unconventional manner, the sources said
The probe into the secretary's push on the Saudi weapons sale is in the spotlight after President Donald Trump fired State Department inspector general Steve Linick, at Pompeo's request last week.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pompeo-ordered-officials-to-find-a-way-to-justify-saudi-arms-sale-being-probed-by-fired-watchdog/ar-BB14qZlT?ocid=msn360
Iliyah
(25,111 posts)"squirrel" look at the past Democratic administration that also involves VP Biden.
crickets
(25,987 posts)Is anything going to happen with this beyond a little flurry in the news?
42bambi
(1,753 posts)that Trump/Kushner owes millions to SA, and SA called in the note, or...?
crickets
(25,987 posts)The Democrat-led House voted, mostly along party lines, to block the weapons sale. Trump vetoed the resolutions last July, and the GOP-held Senate failed in an attempt to override the veto.
Much of the opposition stemmed from the 2018 slaying in a Saudi Consulate in Turkey of Washington Post columnist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi, as well as Saudi Arabias military endeavors in Yemen. News outlets reported in late 2018 that the CIA found that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself had ordered the assassination of Khashoggi, citing people familiar with the matter. The crown prince has denied ordering the killing.
There is also some indication that Jared Kushner may have been involved in Khashoggi's death.
In Death, Khashoggi Exposes the Corruption of Kushner and Trump
Last October, Jared Kushner paid an unannounced visit to Riyadh, where its reported that he stayed up until the wee hours talking strategy with the crown prince, apparently his new BFF. He allegedly gave MbS an enemies list culled from the classified presidents daily brief, which MbS seems to have used the following month to purge disloyal relatives from government and take their money. Also last October, Kushners company received a $57 million loan from Fortress Investment Group, which was recently purchased by SoftFund, a Saudi investment concern, to bail out its troubled property at One Journal Square in Jersey City. (A larger and more widely-reported loan, to bail out the troubled property at 666 Fifth Avenue, came the following summer, via Qatar.)
The whole thing is ugly and stinks to high heaven.