Trump appointees reportedly tried to fast track sale of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia

[TheDarkKnight]

Yesterday was quite the doozie, with three scandalous bits of news dropping all in one day. But nothing can compare to this

Multiple Whistleblowers Raise Grave Concerns with White House Efforts to Transfer Sensitive U.S. Nuclear Technology to Saudi Arabia

I'm just going to post the full announcement from the House for impact. Keep in mind this is a report issued directly by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. This isn't some backwater rag disguising itself as a news organization making some grand speculation.

Washington, D.C. (Feb. 19, 2019)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, issued an interim staff report after multiple whistleblowers came forward to warn about efforts inside the White House to rush the transfer of highly sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in potential violation of the Atomic Energy Act and without review by Congress as required by law—efforts that may be ongoing to this day. The report states:

“The whistleblowers who came forward have expressed significant concerns about the potential procedural and legal violations connected with rushing through a plan to transfer nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. They have warned of conflicts of interest among top White House advisers that could implicate federal criminal statutes. They have also warned about a working environment inside the White House marked by chaos, dysfunction, and backbiting. And they have warned about political appointees ignoring directives from top ethics advisors at the White House who repeatedly and unsuccessfully ordered senior Trump Administration officials to halt their efforts.”


The report warns that that White House efforts to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia may be accelerating after meetings last week at the White House and ahead of a planned visit to Saudi Arabia by the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner:


“The Committee’s investigation is particularly critical because the Administration’s efforts to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia appear to be ongoing. On February 12, 2019, the President met with nuclear power developers at the White House about sharing nuclear technology with countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. In addition, next week Mr. Kushner will be embarking on a tour of Middle Eastern capitals—including Riyadh—to discuss the economic portion of the Administration’s Middle East peace plan.”


The report highlights concerning events involving Saudi Arabia, including the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, which was met with equivocation by President Trump and other top Administration officials, and the refusal by the White House to submit a report on Mr. Khashoggi’s killing that was requested on a bipartisan basis by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.


The report indicates that there is now serious, bipartisan concern with the Trump Administration’s efforts to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. For example, on October 31, 2018, Republican Senators Marco Rubio, Todd Young, Cory Gardner, Rand Paul, and Dean Heller sent a letter to President Trump urging him to “suspend talks related to a potential civil nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia” due to “serious concerns about the transparency, accountability, and judgment of current decisionmakers in Saudi Arabia.”


The report describes new documents and communications between White House officials, including former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland, and former NSC Senior Director for Middle East and North African Affairs Derek Harvey, as well as with Thomas Barrack, President Trump’s personal friend of several decades and the Chairman of his Inaugural Committee, and Rick Gates, President Trump’s former Deputy Campaign Manager and Deputy Chairman of the Inaugural Committee who has now pleaded guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators.


Today, Cummings also sent letters to multiple entities involved with promoting this plan, including the White House; the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Energy, State, and Treasury; the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Central Intelligence Agency; Flynn Intel Group; IP3; ACU Strategies; Colony NorthStar; and Mr. Barrack.

Some mighty interesting names on there; Flynn, Gates, Barack...All persons of interest in other investigations. Yet also there is Kushner, Trump's son in law and "adviser" who received high level security clearance despite SIGNIFICANT objections from the intelligence community. It's also interesting that one of the entities that would benefit from such a deal has relieved the Kushner family of financial burdens in the past.

The report released Tuesday notes that one of the power plant manufacturers that could benefit from a nuclear deal, Westinghouse Electric, is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, the company that has provided financial relief to the family of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser. Brookfield Asset Management took a 99-year lease on the Kushner family’s deeply indebted New York City property at 666 Fifth Ave.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...=.946e0fc3c877

I'm sure that means nothing, of course. I mean, why would Kushner use his ill-gotten security clearance for nefarious purposes? No Republican would EVER do such a thing.

And why would we be worried about the country that finances terror organizations around the world having nuclear technology? I'm sure nothing bad would happen with such a development

Side note: can you imagine the absolute apoplectic fit from the Christian right if a high ranking Democrat lived at an address that had the numbers "666" on it? The pearl-clutchers would probably froth out of their mouths over such a revelation.


Edit: I recall that back in December Flynn's judge openly mused whether Flynn could be charged with treason. While at the time it seemed out of place even given Flynn's obvious criminal activity, I'm now wondering if that judge had inadvertently revealed other things going on behind the scenes that the prosecutors and other investigators were not yet ready to share.

One could definitely argue that this story could qualify under such charges. But I will freely admit this could just be speculation.

[Pontifex Maximus]

Maybe this is an attempt to regularize Clinton's uranium sales to Russia. I doubt it, but OP's pathetic attempt to label Trump as the arbiter of nuclear unease is a joke. We can thank Obama and Clinton for that. Nice try TDK, but almost every choleric emergency about Trump you post is just some hilarious sideshow.

[irontaino]

Immediately with the "but Hillary" or "but Obama" defense.

[TheDarkKnight]

Immediately with the "but Hillary" or "but Obama" defense.

As expected. I'm fairly certain Hilary isn't the topic of my thread either.

*peers at my OP*

Nope, nothing there.

Its interesting how the Uranium One issue was never considered nor investigated seriously by the majority-Republican Congress for years. It's almost as if it is pure and utter garbage, just like every other thing they tried to bring up against her.

Best not to legitimize such...er... "discussion points" by acknowledging them.

[Morticia Iunia Bruti]

On the one hand big fuss about iranian atom programm, on the other hand atomic summer sale for the human rights paradise Saudi-Arabia...

[Mayer]

If Saudis get nuclearized, Iran should also be allowed to pursue its nuclear program. It's only fair.

[TheDarkKnight]

I'm far more concerned about our "allies" the Saudi's getting nuke tech than our "enemies" in Iran.

It's very odd this is coming out now. It's almost as if the Republican-controlled House would not have been trusted with such sensitive information from the whistleblowers. Luckily there are patriots back in control of at least one aspect of the government and are using it for good.

[tgoodenow]

I'm far more concerned about our "allies" the Saudi's getting nuke tech than our "enemies" in Iran.

Why?

[Love Mountain]

Even entertaining the idea of allowing Saudis to have nukes, is insane. Nuclear proliferation absolutely cannot be allowed to happen. As far as I'm concerned, it's sufficient cause for hostilities.

[TheDarkKnight]

Why?

Wahhabism gets its support from The Kingdom. It also has a terrible human rights record and only recently sanctioned a murder of a US resident and journalist, which to be honest might be why Trump likes them given his hatred of the First Amendment. They also were the source of the majority of the 9/11 terrorists.

There are other issues as well with them.

It is absolutely insane that we cherish them as allies only because of their oil while we continually try to over Iran despite the progress they are ACTUALLY making.

By the way, I am not blaming the Trump administration solely for this...it goes back farther. But I would be remiss to not criticize them after doing so for previous admins.

But let's focus on the fact that agents of the US government (including Flynn, AGAIN) has been caught doing nefarious things under the auspices of the Trump administration.

[tgoodenow]

Wahhabism gets its support from The Kingdom. It also has a terrible human rights record and only recently sanctioned a murder of a US resident and journalist, which to be honest might be why Trump likes them given his hatred of the First Amendment. They also were the source of the majority of the 9/11 terrorists.

There are other issues as well with them.

It is absolutely insane that we cherish them as allies only because of their oil while we continually try to over Iran despite the progress they are ACTUALLY making.

By the way, I am not blaming the Trump administration solely for this...it goes back farther. But I would be remiss to not criticize them after doing so for previous admins.

But let's focus on the fact that agents of the US government (including Flynn, AGAIN) has been caught doing nefarious things under the auspices of the Trump administration.

I don't particularly like the Saudi's or Iran because they both just seem to be Islamists but from different sects. I wouldn't mind them destroying each other in a war.

I don't think either one of them should have nuclear technology though and I think it's worrisome that either one of them are getting it.
I wouldn't support going to war for it though, the recent destruction of the purchasing power of the rial has put them in a precarious situation.
Technology transfer of this kind should be stopped although I wouldn't be surprised that if we don't do it, the Israelis probably would; or Pakistan.

[TheDarkKnight]

Well, look to the current administration. Assuming the whistleblowers are being factual in their statements to Congress then you have Trump's leadership to blame. This transfer of technology would not have happened under the previous administrations, and it would have actually come out by now if any similar scandal had ACTUALLY occurred.

Just remember, he picked some very fine people to be a part of his administration. And again, those names in the statement from the House have come up before and are currently under investigation by or cooperating with either the Special Counsel or other investigations into Trump's nebulous sphere. Given the fact that two of them are already criminals and one of them in under additional investigation for trying to kidnap and return a Turkish dissident for a payment I don't have much trouble believing he might have also done this.

Traitors come in all shapes and sizes. And if this did happen this will be the worst thing that Orange Julius Rosenberg has been a part of.

Even entertaining the idea of allowing Saudis to have nukes, is insane. Nuclear proliferation absolutely cannot be allowed to happen. As far as I'm concerned, it's sufficient cause for hostilities.

Keep in mind this is just nuclear reactors for power plants. But yes, it's not exactly a huge technological jump from one to the other.

We already have enough nuclear issues to be concerned with the current administration's withdrawal from that treaty with Russia...for reasons(?). But that is an issue for another thread

[PointOfViewGun]

Maybe this is an attempt to regularize Clinton's uranium sales to Russia. I doubt it, but OP's pathetic attempt to label Trump as the arbiter of nuclear unease is a joke. We can thank Obama and Clinton for that. Nice try TDK, but almost every choleric emergency about Trump you post is just some hilarious sideshow. It's always a laugh how someone with a moderator badge and other accolades completely falls short of any sort of debating standard, because your arguments are crap.

Your response is the pathetic one for its inability to address and refute the claims in the OP while making vague references to an issue that was debunked to death. This one is truly an intellectually bankrupt post from you. You are, of course, free to limit your comment to a purely personal opinion sphere while going down a well beaten whataboutism path.

[sumskilz]

I mean, why would Kushner use his ill-gotten security clearance for nefarious purposes? No Republican would EVER do such a thing.

Well, Kushner is a Democrat. It's a fairly open secret.

He does seem to really like the Saudis, for some reason.

[Cyclops]

Well, Kushner is a Democrat.

*rents. He probably meant the Trumps at a politician auction.

It's a fairly open secret.

C'mon, Trump probably believes the lad can turn invisible like an F-35 too.

He does seem to really like the Saudis, for some reason.

To be fair its probably like the Israeli arms deals that turn out to be pork barreling for US constituents. Any putative Saudi nuclear plants will be run by US personnel surely, the savages from Riyadh just want one as a vanity piece to put next to their gold Rolls Royces and mountains of severed hands. Actually they probably want precisely one more than Iran has.

[Heathen Hammer]

US has been doing that long before Trump was in the office. Turning Saudi theocracy into a nuclear power was more of an Obama thing.

[athanaric]

There used to be laws against that, and precedents exist, too. IMO anyone trying to pawn off US nuclear technology to Wahhabi or other dodgy "friends" should get the same treatment as the Rosenbergs.

[Prodromos]

Well, what type of "nuclear technology" was it? As far as I can remember, no one said that Iran or any other country couldn't have nuclear technology, it's just nuclear weapons that are a problem.

The U.S.–UAE 123 Agreement for Peaceful Civilian Nuclear Energy Cooperation is a 123 Agreement on peaceful nuclear cooperation between the United States of America and the United Arab Emirates, which entered into force on 17 December 2009 and enables the UAE to receive nuclear know-how, materials and equipment from the U.S.[1] As part of the agreement, the UAE committed to forgo domestic uranium enrichment and reprocessing of spent fuel, as well as sign the International Atomic Energy Agency's Additional Protocol, which institutes a more stringent inspections regime on the UAE's nuclear activities.[2] The UAE's agreement to forgo enrichment and reprocessing has become known as the nonproliferation "gold standard" for nuclear cooperation agreements, because the signatory renounces the sensitive technology and capabilities that can also be used to produce a nuclear weapon.[3]

https://www.arabianbusiness.com/kuwa...rs-348551.html

Kuwait, the fifth biggest oil producer among OPEC members, plans to build four nuclear power reactors by 2022, joining a drive for atomic energy among Gulf countries seeking alternative sources of electricity...

Kuwait is in discussions with international bodies on “how nuclear energy fits in the energy mix of Kuwait for the next 20 years,” Bishara said in Tokyo yesterday.

He said: “Our initial analysis indicates that nuclear is viable as long as oil is above $45 to $50 a barrel.”

Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, and the UAE are turning to atomic energy to save oil reserves for overseas sales.

They need to allay US concerns the technology may get diverted to weapons programs in a region that has experienced three major wars since the 1980s.

Kuwait ratified a protocol giving International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to future nuclear facilities to ease American concerns, said Tomoko Murakami, a nuclear analyst at the Institute of Energy Economics in Tokyo.

Murakami said: “Kuwait’s need to develop its power infrastructure is greater than other Arab countries because summer power shortages are severe."

Demand for electricity in Kuwait is expected to grow as much as 7 percent annually to 25,000 megawatts by 2030, from 11,000 megawatts this year, Bishara said.

Kuwait burns 300,000 barrels a day of oil products, or 12 percent of its daily oil production, in thermal power plants to meet demand, Bishara said. The ratio is projected to increase to as much as 20 percent by 2025, he said...

Bishara was in Tokyo this week to sign a memorandum of cooperation on atomic power development with Japan, which is promoting exports of nuclear technology as part of the government’s strategy for economic growth.

The agreement includes cooperation on planning and developing nuclear power and training technical experts. Kuwait has similar agreements with Russia and the US, Bishara said.

In April, Kuwait and France signed a nuclear cooperation treaty, which may allow Areva, the world’s biggest maker of nuclear reactors, to export nuclear technology to the country.

[sumskilz]

*rents. He probably meant the Trumps at a politician auction..

Well, you know...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Whatever the motivation, Kushner and Ivanka's political views are still closer to the mainstream Dems, like Ivanka trying to keep Trump from withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Seems a little awkward for them being between Trump and their social circle. There are reasons there was so much bad blood between them and Bannon.

Trump himself is obviously not ideologically committed, other than liking winners over losers:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

So far that Mohammed bin Salman looks like a winner, he really get's things done.

[Morifea]

So far that Mohammed bin Salman looks like a winner, he really get's things done.

Except Yemen.... that thing he really messed up.