Retired U.S. generals, admirals take top jobs with Saudi crown prince
BY PGF
2 years ago
More than 500 retired U.S. military personnel — including scores of generals and admirals — have taken lucrative jobs since 2015 working for foreign governments, mostly in countries known for human rights abuses and political repression, according to a Washington Post investigation.
In Saudi Arabia, for example, 15 retired U.S. generals and admirals have worked as paid consultants for the Defense Ministry since 2016. The ministry is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, who U.S. intelligence agencies say approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Post contributing columnist, as part of a brutal crackdown on dissent.
Saudi Arabia’s paid advisers have included retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, a national security adviser to President Barack Obama, and retired Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who led the National Security Agency under Obama and President George W. Bush, according to documents obtained by The Post under Freedom of Information Act lawsuits.
Others who have worked as consultants for the Saudis since Khashoggi’s murder include a retired four-star Air Force general and a former commanding general of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
Most of the retired U.S. personnel have worked as civilian contractors for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf monarchies, playing a critical, though largely invisible, role in upgrading their militaries.
Seems that K Street (US Government Lobbying Firms) doesn’t pay what it used to. The article is very long and detailed.
On October 24, 2022 at 1:35 am, Plague Monk said:
My late cousin had a distinguished record in three wars, from WWII thru Korea to the early years in Vietnam. After he retired from the USMC as a Lt. Col. aviator in 1964, he went to work for then Grumman an some kind of lobbyist/analyst. He was always vague on how he became a multi-millionaire, and I never pushed it, but I know that he spent a lot of time in DC from 1964 until he was fired in 2004(for refusing to learn how to use a PC, despite having extensive experience on mainframes in the late 50s and early 60s).
I’m sure that he was a grifter, but he hated with a passion Orientals and various minorities. Side note: he also hated Boyington and the Black Sheep unit, saying that they weren’t real Marines. I think that if he was still alive, he’d despise the people working for the Saudis(and Israelis, whom he also “disliked”).