Paul Waldman wrote several days ago about what he perceives as the next big Trump scandal[1]:
We begin with a company called IP3 International, described as “a private company that has assembled a consortium of U.S. companies to build nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia.” IP3, which has an all-star team of former generals and federal officials on its staff and board, was pushing hard on the Trump administration to approve its plan to build these reactors despite the lengthy process required to transfer nuclear technology abroad. And according to the Oversight Committee’s report, they had help:
A key proponent of this nuclear effort was General Michael Flynn, who described himself in filings as an “advisor” to a subsidiary of IP3, IronBridge Group Inc., from June 2016 to December 2016 — at the same time he was serving as Donald Trump’s national security advisor during the presidential campaign and the presidential transition. According to the whistleblowers, General Flynn continued to advocate for the adoption of the IP3 plan not only during the transition, but even after he joined the White House as President Trump’s National Security Advisor.
So Flynn is working with this company while he’s also working for the Trump campaign and transition. He then gets into the White House and has the chance to push the company’s plan to build dozens of nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia.
The other key person inside the administration was Derek Harvey, the senior director for Middle East and North African //affairs at the National Security Council in the early days of the Trump administration. Harvey was later fired by Flynn’s successor, H.R. McMaster, and then went to work for Trump lickspittle Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. But in the White House, he was an unusually strong advocate for IP3′s idea, despite the legal impediments meant to make sure that materials and technology capable of being turned into nuclear weapons don’t spread throughout the world: [omitted – HW]
I hadn’t seen a lot elsewhere, but then came the AL Monitor e-mail report on lobbying efforts in Washington:
House Oversight Committee Democrats on Tuesday released a report detailing whistleblower allegations that sources inside the Donald Trump administration worked with private business interests to “rush” the transfer of sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East nations, bypassing congressional oversight.
The report found that former national security adviser Mike Flynn and his associates teamed up with the Saudis to lobby the White House on building 40 nuclear reactors across the region in what they dubbed a “21st-century Marshall Plan for the Middle East.” Flynn had previously worked with IP3 International, a consulting firm run by retired generals, in 2015 and 2016. During Trump’s presidential transition, IP3 International sent a letter pitching the idea to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and lobbied Thomas Barrack, Trump’s longtime friend and chairman of his inaugural committee, to implement the plan. Barrack in turn organized an event during Trump’s inauguration that was attended by foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
After Flynn was ousted as national security adviser over his undisclosed ties to Russia, Derek Harvey, the then-Middle East director at the National Security Council, continued to push the proposal in coordination with Flynn. Harvey also reportedly asked NSC staff to add talking points on the proposal for Trump’s April 2017 meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt. Flynn’s successor, H.R. McMaster, ultimately put the lid on the plan and ousted Harvey. But Trump has since dismissed McMaster. The president met last week with IP3 International and nuclear industry developers to discuss developing nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, indicating that the plan may still be on the table. On Friday, the Government Accountability Project and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington sued six federal agencies for failing to respond to their 2018 request for public records on the nuclear plan. Read our full Saudi lobbying coverage here.
It’s like they worship the God of money to the exclusion of all else, isn’t it? Meanwhile, I don’t know if this will turn into yet another a scandal or just a disaster for the Middle East, the latter given the difficulties of building and running nuclear power plants.
And will they care? I don’t think so. And, given how the base imitates Trump, they won’t care, either.
1 It’s appalling that I have to write the phrase “next big Trump scandal,” isn’t it?
