Trump Admin Announced $1 Million Weapons Order to Saudi Arabia Just Days After Murder of Jamal Khashoggi

By Paul Gottinger, Reader Supported News

20 October 18

he Department of Defense approved a new million-dollar weapons sale to Saudi Arabia on October 6, just three days after the Saudi government allegedly dispatched a hit squad to torture, murder, and mutilate the US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the country’s Istanbul consulate. Under an 8 million dollar contract, Lockheed Martin will provide services, maintenance, and management of a guided missile system to a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Turkish police say the murder of Khashoggi was carried out by a 15-person hit squad – including a forensic expert known for pioneering rapid and mobile autopsies – dispatched from Saudi Arabia. An American intelligence official described the operation as bearing the hallmarks of a “rendition.” Both Turkish and US officials have described video and audio recordings they say prove Khashoggi was brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate. The team is alleged to have cut the body into pieces using a bone saw before smuggling it out of the consulate.

In an attempt to diminish the political crisis, the Trump administration, in coordination with the Saudis, has been pushing the idea that the murder was a rogue operation to kidnap and interrogate Mr. Khashoggi. But US intelligence officials believe the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), must have ordered any operation involving an interrogation or murder inside the country’s consulate.

President Trump, who has received millions of dollars from Saudi sources for real estate sales and hotel rentals, has made some vague threats of punishment for the gruesome murder but has said he’s not interested in cutting off US arms transfers to Saudi Arabia. For years, the Kingdom has been the largest buyer of US weapons.

The day before Khashoggi’s alleged murder, the Pentagon announced a modification to a weapons contract worth over $69 million, which included Saudi Arabia as one of the clients. In the week prior to the alleged murder, the Pentagon announced over a hundred million dollars worth of weapons contracts with Saudi Arabia.

On September 27, the Pentagon announced $43 million worth of Saudi contracts to Raytheon; on September 26, it announced Saudi was part of a modification to a Honeywell contract worth $80 million; on September 25, a $58 million order was announced for the Royal Saudi Air Force F-15s; and on September 24, it announced Saudi was part of a $10 million contract for Universal Propulsion Co.

Despite the long-running weapons sales and US-Saudi partnership, the suspected murder of Mr. Khashoggi, a legal US resident and well connected, DC-based journalist, has caused a major uproar in Washington DC.

Senators Rand Paul and Chris Murphy have both renewed their calls for cutting of US arms transfers to Saudi Arabia. Senator Bernie Sanders has called for ending US support for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, which has killed tens of thousands and pushed millions to the brink of starvation.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has demanded that Trump investigate the Saudi regime’s role in the incident through the Global Magnitsky Act, which could result in sanctions.

Senator Lindsay Graham has said “this MBS figure to me is toxic” and “He can never be a world leader on the world stage…. This guy has got to go.”

Khashoggi was a longtime insider in Saudi politics but had recently become critical of the Saudi crown prince.

According to the Washington Post, the US intelligence community was aware of a plot by the crown prince to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia where he would be arrested.

The Trump administration has claimed to have no prior knowledge of Saudi plot against Mr. Khashoggi. However, White House advisor Jared Kushner is known to be close to the Saudi crown prince.

Earlier this year it was reported that Kushner had handed over classified evidence that was used by the crown prince to imprison his political enemies. The crown prince has also reportedly bragged that Jared Kushner is “in his pocket.”

Despite the shocking nature of Mr. Khashoggi’s alleged murder, it would not have been the first time the Saudi regime has used a consulate or embassy to conduct an operation against a political enemy abroad.

According to recent reports, Saudi Arabia has used its embassies to intimidate critics. Some Saudis living abroad report receiving calls attempting to lure them into the Saudi embassy. Others report they are afraid to leave their homes for fear of being kidnapped. Some Saudis even refuse to visit Saudi embassies to renew their passports, which essentially leaves them stranded abroad.

Aides of outspoken Saudi Prince Sultan bin Turki said in 2016 that the prince was lured onto a royal private jet where he was drugged and flown to Saudi Arabia. The prince has not been seen in public since his kidnapping

Khaled bin Farhan al-Saud, a Saudi prince living in Germany claims that a little over a week before Mr. Khashoggi went missing, they asked his family to try to lure him to Cairo.

In previous years, there have been allegations of Saudi princes being abducted and flown back to Saudi Arabia where they have been imprisoned. According to Human Rights Watch, thousands of Saudis have been detained without trial in the country, with some imprisoned for over a decade.

In Saudi Arabia, the regime is using torture to “suppress all dissent and imprison human rights defenders,” according to the UN, which reports that “between 2009 and 2015 more than 3,000 allegations of torture were formally recorded.” The torture methods documented include “electric shocks, sleep deprivation, prolonged periods of solitary confinement, and beatings to the head, face, jaw, and feet.”

Paul Gottinger is a staff reporter at RSN whose work focuses on the Middle East and the arms industry. He can be reached on Twitter @paulgottinger or via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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