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As we learned this week, after all the Team Trump denials bit them in the ass, for the lies they were:
“The president has the absolute right” to order the National Security Clearance for his Son-in-Law: ‘Salesman One’.
The last refuge of a pack of liars and cheats is the “appeal to authority”. And what higher authority can cover-up their shady deals, and selling out of American Intelligence, than the “appeal to absolute rights” of our national despot?
Here’s the “short list” of why Americans should care that our national secrets are now apparently “for sale” to the deepest pockets international players:
Who says no one no longer “reads” the Presidential Daily Briefings? Apparently someone is ...
FBI must investigate Jared Kushner's links to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, say Democrats
by Emily Shugerman, independent.co.uk — 29 March 2018
US legislators have asked the FBI investigate presidential adviser Jared Kushner over reports that he disclosed classified information to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
The FBI must open an investigation into possible “unauthorised disclosures of information” by Donald Trump’s son-in-law, six Democratic representatives wrote in a letter to the bureau.
The request was spurred by reports that Mr Kushner told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman the names of royal family members who were opposed to him – information the adviser allegedly gained from Mr Trump’s daily briefing.
[...]
During his visit [Kushner visited Crown Prince Salman in October 2017], Mr Kushner disclosed the names of Saudi families who opposed the power shift, sources close to the royal family told The Intercept. The names were listed in a presidential daily briefing that Mr Kushner read religiously, according to the outlet.
Funny, looks like the Players are being played:
Intercept: Saudi crown prince bragged about Kushner relationship
One person "who talks frequently to confidants of the Saudi and Emirati rulers" told the Intercept that MBS bragged to United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed that Kushner was "in his pocket."
[...]
Eager to consolidate power and rein in the sprawling orbit of the Saudi royal family and aristocratic class, Prince bin Salman listened intently and a week later cracked down on corruption in the country by imprisoning more than 200 members of the country's ruling class inside the confines of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in charging each with corruption.
"What we did in Saudi Arabia was
extremely necessary,"
the Saudi crown prince told CBS in his first interview with a Western outlet. "All actions taken were in accordance with existing and published laws."
Meanwhile back on Denial Ranch … No Billion Dollar Deal is worth stopping.
Trump Calls Relations With Saudi Arabia ‘Excellent,’ While Congress Is Incensed
by Edward Wong, Eric Schmitt and Eileen Sullivan, NYTimes — Oct. 11, 2018
[...]
“The Saudis will keep killing civilians and journalists as long as we keep arming and assisting them,” Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said on Twitter on Thursday. “The President should immediately halt arms sales and military support to Saudi Arabia.”
But Mr. Trump quickly made clear he would not.
“What good does that do us?” Mr. Trump asked, speaking to reporters midday in the Oval Office.
“I would not be in favor of stopping a country from spending $110 billion — which is an all-time record — and letting Russia have that money and letting China have that money,” Mr. Trump said, referring to an arms deal with the Saudis, brokered last year, that the president has said will lead to new American jobs.
[...]
“Salesman One” doing his bit here to keep MBS from backing out of the US-Saudi Arms Deal … just look at whose arms Jared is willing to twist:
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (CNN) — President Donald Trump signed a nearly $110 billion defense deal with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Saturday, signaling the United States' renewed commitment to its alliance with the Gulf kingdom and desire to bolster its counterterrorism partnership.
The deal was finalized in part thanks to the direct involvement of Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser. He shocked a high-level Saudi delegation earlier this month when he personally called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and asked if she would cut the price of a sophisticated missile detection system, according to a source with knowledge of the call.
Pressured to finalize a massive $100-plus billion arms deal in the two weeks leading up to Trump's trip to Saudi Arabia, Kushner hoped to maneuver a discount on Lockheed's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system during the Saudis' visit to the White House on May 1 — a request that Hewson said she would look into at the time.
[...]
Meanwhile the Denials continue from the Midas who would turn anything and everything into ‘Green’ …
by Bob Bryan, BusinessInsider — 11-21-2018
[...]
- In 2016, the New York Daily News reported that the Saudi government also purchased the entire 45th floor of the Trump World Tower, for $4.5 million, in June 2001. Given annual fee fares for the building at the time, Trump also was paid $5.7 million by the Saudis between the purchase and 2016, the paper reported.
Trump bragged about his business dealings with the Saudis during a 2015 campaign rally in Mobile, Alabama.
"I get along great with all of them; they buy apartments from me," Trump said. "They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much!"
“Trump likes them very much” — in Trump-speak that equates to about a $100 million dollars worth:
|
45th Floor Trump Tower NY |
|
2001 |
4,500,000 |
bought in 2001 by Saudi Govt |
2002 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2003 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2004 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2005 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2006 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2007 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2008 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2009 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2010 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2011 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2012 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2013 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2014 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2015 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2016 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2017 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
2018 |
5,700,000 |
annual fees |
|
$101,400,000 |
|
(Assuming that the Saudis still lease the 45th floor through 2018. Time to examine those Trump Tax Returns, heh? That looks like a LOT of SAUDI Green being ‘invested’ in Trump Org’s bottom-line.)
…
Remember that arm-twisting Arms Deals that Jared negotiated on behave of murderous MBS?
Well in addition to being cut from the same traitorous cloth as his Father-in-Law, Kushner and Daugher-dearest were also getting a cut of the $110-billion action …
When Saudi Arabia announced last week a $20-billion investment in a U.S. infrastructure fund managed by Blackstone Group LP, many noticed that it came shortly after presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner personally negotiated a $110-billion arms sale to the country. What went unnoticed -- and is largely unknown -- is how important Blackstone is to the Kushner family company.
Since 2013, Blackstone has loaned more than $400 million to finance four Kushner Cos. deals -- two of which have not been reported -- making it one of the business’s largest lenders. And their ties go beyond the loans. Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s co-founder and chief executive officer, heads Trump’s business-advisory council and was in Riyadh with the president and Kushner. The Saudi promise to invest in Blackstone’s fund drove the firm’s stock up more than 8 percent.
[...]
But the sequence of the deals and the intertwined personal relationships of the principals raise concerns about conflicts of interest. Schwarzman, one of the world’s richest businessmen, is a Republican and, like Trump, a resident of New York and Palm Beach. Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and Kushner’s wife, was an investor in a fund Blackstone created in 2010 to seed hedge funds, according to financial disclosures.
Who needs the “Deep State” — when you got the “Deep Pockets” of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia to underwrite your side projects (and side-investments) — to the tune of $40 Billion dollars. All it takes is that you “hand over the names of the dissidents” the next time you are in town.
This is how America’s “National Security” Business is now being conducted, in our Taxpaying names … in this new era of Trump corruption.
Quid pro OMG!
No worries though, Team Trump has just exerted their “Absolute Right” to empower Jared as our National Intel “concierge”. No offer too small, for consideration.
Strongman Putin would be so proud, of the Trump Audacity on display for all the world to see.
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What’s for sale next?
Military Bases and Disaster Recover funds all so we can erect a Wall to Trump’s massive ego?
“Absolutely!”
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