What was Trump doing with those stolen TS/SCI documents? I think I am fine with describing this as theft because 1) American presidents in the past haven’t brought home TS/SCI documents to “study,” as Trump claims and 2) the National Archives and the FBI found those documents and took them back with a search warrant. We still are not certain what was in those documents, but the Washington Post reported that the FBI was looking for nuclear weapons documents. We do not know if what was found dealt with nuclear weapons (we know it is TS/SCI, and it is all we can safely say for now). But let’s assume that Trump got sticky fingers and brought home documents that specified how American nuclear weapons are built. What would a greedy sociopathic person do with those plans? I think he might sell them to the highest bidder. And who just recently was given two billion dollars from the Saudis? Jared Kushner for one. Is this cover for buying nuclear secrets from Trump?
My speculative answer is “Probably because the Saudis have an interest in obtaining nuclear weapons.”
Let’s look at what we do know about the Saudis and nuclear weapons. For starters, the Saudis have been accused of financing Pakistans nuclear weapons program. There have been stories that the Saudis have actually “purchased” up to five nuclear bombs from the Pakistanis. Here is some information from Business Insider from 2015:
The visit by the chairman of Pakistan's Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee will likely prompt concern in Washington and other major capitals that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have reconfirmed an arrangement whereby Pakistan, if asked, will supply Saudi Arabia with nuclear warheads.
The main meeting on Gen. Rashid Mahmoud's itinerary was with King Salman — the topics discussed were reported as "deep relations between the two countries and ... a number of issues of common interest."
General Rashid also saw separately Defense Minister Prince Muhammad bin Salman — who presented him with the King Abdulaziz medal of excellence — as well as Deputy Crown Prince and Interior Minister Muhammad bin Nayef and Minister of the National Guard Prince Mitab bin Abdullah.
The only senior Saudi absent from the meetings appears to have been Crown Prince Muqrin.
For decades, Riyadh has been judged a supporter of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, providing financing in return for a widely assumed understanding that, if needed, Islamabad will transfer technology or even warheads.
It has been noticeable that changes in leadership in either country have quickly been followed by top-level meetings, as if to reconfirm such nuclear arrangements. Although Pakistani nuclear technology also helped Iran's program, the relationship between Islamabad and Riyadh has been much more obvious.
Basically, the reason for the Saudis wanting to develop or purchase nuclear weapons is based upon the fears of the Iranian nuclear program. The Saudi fears about Iran have been going for decades now, and it doesn’t help that the Houthis in Yemen are seen by the Saudis as allies of Iran. Saudi Arabia decided to intervene in the civil war going on in Yemen in 2015, and it has led to even more violence and human misery. On top of this, the Saudis have vowed that if the Iran develops nuclear weapons so will Saudi Arabia.
The Saudis have started their own nuclear power program. It began in 2010, and in 2018, the Saudis announced that they started building a civilian nuclear reactor. And the Saudis blocked the International Atomic Energy Agency from inspecting their nuclear power facility. And let’s not kid ourselves. Civilian nuclear reactors can produce enough uranium-235 and plutonium-239 for either fission or fusion bombs.
The Saudi announcement that it was starting a civilian nuclear power program has not made any economic sense either, especially with the stated reason being they want to provide an energy alternative for generating electricity.
The economic case against nuclear
Saudi Arabia’s nuclear ambitions date back to at least 2006, when the kingdom started exploring nuclear power options as part of a joint programme with other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
More recently, the kingdom laced its nuclear plans into MBS’s “Vision 2030” blueprint to diversify the country’s economy away from oil.
Nuclear energy, the kingdom argues, would allow it to export crude it currently consumes for domestic energy needs, generating more income for state coffers while developing a new high-tech industry to create jobs for its youthful workforce.
But if a bountiful economic harvest is the goal, nuclear energy is a poor industry to seed compared with renewables like solar and wind.
“Every state has the right to determine its energy mix. The problem is this: nuclear costs are enormous,” Paul Dorfman, honorary senior research fellow at the Energy Institute, University College London and founder and chair of the Nuclear Consulting Group, told Al Jazeera. “Renewables are maybe between one-fifth and one-seventh the cost of nuclear.”
Utility-scale, average unsubsidised lifetime costs for solar photovoltaic were about $40 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in 2019, compared with $155 per MWh for nuclear energy, according to an analysis by financial advisory and asset manager Lazard.
“There are no economic or energy policy or industrial reasons to build a nuclear power plant,” Mycle Schneider, convening lead author and the publisher of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, told Al Jazeera. “If countries decide to build a nuclear power plant anyway, then we have to discuss other issues that are actually the drivers for those projects.”
As noted above, Saudi Arabia is a SUNNY desert environment. It would be cheaper and make more sense for the Saudis to go into wind or solar energy projects. But those types of renewable energy sources do not produce radioactive material that goes into building nuclear weapons.
No, the Saudis want some nuclear weapons, if only to intimidate the Iranians. Or at least make the Iranian mullahs think twice about launching a nuclear missle into Saudi Arabia.
Given all of the above data, does it make sense that the Saudis would “invest” two billion dollars into any business that Jared Kushner runs? It has been assumed that the Saudis are buying “influence” with Trump when he has a triumphal return to the White House.
Jared Kushner’s new private equity firm got $2 billion from Saudi Arabia because maybe that’s how you can cash in when your investing experience is slender but your father-in-law may wind up back in the White House. It’s also possible that you can get billions for a firm with no track record because the White House did favors for the Saudis when your father-in-law still occupied the Oval Office.
It’s probably a mix of both. Regardless, it’s certainly not a reflection of Kushner’s investing prowess. Before entering the White House as an adviser to former President Donald Trump, Kushner, 41, inherited wealth and his first adult job from his father, then botched his biggest gambit: vastly overpaying for a Fifth Avenue skyscraper soon before financial and real estate markets tanked.
The Saudis’ stake in Kushner is also a reminder of the gargantuan financial conflicts of interest that plagued the Trump clan throughout their White House stay and continue to seep into their post-Washington dealmaking. And, of course, national security hazards run through all of this. Is it that easy to secure the allegiance and foreign policy mindshare of an influential White House adviser?
Yes, it is. At least in the Trump era.
“It’s just a complete free-for-all,” said Walter Shaub, who was an outspoken critic of financial conflicts in the Trump White House before resigning as director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. “The real concern here is that the public has no way of knowing exactly what favors someone like Kushner may have done for the Saudis.”
Who says that Kushner did a favor for the Saudis? Maybe that so called investment with Kushner was really a payoff to Trump for American nuclear secrets? How do we know where that two billion dollars will go? The Trump’s are notorious for hiding what they do with their money.
Anyway, it’s all speculation for now.