This guy needs to be in jail
23
Kushners pocket is open for business from our worst enemies. Traitor!
26
Perhaps the NY Times might consider changing the category here from "Opinion" to "Assumptions."?
Are the princes Muhammed and Mohammed mentioned in the story supposed to be the same person? Which is it, Nick?
Apparently, Jared Kushner is trading US Intelligence information to Saudi Arabia crown prince so called MBS, for favors.
Isn't something...he gave him all the names of tax cheats in Saudi Arabia, so the prince could extort trillions of dollars from them in fear of imprisonment, torture and death.
And that data came directly from US Intelligence.
Talking about SECURITY CLEARANCE demanded by INDIVIDUAL 1 for his son-in law.
When is it ever ENOUGH???
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5575395/Saudi-crown-prince-brags-Jared-Kushner-handed-U-S-intelligence.html
EXCLUSIVE: Saudi crown prince bragged that Jared Kushner gave him CIA intelligence about other Saudis saying 'here are your enemies' days before 'corruption crackdown' which led to torture and death.
18
nuclear weapons in the hands of radical wahabi islamists are far more dangerous than in the hands of kim of korea...much.
8
If I had the wealth and position to own the NYT, one of the most respected newspapers in the world, I would trumpet this story of rank corruption and security risk to our nation at the highest volume until the criminals are brought to justice. Instead the comments section will be closed tonight and the article will be relegated to the dustbin of clickbait. Sad.
5
as soon as Saudi Arabia tests a nuke, Kushner and Trump will ascend an elevator to celebrate at Schrafft's... or is that gone, too?
1
Isn't Saudi Arabia the country from which the perpetrators of 9/11 hailed, the country which has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises in Yemen, the one which just butchered a journalist, the one which keeps women underneath blacks veils, the one which has funded the proliferation of radical Wahhabi-Islam around the world creating ISIS, and the one itching to annihilate Iran which we've just told can't have nuclear energy capability itself? And, that this technology can potentially be used to build nuclear weapon grade fuel? Oh right, money to be made, sorry...
25
And from the GOP.....crickets.
17
I look at that photo with Arrogant Prince Jared and Entitled Princess Ivanka and I think one word:
Traitors.
30
There are two tells that both t rump and mbs have in common: If their lips are moving they are lying.
Kurshner's lips never move so I believe he is just a ventriloquist's dummy.
There is not one saving grace in the entire criminal family that currently occupies our White House. Not one.
15
Kushner is a criminal who should be in jail intead of attending head of state meetings with ruthless and oppressive leaders solely to line his own pockets. I look forward to the day that smug smile of his turns upside down for his mug shot.
15
Weren't 15 of the 19 World Trade Center bombing terrorists from Saudi Arabia?
16
Usually I have the greatest respect for Nick Kristof, but this article looks like he is indulging himself and venturing into the realm of conspiracy theory. Lots of speculations and few facts. A lot of the Times' readers are eager to run with this conspiracy.
You know that MBS (MrBoneSaw) is not that serious about nukes as power for air conditioners when you point out that Morocco is putting together a solar project that will power up 2,000 megawatts in 2020. How many home air conditioners that work out to? Hard to say. Googling around you find that 102 megawatts could on a average demand day power 34,000 British homes.
You can play with these numbers for hours and every silver lining has its clouds but you still find yourself asking: why is the mordernizing MrBoneSaw chasing nukes instead of solar, the man has 900,000 square miles of basically sand with max sunshine per day. So why not the Morocco power option?
HeWantsTheBomb!! Just like Pakistan, just like India, just like North Korea, just like Israel. Sigh....
8
Jared Kushner has allied himself and the Trump Administration with MBS and Saudi Arabia, known for its:
support of the 9/11 bombers,
oppression of females,
vicious killing of a reporter from Washington DC,
torture of the American citizen Dr. Walid Fitaihi, and
war crimes in Yemen.
Bravo Americans, you must be so proud of your government.
13
Seth Abramson has been on this for at least a year.
Wow. It is murky out there. I wonder if the NYT would monitor Hillary Clinton in this way? I hope they would.
This the best reason so far for getting absolutely rid of Trump and his thugs.
These persons, as Cohen so remarkably illustrates, are nothing but Mobsters out to make a buck. they are mostly ignorant regarding the welfare of Planet Earth.
10
Thank you so much Nicolas Kristof for keeping us informed about this most terrifying relationship. Kushner and his wife are beautiful, elegant, stupid and absolutely without principles. They simply have no idea what they are doing parading before the murderous, wily Prince Muhammed. Please can't the president send them to wave flags at his American political rallies? That's about the height of their possibilities.
7
Well I guess the Russia thing didn't work out. What can we do next? Oh yeah, the Saudis!
Meanwhile, I must ask, are John Kerry and Wendy Sherman still lobbying for the Iranians out of the goodness of their hearts?
1
Trump and lushness selling nuclear weapons to this murderous thug for a billion dollars is what this amounts to. I thought the next election was soon enough to move these traitors out but obviously not. The fate of mankind is at stake now, how’re these things even possible?
5
Saudi nationals were responsible for 9/11 and Bush II spirited them out of the country. Young Saudi men commit crimes in this country, like rape and vehicular manslaughter, and our state dept does nothing while the Saudi government spirits them out of the country.
What's to stop crazed Saudi jihadists from using the nuclear weapons we will essentially supply them with from bombing not only Iran but Israel and unbelievers in the U.S.?
4
The US supports an overthrow of an elected President (granted the election had its problems) because he is a socialist who won the election via fraud (our current administration should be careful about casting stones in this regard) in Venezuela, yet we provide military might, and perhaps nuclear capabilities to a monarchy that has never had an election, heard of a constitution, and produced 11 of the 15 agents of the 9/11 attacks...oh yeah, they behead witches too! Make America Great Again! Let’s all go to Salem and burn some witches!
3
Oops, there goes the USA. Oops, there goes planet earth.
3
Does helping Saudi Arabia get nuclear weapons hurt Israel?
The commission Jared will get on the upcoming nuke deal will exceed 100 million $ which TRump will want his cut as you must kick up to the godfather. Jared already shared intel with MSB leading to a USA based journalist being dismembered in Turkey ordered by MSB. Kushner family is bust in the Middle East as the funding for Kushner real estate projects will be unlimited , again the godfather TRump must get his cut after all he rammed thru his unqualified son in laws top security clearance despite intel pros saying no way who knows what corruption they found on Prince Jared. GOP will put up with anything from Trump just to have power they are not the least bit patriotic.
Why does the press still refer to this guy as "the Saudi Crown Prince" when "the butcher of Saudi Arabia" would be much more appropriate?
5
The Saudi Prince is using Kushner.
5
"NOW I KNOW" ...
Now I know why "Jared Kushner" was chosen to be the person who single handed-ly brings "peace" to middle-east.
When the entire middle-east lits up with a bang, and there will be no middle-east there on the earth, it will be peaceful.
Maybe that is why, Pakistan's best ally Saudi Arabia was getting the nuclear deal through Jared Kushner!!!
Sometimes, I think the entire GOP is traitor, as keeping silent is more of sin that of "colluding".
3
15 of the 19 911 hijackers were Saudi.
2
In the name of the father, the son and the Trump family boast, "There’s money to be made!"
"Even as President Trump is trying to denuclearize North Korea and Iran, he may be helping to nuclearize Saudi Arabia." Don't be fooled Mr. Kristof. Or America.
Trump's interest in the denuclearization of North Korea and Iran is a Nobel Peace Prize for the purpose of increasing the monetary market value of the Trump brand, not for world peace, not for American security. And the nuclearization of Saudi Arabia is straight out unvarnished family greed. For nukes, Jared gets a Saudi Arabian goose that lays golden eggs; he is the cunning son, Trump never had.
But let's not dwell on the cynical greed-motivated exchange of nukes for money or nuke elimination for...well, money. Let's look on the bright side.
Trump is spreading chaos around the world, putting nukes in the bone-saw bloody hands of tyrannical kings and princes with medieval mentalities and corrupted religious beliefs (Mohamed would condemn the perverted beliefs of the royal family).
Trump's sale of nukes and chaos will hasten a world-wide nuclear holocaust which will wipe out Trump's inhuman family, the reptilian Republican Party and zombies who support them.
The inhuman Trump virus with all its greed will be wiped out, soulless Machiavellian Republicans will be scorched from the face of the earth. America will be cleansed. The earth will be cleansed. That's the good news. Don't ask about the bad news.
2
Elected senate republicans allow this traitor and his family to commit their daily crimes. Republicans are responsible because they are not doing their job. Vote them out, hold them accountable. Elect leaders who will vote for laws to ensure this can never happen again.
5
What is it that Duterte. Kim. Putin. el-Sissi, Erdogan, Xi Jinping and Mohammed bin Salman have in common
that Trump respects and admires other than the fact that
political figures like these tend to remain perpetually in power
and he longs to join them?
2
Re: this photo of Ivanka...Muslims normalize women veiling themselves. Americans normalize women wearing 4 inch stiletto heels. And in both cases, women believe it's a "liberating choice." If you made this stuff up, no one would believe you. And if you told men to veil themselves or wear 4 inch stiletto heels, they'd tell you you're crazy. And if you say that how women navigate their physical bodies through the world is a fundamental issue of freedom, people will gaslight you as being trivial when there are more important things to worry about.
2
Each rotten Trump/Kushner seed that takes root bears poison fruit. Everyone who has access to any media needs to accuse in the clearest language and broadcast in the loudest voice this garbage bag full of crimes committed in OUR names – we the American people who will pay for this presidency with our children’s lives.
3
Extremely disturbing article. Saudi Arabia’s hijackings continue, this time with Trump and “family” on board as gleeful accomplices. Will Kushner cry “Allah Akbar” as he signs on the dotted line to trade nuclear weapons for real estate solvency with a murderous regime?
Begging the Senate to wake up and put a stop to this doomsday scenario.
2
Of all of the buffoon-in-chief's misguided blunders, this cozying up to MBS is the most frightening. Of course, it's dangerous to be "in love" with Kim Jong-un, as well. What is it with him and murderous strongmen? He fancies himself a strongman, and identifies more with Putin and the rest of them more than he does with other Americans. He certainly likes their company more.
Please, Mr. Mueller, let your report deliver a death blow to this disastrous presidency. The future of our planet depends on it.
5
This, which Mr. Kristof has included here, should be NYT's "quote of the day" for tomorrow's paper: “A country that can’t be trusted with a bone saw shouldn’t be trusted with nuclear weapons.”—CA. Rep. Brad Sherman
The Times' "quote of the day" should be on the Front Page, atop, rather than floating between various locations on Page 3.
Today's NYT's quote of the day should have been from today's Page 1 story—an outrageous claim in a presidential tweet (which appears in the story online, but NOT in the print edition!) It is a heinous claim:
"Most important, Otto Warmbier will not have died in vain. Otto and his family have become a tremendous symbol of strong passion and strength, which will last for many years into the future."—@realDonaldTrump
Of course Otto has died in vain. America weeps for him. His parent's and the country's grief over what was cruelly and inhumanly done to him in the fullness of his youth and innocence, expose America's inertia and decline—our government has taken absolutely zero actual measures in consequence of the heinous treatment Otto was dealt at the hands of an evil family (for that's all North Korean government really is—one evil family).
This is what happens when our country elects a businessman who operates only in the transactional, and who hasn't a loyal bone in his body. My country please wake up. My country please redeem yourself.
5
"Saudi swamp, meet American swamp."
Yes, and another 100 million may die as a result, with future generations contaminated. This would be multiple times worse than the Holocaust.
Hasn't the U.S. caused enough damage during just the past 15 years, causing the deaths of two million Middle Easterners in no less than 5 ongoing civil wars?
Is Kushner so depraved that he would enable the production of nuclear weapons by a radical state whose religion preaches "death to all non-believers"?
Is the U.S.A. so financially bankrupt that it will support the planet's worst regimes simply to protect the petrodollar cemented by Nixon and Kissinger?
Is Israel so short-sighted that it will continue enabling a radical Wahhabi state in its backyard?
The U.S. has gone completely mad, and I fear it is already too late to prevent Armageddon. It's not just the GOP but the Democrats who are in the pockets of the Saudis and the U.S. military-industrial complex. Remember the $ 100 million Saudi donation to the Clinton 'charity', and her threat to "bomb Iran back to the Stone Age"?
Believe me, not only Iran will suffer the consequences of U.S. stupidity. The U.S. itself will become a Pariah state forever.
6
What about Jared sharing list list of tax cheats with MBS leading to a trillion dollar shakedown of rich Saudi’s?
I’m sure he made new friends among them.
2
What's more surreal Mr. Kristoff, the assumption that as a columnist for The Times that you reside in New York, were in New York during 9/11, that 9/11 has SA's fingerprints on every aspect of the collusion necessary to enable 9/11 not to mention where 15 of the 19 hijackers hailed from and there's not one mention of any of it in this column? Or the fact Kushner's monster liability driving the potential transfer of nuclear technology to the country responsible but not accountable for 9/11 happens to be 666 Fifth Ave?
2
These aren't so much dots that need connecting, our Jared's bucket and MbS' petrolucre. These are the Atlantic and Pacific of personal imperialism, joined by the Trumpian latrine of corruption.
1
As a US citizen of the Jewish faith, Mr. Kushner does not represent me and never will. Like his father in law, he has no soul, its just another transaction, BASTA!
4
Follow the money.
2
Hence the 20 billion gift to Pakistan, a country with "Islamic bomb" as their politicians call it and sold it to North Korea. Just check out how Pakistan got nuclear bomb.
1
There are no murderers or dictators in the world that are not friends of the tRump mini-mob.
1
How is this not treason beyond reason? Pretty boy Jared in cahoots with tyrannical MBS playing pattycake with nukes. What me worry?
3
T E R R I F Y I N G
Please, I beg our elected officials, help our country get our from under this criminal mob!
5
I realize I'm picking nits here, Nick, but Please stop calling SpankyWorld a "swamp". You spend enough time in The Glorious to know that swamps are magical places - rich, productive and beneficial. The appropriate descriptive for the world occupied by Cadet VeryGoodBrain is "Toxic Waste Dump".
1
Let me see, we have sanctions against Iran, we assasinate their scientists, we do everything possible to destabilize their country and bring about yet another coup in a region in which this is routine fare for us for their efforts in the nuclear area for which there is no proof that their efforts could even eventually fuel a nuke, and yet we are contemplating selling the Saudis the necessary means to create nukes at their leisure, this to a country that be any means is a more radical form of the Muslim faith than Iran has ever been, a country that was the country of origin of the perpetrators of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, a country with the worst human rights record in the Middle East, a country that routinely stones women, beheads dissenters, lashes those who would drink alcohol or some other thing not allowed in the radical Muslim faith and where torture is commonplace, and why, number one would be money to be made by the usual coterie of retired Generals in our military industrial complex, number two, The Saudis probably own Kushner and his family, they certainly bailed them out of a near bankruptcy for no discernible economic motive and of course they are friends of Israel. Kushner should not be allowed to set foot in the Whitehouse much less represent the American people, he is as pathological as Trump without the brains to effectively disquise it; and this is what AIPAC would be grooming for a shot at being the first Jewish President, were in deep, deep trouble.
1
So much corruption. It's no wonder Trump keeps Kushner around. He is just as focused on money making and personal gain as the president. It's all just a series of transactions. They never stopped running their businesses! Where is the public outcry???
So many spineless GOP Senators who put political careers above patriotism, international security and peace.
Saudi Arabians have funded terrorism. Saudis treat their citizens as slaves. Saudis kill their own citizens for simply speaking. Saudis murder Yemenis. And we cultivate them at the highest levels. Where is the outrage?
We don't need the Saudis for oil. Give me one good reason why the US should support this evil regime?
5
Yes, you're a columnist, Mr Kristof - but this is excellent, hard-hitting reporting on Trump and Kushner's traitorous intent to nuclearize a murderous enemy of freedom.
6
The arrogance and contemptuousness of Trump and his clan is simply beyond astonishing.
3
Kushner and Trump want Saudi money for their own personal gain. That's all, folks.
3
“A country that can’t be trusted with a bone saw shouldn’t be trusted with nuclear weapons.”
Not to worry. The Trump administration has finally gotten tough with Saudi Arabia and imposed sanctions on bone saw exports:
https://silverberg-on-meltdown-economics.blogspot.com/2018/10/
2
Congress must stop this.
4
These are the dangers of electing a grifter to the Presidency.
3
Something needs to be done NOW!
2
Jared the deal maker. Owner of the address 666 is trying to sell the soul of our country just like he sold a lease for 666, for money. Foreign policy for profit, our Head of Grift must be very proud of his grifter in law. If this isn't investigated and stopped it could be even more disastrous than Cheney's for profit Foreign Policy, he at least kept his war to bombs and bullets. The little Grifter is willing to chance blowing up the world for Profit.
1
Nicholas,
Would you be as concerned if Iran has Nuclear weapons. If you believe Iran lives up to their agreements , I have a bridge I would like to sell you.If Iran has nuclear weapons, shouldn’t the Saudi’s have them , so there can be a stalemate like India & Pakistan, & the United States & Russia.This is the world we live in, at any given moment we can have a nuclear holocaust. Whomever strikes first may be the winner.Human beings filthy our environment and are in the process of destroying our Planet with fossil fuel.What is the difference what destroys the world we live in.Maybe we just don’t deserve the wonders of life.
1
The first question Nicholas Kristof should be asking is: how come someone with a supposedly decent background such as Jared Kushner can meet in any function with this barbaric so called Prince MbS.
'These are civilian nuclear power plants, and Saudi Arabia claims it wants them for electricity. ...........producing fuel is a standard way for rogue countries to divert fuel for secret nuclear weapons programs"
Let's remember how Israel got it's nuclear weapons program:
1) Israel acquires a reactor from France under the guise of producing power to irrigate the Negev desert
2) Israel steals fissionable material from a nuclear processing plant in Pennsylvania and gets it smuggled out of the US while powerful persons restrain the FBI and Justice Dept.
3) Kennedy writes to Ben-Gurion saying that the Dimona site should be regularly inspected by the IAEA. Ben-Gurion tells New Yorker Abraham Feinberg to “sort out the boy” (Kennedy). Feinberg tells Kennedy that if he continues to insist on inspection of Dimona, he should “ not count on Jewish financial support in the next political election."
4) Kennedy is resolute and Israel is forced to accept an inspection of Dimona. But the inspection is not to be by IAEA but by an American-only team .
5) To fool the inspectors, a bogus control centre is built over the real one at Dimona with instrumentation consistent with powering an irrigation system for the Negev desert. The area containing the heavy water smuggled in from France and Norway is placed “off-limits” to the inspectors “for safety reasons”.
2
My instinct tells me something smells really bad, the Saudis are NOT our friends ...and J Kushner is a sleazy NJ real estate guy pretending to be a person of great knowledge w/ solutions with his best bro: the brutal cold blooded killer his close personal friend MBS. I long for the day all the Trumps and their cohorts get frog marched into prison. In the meantime they continue to squander our $ and undermine our nation.
2
I've been thinking lately that my outrage quotient may have maxed out. This article disabuses me of that notion and raises it to new heights. This is one of the most horrifying and despair-inducing things I have read in a while.
2
Jared Kushner and Crown Prince Muhammed (MBS) have so much in common.
Both are scions of families of dubious repute and vicious venality. Both serve patriarchs -- King Trump and King Salman -- who sit on powerful but tentative thrones perched on mass muttering and discontent.
Both are arrogant the way favored sons are conditioned to self-inflate and claim success by walking and chewing gum. In MBS' case, it's ordering dissident journalist Kashhoggi's death by bone saw while hosting a global conference in Riyadh for foreign business leaders.
Both boys overreach but are always bailed out.
Jared amateurishly overpays for trophy real estate risking his family's fortune until a Middle East sovereign fund (through Brookfield Asset Management) prepays a 99 year lease on Jared's white elephant, so the Kushners don't need bankruptcy advice from their in-laws (easy pun but I won't).
MBS usurps his half-brother as pretender to the Saudi throne and becomes de facto Saudi ruler. He jails dozens of wealthy Saudi royals, forces them to pay massive ransoms (and swear loyalty), cracks down on dissent and murders WashPost writer Jamal Khashoggi.
MBS bailed Jared out. Trump returns the favor by pinning Khashoggi's murder on a 400 lb guy sitting on a mattress in New Jersey (the same guy who hacked Hillary's emails).
To most, Justice is Blind means the rule of law applied fairly to all.
To Jared and MBS, Justice is Blind means getting away with murder.
I had to laugh at this one.
Unanswered questions? Sure, but the answer is pretty obvious.
It is spelled: M O N E Y.
1
Didn't Jared also provide MBS with top U.S. security information on the Prince's "enemies" during a "secret" and unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia? This seemed to coincide with these same enemies being held hostage at the hotel until they complied with the Prince's demands and paid up. Kushner is a lying, devious traitor just wanting to make a name as the Middle East Peace author and to enhance his fortunes.
2
The Trump administration is so blinded by greed that it views giving Saudi Arabia the capacity to produce nuclear weapons to be a good thing. Thus, despite the many evils Nicholas Kristof points out in this article, Jared remains in regular contact with Riyadh.
On Friday, a poster was displayed during a the GOP event at the West Virginia Capitol. The Washington Post provided these details:
The poster, at a table in the Capitol’s rotunda, featured an image of freshmen Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) underneath one of the New York’s twin towers burning.
“'Never forget’ — You said,” read text placed over the photo of the World Trade Center.
“I am the proof you have forgotten,” read the caption over Omar’s image.
------
Jared Kushner, not Ilhan Omar, belongs on such a poster.
2
The Kushner family is well-known for its tricky, and some would say corrupt, real estate deals. THIS is where Jareds expertise lies. So Trump (read Netanyahu) has put him in charge of the real estate "Deal of the Century", only this time it's not a block in Manhattan. it's the entire Palestinian West Bank.
Jared has been canvassing MBS/Saudi Arabia and other super wealthy Arab states, for financing of his latest and biggest deal.
1
Why does it take Nicholas Kristof to reveal and challenge such abuse of power? Why isn't it the FBI and the US Congress initiating this?
3
While the obvious dots between trump, kushner, BinSalman et al remain unconnected, republicans in congress convene a hearing on Hillary.
The president and his mafia family are using America to pay their personal debts to the Saudis. Remember when Bush carefully herded all his Saudi friends into a luxury jet to fly them out of the country after 9/11? "Never forget"? Wars over 9/11, but zero talk about Saudi Arabia. Anything involving the Saudis after that should have met with your suspicion, but it didn't take much for you to forgive even the bone saw murder of a journalist lured there from the U.S. That trip trump took to his golden Saudi kingdom, the glowing ball, his obvious delight in their faux respect for him, and the response? Happy applause from supposed 'never forget' patriots.
As Frank Bruni puts it today, it takes two to bamboozle. It sickens me to see Americans clap and cheer for this. You've given America over to an evil clown, and happily repeat "enemies of the people" as he points and mocks us. Very sloppy citizenship, republicans.
1
Having read this excellent article, I'm now convinced that Kushner is as psychopathic as his father-in-law - not to mention his father, the convicted white collar criminal. Both older men are clearly guilty of warping their protege into a very efficient corruption machine. There is something oddly robotic about this young man, who seemingly has no compunction about meeting and making despicable deals with the sociopathic MBS. Or, if he has some compunction about it, he is so compromised by the Saudi-linked purchase of 666, that he is unable/unwilling to say no to them. Hence the reason he should not only have no top security clearance, he actually should have none. In fact, the best remedy might be for him follow in his father's footsteps, and finish his White House tenure in a jail cell.
3
I'm not sure where in all the drapery of his robe MBS's pocket is located, but it is probably voluminous and, in spite of its size, crowded, with Jared joining his father-in-law and who knows who else therein.
The rich have more and pricier toys than we commoners.
This whole affair doesn't merely smell, it reeks, of corruption, bribery, possibly, do you think, even "high crimes and misdemeanors?"
101
Jared and Ivanka, What will you tell your children when history records your immoral actions for the sake of greed and power?
6
Wouldn’t that be called treason?
7
Gee, and Ivanka wasn't even required to wear a token headscarf.
We know that Saudi Arabia exports extremist Wahabi Islam all over the world. If the Trump administration is fool enough to give them nukes, expect those weapons to end up in the hands of terrorists.
3
"...one of the most shocking is a Trump plan to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia that could be used to make nuclear weapons."
Where at your link does it say nuclear reactors can be used to make nuclear weapons? It doesn't, of course, because they can't (rest assured, they can't be used to manufacture anthrax, opioids, or social unrest, either).
If the U.S. does sell nuclear power technology to the Saudis, it will be the first country in the world to have nuclear power before having a bomb first. The nation with the dirtiest per-capita carbon emissions could become the cleanest, and set an example for Americans still relying on dirty, domestic fossil fuel to generate electricity.
With the threat of climate change before us it's time this bit of foolishness is retired forever. All nuclear power reactors are good for is generating clean, safe electricity, and though it would be wonderful if they could make good coffee, they can't.
1
They don’t want to go solar? This is alarming!
2
We've obviously learned nothing from the fall of the Shah of Iran in the 1970's . The Pahlavi Dynasty of Iran ,of course, was the Persian equivalent of the ruling House of Saud in Arabia, and the Pahlavi had been vigorously supported by first the British and then, after WWII, the American military and our security forces, to act as bulwark against the rise of radical Islamic forces and anti-Israel sentiment in the Middle East.
History tell us that despite our best efforts to support the Pahlavi regime (including Millions and millions of dollars of modern weaponry and extensive training in anti-insurgency methods) the Shah was overthrown in 1979 and the American's unceremoniously kicked out ,when the Radical Mullahs took over. And we Americans consequently, for the past 40 years, have been paying the price in both blood and treasure of our over- confidence in the power of the Royals in Iran to control (with an iron fist) events in the Middle East.
So now in 2019, despite warnings from our own US security agencies over the restlessness and anger that surrounds the Royal Saudi Family ,which is emanating from both the Arabian people and from within the extended Royal Family itself, we are witnessing mechinations by Trump Inc to not only continue with providing carte blanch to the Saudi Royals but even considering providing them with Nuclear weapons!
Who was it ,again, who said: "Those who the gods would destroy, they first make Mad"?
1
More good reporting by NK. Thanks.
5
We have never had a President more over his head than Trump. But don't worry, he has Jared Kushner's years of international diplomatic experience to draw upon. I can think of no better example of the blind leading the blind than this administration.
The Saudis (along with the rest of the world) no longer has any respect for our country. It is hard to believe that the US can go from leadership of the free world to a laughing stock in only 2 years.
6
So, the Trump administration bans travelers from majority muslim countries on the proclaimed basis of preventing terror attacks, yet has no problem providing Saudi Arabia, where the majority of the 911 hijackers came from, with access to nuclear capabilities.
I'd say this is stunning, but sadly, it is not.
9
One of the USIC’s deepest secrets is the knowledge that Saudi Arabia funded the Pakistani nuclear program at a price....Pakistani-made nuclear warheads for Saudi Arabia’s Chinese-made ballistic missiles. This is Saudi Arabia’s security guarantee from war with Israel and Iran, and their foreign policy reflects it.
1
Kurshner and Trump have a bigger conflict of interest with Brookfield than Cheney and Bush had with Halliburton. Who will lead us out of a throughly corrupted Washington?
5
It's time to indict Kushner. He has done enough damage. The evidence is clear. He, like his father-in-law, has been feathering his own nest on our nickel.
6
How could you even suggest that a $1.1 billion deal might influence our president and his son in law? The Saudis and their bone-saw crown prince need nuclear power for the sun and oil drenched kingdom so that they won't have to worry about running out of energy. Grisly murder, impending starvation of millions of Yemenis, 911 -- the Saudis so clearly have been our loyal allies through time. Of course, we want to reward them with nuclear plants of their own.
4
It has only taken a month or so -- why the long delay? -- to put this issue front and center.
Global nuclear powers' policy for decades is non-proliferation. Now, because someone's $1.1 billion has taken "666" off the Kushners' backs, we'll hand nuclear capabilities to a fiendish despot, who rules the country that delivered the 9/11 hijackers.
THIS is the most glaring and most dangerous example of why so-called Republicans can no longer be trusted with national security matters. But it's just at the top of a long list, sad to say.
In Colorado, "Senator" Cory Gardner is gone, gone, gone.
3
I think Jared Kushner should have his unwarranted security clearance invoked immediately. It sure looks like Jared is manipulating his unhinged father in law for his own financial gains and to grab power to the detriment of our country's national security. I think Ivanka is also involved in this and if Ivanka and Jared broke the law they need to be held accountable.
5
The word was that Jared Kushner was on a mission of "peace." When I first read that and then learned that he met with a powerful assassin whose moniker is MBS the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, the full ruse and guise came into view. One does not know where to begin..this is so egregious and, indeed, corrupt. But what do we expect from Mr. Trump and his equally unethical son-in-law (and son). This is about impure and not-so-simple greed and the lust for money..truly the root of all evils. Think about this administration - and also a GOP Congress which is devoid of moral compasses. While exiting from an agreement which is the one and only hold we have over Iran, while bungling an ill-prepared summit with North Korea, we are simultaneously gifting a ruthless nation with the means to destroy everything in its path. This sham of an administration, its players and main actors, is on that road to perdition. And against our wills and better souls, they are dragging us along with them. I am disgusted.
128
Quid pro quo, pay to play, call it what you will. Kushner is clearly compromised, to the tune of 1.1 billion dollars. His security clearance should be immediately revoked. Why this hasn’t happened already is yet another glaring symptom of this administration’s systemic corruption.
Thank you, Mr. Kristof. We should all be shouting this from the rooftops.
6
keep fossil fuel in the ground and build nuclear power plant to supply the world with energy. Ban all nuclear weaponry or be a hypocrit.
Nuclearize SA while screaming about Iran and NK!
Doesn't it seem odd to us that a top producer of oil wants a nuclear backup for electrical power?
It would be a perfect setup for war in the ME to have Iran and SA to both be nuclearized!
How much more are we going to tolerate from the President and his corrupt family?
5
Maybe Mr. Kushner was discussing Middle East peace.
Of course, that doesn't fit the Narrative, and it's something the possible achievement of which by Trump sends shivers down Democrat spines, so Mr. Kristof, ever in the service of the Trump hating left, or more accurately part of the Trump hating left, doesn't mention it.
Sad.
Time to subpoena Jared. Let's discover what was talked about with the Prince. He's on our dime, therefore we have the right to know.
7
This is the first sign of something that could be serious enough to threaten Trump’s hold on power. Selling nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia is probably the worst idea that has come up since Iran Contra. Actually it’s a lot worse than Iran Contra. This is a complete game changer.
101
At least if those nuclear plants financed by Saudi Arabia and built in the desert will be based on Thorium technology it could be more readily acceptable. Thorium has the advance to be much more recyclable with much less pollution and risks involved than Uranium based nuclear. And, with Thorium you cannot move around to end up producing nuclear weapons.
2
If we can't stop Trump/Kushner, maybe we need to turn our attention to Westinghouse Electric Company (located outside Pittsburgh) and Brookfield Business Partners. They are looking to make money off the weapons the children of American families will face. There is no better example of "privatizing profits" and "socializing risk."
There oughta be a law. . .
6
@paula
Westinghouse does not have any nuclear weapons or uranium enrichment technology. Their desire is to sell light water reactors...similar to the plants being build in the UAE.
1
Pakistan is a failed, nuclear, Islamic state with rogue (or perhaps ruling) intelligence services, a long-term ally of ours that uses us to further its own agenda just as we use it. The Saudis are popular among many Pakistanis for defending the faith and for the money they give or lend Pakistan. An alliance makes Pakistan's nukes available to the Saudis and Saudi money and religious values available to Pakistan.
Evidently there are rumors that this alliance has already done things in secret, but these rumors have not received much coverage from our de-facto official news sources such as the gray lady.
4
We all get lazy sometimes. The height of laziness is taking seriously the idea that this Congress, or the next one, is going to allow anything so preposterous as sales of nuclear reactor goods and services to a country sitting on one of the largest reserves of natural gas in the world. The proper suspicion is prosaic, Kushner wants more real estate co-investors, and is using fooling talk of nuclear power to ingratiate. Besides laziness, the author mentions Yemen without mentioning Iran, which shows a lack of even an iota of balance. On the good side, and the author agrees with POTUS, the author writes, "The Saudis depend on us for their security." True.
3
@Tom B.
I guess Kristof does not consider Iran a problem in the middle east. Seems a bid odd. So Trump is playing nice with the Saudi's? Well, at least you don't hear the leaders of SA screaming "Death to America" on a daily basis as you do in Iran. And show me one recent former president who has not pandered to SA. Give me a break. Well, Obama tried to give Iran a break, Wonder why.
3
I think it is time to revoke Kushner's and Ivanka's security clearances. Obviously someone who lies on the application is not to be trusted with confidential and top secret information especially as we see it is being used to shore up the soon to tumble Trump/Kushner "empires".
212
@stefanie
Trump and Kushner repeatedly lied that they had no contact whatsoever with Russia.
Kushner later amended his security clearance application to acknowledge more than 100 contacts with Russians prior to Trump's inauguration. Including a secret back channel to the Russians.
Oooops...
22
@stefanie Also time to revoke their freedom and put them behind bars where they belong.
14
@stefanie I agree.
8
Jared feels so above the law because he knows that he will not follow the fate of Michael Flynn. Donald will grant him a presidential pardon.
I would strongly suggest to law enforcement, special investigators and the House to wait one day after Trump is no more president (by impeachment or not) to put the handcuffs on any member of this family and its inner circle of corruption.
170
@Aurace Rengifo I agree. But I think law enforcement knows exactly what it is doing, as does Mueller. They probably all feel they have to take a shower after going after the corrupt Trump. He is so horrible.
8
Isn't this exactly as it appears: Kushner getting out of financial trouble by offering the Saudis a path to developing nuclear weapons? A country that is incredibly rich in oil reserves suddenly needs nuclear power? It's particularly jarring when one considers the religious backgrounds and implications for the Middle East and the rest of the world. And we thought Iran-Contra was a scandal.
220
@Dave R This may sound over the top dramatic, but some times I feel suicidal when I read/listen/watch too much about what is happening to our country. On good days I only cry.
10
@Dave R Kushner was in big trouble with that property at 666. The $1.1B payed in advance for 99 years should help the courts decide if there was a conspiracy involving National Security secrets.
Ivanka is there as well. She needs to be sentenced along with the other criminals.
22
Where did the $1.1 billion come from? Were there any side deals--contracts--involved in the signing? The appearance here, if not the actual case, is that Mr. Kushner used his government position to profit in his personal business.
Separately is the Trump regime still supporting attacks against Qatar for refusing to loan money for the Manhattan property?
10
The fact that the Saudis want to build light water reactors should ring alarm bells in Washington about how limited fossil fuels will be in the future.
The key question here is why Saudi Arabia would want to enrich uranium. It would be economically a poor idea as there is sufficient capacity in other countries to provide low enriched uranium. I don't think Jared is looking for the answer.
7
Surprised you didn’t add in the fact that w/ their energy riches, that are so cheaply produced. Why would they want to generate electricity by such an expensive method as nuclear? Something is certainly not right here.
6
@George Murphy
Strange, indeed. They planned 40 power plants (there are only 60 commercial plants in the US) when, if anyone could, they should almost completely solar.
10
The Brookfield Asset Management deal to rescue the Kushners from 666 Fifth Avenue should be investigated as part of Trump overriding recommendations to deny Kushner's top level security clearance and the White House withholding the report on the Khashoggi murder.
Kushner seems to be operating as a secret agent for the Saudis with direct ties to his father-in-law. This might be easier to prove in court than Donald Trump's work as a Putin agent though there is plenty of evidence of both.
13
I wonder if Merkley, Markey and Paul would also be interested in drafting legislation that puts some teeth into our anti-nepotism policies, so the undeserving likes of Jared Kushner never end up as self-serving "Senior Advisers" in any future administration.
9
This is what wholesale corruption at the highest level of government looks and feels like.
The fact that a nuclear armed Saudi Arabia would make the world a logarithmically more dangerous place means nothing as long as Mr. Kushner's mortgage gets paid.
The institutions and power structures that protect all American's from tyranny are being sold off to the highest bidder so that a handful of people can enrich themselves, and themselves alone.
Whenever I heard Donald Trump speak, I hear Vladimir Putin's voice. Trump has not done one single thing while in office that wouldn't be done exactly the same way as a Russian agent out to destroy the current world order.
Trump consistently rails against our staunches allies, while bending over backwards to coddle the worst dictators on the planet. He admittedly "fell in love" with Kim Jong-un. A man directly responsible for the 17 month torture and subsequent death of an American college student. A young man sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for stealing a poster.
This is only the most recent incident in which our President has sided with the leader of a hostile foreign power over his own intelligence services and the interests of his own people. He's done it with Putin, Kim Jong-un, the Saudi Prince, Duterte, etc, etc, etc. Trump consistently puts our enemies interests above our own.
What do you call it when the President of the United States condemns and vilifies our allies, while simultaneously siding with our worst enemies?
158
@Chicago Guy
"What do you call it when the President of the United States condemns and vilifies our allies, while simultaneously siding with our worst enemies?"
You don't call it anything, Like Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows. you ignore it. You talk about the tax cuts (not the deficit, silly), you talk about the economy (not that it was inherited from Obama, silly), you talk about the progress with NK (not the fact that there has been no progress, silly), you demonize our security and law enforcement agencies for selflessly doing their jobs. But definitely you don't call it treason, because, well, that's what it is.
25
@Chicago Guy I totally agree. And I do believe that Trump, like his great mentor, Roy Cohen - the most vile guy before Trump - will get his, as will his family. Wednesday was the beginning of his and his family's fall.
11
@Chicago Guy
I call it "time for impeachment"...the control he has of the GOP, the evangelicals (those who think he was "called by God") is giving him all of the cover he needs. The danger comes right here in the USA....forget about the rest of the world. He is being supported by Americans in America! All else is merely noise to distract us!
5
Thinking long term, as climate change renders countries with milder temperatures and large quantities of naturally-available potable water the “have” nations, do we really want to give a country built on sand and slowly heating up to barely inhabitable levels, nuclear weapons? This obviously makes the U.S., Canada, Europe etc. a target for future nuclear threats.
5
I thought it odd that the first big foreign trip of the Trump Administration was not to our major allies and trading partners but to Saudi Arabia. Odder yet was that the President's daughter and son-in-law seemed to be his chief advisors. Even odder yet was the extravagance of the visit sealed by the gift to Trump of a golden sword.
Add to this mystery the highly leveraged large privately held real estate businesses of the Trumps and Kushners with no public financial reports and rumors of their being overvalued and under financial stress. Then add in the oil and the Israel-Arab issues. Finally throw in a Republican controlled Congress (until recently) resulting in no political accountability and you have the true State of the Nation.
I long for the day when the lights are turned on and we can watch the vermin scurry away to hide.
147
@Fr. Bill
The gift of a golden sword would be too valuable to be accepted by any governmental officer including thenpresident and members of his immediate or extended family.
This was ruled after lavish gifts of jewels were accepted by Mrs. John F. Kennedy. Nobody in government should be unaware of this.
4
Under the law, the AEC cannot transfer nuclear technology for power plants to another nation (Saudi Arabia) without Congressional consent. The objections of concerned U.S Senators notwithstanding, will Trump Inc. defy or otherwise maneuver around the law for financial gain? If history is a guide here, the answer is "Yes." Nuclear Non-Proliferation trumped by profit and greed.
14
@leo Good point. The GOP-majority Senate no longer acts as a separate branch of government. They think they work for Trump, and will give him whatever he wants.
7
It's hard to get beyond the photo showing our unelected emissaries - make that Trump's emissaries - to the Saudis, and the Middle East with murderous MBS. Granted it was taken before the murder, but their vacuousness, conflicts of interests and lack of any relevant expertise is -an outrage.
10
I see parallels in the US relationships with the Saudis and the Russians.
Then: Russia, in its Soviet days, confronts the US - not very successfully - by military and nuclear threat.
Now: it very successfully undermines the US with cyber warfare.
Then: Saudis attack the US on 9/11
Now: they recruit willing and corruptible agents in governmental and corporate America to do their bidding.
20
I suspect his connection with the Saudis was the reason for refusing Kushner a security clearance until trump forced it. Weren't the 9/11 attackers almost all Saudis?
34
@J.Sutton YES
1
When I was in college in the early 1970's, I took an important exam to qualify for admittance into prestigious programs, international and governmental. I learned afterwards that the correct answer to "What is the real economic system of the USA?", was "competing monopolies".
It's gotten worse now. You can see it playing out now in what's left of our abused Constitution and governmental policies, starting with the "pay to play" aspect of how we run elections, which sadly have morphed into competitions to represent behemoth corporate interests and not "We The People".
BTW, corporations are not "people", but entities created and chartered SOLELY for the purpose of earning profits for the shareholders. Period. That was another answer on those tests.
54
corporations can shield individual human persons from the consequences of their acts, from taxes, and absolve them of liability , all very handy aspects as well.
4
So we have Iran and Saudi Arabia fighting for influence in the region.
We have India and Pakistan as feuding nuclear powers.
We have an impoverished Pakistan, unsuccessfully trying to manage terrorism.
We have Saudi Arabia tolerating and supporting extremism building a stronger relationship with Pakistan, supporting them economically.
Afghanistan is a political void.
That leaves Iran wedged between a nuclear Pakistan, a would-be nuclear power Saudi Arabia and a hostile and (most likely) nuclearized Israel - while the Trump administration is pulling the safety-net of the nuclear deal with Iran, unconditionally supports Netanyahu's aggressive politics - and now enables a relative and real estate magnate to negotiate nuclear weapon's grade sales to Saudi Arabia.
What could go wrong?
At least we do not have to wait for Climate Change to decimate the Earth's population!
38
The US sponsors Sunni Islamic extremists and has done so since the 1950s, starting under British tutelage.
The Brits learned a lot about this useful strategic weapon from colonial times.
Why not now arm them to the nuclear teeth to seek advantage against Shia Iran?
3
@PK Jharkhand - I would think that the death of tens of millions and the start of a nuclear conflgeration that ends civilization might give one pause.
8
The phony. baloney, put American last republicans in congress at is again especially the never met a war I did not like Sen. Graham from S. Car.
They demand obscene military budgets approaching one trillion dollars, more than the military budgets of the next ten countries combined but overlook dangerous security risks like Kuschner and Trump by giving them security clearance when there is overwhelming circumstantial evidence (so far) that they will sell America out for money with the Russians or anybody else.
20
You are completely correct to say there is more to the Saudi situation than is known at this point. What is known is damning enough. Why would Saudi Arabia, the world's leading proponent of petro-fuels, want to build 40 nuclear power plants? Seems counter to their own financial interest given how cheap oil is to them. Somehow, I don't see the Crown Prince as a leader in the fight against climate change.
As for Yemen, I don't ever recall Trump or Kushner publicly calling for Saudi Arabia to stop blocking humanitarian aid to Yemen in response to the crisis Saudi Arabia caused and is still exacerbating.
Trump calls out Maduro every chance he gets for blocking humanitarian aid from entering Venezuela.
But Trump does love dictators like MBS (not the dictators of Cuba and Venezuela because they are Latin American, I suspect).
Trump's inconsistency with regard to North Korea and Iran, where he wants to stop nuclear proliferation, and Saudi Arabia where he wants to foster it is completely based on money. He thinks he can make money by supplying Saudi Arabia and sees no money in North Korea or Iran which he can tap into. I am sure there is more going on, as well, but I do not have a top secret security clearance.
16
As if Trump's embrace of Kim Jong-Un is all that bizarre? The Saudis are amongst the least democratic and anti-human rights of any on earth. When does MBS get held up to scrutiny, a la Kim? Come on. The fact is, it isn't all that unusual for American leaders and presidents, who along the way have cozied up to truly horrible dictators and authoritarian regimes across the globe like those of Stalin, Franco, Saddam Hussein, Pinochet, Noriega, Park Chung He and many more. If we really want to support 'democracy', when does it ever stop? The reality is, if you'll do business with us, democracy goes out the window, as does all of our so called scruples and principles. Sadly, nothing else really matters.
18
Jared & MBS: They fell in love.
13
@cl. Great combination—Jared and MBS, and Trump and Kim all in love. Such alliances so truly in the American tradition of supporting those who are aligned with freedom. After all, who needs free speech and press, checks and balances? Dictators get things done so much more efficiently.
13
Today the world is navigating in troubled waters, particularly in the Middle East. One of our perceptive passengers has spotted a dangerous shadow on the horizon. Thank you Mr. Kristof.
But I think you may have seen just the tip of an iceberg. We simply don’t know what lies below the surface.
There is a real and dangerous possibility that the iceberg you spotted is called Donald Trump’s “Deal of the Century”. The hidden parts of the deal could well be the following:
1) Saudi Arabia gets nuclear weapons technology (with Israeli security guarantees) and continued American suppression of Iran, in return for funding the “Deal”.
2) Israel get most of the West Bank land plus control of the water resources in the West Bank and the gas in the waters off Gaza.
3) The Palestinians in the West Bank get several so-called Bantustans under Israeli economic and military control, plus large sums of money for economic development under Israeli control.
4 ) Palestinian Gaza becomes a semi-independent regional part of Egypt, under Egyptian economic and military control, plus large sums of money for economic development under Egyptian/Israeli control.
5) Palestinian refugees get nominal payments in return for abrogation of their right of return.
In short, Palestinian legal rights are bought by the Ttump-Kushner-Netanyahu-MBS cabal.
Are we going to standby and let the rookie Captain Trump take our ship into an iceberg disaster, or are we going to demand a wide change in course?
12
@Greg
sorry, I forgot the obvious ..
6) the Trump-Kushner real estate conglomerate gets bailed out of their debts plus choice properties in Tel Aviv and Riyadh worth many millions
1
@Greg
Man the life boats America (or change your captain)
1
The surest way to ensure Iran produces nuclear weapons is to sell the Saudi's the unregulated means to produce their own. Then again, recalling 9/11, America and the world may have more to fear from nuclear armed Jihadist terrorists from the Kingdom than from Iran. Of course, Trump has said he doesn't care what happens after he leaves office, and Jared needs the kickback money now.
9
Now is the time (again) for Senate Republicans to stand up and be counted. Let's see if their previously voiced outrage with MBS & Saudi Arabia over the Kashoggi killing will give them the back bone to stand up to Trump and block the sale of nuclear reactors by the US. Providing MBS with such technology will only serve to further destabilize the region. Donald, sometime diplomacy means walking away from the money!
6
So the company that bailed Jared out of 666 is pushing the sale of nuclear technology in Saudi Arabia, assisted by "a group of retired U.S. national security officials" who shall remain nameless. Who are they and what other projects are they working on?
Rarely is such corruption and venality so obvious. While the nation stands agape at Donald's every tweet, these things are going on beneath the surface.
So is Donald flacking for Jared or is it the other way around?
25
Thank you for updating this clear and present danger, irresponsibly clueless and unscrupulous Trump, ready and willing to sell nuclear technology to assassin Salman, one of the princes of Saudi Arabia's dictatorship, er, kingdom, both abusive to no measure, and with enormous conflicts of interest. Just don't tell us that Jared has not become a "fifth columnist, trying to get money no matter how dirty, to save his real estate business...while on government dole. Has he forgotten that his father went to jail for less, for defrauding the IRS? Incidentally, once we obtain Trump's tax returns he so jealously protects, he'll be in deep waters as well...as he must, for his crookery.
10
Sad that the US and SA both have nepotism as their official policy.
14
nothing wrong with that as long on as you keep it in the family.
Two plus two equals four. No wonder why the intelligence community didn’t want to give Kushner security clearance: he took a massive bribe from Westinghouse who bought his failed building in order for a Kushner to make a deal with the Saudis. So Kushner became the salesman in chief for Saudi. Trump loves big deal, so he pushed through Kushner’s security clearance.
19
Seems to me, Mr. Kristof, you are on the right track: "Follow the money."
13
Excellent column by Nicholas Kristof. Concise, on point, and extremely concerning.
12
If neither the Saudi/Sunni nor the Iranian/Shia have the bomb, it is good. If they both do, it is bad. If only one does, it is disastrous.
3
Evangelicals may celebrate the apocalypse as the fruition of Christian prophesy, however:
If the separation of church and state is to be maintained, nuclear weapons must not be given to Saudi Arabia. That Jared Kushner would facilitate such a deal adds derp irony to a clearly dangerous situation.
9
A country that has a very large share of the known world oil reserves, where the sun shines 360 days a year, and has ample wind, needs 40 nuclear reactors for its energy needs? Really? I can't imagine the kool-aid you would have to drink to believe that.
26
With huge crude oil and gas reserves, a population of only thirty some odd million, and given the costly, dirty, risky nature of nuclear power generation, one gapes at the transparency of this duplicitous initiative.
The only comfort at this point is knowing that the Honorable
Speaker of the House of Representatives, with all her hard-earned experience, is there to put the brakes on this scheme.
Were there a God to thank, this would make me grateful.
5
While the excuse of, "if we don't do it, someone else will" carries minimal weight, there is one guaranteed assurance that "if they do, we'll eliminate it", that carries maximum weight. The Israelis have had practice in this approach. Think Iraq and Syria. Also, they keep up tp date by following happenings in Iran.
"Build it, and they will come" (Field of Dreams)
2
@Jud Hendelman
So, does this mean that the US will be at odds with the Israelis, when the event happens?
1
Although I am not in the least bit religious, the symbolism of the lynchpin to all this being the 666 deal is just delicious.
15
The Saudis are obviously being groomed to replace the Russians as the Trump crime family’s principal financiers. Even Trump may think that the Russians have too much control over him.
5
Something like this has to have broad bi-partisan support because these projects would spawn multiple administrations. I could easily see a future democrat POTUS cancelling such a deal thus leaving many stranded assets in the dessert. A more fundamental question is why do the Saudis need nuclear power in the first place. Their landmass has a decent thermal gradient under it that could support geothermal electric power generation thus obviating a need for uranium and storing its waste and by-products for 30,000 years.
5
The Trump Crime Family needs to be dismantled and their influence in world and US politics eliminated. To this end, the GOP just be voted into insignificance at every level. Unchecked, conservatives will destroy the world.
10
Jared may be even more dangerous to the security of the country than Donald is...He is cocky and thinks he knows more than he knows. And he is sliding under the radar of the press because Donald consumes all the headlines. This crime family is representing our country and throwing our democracy away. It has to be stopped!
11
If only Mr. Kristof had been equally curious about why Obama was intent on giving a clear and unfettered path to a nuclear bomb just 10 years after Obama left office...he might have some credibility on the issue.
Saudi's have shown themselves to be very mature in their desire to find peace in the Middle East, finding ways to partner with Israel and others to contain Iran's rambunctious ambitions to gain power over all their neighbors while slowly liberalizing society.
People forget that the Middle East isn't Kansas or California.
These are people with fundamentalist religious convictions that would make the average American Progressive shriek in horror..or is that Sheikh in horror?
Finding a stable nation with the gravitas to overcome the idiocy of what Obama gave Iran is important for the world economy as well as the world's safety; all of which would be put in peril when Iran starts weaponizing nukes in just a few years thanks to Mr. Obama.
THIS is why we don't give Presidents unfettered powers to bypass our duly elected representatives in Congress...yet the D's did it anywhere and haven't even apologized.
The fact Trump is trying to create some balance is to be commended...as inartful as he can be.
Surely Nicholas Kristof is aware of that, even though TDS appears to be in the way of clear and reasoned thinking once again.
@Erica Smythe
"THIS is why we don't give Presidents unfettered powers to bypass our duly elected representatives in Congress...yet the D's did it anywhere and haven't even apologized."
You mean like declaring an emergency to build a wall. Or dismantling trade agreements with China, Canada and Mexico...
The executive branch has the power to negotiate treaties with other countries. The nuclear agreement with Iran was negotiated with partnerships around the world...and Trump is the outlier that is making the issue worse now.
3
Good column, as far as it goes. I’d like to see some articles fleshing out some things left unsaid. Where is the UN on this possible expansion of nuclear technology? NATO? The EU?
And what exactly are the actual laws on security clearances? Any? Or just the whim of the president?
I read recently that we now have a Saudi princess as our new ambassador from Saudi Arabia. Did I miss all the news channels, media, surrounding her, asking her, “where is Loujain al-Hathloul and the other rights activists who only wanted to drive a car? And exactly which entities did they conspire with to threaten the ‘security and stability of the kingdom’?
And what are the laws on when we can reject an ambassador, give them 24 hours to leave our country? Before or after we throw them a welcoming ceremony, dinner party, ......kneel?
5
The Jared owned 666 5th Ave deal with Saudi funded up-front 99 year $1.1B lease pay-out reeks of corruption. We now have nuclear-emoluments.
12
Kushner and Trump are looking ahead post-presidency, when despots like MBS, Putin and Kim will pay back for all the favors the Trump administration is granting. Think of the beach resorts in North Korea, the hotels in Russia, and office buildings in Saudi Arabia.
This shameless family is working in secret to give away American assets, including knowhow, for their personal gain. If they have a patriotic silver lining, it has yet to be seen. The Republicans are being paid off, and are knee deep and getting deeper.
Yet, this is all legal while he is President.
12
@Baddy Khan
Yes, personal gain. That was why trump was stunned when he learnt, he was about to become president. His ambitions was answered.
1
We are so fortunate to have a free press that will shine a light on this type of stuff.
5
Mr. Kristof, If the US doesn't sell Saudi Arabia the technology for nuclear reactors, they'll buy it from someone else. We don't have the only patent on reactors. The Prince is a murderer -what else is new. Kim Jong-un is a murderer, Putin is a murderer, Maduro is a murderer, even President Xi of China is known to have silenced his opposition. We live in a world of autocrats who have no morals; our President has shown he has very little. He believes U.S. jobs take precedence over diplomatic relations - we could easily sanction the Saudis for the murder of Khashoggi; and the Saudis can easily cancel their billion dollar orders for our military purchases from General Dynamics, Lockheed and Martin Marietta. Iran will eventually develop nuclear weapon, and the Saudis may not be far behind. We can't police the world forever and continue preventing the inevitable. It's a violent world we live in - it seems to be getting more violent....and America has only contributed to the violence by entering several meaningless wars. If we begin to show the world peace, maybe other countries may not feel so compelled to develop nuclear weapons. Lead by example.
2
This proposed Saudi nuclear deal needs to be
scrutinized with a fine tooth comb by the US Congress,
as there are multiple red flags and conflicts of interests.
Other questions that need to be answered by the WH:
(1) "What advice did Trump ask and receive from
Lavrov (the Russian Gov't) regarding the US-NK
Summit talks"?
(2) "Where are the transcription documents from
their conversation"?
(3) "What Russian business was Lavrov tending to
in Hanoi, at the same time as Trump's publicized
Summit"?
6
Saudi-U.S. relations have been a vexing part of our foreign policy for decades.
We saw over a dozen Saudi hijackers, inspired by the radical Wahabi view of Islam, wreck havoc on our country at the same time as Prince Bahndar was aka “Bahndar Bush” because of his closeness to the Bush family.
This continued closeness with the Trump family, including Kushner, is really a continuation rather than a new relationship between American authorities and the Saudi Royal Family.
4
As a supporter of Israel, I deeply fear that Trump and his enablers Jared Kushner and Benjamin Netanyahu, are setting the Jewish state up for its destruction. Trump's abandonment of the Iran deal will eventually re-set Iran on a course of covert bomb development (What's the lesson of North Korea? That without a bomb, you're history.) The Saudis will need a bomb to counter Iran. And as the old Tom Lehrer song says, "Everybody hates the Jews." Can you imagine Israelis living safely in a region where both Iran and Saudi Arabia possess nuclear weapons?
4
There is one thing only that drives this "president" and his massively corrupt family: personal gain. There's not a single move or policy that I can think of--from China to Russia to the monument at the Mexican border--that cannot be traced back to either personal or financial gain for this criminal enterprise staining our country. Words such as "may," "appears," and "seems" should replaced with the definitive verbs "is" and "are"; enough with the privileged benefit of the doubt.
7
"Trump and Kushner seem to be irresponsibly trying to boost the prince’s prospects, increasing the risk that an unstable hothead will mismanage the kingdom for the next 50 years. Perhaps with nuclear weapons".
A large majority of American are afraid of the increasing risk that an unstable hothead named Trump will mismanage the US of A for almost two more years armed with nuclear weapons to boot. This man with the self declared "greatest words" didn't even know what the nuclear Triad is, probably confusing it with a threesomes.
.
5
Thank you!! That is exactly what I was thinkng. While DJT is in Vietnam, scurry over to Saudi Arabia, and spin it as the peace deal instead of the nuclear energy project.
2
Thank you Mr Kristof for your column today. The president and his family seem unaware of the real danger that Saudi Arabia represents. It is a cancer that is threatening the well being and health , not only of the Middle East, but also of the whole world. A nuclear S.A. may well spell the end of the world. Those who, in the 30's raised the alarm about Hitler , were told that what they were warning about could never happen. Time to re-visit the 30's and the terrible and harsh lessons the world learnt then.
Actually , the same way that there is a chief of staff at the white house, there should also be a historian-in-chief and a philosopher-in-chief accompanying every president at all time to remind him and present him with all the lessons learnt in the past 3000 years.
90
@dyna Really kind to pretend that they are unaware. In reality they just do not care.
10
This is as scary as it gets. Hope Congress can stop it
4
Here's the $64,000 question: Will Israel tolerate a nuclear Saudi Arabia? I don't think it will, American Embassy in Jerusalem or not.
2
When are Americans going to regain control of their own foreign policy. Saudi Arabia and Israel have no rightful place in the American democracy. American foreign policy should be "Made in America".
5
I am no longer surprised at anything the Trump clan does. Morals in their world do not exist. MONEY is their only GOD.
But when they die, as we all do, their money can't save them.
I wonder what the people who support them believe in.
I realize the Republican party has the same moral code as Trump but the people who voted for him don't get the payday that the GOP is looking for.
4
Finally, we've reached the concluding chapters of, "The Art of The Deal"!
3
Kushner went to see MBS and other wealthy Arab leaders to sell the financial part of the Kushner-Netanyahu "Deal of the Century". In other words he wants vast sums of money to be able to buy Palestinian legal rights to their land.
Mr. Kushner, the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just another of your sleezy real estate deals in which you can corrupt public officials and do end runs around the law.
4
Thank you for your reporting. I had the same reaction, while Kushner's security clearance is hitting the news again... "Jared Kushner slipped quietly into Saudi Arabia this week for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.." I haven't seen too much coverage on this and I sure hope it's being investigated as you brought out.
4
I'm sure Trump can trust anything the Saudi crown prince tells him.
Look, Putin and Kim Jong Un already have proved that dictators can be trusted.
Trump has a track record. Let's stay focused on it.
The global exporter of the most extreme version of Islam, perverting its practices across the globe, deserves, at the very least, at least 40 nuclear plants for whom it produces its own fuel. Trump, you're right on the dirty money. Again.
2
What he describes here is the opposite of science. It is not a rigor of carefully studied and debated datasets that is found in science labs and universities, but the snake oil salesmen pitching hyperbole that now blasts us instantly by social media and the internet. No wonder why Trump and his ilk hate universities and the media, the very institutions that question what’s in the snake oil and the wizard behind the curtain.
3
"Of all the harebrained and unscrupulous dealings of the Trump administration in the last two years, one of the most shocking is a Trump plan to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia that could be used to make nuclear weapons."
Exactly, Mr. Kristof. But you want to know what is more harebrained and shocking? That our nation is being led by a known felon who also happens to be a deranged, mentally unstable mad man, and that this nuclear weapons sale will go unchallenged. That anyone, more than two years on in this "presidency" would expect that Trump or any of his "administration" would act with any scruples in any international arena is, frankly, ridiculous.
The media must stop continuing to treat this "president" like he is a sane, decent, intelligent, thoughtful human being. He is none of these things. He is an insane man with frank delusions of grandeur. He is looking to accomplish nothing more than to line his own pockets. And if this involves criminal wrongdoing or selling this nation out, it really does not matter to Trump.
The longer the New York Times and other news outlets continue to treat the mentally disturbed man in the White House like any of our past presidents -- Democratic or Republican -- the greater the disservice to our nation. Journalists are doing nothing but enabling an insane man who has the keys to the world's largest nuclear arsenal, who is selling out our nation to whomever he can for the highest price -- and only he will profit.
4
Barak bowed a bit too deeply to their king at the G20 and so-called conservatives went berserk. Now our fearlessly fawning leader bows, scapes and seeks to send the Saudi "royals" nuclear capability after dismissing their war crimes in Yemen and helping secure the giant conventional arms deal that enables them. Never mind Khashhoggi either.
Gold, oil and WMDs for all my friends!
Greed for money and lust for power. There is no quenching that thirst. Especially when seas of black gold are involved. Donald and the Prince are leading the charge, with a now infuriatingly quiet and compliant GOP in tow, into a brave new dark age where dictators armed with nukes will get to decide the future with pomp and ceremony followed by a nice lunch at Mar a Lago.
4
Thank you for putting this troublesome development into the public limelight. Trump's dealings with Iran, Korean and the Saudis show an amazing level of ignorance, callousness and incompetence.
It is becoming very clear that the Trump Administration is not only a danger to this country, but to the world. Is there anything Trump and his family do without corrupt intent? How can Republicans stand by and do nothing?
3
Nothing should surprise any of us with the scoundrels that permeate and frequent the White House. It will take months if not years to remove the stench in that building and others that surround it. The cleansing operation might reach other buildings in the city, including the rotunda in the Capitol, if not the entire Capitol itself.
3
The Trump regime is facilitating the transfer of knowledge and capabilities to produce nuclear fuel and potential nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia produced most of the terrorists attacking the USA and is committing atrocities on a monumental scale. I hope that this country remembers that Trump has the full support and adoration of the GOP (as well as 35% of the US population) when a dirty nuclear bomb hits a major US city. Wisdom, learning from history, and foresight is not the strongest suit in the US
3
Uh, the same can be said about the too-close Bush family relationship with the Saudis.
3
Mr. Kristof must have missed the photo of Donald Trump hugging (literally) an American flag at CPAC. Doesn’t that prove how much he and his son-in-law love America?
Everybody is so mean.
Seriously, when he’s done mixing things up, people will believe The Diary of Anne Frank is fake news.
1
This is the kind of mess that should keep us up at night. Of all of the compromising issues that we face with Trump, I would put this at or near the top. These two leaders are truly madmen. Saudi Arabia - and nuclear weapons?
3
A good heads up Mr. Kristof. Another thing to worry about, another conflict of interest to investigate. It’s almost too much to bear. America, you are making the world a crazy place. Please stop this train-wreck in 2020. Reclaim your sanity.
4
The 24-7 news cycle, and the digital age has laid bare the truth, that evil, psychopaths, and sociopaths, are alive in all types of people, Presidents, Princes, Arabs, Evangelicals, Jews, Whites, Males, Females, all people on the face of the earth. Until we decide there is only one side to be on, the side of the truth, and not any political, or religious tribe, then, and only then, will we as an American people work our way back to the decency of what this world so desperately needs, at a time of crisis that this world has not known since the second world war. We are teetering on the brink of catastrophe, as we have few world leaders of character, and humility, willing to stand for one thing alone, and that is the truth. The truth is for humanity to have food, not war, to have education, and healthcare services, to have a chance at a decent living, and to have the cries of the refugees, and wounded, and the ghosts of the millions killed since 2000 in the middle east heard.
4
Before any further discussion of anything, Kushner has to be escorted from the White House by security and banned from the premises until we have had public testimony from Kelly, Ivanka, McGahan and the intelligence community regarding his security clearance.
2
This is the last straw, Mr Kristof!
Kicking the long-maligned as well as still suffering but also still estimable, Mr J Kushner, while he is still down - and his political survival in question - owing to PT's overruling a mere two denials of formalistic security clearings.
O tempora o mores! Oh, the humanity!
"Of all the harebrained and unscrupulous dealings of the Trump administration in the last two years, one of the most shocking is a Trump plan to sell nuclear reactors to Saudi Arabia that could be used to make nuclear weapons."
Exactly, Mr. Kristof. But you want to know what is more harebrained and shocking? That our nation is being led by a known felon who also happens to be a deranged, mentally unstable mad man,, and that this nuclear weapons sale will go unchallenged. That anyone, more than two years on in this "presidency" would expect that Trump or any of his "administration" would act with any scruples in any international arena is, frankly, ridiculous. The media must stop continuing to treat this "president" like he is a sane, decent, intelligent, thoughtful human being. He is none of these things. He is an insane man with frank delusions of grandeur. He is looking to accomplish nothing more than to line his own pockets. And if this involves criminal wrongdoing or selling this nation out, it really does not matter to Trump.
The longer the New York Times and other news outlets continue to treat the mentally disturbed man in the White House like any of our past presidents -- Democratic or Republican -- the greater the disservice to our nation. Journalists are doing nothing but enabling an insane man who has the keys to the world's largest nuclear arsenal, who is selling out our nation to whomever he can for the highest price -- and only he will profit.
1
Imagine if Hillary was president and her son in law did this. Impeachment hearings would have already started. Sadly I don’t think trumps supports can comprehend the danger in handing the keys over to the Saudi’s. Let me just remind everyone that it was the saudis that attacked the US on 9/11. I’ll never forget it and I hope you don’t either.
4
No one should be surprised about any foreign dealings with this administration start with greed. Trump is probably trying to find a way for North Korea to keep its nukes if he can figure out a way to make money off it. That is why, I believe, no progress was made at this last summit. Even ,”the wall”, with, 20 or 30 billion floating around, probably involves him or his friends, making a ton of money off of the project. It is what he does. GREED. Vote blue everyone in 2020.
2
The corrupt Trump Administration is a mortal threat not only to American democracy but also to world peace.
Removing Trump and his Republican congressional enablers from political power is a moral imperative.
3
“Trump and Kushner seem to be irresponsibly trying to boost the prince’s prospects, increasing the risk that an unstable hothead will mismanage the kingdom for the next 50 years. Perhaps with nuclear weapons.”
So let me get this straight:
An unstable, American hothead and a dimwitted, sycophantic, American “prince” are irresponsibly, not to mention unethically, attempting to maximize the risk that an unstable, homicidal hothead—with nuclear weapons likely at his disposal—will mismanage his country for the next half century (with “mismanage” being employed ever so euphemistically).
Have I got that right?
Thought so.
3
Flynn was trolling for dollars on the Inaugural Platform a mere 11 minutes after Trump took the oath.
2
There's a reason Trump and Kushner worship strongmen, and that's because they're absolute wimps themselves. Jared looks like he couldn't punch a nail into a snowbank and Trump cannot stand face-to-face confrontation, preferring to delegate it to the Cohens and Kelly's of the world, or to conduct it by Twitter. I wouldn't be surprised if Trump actually did have bone spurs, having willed his body into growing them out of fear of going to Vietnam. I don't know how his male supporters, who pride themselves on their manly virtues aren't disgusted by these frauds.
2
Hmmm ... Trump and Jared want to give nuclear weapon capability to the native country of the majority of the 9/11 terrorists. When money's involved for him and his family, apparently no deal is off the table.
5
I wonder what the rank-in-file Republican would say and how loud the 24/7 conservative news venue would scream if Obama had his family trasping around the world doing business for themselves, at taxpayer expense, under the guise they're actually doing something for the country?
1
Venality raised to an art form.
1
President Trump is trying to nuclearize Saudi Arabia, and denuclearize North Korea at our same moment in time. Alarm bells -- activated by Trump's son-in-law (his Senior Advisor, Jared Kushner) and his warm relationship with the young Saudi prince -- have gone off and the bells are still ringing, Nick. Weapons, especially nuclear weapons and the raw materials and technology to create them must be kept out of the hands of Saudi Arabia's violent and repressive monarchy.
Donald Trump is an impulsive hothead, supportive of selling nuclear technology to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a young man, an absolute monarch, tainted by cruelty toward his own people and neighbors in the Saudi peninsula. The Prince and the Saudis don't have America over a barrel --- they only have our weak and ignorant president over a barrel. As does Kim Jong-un after Trump walked away from their much vaunted and ballyhooed (and demented) meeting in Hanoi last week.
Senators are now working to oppose the transfer of nuclear tech to Saudi Arabia. Donald Trump's (and Kushner's) vile kowtowing to Prince MbS is intolerable. The prince bragged he has Jared Kushner in his pocket; what revelations of those 99 year big loan machinations for the white elephant of 666 Fifth Avenue lie ahead? Jared Kushner has president Trump in his pocket. The sooner Trump's and Kushner's deep pockets are turned inside out, the better. The sooner our 45th president is turned out, the better.
4
Brookfield Asset Management should be renamed as Brookfield Save My Asset Management after this shady quid pro quo.
2
They make a lovely couple. The family motto seems to be “let no despot be unsmooched”.
4
I hope Representative Cummings finds out for us very soon why Kelly and McGahn opposed Kushner's security clearance. It seems unconnected to this story, but Kushner is meeting with a murderer who controls a net worth that makes Bezo a pauper. The current president thinks money makes the world go around.
To have a son-in-law with an eyes only top secret clearance, as in just between the two of us, makes sense. It's a reverse NDA.
666 Fifth Avenue. Rosemary's baby came up for me. Who owns Brookfield?
2
It there no end to the slimy back door dealings carried out by Kushner, Trump, members of the Cabinet, and other White House enablers? But the larger question is WHO is responsible for reining in this unethical behavior?
It is one thing for U.S. taxpayers to have to pay the tab to the Trump family as the president "rents out" rooms and 'Golf Carts' at, the Trump families', Mar a Largo private club.
But secretly making deals to sell nuclear technology to a young, cruel, unstable, and untrustworthy Saudi prince should have everybody screaming! "Jared, what is your problem!?
How much more out-of-control-behavior will it take America??
3
This is what happens when foreign policy is put into the hands of greedy incompetents by the equally greedy incompetent. Neither Donald Trump nor his son-in-law have any nuanced understanding of the historical context in which any negotiations with the Saudis must be viewed. Trump and Kushner's "policy decisions" are based neither on knowledge of the Middle East nor on a grasp of what might serve to further international peace in the region. Their policy decisions are likely to be based almost exclusively on what will benefit them financially. And when their decisions touch off the explosive political minefields that lie beneath the region, they will simply shrug and count the balance(s) at their bank(s). Any alliance with a dictator (no matter how murderous) that makes them money is a 'good deal'.
Mr. Trump no doubt ordered a security clearance for Mr. Kushner with just those results in mind. After all, when war breaks out once again in the Middle East, Jared will make a convenient scapegoat for his father-in-law to blame. Or Westinghouse. Or Netanyahu. Or Michael Flynn. Or the Democrats. Or Nancy Pelosi. Or whomever happens then to be the current object of his idiotic spite.
How long are you going to continue to allow this to drag on, Republicans? How long?
4
Once, I opposed impeaching Trump because his handmaiden Pence would become president. After the North Korean debacle and an unhinged Trump trashing the nation and its Alliances before his acolytes in places like CPAC2019, impeachment is a must even if the Senate refuses to follow.
2
The most important thing here is that we all help Jared through his awful real estate deal! Then he will sleep better at night unlike he rest of us.
Whats scary about all of this is it seems we’ve lost the “checks and balances” our democracy was founded on. The GOP No longer exists. We now have Democrat’s, Independents, and Trumplicans!
3
Within the disgust and humor it's so easy to feel for this administration's immorality and bumbling incompetence, it's sometimes easy to forget just how dangerous they are and how much damage they are capable of inflicting on this country and the world at large. It's nice to have journos like Mr. Kristof to remind us.
1
MBS is not a sweet kind sensitive humanitarian, I agree. Should the Trump Administration kiss up to this guy? I don't know.
President Obama, and John Kerry kissing up to Iran was more sickening, in my opinion. Iran is clearly the number one state sponsor of terrorism, Hamas, Hezbollah, among other vicious groups. And, acquiring nuclear weapons and long range missiles for offensive purposes, with the avowed goal of wiping Israel of the map.
Given a choice, kissing up to MBS seems the least of evils.
Nick, are you saying that the swamp isn't being drained?
Brookfield should be publicly shamed. They bought a failing business in a failing sector and will stoop to any low they can to turn a profit.
The Saudi regime is perilously close to cracking. You don’t want to inject nuclear capabilities of any type into a faltering dictatorship.
It's so obvious that l'il Jared Kushner has gotten himself in over his head. His disastrous 666 debt was wiped away by Saudi Arabian strings parading the First Son-in-Law around with treasonous precision. Security clearances assured by Putin's Puppet, selling secrets to the top bidders. All the while, Republican patsies look the other way, hiding in closets, cloistered and cowering.
Democrats need to proceed with a greater sense of urgency. The Trump Administration is pulling a coup d'etat on our Constitution.
Saudi Arabia has so much reliable solar energy that they could even export it. Why if not for making a bomb would they want nuclear reactors?
Humankind is like a toddler having found mother's loaded gun in the bedside drawer.
1
The only unanswered question is how much money was involved? You're talking about a president, his children and his son-in-law whose sole motivation in life is greed. The Saudis knew the entire Trump clan could be bought and Jared, whom they derisively called the Clown Prince, was viewed as the weakest link and most bribable.
1
What in the name of all that is holy is a member of the president's immediate family doing meeting unofficially with a Saudi crown prince?
Even without the issue of nuclear fuel, this looks like a massive example of pay to play, or as the Constitution says, emollients.
This reeks to high heaven.
As an aside to religious fundies, does the number 666 set off any alarm bells? I don't think St. Peter is in on this deal.
1
You have to wonder if Brookfield's checking account shows a large deposit in riyals. We're going to need a bigger spreadsheet.
None of the Trump family could get a normal security clearance without a very fat thumb on the scale. Par for the course, crickets from Republicans on this newest farce from the Trump Administration.
"Trump seems to believe that the Saudis have us over a barrel"
Is that a pun?
1
Worse; with Jared's intact top security clearance, imagine which of our darkest national security secrets have found their way from our little prince to his Saudi counterpart.
1
Congressional investigation on this one, immediately. Get him under oath. Or at least try.
The extension of this story is: Did Trump give this financial gift to Jared much as a rich grocery store chain owner gives his children their own store to manage? Is there something in it for Trump. TRUMPNUCLEAR to be placed on the outside of all the plants for a billion a year perhaps? And let's see. The Iranians who were on the path to nuclear weapons. Do you think they will just sit back and not pursue nuclear war heads again if the Saudi's do? After all the deal not to was torn up. It's almost like Trump wants to have this kind of conflict. Like 2 rival gangs in the inner city. Only one had guns. It agreed to get rid of guns for several years of economic development in their neighborhood. The other gang then requests concealed carry passes for it's members. Just to be on the safe side. No guns yet, just the passes. And the first gang will do what, do you think? And the mayor's son in law issues the passes which are obtained from a company in which the son in law is heavily invested. The smart investment move by outsiders in both scenarios? Invest in casket makers or funeral homes. If you think you can sit by and no harm will befall you or your children as a result of deals like this, you are a fool.
So much corruption, so many crimes. Fraud in the White House, and more details of a Trump Organization run like a criminal enterprise, are not disqualifying to Republicans. Just the opposite. That Trump is a racist, a con, a cheat are among the reasons people voted for him. Proving his criminal depravity only strengthens his standing with a large sector of the electorate, most Republicans Congress, & in the right wing media.
Meanwhile, Trump praises and expresses trust in dictators and autocrats, even when it contradicts his own intelligence officials. https://wapo.st/2GSW16f
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hRmr6mrXbc
Doesn't the idea of Saudi Arabia with nuclear weapons make Israel nervous? The love fest between the Saudis and Israelis could turn on a dime.
1
Mr. Kristof must have missed the photo of Donald Trump hugging (literally) an American flag at the CPAC meeting. Doesn’t mugging with the flag prove how much he and his daughter and son-in-law love the United States?
Poor Trumps/Kushners. So misunderstood.
“I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed...but I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed - tops - depending on the breaks.”
Gen. Buck Turgidson
Dr. Strangelove, 1964
If the Saudis get nuclear weapons, as this is clearly a ploy for, then Iran will drop the JCPOA in a heartbeat, and then we'll have TWO unstable countries with nukes in the Middle East, plus Israel. Sounds like a perfect plan for a peaceful region....ugh...
101
@Catie. What makes you think that Iran is an unstable country? The country that has the most nukes and is the only one to have ever used them in war is a dumpster fire at this moment. The only members of the nuclear club that I have the least scintilla of trust in are Britain and France. The US does not make the list.
8
@Catie
If we add Pakistan and India..that makes 5. No one should have nuclear bomb making capability including us
9
Jared and Donald go where the money is, and they get money. To them the means justify the ends. These are not patriots, these are not moral men.
11
The official purpose of Jared's meeting with MBS was "to the financial part" of Jared's soon-to-be-released Middle East "Deal of the Century". What is being negotiated behind the scenes can only be guessed. Funding for Trump/Kushner real estate projects? Supply of nuclear technology and developmental support? Supply of F35s, drones, and cruise missiles? Funding to buy out Palestinian legal rights? Protection of MBS at the international courts? Continued demonization and suppress of Iran?
All of the above could be part of Kushner's "Deal of the Century". All except the interests of the American people.
8
Not a surprise. This is required reading for all Americans.
The equivalence of a Kushner Tower emerging from 666 Fifth Ave. A bailout of $1000,000 as the quid pro quo for the donor to sell its nuclear toys to the Saudis.
And there lies the possible answer to why all intelligence agencies opposed Kushner’s security clearance. The only person in our country whose security clearance presents a greater clear and present danger is his father-in-law.
19
Thank you for writing this very important piece. In normal times this would be the main news story with headlines blaring and pundits discussing 24/7. In Trumpworld, as they say, it’s just Sunday. One of the scariest things about this presidency is that it’s hard to keep up with all the wrongdoing and sustain the outrage. The House of Reprentatives has its work cut out for them.
23
There is so much chaos in the Trump administration, it is hard to keep up with it all; as a result, stories like this get overlooked by the public. Who cares what Trump tweeted this morning or who he offended today? I want to hear more about this issue. With all the conflicts of interest for Trump and those in his orbit, surely this is among the most dangerous examples of financial interests impacting foreign policy. This is dangerous, and it is disgraceful that Congress isn't doing more to stop this.
21
Isn't it kind of a no-brainer that the president should not be able to override the conclusions of intelligence agencies on security clearances for staff with access to highly secret information? It is evident the office of the president has way too much power in the United States. This may have been acceptable in the past because most presidents were acting within agreed-upon norms and had the best interests of the country at heart. When you have a self-enriching bad actor like Trump with so much power and so little oversight or limitations on his power, the dangers are very clear. Kushner was utterly unqualified for any White House role and appointed only because he is a relative of the president. He has an ongoing personal financial stake in dodgy alliances with despots. How is he allowed to essentially run the White House? This is real banana republic stuff.
30
Congress should be able to override security clearance check failures.
If the concern is illegitimate, get it out in the open or withdraw.
It’s another example of how too much power is concentrated in the executive.
6
"Did they discuss American help for a Saudi nuclear program?"
Undoubtedly the answer to that question is an emphatic yes. What needs to be asked is that if they also discussed the amount of commission that Trump's Organization will be receiving for pushing for the sale of the US nuclear technology to the Saudis and, eventually, making 'the deal" happen!
11
Its time we move past the "are they?" doing the wrong things, "could they be doing the wrong things?" - and land in the middle of, "Yes, they ARE doing the wrong things!"
All this hypothesizing, all these, "are they?,would they?, IF they do it...then..." nonsense has to stop. We must decide that IF The Kush is involved, his main objective is protecting his personal ASSets. IF Ivanka is involved is all about the Trump Brand.
Its time for Congress to call in, rather haul in, Jared and Ivanka to answer, under oath, for what they are allegedly doing for the American citizenry, in their allegedly "unpaid" advisory positions.
"Trump seems to believe that the Saudis have us over a barrel: If we don’t help them with nuclear technology, someone else will. That misunderstands the U.S.-Saudi relationship. The Saudis depend on us for their security, and the blunt truth is that we hold all the cards in this relationship, not them."
Of course he does, because the Saudis have what he most desires and needs. Cash. And I do mean cash, not normal loans thru normal channels, but cash! Trump needs cash. His coffers needs cash.
I absolutely believe that the Saudis, MBS, will or are funneling cash to Kushner, and the Trumps. This MBS-Kushner/Ivanka relationship is absolutely quid pro quo. No doubt in my mind. When, as its been reported, Kushner met MBS, and said something like, "...he's someone we can work with...". Work meant personal gain, and "we" was a purely personal reference.
30
@Boregard
So true. All this tip toeing around just gets the US and all Americans further into the mud. Furthermore, if the Trump-Kushner-Netanyahu-MBS Middle East "Deal of the Century" gets published with serous review in the US Congress it will be all the worse for the American people.
1
@Greg
correction:
" if the Trump-Kushner-Netanyahu-MBS Middle East "Deal of the Century" gets published WITHOUT serous review in the US Congress it will be all the worse for the American people"
1
There should be an American moratorium on further deployment and spread of nuclear power.
Nuclear waste is just lying next to our reactors, as we don’t have a waste storage solution. So nuclear reactors are not only a national security threat abroad but also here at home.
The first working prototypes of hydrogen solar panels are now developed in Europe, allowing energy capture and instant storage out of the air’s moisture.
Solid-state batteries are coming soon too etc.
The Saudi’s know that time is running out for the nuclear energy to nuclear bomb ploy.
13
@Liz, where is there nuclear waste "lying next to our reactors"...it was my understanding it was stored in sealed casks, and it had never been responsible for a single death or injury?
Much to the chagrin of Greenpeace and other anti-nuclear fear factories, the current spent fuel storage solution is, in fact, extremely effective.
Should nuclear power technology be sold to the Saudis without the capability to enrich? I would say yes. They burn so much oil to generate electricity now that it would greatly help with achieving targets for global CO2 emission reduction. It should come with guarantees to buy American solar, wind and carbon trapping technology. In fact, why don’t we do this for ourselves? Turn potential corruption into something useful for a change.
2
@Daniel Salazar
Look out the window. Pigs are flying!
This piece gets one thing pretty seriously wrong: that the saudis depend on the US for security. That’s not at all true anymore since the Saudis actually have one of the world’s largest militaries today, after a massive spending spree over the last couple of decades.
5
@Tam Hunt
The large Saudi military machine is made up almost entirely of American weaponry.
They have a continuing need for replacement parts from us, and that gives the U.S. considerable leverage.
37
@Tam Hunt
Yet we train and otherwise maintain their military. Especially the high tech stuff. Plus, they have what amounts to a fledgling Air Force, mostly piloted by "royals" who see the fighter-pilot moniker as a badge of royal honor. They are not warrior princes, but weekend warrior wannabes. Under fire they would be crushed by any real air force.
1
The Saudis haven’t had an effective military since armed tribesmen rode horses around the desert behind Lawrence. Buying equipment doesn’t mean you have people who can use it. Unless they have hired Filipinos or Palestinians to help the US mercenaries.
1
When there are appearances of actions intended for personal gain by government officials, the White House gaggle of "advisors" notwithstanding, one should question if ethical standards exist.
Kushner's actions tread on the issue of personal entanglements with foreign leaders and countries that have those appearances of personal gain.
Yet, the conservatives are silent, and that silence speaks volumes.
From time to time the issue of uranium sales by Ms. Clinton for personal gain (to her and Mr. Clinton's trust) bubbles to the top. The accusations of collusion and corruption were deafening.
Yet, we allow Kushner, his wife and President Trump to, by all appearances, profit from the status of the positions they hold.
However, the Trump supporters, apologists and enablers will turn blind eyes and deaf ears to the alleged actions and state they are helping make America great again and these are wins.
As Mr. Bruni opined today in his column, we are being led by charlatans.
36
Trying to determine if there is a connection. Brookfield Asset Management, which took out a lucrative (for Kushner) lease at 666 5th Ave, owns Westinghouse Electric nuclear services. Is that the same Westinghouse Electric that declared bankruptcy in March 2017, scuttling two nuclear power plants under construction in USA? One was the V C Summer Units 2 & 3 in South Carolina. The other, Vogtle project, was in Georgia.
18
I’m not surprised.
Energy production in the US is corrupt through and through and therefore attracts amoral people.
It’s basically privatizing the profits of burning fuel and socializing the waste, which is a major cost.
In both the cases of coal and nuclear, the waste is next to the plant.
2
When we think of countries, we tend to think of their leaders. But this shortchange the people of the country and their future who are more important and more relevant. Saudi Arabia will need huge amounts of energy in the not too distant future to produce electricity and more importantly to desalinate water given the rapid depletion of its non-renewable water resources. The use of their oil and gas reserves for such purposes may not be feasible over the long term given the likelihood of declining demand for fossil fuels due to global warming. On the other hand, renewable energy will not be a full substitute for fossil fuels, whether in Saudi Arabia or the world. Consequently, nuclear energy is considered vital for them. The issue of leadership, while also quite important, is not equivalent and ought to be handled as a separate issue.
2
@KMZ--But as Kristof says, it's cheaper to buy nuclear fuel elsewhere than produce it oneself. But Muhammed wants breeder reactors that are capable of producing weapons grade fuel. That's a different matter.
20
@DocM--- The Saudis are planning to build PWR reactors. These are not breeder reactors. However, the issue is their demand to process the nuclear fuels that these reactors require, which carries risks of proliferation.
1
As far as I know, Trump himself never applied for or was granted a security clearance. It occurred to me that Trump would have never gotten a security clearance except by election to the office of president. The reasons are obvious. His foreign entanglements, debts, conflicts of interest, etc. are very likely far worse than Jared's. This puts our nation in a very precarious position. We need to have a law that requires that candidates for president are screened for and pass security clearance qualification.
58
@Jeffrey Beck Obama also never would have gotten national security clearances without being elected president. Be honest. Trump and Obama are national security threats along with Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka.
That is nonsense. Then you are just having the CIA and FBI and NSA pre-screen who is allowed to have political power. In the long run, that is a terrible idea. Trump is a cancer, but don't kill the patient to treat the disease.
“Trump and his advisers told Netanyahu that, if the U.S. does not sell the Saudis nuclear reactors, other countries like Russia or France will.”
I hate to agree with Trump, but he is right on this one.
Nuclear proliferation can only be effectively countered through international agreements and not on one-on-one basis. Countermeasures should not confuse the need of all countries for peaceful application of nuclear technology. Furthermore, these measures should be evenly applied on all countries, and not be selective.
2
@KMZ
I do not understand the argument, widely used in rationalizing (they can't be justified) immoral acts, which states that "if I don't do it, someone else will".
Don't mothers always tell their children "just because Johnny plays in traffic, doesn't mean that you have to play in traffic"? I have never heard of a mother saying "Go play in traffic, darling, because if you don't, Johnny will".
Giving the ability to produce nukes to Saudi Arabia is like playing in traffic. It won't end well.
25
@maggie
Excellent real world contextualization!
1
@maggie
When we think of countries, we tend to think of their leaders. But this shortchange the people of the country and their future who are more important and more relevant. Saudi Arabia will need huge amounts of energy in the not too distant future to produce electricity and more importantly to desalinate water given the rapid depletion of its non-renewable water resources. The use of their oil and gas reserves for such purposes may not be feasible over the long term given the likelihood of declining demand for fossil fuels due to global warming. On the other hand, renewable energy will not be a full substitute for fossil fuels. Consequently, nuclear energy is considered vital to them. Supplying vital energy supply for the people of Saudi Arabia or any other is not immoral, throwing them under the bus, because of their leader's quality or behaviour, is. Furthermore, building nuclear power plants and nuclear proliferation are two separate issues. You can do the former without precipitating the latter.
In photographs, Jared Kushner frequently appears oh so smug, cool and smiling, as if he knows a secret. Thank you, Mr. Kristof, for unveiling this secret. Clearly, money and flattery govern Kushner’s actions. Sadly, he fits right in with the Trump family’s history of shady real estate deals. This one has led to a career for Jared as a phony ambassador and covert arms dealer. His confident and personal connection to the Prince Muhammed is very troubling. Will Congress be able to see beyond his smooth and unruffled performance?
28
The number 3 largest oil producer in the world and the country with the second largest oil reserves in the world is interested in a "peaceful" nuclear energy program. Yeah, alarm bells should be ringing. Saudi Arabia isn't interested domestic energy production. They want the technology to create a bomb.
The Markey/Rand resolution would signal opposition to the White House but resolutions are non-binding. What other levers do we have to slow this process down? Revoking Kushner's security clearance and confiscating his passport would be a good start. I'd suggest a wire tap too but Kushner is probably already tapped. He was just publicly named as a person of interest in multiple investigations.
23
I'm sure Donald and Jared are playing 3D chess here, a strategy so cunning it eludes mere mortals like us.
American democracy was great while it lasted. Will be interesting to see how this new thing we have works out.
21
Our founding fathers were aware of the risk of mixing private and personal gains with public goods. Kushner’s role is both murky and nepotism. We are better than this. the lawmakers are fully entitled to go all the way pursuing Kushner connections to Saudis, Israelis, and reporting to the citizens of America if shady deals are being hatched behind our backs, in the name of peace in the ME. Who is Kushner and how is he suddenly the biggest diplomat to represent the country?
43
@petey tonei You answered your own question about Kushner-nepotism-at its worst.
People tend to forget that most of the 9/11 terrorists were Saudis: 15 of the 19 terrorists were citizens of Saudi Arabia. That's an overwhelming majority. What does that have to do with Saudis wanting nuclear plants and U.S. weapons? There is always a possibility of regime change and radicals taking over. Somehow, under President Obama, nuclear ambitions in Iran were thwarted with the help of France and Russia and other countries. That was quite a diplomatic achievement. Now we have Jared Kushner running over to the Saudis and negotiating or hatching up something under cover. It is up to the press and those in the CIA and the State Dept. to find out what Kushner is up to in Saudi Arabia. Is he also going to meet Netanyahu and try to prop him up? And about that security clearance, let's have another look at it.
56
@Kunio Tanabe Yes...and all of the AntiFa terrorists are Americans...as was Bob Hodgkinson, Dylan Roof, and the wacked out crazy guy in Las Vegas.
In our country like every other country, there are radicals. Religious extremists if you will. Some of them even have seats in the U.S. Congress where they preach about ending oppression, yet wear the symbols of oppression to give them a boost morally in the eyes of a naive public.
1
It's up to the CIA to arrange an accident for Kushner.
1
Isn't this the purpose of separation of powers, and Congress's obligation to question Kushner's actions? And if he acted improperly, against American interests, cannot he be criminally prosecuted?
51
Mr. Mueller, we understand that you are by-the-book, and also that the decades-long tangle of Trump corruption takes time and rigor to investigate and thoroughly document. But, for God's sake, we need you to present the truth, so that we can save our country, and the world.
45
Mr. Trump need not start a nuclear war himself to sew disaster upon the world. His rampant avarice in seeding nuclear technology into a fraught region could reap apocalyptic dividends long after he is out of office and even after his death.
Only entropy comes easily but this molecular rearrangement through unchecked nuclear fission must not be further enabled. The genie may be out of the bottle but more nuclear proliferation is unwise in the extreme.
No personal fortune, not even Mr. Trump's, is worth such devastation.
23
@Douglas McNeill
President Trump may be an extreme instance of "rich guy", but he is no outliar.
His attitude is typical: whatever gets me money now is good, some one will deal the rest of it later.
You may object I am lumping all rich people together and calling them stupid. Yes, I am.
Whatever good they may advocate or actually do is ultimately undone by their righteous concern with their personal fortunes, how to increase them without end.
The deplorable social conditions in this country are a direct outgrowth of underfunding and willful blindness so dark its amazing they can find the keys to the Bentley.
These people ruined our courts, enabled the brutish evolution of our law enforcement, turned our vaunted legislature into a Zippy the Clown imitation, and directly ruined savings, retirement and even caused death in the mad quest for more.
Having instilled well-founded contempt for the law, having made clear courts and Congress care only the wealthy, having made law enforcement hateful and an object of fear and rage, the well-off oblivious have cut the legs from under the infrastructure that supports their reign of greed and ego.
This worm is turning. They greased the skids. When their end comes, it will be welcome more often than not.
1
Never before in recent history it has become this clear how American misguided influence creates the foundation to many if not most (future) humanitarian crises, national and international.
The difference this time is Trump’s America indifference or even contempt for the misery it creates/created around the globe and the victims - whether refugees or US citizens - that result from it.
I said to my friends in 2016 who contemplated voting Trump we’d be talking about a new scandal everyday irrespective of the Russia influence looming over the Trump campaign, and lordi it surpassed my wildest imagination.
Next year we can show the world we’re still the great country we were before the Trumpian nightmare, or we live up to current expectation and Trump is the last ‘president’, the first emperor of the Trumpian empire.
I just pray we’ll get to be Americans again IN 2020 without launching or setting up for WWIII.
41
@Susan
Agreed. Or, Civil War.
1
@Susan. If only the democrats will produce someone enough people can vote for.
It's up to our easily-swayed congress to stop the sale of nuclear plants capable of fueling nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia. This should be done in consensus with Russia. France, Pakistan and any other interested party. The armed to the teeth middle east cannot afford a nuclear Saudi Arabia under MBS.
Congress for their own campaign funds is under the sway of this Trump administration. They look the other way when the tax cut takes the funds which might have gone to
11
But you misjudge Jared. Enabling the Middle East to blow itself up to high heaven is the most efficient way for Jared to follow through on his task to solve the conflict. And what's even more brilliant about his scheme is it might spur the U.S. to finally quit its fossil fuel addiction. Sounds more to me like Jared's overdue for his Nobel peace prize, assuming of course the U.S.and the rest of the world isn't annihilated in the process. Oopsies.
17
Queue "The Apprentice" theme song..."Money, money, money , money". Grifting is the Trump administrations foreign (and domestic) policy.
34
Reading about this involvement with Saudi Arabia and a nuclear power deal, I recall that Trump's first overseas visit was to Saudi Arabia. It seemed odd at the time that this would be his first sojourn; it now makes sense that his travel agenda had little to do with American interests and all to do with his family and crony-laden business relations. He really needs to resign.
101
Selling arms to Mideastern monarchs has been central to our foreign policy. The Arabian peninsula, Jordan, Morocco, and the Shah’s Iran come immediately to mind.
What Kristof missed is the why? Perhaps real estate is key, or perhaps it is simply oil. The decades old struggle for control of oil has led us to pursue a duality—control of the resource for us and denial of USSR/Russia influence.
Nuclear energy/weaponization will be no exception. In the past, we have chosen to champion nuclear power as in Iran or to ignore the spread of nuclear weapons as in Israel.
Presently, the hyped fear of Iran will contribute to this Saudi deal being consummated. For all the talk of Arab-Israeli historic hatred, there is a remarkable concurrence between Jerusalem and Arab monarchs/dictators over Tehran, and Persian Gulf oil.
Some may recall Reagan and the sale of AWACS to Riyadh 30 years ago. Reagan assuaged the Israelis and sold the Saudis the planes.
Real estate or oil? Kristof may be correct that it will be bad policy to sale nuclear technology to bin Salman, but mistaken foreign policy decisions has become a hallmark of America’s Middle Eastern course of action.
7
@doughboy
America gives arms to the Middle Eastern autocrats in Egypt and Israel.
Saudi Arabia and Israel want American blood and treasure wasted on a war with Iran.
A much better beneficial deal for American interests and values would be wasted Israeli and Saudi blood and treasure in an Iranian war. Along with the Trump Kushner Hannity Coulter Ingraham Limbaugh Pence clans.
1
Time for Speaker Pelosi to have a House committee open an immediate investigation. (As should the FBI - but under Barr's control it's unclear if they will). Aside from the peril of nuclear know-how in the hands of the murderous MBS, the technology will likely find it's way from his regime to other entities (as when a Pakistani scientist sold it's nuclear technology to N. Korea).
17
@Unconvinced
Stop making Addisson Mitchell McConnell, Jr. drawl and drool with talk of Nancy Pelosi.
1
I want Kushner's security clearance revoked and both he and wife Ivanka exited from the White House. Neither has the education or life experience to qualify them to perform at this level of executive government. But then again, they blend in perfectly with Trump's rag-tag Cabinet.
79
@Sunny
Trump did not need the advice and consent of the Senate to appoint Jared and Ivanka.
1
Nick, I think your analysis is much closer to the mark than the administrations efforts to dissemble.
Nonetheless, the Kushners are laughing all the way to the bank.
They've laid too many other land mines that are preoccupying the press and the prosecutors. Though advancing the nuclear program of the Kingdom for their profit is potentially one of the most destructive criminalities they've committed, I think this one will be excused.
19
The Trump-Kushner-Netanyahu-MBS cabal is very dangerous and needs to be exposed. Thank you Mr. Kristof.
All of them believe that money and power privilege can bend or suppress international law.
They have a common interest in, and the money to fund, the demonization of those that could block their plans, whether it be the United Nations, Iran, the BDS movement, the International Court of Justice, Jeremy Corbyn, Congresswoman Omar, the Hezbollah political arm, etc, etc.
They, as a team, appear to have the objective of dominating and controlling the Middle East.
They could well be preparing allied military action against Iran ... a war which would dwarf the Iraq and Afghan wars combined.
66
@Greg I agree with you to a point. Control of the middle east is a pipe dream. There will be blood spilled and of course it won't be the Trump clan.
"increasing the risk that an unstable hothead will mismanage the kingdom for the next 50 years. Perhaps with nuclear weapons."
Mr. Kristoff seems to think that the House of Saud is a stable, long-term entity.
If I had to bet, I would not bet on them lasting 50 years. As for the hothead ruling, whatever replaces them will undoubtedly be so.
5
@Joshua Schwartz
You seem to think that Zionist Israel and it's nuclear weapons and American arms and diplomatic cover can survive it's current hothead or future cold head leader.
1
Javanka do everything they do for their monetary gain, regardless of whether their deals are in the country's interest -- that's as simple as it gets. As Deep Throat said: "Follow the money."
118
Thank you for writing this, Mr. Kristof.
This is by far the most frightening thing I have read to date about Donald Trump (not to mention his son-in-law).
Surely our system of government is fatally flawed if so incompetent and immoral a man can actually be elected president, and, with 3 million fewer popular votes than his Democratic opponent!
I never thought that at age 76, I would have to say that I am ashamed to be an American.
260
@Maryanne Conheim....thank you for the most important post this morning. Please, forward this to your Congressional Reps daily.
6
@Maryanne Conheim At 72 I'm with you. What do we stand for, really? And please, Evangelicals, what's wrong with you?
13
@Maryanne Conheim
I'm not ashamed to be an American since this implies the land (the US) and its people.
I am ashamed to be represented by this con man and family and the repuglicon enablers.
1
Yes, the business corruption among the Kushners, Trumps and Salmans is astounding. Yes, the nuclear proliferation issues are truly frightening (Wahhabi Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran both developing nukes to point at each other).
However, the true insanity of providing nuclear capability to Saudi Arabia is that in the sun-drenched middle east, nuclear power is completely and totally unnecessary.
Most of Saudi Arabia has between 3200 and 3300 hours of sun per year, making it among the sunniest places on earth, and thus among the most feasible places on earth to develop solar electricity on a massive scale, certainly for far more electricity than even the profligate Saudis could possibly imagine.
The installed cost of a megawatt of capacity of solar electricity is significantly less than the same for nuclear. Solar energy is easily scalable; add more panels and get more juice. It can be decentralized. In comparison, nuclear plants come in large, centralized chunks of 1 to 2 gigawatts, cost at least $5-10 billion dollars, take many years to complete, and create complex nuclear proliferation and contamination risks both during and after their useful lifetimes.
The US would do well to exercise what little leadership capacity it still has to get the world's more advanced nations, specifically those which make or build nukes, to collectively agree to -not- provide nuclear power technology anywhere in the region. That eliminates the "if we don't do it, someone else will" argument.
166
@Aram Hollman Many people say that nuclear power is too expensive, but the cost have been inflated enormously by bureaucracy, lawsuits, and over regulation. The cost for solar power seldom includes the very much higher distribution costs or environmental destruction. In 50 years when our great-grandchildren look out over landscapes despoiled by crumbling wind and solar farms, they will say, "What were they thinking?"
@wnhoke
And which is worse, waste that can be recycled or waste that lasts for 10,000 years that nobody wants in their backyards?
31
@wnhoke
And what will our great grandchildren say about the spent nuclear fuel that seems to have a hard time finding a home? And what will they say about the nuclear plants that are threatened by the rising seas?
Nuclear power is ridiculously expensive and a dangerous bet. And the regulation that you call expensive, I would call probably inadequate.
Solar is a relatively safe, simple, cost efficient solution. That's obvious - unless you are a member of the nuclear lobby and it's payees.
31
It is so easy to imagine Trump responding to a reporter's question about whether the Saudis will use the new reactors to develop nuclear weapons; "I looked straight into his eyes and asked the Crown Prince about whether he wants to develop nuclear weapons. He strongly denied Saudi Arabia has any such plans or desires, and I believe him."
Such is Trump's confidence that his words and assurances fool the American public every time. And even it they aren't fooled, Republicans in the Senate will continue to help Trump deflect and avoid accountability.
79
He takes us to be morons, and maybe we are . In over 2 years, those of us who care about our country have not figured out how to stop, or even slow down this atrocity called trump. He continues on his corrupt agenda, aided and abetted by republican traitors.
1
Saudi Arabia cannot afford 16 1000 MW reactors at $5-7 billion each given the low price of oil. Two might be a stretch given their lack of proj mgt / regulatory capabilities.
If they want enrichment, Pakistan ready to provide it. If they want reactors, China can sell them the same units they built for Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia may be playing a double game with the US. On hand it makes fiery disclaimers that it it doesn't get a modified 123 agreement, it will talk to China. On the other hand, getting one ties in Westinghouse and big chunks of its supply chain and makes protecting Saudi Arabia from Iran much more in the US interest. Because . . . they will now have our nuclear reactors and we will want to keep an eye on them.
But, is Saudi Arabia strong enough to make good on its "disclaimer" of having other sources? Maybe they do have a China option, but would China also come with a security guarantee? I don't think so.
Hocus pocus folks.
24
Trump got everything he has from what he father gave him.
Kushner got everything he has from what his father gave him.
Bin Salman got everything he has from what his father gave him.
How interesting that these sons of rich men all run to support each other. It could be that one hand is washing the other. Or, perhaps, their mutual admiration society could be because of their fear that the failure of one would expose the lack of talent and true accomplishment of all the others.
147
They all go to the same schools. It's a club, and life is a game. Serving humanity, civilization, and preserving the gifts of the natural world are the furthest things from their minds.
55
This is the way deals are finalized in Trump World. If there is money to be made the Trump clan is always interested. And now Trump voters indirectly have opened up the U.S. military and our aeronautics industry to be complicit in all the backroom dealings that Trump Inc. fertile imaginations can come up with.
This is what our intelligence agencies feared most regarding Jared's security clearance, his insatiable thirst for cold cash and the tremendous edge he will have when he has classified info.
Insider trading.
Lock them up.
122
And of course if the Saudis get nuclear weapons capability, the Iranians will be forced to go the same route, (which they avoided in order not to give the Saudis the excuse) and then Netanyahu can have his Iranian war with the US dragged in.
51
How can Jared Kushner shake the hand of the man who had Jamal Kashoggi brutally murdered? I guess the same way his father-in-law can shake the hands of the man who had his own uncle and half-brother murdered and of the man who has reporters murdered.
bin Salman, Kim, Putin. Where money is to be made, Trump and Kushner have no morals at all.
250
@Linda
Benjamin Netanyahu is also part of this ethnic sectarian monstrous cleansing international terrorist cabal.
1
Why does Saudi Arabia - with their tremendous oil reserves - need nuclear power? They have all the energy that they will ever need. This is clearly a ploy to obtain nuclear weapons. Moreover, it seems to be a residual from the bargain that was made to try to elect Trump in 2016.
56
@jack
And let's not forget solar energy, already cheaper than nuclear. They have plenty of sunshine and empty desert not useful for anything else.
47
It has become far too clear Trump & apparently Jared like powerful leaders who use violence to control their nations. Yes, we must be alarmed and telling - can we demand? - Congress to say "no" to a nuclear power plant deal. I don't suppose Westinghouse produces wind turbines or solar panels, which is probably why we are sadly talking about nuclear power. But, if it is electric power the Saudis seek, with the desert land and clear skies they enjoy, turbines and solar panels should be able to produce enough power for much of the Middle East. Could someone among Republicans encourage climate change technology as well as saying no to Trump?
41
@Rev Wayne
Jared Kushner and Donald Trump are cowardly dishonorable punks who believe that tweeting and speaking nicknames and slurs is fighting.
They both deserve and need a South Side Chicago street physical beat down that would land them in an emergency room or a morgue.
1
While we're at it, why don't we suggest to MBS that, once he's developed nuclear weapons, he give some of them away to the jihadist clerics that the members of the royal family regularly subsidize?
96
@stu freeman. Exactly! Whoops, lost several kilograms of nuclear material to those nasty Sunni fundamentalist jihadis. Who cares if several dirty bombs are deployed into the West. Obviously the Trump administration does not.
6
While the US holds all the cards in the US-Saudi relationship, we are about to discover that the Saudis hold all the cards in the Saudi-Trump relationship.
341
@Eben
Well said.
2
Just think about what could happen to our world if the Trump family continues for the next two years, and even worse, if Trump is reelected for another term?
The whole family needs to be contained and reigned in, including everything from graft and the killing of innocent people in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, to the threat and use of nuclear power.
And, the GOP is just fine, trolling their waters for just their piece of their financial action.
The only one that could possibly be saved and as a normal human being may Trump's youngest son, if it's not already to late for him.
37
This is why you don’t put the power of God in the hands of such sublime examples of human mediocrity.
According to some of the accounts that I’ve heard, J. Robert Oppenheimer was convinced that nuclear weapons had been used before, in a time which far pre-dated any recorded history.
Except Hindu mythology, that is.
12
Read "A Canticle for Liebowitz" for illumination of Oppenheimer's fears. Written during the heat of the Cold War when so much science fiction was post-nuclear-apocolyptic, it is relevant today as every old fear becomes new again in a growing conservatively insane world.
2
The Saudis don’t have America over a barrel, they have Trump and Kushner over a barrel. When the deal’s been signed American taxpayers will once again pick up the tab for expenses while profits are privatized. This is yet another example where an obsession with money risks the health of the entire planet. The Republicans need to step up and own reigning in their rogue leader.
253
@Charly Haversat I don't want to rain on your parade but don't you think the Trumps should rein in their "reigning"?
1
@Charly Haversat
" Breaking news alert"!
Donald Trump is no longer the host of " The Celebrity Apprentice". And Jared Kushner is a Senior White House Adviser.
1
@Charly Haversat
The Republicans will be stepping up, with their hands out, for their cut!
1
Another top priority investigation for the US House of Representatives, and soon.
187
For all Trump's fearmongering over Iran, the surest way to make that country determined to become a nuclear power is paving the way for Saudi Arabia to become one.
220
@NM
Since Israel is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and has nuclear weapons why not Saudi Arabia and Iran?
2
Anybody knows nuclear weapons are much quicker and more deadly than bone saws. No need for suit cases either.
68
You did not mention that Jared allegedly provided many of the names on MBS's enemy list when he was preparing for the showdown at the Ritz to secure his power and right to the thrown. These names obviously came from high security intel briefs from the Kingdom by US intelligence sources. This is what Kushner wants a high level security clearance for; to aid and abet a power-hungry, ruthless killer who aims to de-stabilize an already tembling region.
199
Expected more comments coast to coast. Are we worn out by another "...abominable policy tainted by a gargantuan conflict of interest involving Kushner"?
The worry now is that we believe decency can only be retrieved by 2020 election. Not so: we watched new young congresswomen speak out loudly, women working politically-- with big voices-- years before they ran for Congress.
38
Then, there are the activities of the MBS regime on American soil, including Mr. Kristof's home state, where Saudis awaiting trial for murder, rape and other serious crimes perpetrated upon US citizens have been spirited away under the noses of our diplomatic and security apparatus. With all the attention Trump has lavished on make-believe immigration and crime issues, it is hard to fathom how the Saudis' escape might not also have had the tacit approval of the Trump/Kushner kleptocracy. Apparently, we have learned little since 9/11.
47
So what is the difference between Saudi America and Saudi Arabia? How can a 'democratic" society like US, allow so much power to a president, who can do any crazy thing; without checks and balances and controls? And in so doing employs unqualified and self serving family members who were not elected by the people.
68
@Kam Eftekhar Consider the alternatives to our current dilemma - dictatorships and monarchies where we could end up with a Trump for life followed by a Trump jnr for life instead of the drama we are going through now as we rid ourselves of these people. If we want to focus on improvements to the current democratic system I would supporting that all citizens of voting age actually vote.
6
@Kam Eftekhar
Democracy does not automatically infer that the leaders elected will act morally, ethically, or in the interest of the country, rather than themselves.
The difference between the two countries is that in a democratic country, the citizens have the opportunity to change their leaders. As antiquated, slow moving, and flawed as it is the system of checks and balances is working.
2
The failure of our system of democracy is it's inability to take swift action, even to preserve our freedoms. As we hem and haw and go through the process of deciding whether or not to even hold impeachment hearings, the spread of authoritarianism and the looting of our treasury continues by a family of third rate con artists.
In parliamentary democracies a vote of no confidence can lead to the change of a government. Not here, because both sides scheme on how to maintain leverage on each other while our chief executive burns the country down.
We now know the rule of law does not extend to the President. A king has been created, who only needs willing apparatchiks to satisfy his every juvenile whim.
Giving the Saudi's, the people who took down the Twin Towers, the ability to develop nuclear weapons is madness. If the Russians, Chinese or Pakistanis give them the ability, we always have the ability to destroy the construction sites any time we want.
If Westinghouse does it our hands are tied: Conservatives will never take a step that has the potential to reduce the quarterly profit statement.
128
@Bob Woods I also use the word "apparatchik." It perfectly describes these obsequious, calculating fools. How they miss the resemblance between their behaviors and those of the pre-Gorbachev Communists they so reviled is beyond understanding as anything other than self-serving cynicism.
18
@Bob Woods
Nonsense.
There is no " our system of democracy" except in the minds of the ignorant, the lazy and the stupid who do not accept nor understand the historical and present nature of our republic.
America is and always has been a divided limited different power constitutional republic of united states. As originally conceived by the Founding Fathers only white Anglo-Saxon European men who owned property were divinely naturally created equal persons with certain unalienable rights.
And even those chosen few men could only directly vote for and elect their member of the House of Representatives who serve 2 year term. Presidents are picked by the Electoral College for 4 year terms. Senators were originally chosen by state legislatures with every state having the same number of Senators regardless of population. And Senators serve 6 year terms. While judges were nominated by the Electoral College President with the advice and consent of the Senate for lifetime appointments.
In our republic all three branches of government are the elected and selected hired help of the people. It is the minds of the people that are tied. Not their hands.
1
Bob Woods, if a post could get a Pulitzer, this would be the winner.
1
When nuclear power was demonstrated in '45, the world was promised limitless peaceful energy, provided to all nations (the US would keep the secrets of the Bomb, but not the secrets of peaceful power plants), electricity would be 'too cheap to meter', and all cars would be electric. Oil would be obsolete by 1970.
The US promised to help other nations build nuclear power plants engineered so they could never be weaponised, but the US never delivered on that promise. It promised the Shah a nuclear plant, but never delivered; however, other nuclear nations such as France and South Korea sell nuclear power plants to other nations, plants that can never be weaponised (and none ever were). But a quick Google search turned up no nuclear plants sold by the US. Does the US know how to build a nuclear plant that cannot be weaponised, as France and South Korea do? And why is Saudi Arabia the very first (of course, the plant might be like the Shah's plant, where the US takes Saudi money and delivers nothing).
Too many questions.
This was a business the US promised it would be in back in the '40s, but never was. It is a business the US probably should be in (nuclear power plants have no carbon emissions).
But why now in Saudi Arabia?
12
@Michael
Can you say Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
1
"Brookfield also owns Westinghouse Electric, the nuclear services business trying to sell reactors to Saudi Arabia."
There is a clear conflict of interest here. Any discussions of the sale of nuclear technology to SA must be transparent and must not be under the control of any person with conflicts of interest. In other words, the discussions must proceed in a way that's the total opposite of what's taking place right now.
82
Pop quiz.
50% of the land in your country is desert, and you need to produce electricity. What is the most quickest, safest, least costly, reliable means of producing that electricity?
a. solar panel arrays to capture sunlight, a safe plan with
little environmental damage, good return on investment
b. nuclear power plants, bringing radiation risks and serious environmental hazards with waste, requiring massive funding to build and maintain
Wonder why the backward kingdom is choosing option 'b'?
Yes, class, it's option 'b' because this has nothing to do with generating electricity.
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@Myrasgrandotter
Modern flow batteries would also allow them to store massive amounts of that solar energy for 24 hour availability.
Your final sentence sure sounds right to me.
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Um, I also have it on good authority that Saudi Arabia has some minor reserves of petroleum? Can’t that, too, be used to make electricity? Sure, I love solar panels as much as the next guy, but in this case, it’s so blatantly obvious that (a) Kushner wants cash, and (b) the Saudis want nukes.
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@Myrasgrandotter You're being a bit unfair with your comparisons. Apparently building solar panels counts as a good return on investment but nuclear plants just require "massive funding".
In addition, if you include the production of solar panels and lithium ion batteries, solar energy ends up impacting the environment more than a nuclear plant (even without nuclear reprocessing).
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This alarming story should definitely have more publicity. this conflict of interest is most likely part of the reason why the CIA didn't approve Kushner's security clearance and why Trump ordered it changed. Trump and is family is only working for their own self-interests; meanwhile, the Senate fails to fulfill its oath to protect the Constitution (and by default, United States citizens) against all enemies both foreign and domestic.
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"It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key." Winston Churchill on Russia's plans in 1939 at the beginning of WWII.
Jared's role in the Middle East was initially more like a set of Russian Matryoshka nesting dolls, brightly colored phrases like "Middle East peace" obscuring ever more hidden and progressively more self dealing and dangerous objects inside.
But it is looking more like a bag of cash, wrapped in a comic book and stashed in a discarded pizza box, a clownish effort to pull off the Big Klown Kaper, figuring no one was watching.
But the Trumps and Kushners are discovering there are a lot more eyes watching them as they leave a pile of crumbs along their path.
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And, to make matters even worse, it’s been reported that Putin wants Russia to provide all the engineering for the construction of up to forty nuclear installations. And Russia would then train and oversee Saudi operations of the plants. Huge fortunes for Putin’s oligarch buddies. This is the Grand Bargain that is said to be at the heart of Mueller’s shift toward interest in Trump, his campaign, and the Middle East.
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"Trump may be vigilant (destructively so) about Iran’s nuclear plants, but in the Saudi case his response seems to be: There’s money to be made!"
Thanks for choosing this topic, Nicholas Kristof, one that's been lost in the chaos of Cohen hearings and North Korea.
This sounds like a budding catastrophe of monumental proportions. The Kushner-MBS alliance is more than dangerous, it's one-sided, as the "princeling" is obviously being played.
Chalk up mess from nepotism: a corrupt, inexperienced president and his son-in-law (who shouldn't even be in the White House) working on nuclear disaster in the Middle East, for profit.
I hope those senators have the courage to stop this invitation to mayhem. Such a sale would violate a 1954 law requiring Congressional approval for any transfer of nuclear technology outside the US.
Let's see how much influence Markey, Merkley and Paul have with their peers, who haven't exactly been profiles in courage with this out-of-control administration.
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@christineMcM And does anyone remember that the bombings of the twin towers were carried out by Saudi nationalists? Imagine what they could do with a nuclear bomb.
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One of the central components of the Iran deal was that Iran would stop producing its own fuel - and now Trump is going to just hand that delicious little morsel to the Saudis? Why don't we simply go on record saying, "We want the Saudis to have nuclear weapons, and not Iran."? Iran couldn't be believed when they said they didn't want nukes, but the Saudis can?
Like always, Trump will stand in front of the podium and say "I believe him," no matter what any of these dictators and despots say.
Of course it's about the money. Of course Saudi Arabia wants a fast track to nuclear weaponry. Of course Kushner was compromised - a conflict of interest that glaringly obvious cannot be coincidental. Even a handful of nuclear plants would involve billions of dollars for Westinghouse Electric - a tidy return on that $1.1 billion investment.
And of course Congressional Republicans will attack Mr. Kristof for daring to suggest the obvious, while doing everything they can to protect the president, and nothing whatsoever to protect the security of the US and the Middle East.
This carnival ride is rapidly turning into the House of Horrors.
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I remember hearing somewhere that the world wont end in a big bang, but more of a whimper. Well I'm guessing that's wrong, looking more like a big bang to me.
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So, the man for whom the intelligence agencies refused a top security clearance, and for whom the CIA refused the highest security clearance, which decisions were backed by the Chief of Staff and the White House Counsel... This man, who was granted his top security clearance by the President himself, over the advise and objections and contrary to historical practice and common sense, this man is the one doing these negotiations?
It is within the President's power to empower him to do so, like it is within his power to grant him his security clearance. But, it is an abuse of Presidential power. Just the substantive part of it is bad enough, but this is also the President's son-in-law. He is also a man who appears to have conflicts of interest of his own in this subject area.
It is yet another example of why this President should be removed from office, by election or by impeachment.
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@Art Mills Election too far away. Looking for ideas for removal sooner.
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@naomi dagen bloom
Not going to happen now, with these poll numbers, because the GOP has demonstrated it will go down with the ship. Impeachment might pass the House, but the Dems have no reason to bother unless or until they have enough votes in the Senate.
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Dear Mr. Kristof, the question is not if the kingdom will get its hand on nuclear weapons, but if they will get an upgrade for their existing nuclear arms program.
MbS has told his on people so in an interview some 3 years ago when he was still only minister of defence.
Decades ago the Saudis funded the Pakistani nuclear weapons program, they also funded in part the Iraqi program to get an Islamic nuclear bomb, from which the Saudis have access to Pakistan built nukes and the according carrier systems Ghauri and Shanheen III, all funded by the kingdom.
These weapons system are part of the Royal Saudi Strategic Missile Forces installation in Al-Watah ballistic missile installation in which the kingdom also has a range of DF-3 missiles from China, capable of delivering nuclear warheads over a range of up to 5,000km.
It is an open secret that the kingdom is already threatening Iran with nuclear destruction as shown in a propaganda video a while ago.
The kingdom also has even bought nuclear arms technology from Israel in the past via middle men.
Money will get you everything.
The kingdom so far has no nuclear facilities that will enable them to build their own warheads and that seems to be the current deal with the US.
To become independed of third parties.
It is not a question of if the Saudis will get nuclear weapons but when they will have their own nuclear weapons production.
Of, as they call it, an Islamic A-Bomb.
Nuclear weapons and carrier systems they already have.
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@Thomas
Exactly! Saudi Arabia does not have a Westinghouse or General Dynamics, a Boeing, Newport News, Bath Iron Works, White Sands, etc., and must buy most of its weapons from foreign sources, off the shelf. It ought to be no surprise that the Saudis also already have nuclear technology and nuclear missiles for defense, tested in another country and ready for launch should the need arise.
Nuclear armed Pakistan, the country source, also has a role as guardians of the Kingdom, charged with defending the Saudi Holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
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Mr. Trump no doubt believes that the Saudis hold the power because they hold the pursestrings. That is seemingly the only power that Mr. Trump recognizes in others.
Since he thinks only in transactional terms, Trump will not consider what is best for the United States rather than how much money might be made by giving Saudi Arabia nuclear plants.
It is a very bad idea, especially while SA is waging war in Yemen.
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