JUDY WOODRUFF: We return to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the roiled relations between
the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Those ties are longstanding and important to both nations.
They're also lucrative.
But, as Nick Schifrin reports, those financial ties are also now under great strain.
NICK SCHIFRIN: When the president and his wife made Saudi Arabia their first foreign
visit, the royal court treated Trump as a royal, providing a lavish welcome and a garish
introduction to a grand and golden ballroom, where Saudi King Salman bestowed one of the
kingdom's highest civilian honors, and described the U.S. and Saudi relationship as tied by
shared interests and military cooperation.
And President Trump danced to the same drum, describing a strategic alliance, thanks to
a lucrative arms deal he called a windfall.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Hundreds of billions of dollars of investments
into the United States, and jobs, jobs, jobs.
NICK SCHIFRIN: President Trump has defended that arms deal, despite questions over how
to respond to journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder, and despite ever-growing claims of
economic impact.
DONALD TRUMP: We're talking about over 40,000 jobs in the United States.
You know, you're talking about 500,000 jobs.
That was $110 billion.
You know, you're talking about over a million jobs.
I don't want to lose a million jobs.
I don't want to lose $110 billion in terms of investment.
But it's really $450 billion if you include other than military.
WILLIAM HARTUNG, Center for International Policy: It's sort of the mother of exaggerations,
even by Donald Trump's standards.
NICK SCHIFRIN: William Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center
for International Policy.
He says the real dollar figure for the Trump administration is $14.5 billion, including
for M-1 tanks, Chinook helicopters, and artillery.
But even those are only signed offer and acceptance letters, not contracts.
Most of the $110 billion number comes from deals negotiated by previous administrations,
including for F-15s and modern American naval ships, and a $13.5 billion missile defense
system order hasn't actually been placed.
WILLIAM HARTUNG: So many of the deals are speculative, and often things are put on the
table that don't happen.
NICK SCHIFRIN: As for the claims about creating jobs?
WILLIAM HARTUNG: I think his jobs claims are absurd, to put it mildly.
Military procurement is the least effective way to create jobs.
Some of those jobs will actually be in Saudi Arabia assembling U.S. equipment.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But even if the arms sales and jobs numbers aren't as high as the president
claims, that doesn't mean Saudi Arabia has less influence.
And that influence was by design, and started more than 40 years ago, when a president hosted
a king.
RACHEL BRONSON, Author, "Thicker Than Oil": Back in the '70s, under Nixon and then Ford,
the U.S. and Saudis worked together to integrate their two economies to ensure that each was
mutually dependent on the other, and really the Saudis on the United States.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Rachel Bronson is the author of "Thicker Than Oil: America's Uneasy Partnership
with Saudi Arabia."
She says, ever since National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger went to Riyadh in 1975, the
U.S. has kept its doors to Saudi investment, and eventually that road has led to Washington.
From 2016 to 2017, public filings show Saudi payments to lobbyists almost quadrupled, from
$7 million to $27 million.
And prominent think tanks have accepted millions of Saudi dollars, helping guarantee shared
interests
Today, the U.S. has made Saudi Arabia the center of its Middle East strategy, with a
new Combating Extremism Center in Riyadh, joint efforts to combat Iran and its use of
regional proxies such as Hezbollah, and to gain support for a hypothetical Israeli-Palestinian
peace process.
RACHEL BRONSON: Those geopolitical realities are the basis for these economic ties.
The Saudis don't need our money.
They have money.
What they want is American business leaders and cultural leaders coming to the kingdom.
They want American leaders to, in a sense, welcome them into the community of nations.
NICK SCHIFRIN: That led to Mohammed bin Salman's 2017 American road show, coffee with Michael
Bloomberg, chitchat with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, a walk with Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
MBS, as he's known, has poured investments into companies like Uber, and is now start-up
companies' largest source of capital.
SAM BLATTEIS, CEO and Founder, The MENA Catalysts: He was hailed behind closed doors as almost
a combination of Abraham Lincoln and Elon Musk.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Sam Blatteis was Google's Persian Gulf policy director, and now advises technology
companies.
He says Khashoggi's murder damaged Mohammed bin Salman's reputation for some companies.
SAM BLATTEIS: There's a whole universe of American tech companies where business is
essentially business as usual.
NICK SCHIFRIN: He says Saudi money is too large to disappear, and defense cooperation
will continue.
But, be that as it may, Rachel Bronson says the historic Saudi investment machine has
taken a hit.
RACHEL BRONSON: They want to be associated with the blue-chip, big-name companies.
And those are the very companies that are beginning to back away -- or that are backing
away at this moment.
And, yes, they have really -- they are going to pay a price for that.
NICK SCHIFRIN: And despite all previous criticism of Saudi Arabia, that price, this time, would
be paid for the death of one man.
For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin
For more infomation >> South Carolina is 1 of 7 states to allow lottery winners to collect prize anonymously - Duration: 0:55. 
For more infomation >> Trump may send U.S. troops to Mexico border, but migrants undeterred - Duration: 5:31. 
For more infomation >> U.S. Attorney's office investigating if deadly Kroger shooting was racially motivated - Duration: 1:51. 
For more infomation >> By 2020 US will be a net oil exporter: Rick Perry - Duration: 7:13. 
For more infomation >> Midterm elections: Are Trump's rallies helping Republicans? - Duration: 3:28. 
For more infomation >> Donald Trump Sharing Sensitive Info On Insecure Phone Worries U.S. Intel | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC - Duration: 3:34. 
For more infomation >> Defense Secretary Expected To Sign Order Deploying 800 Troops To US-Mexico Border - Duration: 1:56. 
For more infomation >> U.S. Officials Concerned Trump May Be Using Unsecured Cellphone | NBC Nightly News - Duration: 2:12. 
For more infomation >> Local US Postal Distribution Facility Connected To National Pipe Bomb Scare - Duration: 2:36. 
For more infomation >> Crews racing snowfall to complete work on US-131 - Duration: 2:20. 
For more infomation >> Large Metal US Constitution - Duration: 0:56. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét