By Debbie Gregory.
According to a recent report from the House Oversight and Reform Committee, key members of the Trump administration were in favor of selling nuclear power plants to Saudi Arabia in spite of objections from members of the National Security Council and other senior White House officials.
The 24-page report is entitled Whistleblowers Raise Grave Concerns with. Trump Administration’s Efforts to Transfer Sensitive Nuclear Technology to Saudi Arabia and is based on the accounts of unnamed whistleblowers and internal White House documents.
According to the report, objectors, including White House lawyers and National Security Council officials, opposed the plan out of concern that it violated laws designed to prevent the transfer of nuclear technology that could be used to support a weapons program.
The report warns that White House efforts to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia may be accelerating after meetings last week at the White House and ahead of a planned visit to Saudi Arabia by the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, issued an interim staff report after multiple whistleblowers came forward to warn about efforts inside the White House to rush the transfer of highly sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in potential violation of the Atomic Energy Act and without review by Congress, which is required by law.
Some Republicans on Capitol Hill have criticized the report and characterized it as being inaccurate and politically motivated, but in the aftermath of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, many members of Congress have expressed reluctance to continue relations with Saudi Arabia. Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and prominent critic of Saudi Arabian leadership, was killed within the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October. The U.S. Senate issued a resolution condemning Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for Khashoggi’s murder in December, following a CIA report concluding his responsibility.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would strengthen the power of Congress to stop a U.S.-Saudi nuclear deal.
Saudi officials have said they would like to buy nuclear power plants so that their country is not totally reliant on oil, and as a way to compete with Iran.
Veteran and Military Business Owners Association, VAMBOA,
