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Did Trump fire State Dept. Inspector to Protect Shady Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia?

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The Saudis declared a cease-fire with the Houthis in March on the pretext that the coronavirus made fighting dangerous for all parties at this point. With oil prices cratering, the Saudis may not be able to afford to go on wasting munitions (dropping bombs from 30,000 feet has never in modern history taken territory or defeated a guerrilla army).

In any case, there was no emergency with Iran last May that would have justified the Trump administration unconstitutionally usurping the Congress's power of the purse. What, was there a shortage of pistachios?

Moreover, on October 2, 2018, the Saudi authorities had murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in their Istanbul consulate, raising the question of whether you really want to be selling them $8 billion in high tech weaponry. Congress might not have thought so, which is why Pompeo went around them with his "emergency."

If Linick was fired because of the Saudi investigation, it may have been a further step taken by the Trump gang to protect Riyadh from the consequences of the Khashoggi murder. Ironically, it has been alleged that Khashoggi himself may have been killed because he was a vocal critic of Trump, and the Saudis were afraid his being a Saudi and playing that role would interfere with good relations with the White House. Linick's removal may have been the mirror image of Khashoggi's murder. Linick is only lucky that typically in Washington they don't yet use bone saws for these purposes.

Bonus Video:

Fired Watchdog Was Investigating Pompeo Decision To Approve Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia | MSNBC

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Juan Cole is an American academic and commentator on the modern Middle East and South Asia.  He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Since 2002, he has written a weblog, Informed Comment (more...)
 

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