How has Saudi Arabia gotten away with so much? Money, of course.
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The Washington Post has a longish read on just how the Saudi Arabian monarchy maintains such warm relations with Washington despite all those things it keeps doing and let's just cut to the chase on this one: It's because money. Saudi Arabia is very rich, anHow has Saudi Arabia gotten away with so much? Money, of course.
The Washington Post has a longish read on just how the Saudi Arabian monarchy maintains such warm relations with Washington despite all those things it keeps doing and let's just cut to the chase on this one: It's because money. Saudi Arabia is very rich, and lobbyists are very cheap. The kingdom’s spending on U.S. lobbying and consulting, which had dropped from $14.3 million in 2015 to $7.7 million in 2016, surged to $27.3 million last year, according to public records. [...] Between 2016 and 2017, the think tank received between $1.25 million and $4 million in funding from Saudi interests, according to its public disclosures. [...] Michael Petruzzello — who took on the kingdom as a client after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and whose communications firm Qorvis MSLGROUP reported $6.3 million in lobbying fees from the Saudis in 2016 and 2017 [...] This doesn't count the defense spending, which is far more substantial, but is a good reminder of just how little money it takes to steer this nation's policies in whatever direction you might want them steered. Twenty-seven million dollars is, for the world's most wealthy individuals, pocket change. Twenty-seven million dollars is enough to build a decent mansion or a very nice boat or, if you are bored or insecure, dozens and dozens of people who will write nice things about you in the nation's top editorial pages. It's also a reminder that if you don't have 27 million dollars, you don't get to lobby Congress. Try showing up in a Senate office without 27 million dollars and Mitch McConnell will give a speech decrying the shoddy state of our national discourse these days. I'm of course simplifying. The historic reason for our nation's «close» relationship with the Saudi family dictatorship is because the nation's relative if somewhat murder-contingent stability made it an ideal foothold in the Middle East back when the United States and the Soviet Union were playing proxy games throughout the world. It has oil, and gargantuan reserves of it, and America needs oil more than it needs children, farmland, or oxygen. Saudi Arabia is so vital to the oil markets, or once was, that they could and did tweak oil prices based on how needed they wanted to feel at any given point in time; caught murdering a journalist outside the confines of their country, they are now intoning similar threats about what fine oil markets we all have these days and how we wouldn't want anything to happen to those. Protect the vote: Sign up to be a non-partisan poll monitor on Election Day. Read more