President Donald Trump is laying the groundwork for more than a trillion dollars in investments into the United States’ economy and more than half of that is coming from the authoritarian Saudi Arabian government, resurfacing long-standing ethical and national security concerns.
But the top federal committee tasked with evaluating these business transactions is now stacked with Saudi-connected officials, and a global law firm just concluded the powerful oversight committee “may be less wary of investments from Saudi Arabia” than it was in the past.
The massive investments stem from two announcements from Trump during his first week in office. On January 21, the president announced Project Stargate, a $500 billion plan involving three companies with Saudi connections to build artificial intelligence data centers, with the first center to be constructed in Texas. Two days later, Saudi Arabia announced that it would be investing $600 billion in US trade, companies, and products over the next four years.
Human rights groups and lawmakers have expressed concerns about US interests becoming entangled with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the state-owned investment firm overseen by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who reportedly helped plan the 2018 murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi.
Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting human rights worldwide, has urged the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) — a Treasury Department subcommittee tasked with approving foreign investments into US companies — to strengthen its oversight of such deals with Saudi Arabia and other countries embroiled in human rights violations.
Trump, who has multiple La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Freddy Brewster
