Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Congress Overrides POTUS Veto on 9/11/Saudi Bill

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Ok. I found it. Bloomberg actually wrote about it in May, which is shocking. This was long considered a 'conspiracy theory' by the usual detractors.



    At first blush, Simon, who had just done a stint as Nixon’s energy czar, seemed ill-suited for such delicate diplomacy. Before being tapped by Nixon, the chain-smoking New Jersey native ran the vaunted Treasuries desk at Salomon Brothers. To career bureaucrats, the brash Wall Street bond trader—who once compared himself to Genghis Khan—had a temper and an outsize ego that was painfully out of step in Washington. Just a week before setting foot in Saudi Arabia, Simon publicly lambasted the Shah of Iran, a close regional ally at the time, calling him a “nut.”

    But Simon, better than anyone else, understood the appeal of U.S. government debt and how to sell the Saudis on the idea that America was the safest place to park their petrodollars. With that knowledge, the administration hatched an unprecedented do-or-die plan that would come to influence just about every aspect of U.S.-Saudi relations over the next four decades (Simon died in 2000 at the age of 72).

    The basic framework was strikingly simple. The U.S. would buy oil from Saudi Arabia and provide the kingdom military aid and equipment. In return, the Saudis would plow billions of their petrodollar revenue back into Treasuries and finance America’s spending.

    It took several discreet follow-up meetings to iron out all the details, Parsky said. But at the end of months of negotiations, there remained one small, yet crucial, catch: King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud demanded the country’s Treasury purchases stay “strictly secret,” according to a diplomatic cable obtained by Bloomberg from the National Archives database.
    With a handful of Treasury and Federal Reserve officials, the secret was kept for more than four decades—until now. In response to a Freedom-of-Information-Act request submitted by Bloomberg News, the Treasury broke out Saudi Arabia’s holdings for the first time this month after “concluding that it was consistent with transparency and the law to disclose the data,” according to spokeswoman Whitney Smith. The $117 billion trove makes the kingdom one of America’s largest foreign creditors.

    Yet in many ways, the information has raised more questions than it has answered. A former Treasury official, who specialized in central bank reserves and asked not to be identified, says the official figure vastly understates Saudi Arabia’s investments in U.S. government debt, which may be double or more.
    Last edited by ; 09-30-2016, 10:46 PM.

    Comment


    • #17
      You just can't beat solid grandstanding and pandering by a politician...pure gold Jerry. Oh wait, maybe we were wrong...

      Obama vetoed JASTA, but the story didn’t end there. Earlier this week, Congress handed Obama the first veto override of his presidential tenure. JASTA was law, baby! All that’s left is the high-fiving!

      But there always has to be a morning after. And many members of Congress, after they’d come down a bit from their veto override high, evidently started to wonder about what they’d done, exactly. That’s when they found that the bill they supported through a veto override maaaaaybe needed a tweak or two. Per Jordain Carney at The Hill:

      A day after the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted to override President Obama’s veto, GOP leaders are expressing reservations about legislation that would allow lawsuits related to 9/11 to go forward against Saudi Arabia.

      Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) both said they were open to discussions about changing the bill, which Congress approved unanimously.
      Oh, my stars and garters, what needed to be changed to make these sudden “reservations” go away?

      “We want to make sure the 9/11 victims and their families have their day in court,” Ryan told reporters. “At the same time, I would like to think that there may be some work to be done to protect our service members overseas from any kind of legal ensnarements that occur, any kind of retribution.”



      Wait, what? This bill would allow US to be sued as well? WTF, why didn't you tell us that Thanks Obama! Oh wait, you did, several times. But you were boring and long winded. Facts and all that, snooze. It's a long article, but it's a hell of a good read...
      "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
      - Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

      "Your shitty future continues to offend me."
      -Warren Ellis

      Comment


      • #18
        vastly understates Saudi Arabia’s investments in U.S. government debt, which may be double or more.
        That still does not make it much on this scale. We are talking about 3% of the debt, tops.

        J
        Ad Astra per Aspera

        Oh. In that case, never mind. - Wonderboy

        GITH fails logic 101. - bryanbutler

        Bah...OJH caught me. - Pogues

        I don't know if you guys are being willfully ignorant, but... - Judge Jude

        Comment


        • #19
          why would buying oil and investing in the countries that buy it be a secret. or business 101 be a conspiracy.

          Comment

          Working...
          X