Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appropriately declared an “emergency” last year to push forward an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but the department failed to fully consider the risk the deal posed to civilian casualties, a new State Department inspector general report found.
Last summer, the Trump administration invoked a “national security emergency” declaration that circumvented a congressional review process to push the multibillion dollar arms sale to Gulf powers through. Officials cited threats from Iran to American interests as reason for the proposed sales to Gulf Arab powers, several of whom — including Saudi Arabia — view Iran as an archrival.
The move was quickly met with pushback from congressional Democrats who launched investigations into the declaration and said it “raises serious questions.” They have pointed to the brutal Saudi-led military campaign in neighboring Yemen and continuing questions of the role of Saudi leaders in the killing of dissident U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey in 2018.
But a new State Department watchdog report released this week concluded that Mr. Pompeo’s emergency declaration was technically in line with legal regulations and his powers as secretary.
Rep. Eliot L. Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday that despite the conclusion, Mr. Pompeo abused his powers in pushing the sale through without congressional approval.
“No one ever doubted that the law provides for the authority to expedite the sale of weapons in the case of an emergency. The question was always, ’Did the administration abuse that authority in order to ram through more than $8 billion in sales to Gulf countries?’ ” Mr. Engel said in a statement.
“The IG didn’t offer an opinion on that. But the report’s details signal a resounding, ’Yes.’ I presume that’s why the Department insisted on redacting the most salient information and trying to tell us what the report said before it was out.”
“The truth is there was no national security emergency … unless your coddling of the Saudi Crown Prince counts as one,” Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted.
“Stop redacting & gaslighting to avoid accountability. Less caterwauling over Congressional oversight, please,” he said, referring to the partially redacted report.
The State Department backed the IG’s conclusions and said in a statement following the report’s release that “the situation in the Gulf very clearly justified the use of the statutory authority in the Arms Export Control Act.”
“And after the report from the Office of Inspector General, it is clear the IG also agrees that statutory requirements were complied with, as they found no wrongdoing in the emergency arms sales and stated clearly that the Secretary properly executed the certification and complied with the requirements outlined in the Arms Export Control Act,” a department spokesperson said.
The report also determined, however, that the department “did not fully assess risks and implement mitigation measures to reduce civilian casualties and legal concerns” in relation to the sale of precision-guided munitions to the countries that have used the weapons in the devastating civil war in Yemen.
As of March of this year, the United Nations has verified at least 7,700 civilian deaths, primarily caused by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes. But international humanitarian groups have predicted the death toll is far higher.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, based in the U.S., has said that more than 12,000 civilians have been killed in direct attacks since the war began in 2014.
Congressional Democrats have connected the arms sale to the firing of former Inspector General Steve Linick, who was ousted from his role May 15 after President Trump said he no longer had the “fullest confidence” in him. He had been looking into Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration to push the controversial weapons deal through.
Mr. Pompeo and administration officials have maintained that the probe was not linked to Mr. Linick’s firing.
• Lauren Toms can be reached at lmeier@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.