Gee, What a Surprise

It appears that dozens, if not hundreds of general officers in the US military retired and then took jobs as consultants for some of the most corrupt and unsavory governments on earth, most notably, though not limited to, Prince Mohammad bin Bonsaw defacto ruler of the House of Saud, and the Pentagon did its level best to keep this information covered up.

That is not a surprise.  The payoff for senior military officers after their (pretty generous) retirement are lucrative sinecures with defense contractors, the news media, and now we know, despots with a hankering for US military hardware:

DoD tried to keep this a secret, which is concerning, because this constitutes a form of back-loaded bribery, where if you play ball, you get rewarded when you retire:

More than 500 retired U.S. military personnel — including scores of generals and admirals — have taken lucrative jobs since 2015 working for foreign governments, mostly in countries known for human rights abuses and political repression, according to a Washington Post investigation.

In Saudi Arabia, for example, 15 retired U.S. generals and admirals have worked as paid consultants for the Defense Ministry since 2016. The ministry is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, who U.S. intelligence agencies say approved the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post contributing columnist, as part of a brutal crackdown on dissent.

Saudi Arabia’s paid advisers have included retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, a national security adviser to President Barack Obama, and retired Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who led the National Security Agency under Obama and President George W. Bush, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Others who have worked as consultants for the Saudis since Khashoggi’s murder include a retired four-star Air Force general and a former commanding general of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Most of the retired U.S. personnel have worked as civilian contractors for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other Persian Gulf monarchies, playing a critical, though largely invisible, role in upgrading their militaries. 

Also, no doubt, working as unregistered lobbyists to help them get military hardware.

………

Foreign governments have long advanced their interests in Washington by paying Americans as lobbyists, lawyers, political consultants, think tank analysts and public relations advisers. But the hiring of retired U.S. military personnel for their expertise and political clout has accelerated over the past decade as oil-rich gulf monarchies have splurged on defense spending and strengthened their security partnerships with the Pentagon.

Congress permits retired troops as well as reservists to work for foreign governments if they first obtain approval from their branch of the armed forces and the State Department. But the U.S. government has fought to keep the hirings secret. For years, it withheld virtually all information about the practice, including which countries employ the most retired U.S. service members and how much money is at stake.

That's because the people who could release the information were next in line for the corrupt gravy train.

The Post had to sue to get the information.

BTW, you have heard the technical constitutional term for these sorts of payments, "foreign emoluments," and former military personnel are required to get permission to do this, but the reviews are perfunctory at best.

Once again, what is shocking is not that what has been done is against the law, what is shocking is that this is all perfectly legal.