When military personnel retire from the US Armed Forces, they are entitled to a pension. But the knowledge of high-ranking officers is also extremely valuable abroad. You can pay for this excellently. By whom, the US authorities are only of limited interest.
The US government was dragged into court because it did not want to disclose the data. But the judiciary ruled: the authorities must make available to the public the data on which jobs the US State Department has allowed former US military personnel to switch to after their service in the United States. An evaluation by the "Washington Post" shows that the USA is exporting military know-how on a large scale with its veterans. The State Department apparently approves such activities without much ado.
According to the legally recovered documents, more than 500 former US military personnel, including a large number of generals and admirals, have joined the service of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East since 2015. There they work as consultants or employees for the government and are handsomely rewarded for their insider knowledge and their political contacts. Most serve as civilian employees for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf monarchies to augment their military sleep power.
The payment is in the six to seven-digit dollar range, so many millions flowed. Much more than an officer can previously earn in the US Armed Forces. They collect the money in addition to their military pension from Washington. The US State Department must approve the activities, as must the US military. However, there are no penalties for violating the permit requirement, other than reducing the pension. However, this should only be the case for five former soldiers. The newspaper was also in contact with several ex-military men who worked for Arab states, but the authorities never found out about them.
The legal dispute over the details of the employment is an indication that the authorities could also consider the new jobs to be problematic, even if they did not decide accordingly. According to the Washington Post, most of the requests were simply waved through, with only five percent not approved.
Since 2015, 15 former US generals and admirals have worked for the Saudi Ministry of Defense and thus ultimately for the de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. According to US secret services, in 2018 he ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Kashoggi, who was critical of the royal house and lived in the United States. Despite Kashoggi's disappearance, several senior US military personnel have worked for the Saudis: a former White House national security adviser, a former head of the National Security Agency NSA, and a former supreme commander of US troops in Afghanistan.
Ex-General Keith Alexander received the State Department clearance just two months after the murder of Kashoggi, who is said to have been dismembered to hide his remains. Alexander helped establish the new "Mohammed bin Salman College of Cyber Security" until 2020. Former NATO commander and General James L. Jones significantly increased his consulting firm's involvement with Bin Salman. Eight ex-US generals and 32 other ex-military officers work for Saudi Arabia through his company.
Jones told the Washington Post that the US government encouraged him to continue working with the Saudis after Kashoggi's death. He was worried that the Saudis might look for other allies like China or Russia if the US turned away.
However, by far the largest number of former members of the US military have worked in the United Arab Emirates in the past seven years: 280 worked there as contractors. The UAE is now considered by many experts to be the strongest military power in the Gulf - and the knowledge and skills of the US military have helped them in this. The Emirates are under great criticism internationally because their military is involved in the civil wars in Yemen and Libya. The UAE also pay well. According to the research, an ex-elite soldier in the Navy Seals received a salary of $348,000 plus an annual bonus of $54,400 as a shooting instructor. An ex-colonel got $324,000 for a year as an army adviser.
An old acquaintance also advised the Emirates: Ex-Navy General Jim Mattis, who later became Secretary of Defense under President Donald Trump. Even after the end of his ministerial post, Mattis was engaged again. He does not want to have received anything in return for his work. Even if that's true - it's different for many others. And nobody in the US authorities knows what secret information they are revealing to authoritarian states during their engagements and what contacts they establish.
