US Energy Secretary Rick Perry has approved
six secret authorizations by companies to
sell nuclear power technology assistance to
Saudi Arabia.
RT correspondent Brigida Santos joins me now
with the story.
Brigida, before we go into too much detail,
give me an idea of what the story's about.
Perry has approved at least six Part 810 authorizations,
which allow American companies to start working
on nuclear power technology that can be transferred
to a foreign government.
Now in this case, it would be transferred
in, hopefully in their case, to Saudi Arabia.
And that's because the kingdom is currently
reviewing competing bids from companies in
the United States, in Russia and South Korea
as Saudi Arabia gears up to build two nuclear
power plants.
Now, Saudi Arabia says that it's not going
to announce the winner of these contracts
until later this year.
So until then, these authorized US companies
are going to be working merely to convince
the Saudis to choose American products like
nuclear reactors and other services over those
of their competitors.
However, the authorizations have come under
scrutiny because they were carried out in
secret.
Now, Perry claims secrecy is necessary to
protect the company's proprietary information,
but normally nuclear authorizations are disclosed
to the public at the time of taping that has
yet to happen.
Okay, well first of all, let, let's go back
and talk about this guy a little bit, this
Rick Perry.
This guy is not exactly, you know, the sharpest
tool in the shed.
This is the guy, if you remember, he, he,
he couldn't name three agencies that he said
he wanted to abolish.
He wanted to abolish three agencies.
They asked him, well, what are the agencies?
He couldn't even name the agencies that he
wanted to abolish.
He thought the voting age in the United States
was 21.
He called social security a ponzi scheme.
So I guess what I'm getting at here Brigida
this is the guy who wants to sell nuclear
technology to the Saudi Arabia, to Saudi Arabia.
Technology that has never been disclosed to
them.
They don't need it for power.
They've got all the power they need.
They've got oil, they've got deserts for wind
power.
They've got solar power.
It's not about power.
They want to build arms, they want to build
weapons.
And so this genius says, yeah, this is a guy
we're allowing to make a decision like this.
What's the reaction to buy US lawmakers about
this character making decisions like this?
What's their reaction?
Lawmakers on both side of the isle are worried
that if the US wins this bid, Saudi Arabia
will develop nuclear weapons and spawn a nuclear
arms race in the Middle East unless proper
safeguards are implemented.
And that's because Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman has previously said that
his country will develop nuclear weapons if
its rival Iran does.
And now that the Trump administration has
pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal, MBS'
stated plan is not completely out of the realm
of possibility.
Now, of course, the Iranians have not, according
to reports, violated terms of the agreement,
even though it's been tossed out.
So it's also unclear whether the kingdom is
even going to agree to American anti proliferation
standards or whether the US is even going
to impose them this time around.
Now in the past, negotiations broke down because
Saudi Arabia would not commit to rules that
would ban uranium enrichment and other pathways
to making fissile material for nuclear weapons.
So if the US does not impose safeguards on
Saudi Arabia, it could result in all out proliferation
across the entire Middle East because no other
country would be incentivized to follow those
rules if Saudi Arabia isn't.
Well, you know, what's this notion that they
can't build what they want?
We give them the technology, they're going
to build it, they're going to sell it to their
pals in the Middle East and we are going to
have a very, very scary arms race there in
the Middle East.
And again, I come back to Rick Perry.
This guy is an absolute goof.
I mean, he would, he was a goof when he was
running for president.
He's been a goof since he, since he was knocked
out of the primaries and we're making, we're
allowing him to make decisions without stepping
in and say, no, we're not going to sell the
Saudis this technology.
The other part of it, it was what you raised.
When have we ever been able to really influence
what the Saudis want to do?
It's the, it's the worst dictatorship on the
planet almost.
And so this dictatorship when we've said,
hey, can you work with us on oil prices?
No, we can't.
Can you work with us as far as getting along
with this country or that country?
No, we can't.
So all of a sudden they now have nuclear weapons
and we're supposed to say we're going to be
able to negotiate with them?
Here's, look, let me ask you this.
Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat is
asking secretary of State Mark, Mike Pompeo
to release the names of the companies that
got the approvals by the middle of April.
He is very good question.
Very important information we should have.
We need to know who's tied up to who, who's
making money on this deal.
How likely is it that we're going to get that
information Brigida?
It's extremely unlikely, especially since
the companies are still in competition against
those firms in Russia, China and South Korea.
But it's not just Democrats, I want to mention
that are concerned, as I said, Republican
senators that are also worried about US Saudi
negotiations.
And in fact, Senators Marco Rubio and Bob
Menendez have called on the Government Accountability
Office to review the Trump administration's
nuclear power negotiations with the kingdom
over reports alleging that some are conducted
without federal oversight that's required
by the Atomic Energy Act.
The House Oversight Committee has now opened
a formal investigation into the plan, which
involves a group known as IP3.
The congressmen also noted that the Department
of Energy is leading these so-called 123 nuclear
negotiate cooperation agreements rather than
State Department, which is very unusual and
inconsistent with previous nuclear agreement
negotiations.
And that's where Perry comes in because he,
you know, he's always been a big energy guy,
oil in Texas.
So it's all very questionable.
Brigida, the very idea of Rick Perry having
anything to do with nuclear energy, on its
face is terrifying.
Thank you for joining me.
Okay.
