Mohammed bin Nayef’s Remarkable Prescience about Obama’s Second Term Cabinet
Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu just resigned.
Which got me thinking about my latest obsession: the Technical Cooperation Agreement beween Saudi Arabia and the US, under which (as far as the agreement admits publicly) the US helps the Saudis protect their critical infrastructure (read, oil fields) and borders. While the TCA is managed by State, it includes significant involvement on the part of DOD — particularly CentCom, DOE (because in Saudi Arabia infrastructure is energy), and Treasury (which handles the magic bank account at its core). In addition, a new focus on cybersecurity (presumably a response to the recent Aramco hack) gives DHS and NSA an increasing role.
So check out the list of people MbN met with while he was in DC from January 14 to 16, in significant part to “renew” the TCA (four months before the old one expired).
Prince Mohammad also met with a number of senior U.S. officials throughout his visit, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Director of National Intelligence James Robert Clapper, Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, Treasury Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin, National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert Mueller, and Director of the National Security Agency General Keith B. Alexander.
Remarkably, MbN didn’t waste his time with any outgoing cabinet member — not TurboTax Timmeh, not Chu, not Panetta — except for Hillary, with whom he was signing this agreement. While TurboTax Timmeh and Panetta’s departure was known, Chu’s was only rumored.
John Brennan is moving, sure, but I suspect his move won’t change his interactions with MbN — who has been a key stovepipe for Brennan — one whit.
The most interesting person MbN managed to not waste his time with on the visit, apparently, was General James Mattis, who was about to be, but had not yet been, ousted several months early the week MbN was in town.
I’m not suggesting this is all that meaningful, mind you. I just find it notable that MbN seemed to have a better sense of what was going on with Obama’s top national security leadership than most of the journalists in DC.
“Stovepipe”?
Ah, the colloquial meaning. The slang-shot.
“Inside the military, the practice of taking intelligence (or a request) that should be pushed through the chain of command – checked at levels and sent from one level to another – and bringing it straight to the highest authority.”
One wonders what tuneful perks or rhythmic “returns” that might win the piper?
Ah, EW, you must, often, excite the pique of certain agencies …
;~DW
I wonder how he found out who was planning to leave the administration.
Well, no, not really. I’m sure he has friends who keep him informed.
Why don’t we just save ourselves a bunch of cash and drop the pretense that we’re anything besides the marketing and consumption divisions of the vertical petrochemical market-nation?
Then Mohammed bin Nayefs could be nominated/appointed for Sec-DoE and just cut out all the middlemen.
@Rayne: I was originally gong to title this something like, “MbN now Obama’s 3rd most senior cabinet member” but figured that would be REALLY controversial.
Interesting to know who is in the inner circle and worthy of selective leaks. What other kinds of information is he privy to, while our 1st amendment press is not.