Eric Trump announced the Trump Organization’s first Saudi Arabia project—a 47-floor, SAR 2 billion ($530M) Trump Tower in Jeddah, developed with London-listed Dar Global. The tower on Jeddah’s Corniche will include Trump Club, the Kingdom’s first members-only social club, with …
A federal court grants McKinsey & Company’s motion to dismiss Omar Abdulaziz’s lawsuit for failure to state a claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), ruling that the consulting firm had no legal duty to protect the Saudi dissident’s identity when it produced …
New York Times investigative reporters Walt Bogdanich (three-time Pulitzer Prize winner) and Michael Forsythe (George Polk Award winner and U.S. Navy veteran) publish ‘When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm,’ a landmark …
On January 21, 2022, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a detention facility in Sa’adah, northwestern Yemen, killing at least 80 people and wounding over 200 in what the United Nations described as the “worst civilian-casualty incident in the last three years in Yemen.” Amnesty …
On February 4, 2021, the Biden administration announced it was pausing indefinitely two major precision-guided munitions sales to Saudi Arabia worth approximately $760 million—a $478 million Raytheon contract for 7,500 Paveway “smart” bombs and a $290 million Boeing contract for 3,000 …
Omar Abdulaziz, a Montreal-based Saudi activist who sought asylum in Canada in 2013, files a lawsuit in the Supreme Court, County of New York (later removed to federal court) against McKinsey & Company, alleging the consulting firm reported on him to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, …
On January 28, 2021, during a quarterly earnings call just days after Joe Biden’s inauguration, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes told investors that “peace is not going to break out in the Middle East anytime soon,” framing ongoing regional conflicts and violence as positive factors for …
On August 5, 2020, the State Department released a report revealing that the Trump administration failed to properly assess risks of civilian casualties when approving the May 2019 $8.1 billion emergency arms sale to Saudi Arabia, including major Raytheon weapons contracts. The report—prepared by …
On January 30, 2020, Raytheon reported better-than-expected quarterly profits driven by surging international weapons demand, with company executives explicitly citing US-Iran tensions as a growth driver. The earnings announcement came just weeks after the January 3, 2020 US drone strike killing …
On September 14, 2019, swarms of drones and cruise missiles evaded six battalions of Raytheon-manufactured Patriot missile defense systems to strike Saudi Arabia’s Abqaiq and Khurais oil facilities, temporarily disrupting 5.7 million barrels of daily oil production—approximately 5% of global …
On July 24, 2019, President Trump vetoed three congressional joint resolutions that would have blocked major components of his $8.1 billion emergency arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including transfers of Raytheon Paveway precision-guided munitions. The vetoes overrode bipartisan Senate …
On June 20, 2019, the Senate voted 53-45 to pass resolutions blocking major components of the Trump administration’s $8.1 billion emergency arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including specifically prohibiting the transfer of 64,000 Raytheon-manufactured Paveway precision-guided munitions. …
On June 7, 2019, reports revealed that the Trump administration’s $8.1 billion emergency arms sale to Saudi Arabia included an unprecedented provision allowing Raytheon to transfer sensitive precision-guided munitions technology to Saudi Arabia for domestic bomb production. The deal authorized …
On May 24, 2019, the Trump administration invoked a rarely-used emergency provision of the Arms Export Control Act to bypass congressional review and ram through 22 separate arms sales worth $8.1 billion to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Jordan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared an …
On April 16, 2019, President Trump vetoes S.J. Res. 7, a bipartisan congressional resolution invoking the War Powers Resolution to end U.S. military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The veto protects Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman six months after the CIA concluded with high confidence that …
In March 2019, just months after Jamal Khashoggi’s October 2018 assassination by Saudi agents on orders from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a reporter asks McKinsey Managing Director Kevin Sneader what McKinsey would do if they found out their client was a murderer. Sneader replies: …
The New York Times publishes a major investigation by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe titled ‘How McKinsey Has Helped Raise the Stature of Authoritarian Governments’ based on interviews with 40 current and former McKinsey employees and dozens of clients. The investigation reveals …
On November 20, 2018, President Trump issues an extraordinary written statement titled “Statement from President Donald J. Trump on Standing with Saudi Arabia” that explicitly rejects CIA findings and defends Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman despite the intelligence community’s …
On October 23, 2018, three weeks after Jamal Khashoggi’s murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, President Trump publicly acknowledges the killing was orchestrated by Saudi Arabia but makes clear he will not hold Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accountable. Despite calling Saudi …
McKinsey & Company issues a statement claiming it is ‘horrified by the possibility, however remote, that it could have been misused’ after The New York Times reports the firm’s 2016 report identifying three Saudi dissidents had been weaponized by Mohammed bin Salman’s …
On October 11, 2018, just nine days after Saudi agents murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, President Trump declared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he would not cancel arms sales to Saudi Arabia despite the killing and mounting evidence of Saudi war …
On August 9, 2018, shortly before 8:30 AM, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a school bus traveling through a crowded market in Dahyan, Saada governorate, Yemen, killing 40 children and 11 adults and wounding 79 others, including 56 children. The boys, aged 6 to 15, were on a summer school …
On April 22, 2018, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike struck a wedding celebration in northern Yemen, killing 23 people including the bride and predominately women and children. The weapon used was identified as a GBU-12 Paveway II precision-guided bomb, manufactured jointly by Lockheed Martin and …
Jared Kushner made an unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia in October 2017, staying up until 4 AM with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Days later, MBS launched mass arrests of 200+ Saudi royals and officials, seizing $100 billion in assets. MBS reportedly told confidants that Kushner was ‘in …
Before dawn on September 10, 2016, Saudi-led coalition aircraft conducted repeated airstrikes on a water drilling site in Arhab, Sanaa governorate, Yemen, killing at least 31 civilians and wounding 42 others in what Human Rights Watch characterized as an apparent war crime. The first strike hit near …
At approximately 3:45 PM on August 15, 2016, a Saudi-led coalition airstrike struck the Abs Hospital in Yemen’s Hajjah governorate, killing at least 11 people including an MSF staff member and injuring at least 19 others. The hospital was clearly marked as a medical facility and Médecins Sans …
McKinsey Global Institute issues a comprehensive report titled ‘Moving Saudi Arabia’s Economy Beyond Oil’ in December 2015, which becomes the foundation for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 economic transformation plan. The Saudi government hires McKinsey as the …
On March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia launched military intervention in Yemen’s civil war, beginning an eight-year bombing campaign that would kill over 19,000 civilians and create what the UN characterized as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The Saudi-led coalition initiated operations …