Senator Calls U.S. Support for Saudis a “National Disgrace” After Intercept Reveals Unpaid Debt to Pentagon

Last week, an investigation by The Intercept revealed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has repeatedly stiffed the Defense Department on a bill for support of a Saudi-led war in Yemen that killed hundreds of thousands of people and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe. For months — up to and since publication — the Pentagon has ducked The Intercept’s requests for comment on the unpaid bill.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., in a statement to The Intercept, excoriated the kingdom, its leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the Pentagon in response to the findings.

“Yemen’s children will grow up knowing Saudi Arabia’s brutal war that caused so much slaughter and starvation was made possible with American support. Now, the billionaire crown prince apparently will not reimburse America’s taxpayers for refueling his warplanes,” Paul told The Intercept. “Saudi Arabia’s delinquency, and our government’s arrogant lack of transparency, further demonstrates that America’s servility to this autocratic regime is a national disgrace.”

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The senator has been a longtime critic of U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia due to the kingdom’s dismal record on human rights. In 2019, Paul joined with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and a bipartisan group of lawmakers imploring President Donald Trump to end U.S. support of the Saudi war in Yemen. Late last year, Paul also attempted to block the sale of sophisticated intelligence and military communications technologies to Saudi Arabia.

Despite the unpaid debt of $15 million — the remaining balance of a $300 million bill for aerial refueling missions which the Pentagon has repeatedly attempted to collect — the Biden administration recently lifted its ban on selling offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia, authorizing an initial shipment of air-to-ground munitions to the kingdom. The restriction did not apply to sales of so-called defensive arms and military services. Those sales have amounted to almost $10 billion over the past four years.

The Biden administration’s embrace of Saudi Arabia comes as new questions have been raised concerning the kingdom’s role in the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people on 9/11.

In 2021, the Biden administration imposed the offensive weapons ban due to the war in Yemen which directly or indirectly killed at least 377,000 people, including thousands of civilians slain in Saudi-coalition airstrikes. Despite a deescalation in the conflict following a 2022 truce, 18.2 million people, more than half of Yemen’s population, still require humanitarian assistance.

A 2022 Government Accountability Office report noted that between March 2015 and August 2021, the United Nations estimated that coalition airstrikes in Yemen killed or injured more than 18,000 civilians. The GAO also determined that the Pentagon and the State Department failed to investigate the role of U.S.-provided military support in causing these casualties.

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When the administration announced, earlier this month, that it was dropping its ban on sales of offensive arms to Saudi Arabia and authorizing an initial shipment of air-to-ground munitions, it also said it would consider additional new transfers on a “case-by-case basis,” according to senior administration officials. 

For months, The Intercept has contacted the Pentagon to ascertain if Saudi Arabia has paid any additional portion of its remaining aerial refueling bill. Return receipts show that the questions were read three times by Pentagon officials in April and May. Despite dozens of follow-up messages in recent months, the Defense Department has never responded to The Intercept’s questions.

On August 10, the State Department acknowledged receipt of The Intercept’s questions about the reasons for the resumption of weapons transfers to Saudi Arabia but did not reply to repeated follow-ups. A message sent to Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Washington, D.C., seeking an interview also received no response.