(UnitedVoice.com) – The US military’s top officers are very capable, highly-educated professionals, with decades of experience at the highest levels of defense strategy. They’ve been expensively trained and given access to vital US secrets. Are they really the sort of people we want to see working for foreign governments? Because many of them are — and the Biden Administration is giving them permission.
In October, the Washington Post reported that over 500 former members of the US military have gone to work for foreign governments since 2015. Countries with poor human rights records hired most of them. Saudi Arabia alone has employed 15 retired US flag officers as defense consultants, including some who have held very sensitive intelligence positions.
I am demanding answers from the Defense & State Departments on recently released documents showing that 500+ retired military officials took jobs paying upwards of 7 figures with foreign governments, some with known human rights abuses. pic.twitter.com/RIDjFagyXD
— Rep. Suzan DelBene (@RepDelBene) December 13, 2022
On December 13, three members of Congress — Representatives Michael Cloud (R-TX), Jason Crow (D-CO) and Suzan DelBene (D-WA) — sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking for details about retired generals who now work for foreign governments and why the administration gave them waivers to security rules that would restrict where they could work after retirement.
The lawmakers want to know the number of waivers requested, what percentage the administration has granted, and how they managed security and conflict of interest risks. The world is a dangerous enough place already; we don’t need rogue American generals making it worse.
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