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Tier 1 Group trained four of Khashoggi’s killers. The military contractor’s parent company, Cerberus, hired Trump diplomat Brian Hook last month.
Who profits from violent repression? The New York Times revealed on Tuesday that four members of the hit squad that assassinated the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi had received military training in the United States in 2014. The defense company that provided the training—the Arkansas-based Tier 1 Group—has in recent years made tens of millions of dollars in contracts from the government.
Tier 1 Group’s parent company is the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, a melting pot of Republican honchos, including former Vice President Dan Quayle and former Treasury Secretary John Snow. Cerberus chief executive Stephen Feinberg was close to President Trump and was even under consideration for a top intelligence job. Recently, the private equity firm hired one of Trump’s most visible Middle East diplomats.
Last month, Cerberus brought on board a new vice chairman, Brian Hook, who had joined the Trump administration in 2017 as the influential director of policy planning in the State Department. He was a survivor who rose through the department’s ranks and did not flinch—let alone resign—when Trump failed to hold Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accountable for the brazen murder of Khashoggi. A staunch Iran hawk, Hook often argued in favor of policies tantamount to regime change and advocated for the sanctions campaign known as “maximum pressure.” He chastised Iran on human rights issues, but never seemed to speak out about authoritarian countries like the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and Bahrain, with which Hook negotiated accords with Israel.
The training of Saudi security forces will continue, and private equity companies like Cerberus will continue to back military contractors.
The training of Khashoggi’s killers would have been arranged directly by the Saudi government, and its contract is not public. The Tier 1 Group has received $28 million for 296 U.S. government contracts since 2008, according to Transparency International researcher Michael Picard. The watchdog organization has not formally assessed Tier 1 Group’s susceptibility to corruption, but it has given DynCorp, another defense contractor owned by Cerberus, an “E” on a scale from “A” to “F.”
In a statement to the Prospect, the State Department said that per regulations it could not confirm or deny whether a license was granted for the training. “We have an established interagency process for working through the details of individual arms sales cases, which ensures that President Biden’s commitment to putting human rights at the center of our foreign policy is incorporated into all relevant processes and procedures,” spokesperson Ned Price said in an email.
The State Department maintains that defense cooperation with allies—which includes providing military training—has a positive impact on the countries in question. It exposes them to best practices, the narrative goes, giving visiting military counterparts the time and space to learn; the education in new techniques leads to broader discussions of values, interests, and human rights. It’s a chance for them to explore dynamics of U.S. governance, like the importance of civilian control of the military.
Tier 1 Group has instructed Navy SEALs and Marine Special Operations in its massive facility outside Memphis, Tennessee, in which an Afghan village has been re-created. The particular training that the Saudi operatives received, according to the Times, consisted of marksmanship, surveillance, and counterattacks. It would be difficult to argue that it was net-positive.
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There’s no way such trainings can alter the fundamental, structural issues in Saudi governance: the lack of civilian oversight over armed forces and that a secret unit reports directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, “in a state known for breathtaking levels of rent seeking activity,” according to Transparency International.
Former officials, however, say that the type of training the Saudi operatives participated in is routine, and that the process by which they’re approved is deficient. The Saudi government would have submitted an online application to the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls at the State Department, where a licensing officer on rotation from the military would have been the first reviewer. These are not desirable assignments for military personnel and don’t attract top talent. That officer would then send it out for review to various offices in the Pentagon, including the Defense Technology Security Administration, as well as different parts of the State Department. But the process, according to former officials, seldom includes a discouraging word, and the most critical voices—like the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL)—tend to be excluded.
“DRL and the regional desk for that country, which is supposed to be the lead on policy, especially back in that time [2014, during Barack Obama’s presidency], would get left out of decisions,” said a former official. “The U.S. government process shapes the outcome by excluding potential dissidents from the review chain.”
It’s not clear that the State Department has learned from its mistakes. “Future bilateral and multilateral training is designed to improve the Saudi security forces’ understanding of identifying, targeting, and engaging correct targets while minimizing collateral damage and civilian casualties,” according to a State Department fact sheet from January 20.
All this points to the likelihood that the training of Saudi security forces will continue, and private equity companies like Cerberus will continue to back military contractors. “Cerberus is a trusted partner to many of the world’s most respected investors because of its integrity and track record,” said Brian Hook upon taking the job. “I look forward to working across its global platforms to help investors and companies succeed.”
