The Washington Post newspaper reported today that more than 500 retired US military personnel are engaged in consulting and training the military forces of the sheikhdoms, regardless of the human rights situation and foreign interventions in the Persian Gulf countries, and are pocketing huge salaries.
According to Pak Sahafat News Agency, Citing the “Freedom of Information Act” and after a two-year legal battle, this newspaper close to the Democrats was able to obtain 4,000 pages of documents, including the files of 450 retired military personnel and US marines working in foreign countries.
The US government had claimed that the disclosure of the records of these people is not in the interest of the people and violates the privacy of military personnel.
According to these documents, more than 500 American military personnel, including dozens of generals and admirals, have been working as consultants and contract forces in other countries since 2015.
Many of these people have worked in the framework of contracted civilian forces in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries on the southern shores of the Persian Gulf, and have been involved in upgrading the armies of those countries.
According to the Washington Post, foreign countries pay huge salaries to US military retirees to the extent that their annual income is 6 figures and sometimes 7 figures and is much more than the majority of the US military forces.
According to the aforementioned documents, US admirals and generals receive the highest salaries, although other ranks may also receive large salaries in addition to pensions, depending on their rank.
One of the former White House national security advisors, one of the former directors of the National Security Organization and the former commander of the American forces in Afghanistan are among the people who have been engaged in military consulting in Saudi Arabia and received salaries since the assassination of Khashoggi.
The United Arab Emirates has a record of attracting American troops, and within the last seven years, 280 retired American armed forces have been working in contractual positions and military advisors in the emirate.
The Emiratis have relied on American advisors and staff to make their army the strongest in the Arab world. However, Abu Dhabi has used its military forces to intervene in the civil wars of Yemen and Libya and has aggravated the humanitarian crisis in these two countries.
Emiratis pay good salaries to American retirees, and annual incomes of $400,000 are common for American consultants and trainers.
It should be mentioned that Jim Mattis, the Secretary of Defense of the Trump administration, was also working in the UAE as a military advisor before becoming the head of the Pentagon, although according to his spokesman, “he did not receive a salary.”