GUNS/MEDIA/SANCTIONS/SAUDI ARABIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TURKEY: “President Donald Trump says he doesn’t want a $110 billion arms deal he brokered with Saudi Arabia to unravel over allegations the Gulf kingdom murdered a journalist at its consulate in Turkey. But his comments are missing the mark on a key fact: Saudi Arabia has so far only followed through on $14.5 billion in purchases. The deal brokered last year between the US and Saudi Arabia was merely a memorandum of intent to fulfill nearly $110 billion in arms sales over the next 10 years. As of yet, Saudi Arabia has only signed letters of offer and acceptance — official purchase agreements that have either already been approved by Congress or in the process of being approved — for $14.5 billion in purchases, according to a Pentagon official. Despite those facts, the President cited the economic and jobs benefits of the $110 billion investment as a reason not to touch the deal as part of any US-imposed consequences for Saudi Arabia’s role in the disappearance and alleged murder of the Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi…Trump suggested there ‘other things we can do’ to impose consequences on Saudi Arabia, but he did not specify what alternative sanctions would look like. And US officials have been cautious in their comments about Khashoggi.”
–Jeremy Diamond and Barbara Starr, “Trump’s $110 billion Saudi arms deal has only earned $14.5 billion so far,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, October 13, 2018 5:05 am