Thread by @arapaho415

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand <Thread>
1/ "At the start of the Trump administration, IP3 [International Peace Power & Prosperity] found an ally in Tom Barrack" who "wasn’t familiar w/nuclear power as an option for the Middle East until he heard from Bud McFarlane." (more)
Nov 29, 2017:
propublica.org/article/white-…

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 2/ "McFarlane followed up the meeting by emailing Flynn in late Jan [2017]" and "attached 2 documents. One outlined IP3’s plan, describing it as consistent w/Trump’s philosophy. (con't)
📷Bud McFarlane & Flynn in Trump Tower lobby on Dec 5, 2016 (Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 3/ ...The 2nd was a draft memo for the president to sign that would officially endorse the plan & instruct his cabinet secretaries to implement it." "(McFarlane disputed that account but repeatedly declined to specify any inaccuracies. IP3 declined to comment on the memos.)" more

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 4/ "Barrack would take charge of the project as the interagency coordinator. Barrack had discussions about becoming ambassador to Egypt🇪🇬 or a special envoy to the Middle East but never committed to such a role." (more...)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 5/ Background:
"Flynn was one of many retired military officers whom ACU [Strategic Partners] recruited [in 2014/15-not sure of the date]. ACU’s chief was a man named Alex Copson, who is most often described in press accounts as a 'colorful British-American dealmaker.' (con't)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 6/ ...Copson reportedly made a fortune inventing a piece of diving equipment, may or may not have been a bass player in the band Iron Butterfly, and has been touting wildly ambitious nuclear-power plans since the 1980s. (He didn’t answer repeated requests for comment.) con't...

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 7/ ...By 2015, Copson was telling people he had a group of US, European, Arab & Russian🇷🇺 companies that would build as many as 40 nuclear reactors in Egypt🇪🇬, Jordan🇯🇴 and Saudi Arabia🇸🇦. (con't)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 8/ ...Copson’s company pitched the Obama administration, but officials figured he didn’t really have the backers he claimed." (more...)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 9/ "Copson’s outfit eventually splintered. A retired admiral named Michael Hewitt, who was to head up the security services part of the project, struck out on his own in mid-2016. Flynn went with him." (more...)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 10/ " IP3 signed up other prominent national security alumni including Gens. Keith Alexander, Jack Keane and James Cartwright, former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, Bush Homeland Security adviser Fran Townsend, and Reagan National Security adviser Robert 'Bud' McFarlane. (con't)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 11/ "IP3’s idea was a variation on ACU’s. Hewitt swapped out one notional foreign partner for another (Russia🇷🇺 was out, China🇨🇳 was in), then later shifted to an all-American approach. That idea resonated w/ the US nuclear-construction industry, which never recovered... (con't)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 12/ ...from the Three Mile Island disaster in the 1970s and was looking to new markets overseas." (more...)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 13/ On to 2017:
"IP3 — whose sole project to date is the Saudi nuclear plan — never went through... normal channels. Instead, the company went straight to the top." Despite concerns raised by NSC lawyers, "Derek Harvey, then the NSC’s senior director for the Middle East, (con't)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 14/ ...continued discussing the IP3 proposal w/Barrack and his representative, Rick Gates, according two people. Gates, a longtime associate of...Paul Manafort, worked for Barrack on Trump’s inaugural committee & then for Barrack’s investment company, Colony NorthStar. (con't)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 15/ ...By then, Barrack was no longer considering a govt. position. Instead, he and Gates were seeking investment ideas based on the administration’s Middle East policy. 🚨Barrack pondered the notion, for example, of buying a piece of Westinghouse...🚨 (con't)

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 16/ ...the bankrupt US manufacturer of nuclear reactors. (Harvey, now on the staff of the House intelligence committee, declined to comment through a spokesman.... Gates’ spokesman didn’t answer requests for comment.) con't...

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 17/ ...Ultimately, it wasn’t the NSC staff’s concerns that stalled IP3’s momentum. Rather, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law & senior aide tasked w/reviving a MiddleEast peace process, wanted to table the nuclear question in favor of simpler alliance-building measures...

@MuellerSheWrote @mattcsaki @Agenthades1 @NatashaBertrand 18/ ...w/the Saudis, centered on Trump’s visit in May [2017], according to a person familiar with the discussions. (A spokesperson for Kushner... had not provided one at the time this article was published; we’ll update the article if he provides one later.)" /pause, more later