Word: khashoggi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Khashoggi wanted to become a petroleum engineer and enrolled in the Colorado School of Mines. But Colorado was too cold for his desert blood, so his father arranged for him to go to the California State University at Chico, a school of 2,000. Set in a conservative rural town, it was an oasis for wealthy Middle Eastern students seeking an American education. When his father sent him $10,000 to buy a car and rent a better apartment, Khashoggi purchased two trucks that he leased to the owner of a small construction company for $125 a month. "I used...
...Khashoggi left Chico after only three semesters; wheeling and dealing would provide the rest of his education. In 1956 Khashoggi garnered a contract to supply trucks for the Saudi army. The pattern was set: the deal, the commission, the party, more contacts and contracts. By 1962 Khashoggi was the sales agent in Saudi Arabia for Chrysler, Fiat, Westland Helicopters Ltd. and Rolls-Royce. "One association," he says, "led to another, one business to another." For Western companies, Khashoggi was the man to know in Saudi Arabia...
Throughout his life he has played up his closeness to the Saudi royal family. Lately there have been rumors that Khashoggi is out of favor in Riyadh, but he adamantly denies them. "Having heard so much revolutionary rhetoric, I can really appreciate what the Saudi government did for its people," he says. "King Fahd is the real revolutionary, after all. It takes a revolutionary to rule by common sense and compassion in the midst of turmoil...
When Fahd's half-brother King Faisal took the Saudi throne in 1964 and set the country on a course of close cooperation with the U.S., Khashoggi positioned himself to be the middleman between American arms manufacturers and the Saudi Defense Ministry. At Khashoggi's instigation, the Saudis commissioned the U.S. to study their defense needs and make recommendations as to what they should buy. As a result, Khashoggi had the inside track and locked up sales-agency rights with such U.S. firms as Lockheed, Raytheon and Northrop. He eventually won exclusive commissions on 80% of all U.S. military sales...
After the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, the Arab states were eager to expand their arsenals. Moreover, the rise in oil prices gave them billions to spend on whatever weapons they desired. "That's when the middlemen like Khashoggi really started to make their killings," says one Middle Eastern arms dealer. "It was the gold rush of the 20th century. Every con man in the world was in Arabia." Between 1970 and 1975, Lockheed alone paid Khashoggi $106 million in commissions. During this same period, he is said to have collected hundreds of millions from other corporations. Khashoggi, says...