Michael Flynn has been in the news a lot lately. He was fired as the National Security Advisor for Donald Trump because he lied about being involved with foreign government. It turns out that he had some grand plans for spreading nuclear power to the Middle East.
According to the financial forms that he filed and then modified as part of his ascending to the National Security Advisor post, in 2015 and 2016, he was an advisor to X-Co Dynamics Inc./Iron Bridge Group. The CEO of company was retired Admiral Michael Hewitt and an advisor to the company was retired Admiral Frank Bowman. Bowman was in charge of U.S. navy nuclear programs. Other ex-military officers were associated with the company.
According to reports, Flynn flew to Egypt and Israel in the summer of 2015. The purpose of his trip was to test the waters for a plan to launch a Saudi-funded joint U.S. and Russia program to basically take control of the efforts of Middle Eastern countries to build nuclear power plants. The rational for this plan was the fear that Middle Eastern countries who developed their own nuclear program might not have adequate safeguards against the use of radioactive materials in their spent nuclear fuel being used for the creation of nuclear weapons. (It is also possible that another reason for the plan was the revitalization of the stagnant U.S. nuclear industry.)
The Flynn’s plan was to have the U.S. and Russian partnership build, fuel and operate nuclear power plants in the Middle East and to strictly control the spent nuclear fuel produced by the plants. Flynn’s part would be to create and managed the security for the entire project.
X-Co Dynamics Inc./Iron Bridge Group claimed that the estimated one trillion dollar price tag for the project would be entirely borne by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf State. It would cost the U.S. tax payers nothing and it would provide a huge boost to the U.S. nuclear industry. Saudi Arabia and the other investors would profit from the sale of power to Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar
One Middle Eastern country that would not be part of the project would be Iran. Flynn had long wanted to forge a relationship between the U.S. and Russia in order to create a united from against international terrorism which would include driving a wedge between Russia and Iran. Some reports about the project concluded that isolating Iran was one of the main motivations.
Representatives of X-Co Dynamics Inc./Iron Bridge Group say that isolating Iran was never part of their plan. Whether or not that was true, the Obama administration was busy negotiating a deal with Iran and was not interested in getting involved with Russia to build forty nuclear reactors in the Middle East. When Trump won the Presidency and Flynn became his NSA, prospects for the joint project brightened. Strategic Partners, a company involved with the security aspects of the project began lobbying heavily for the project when Trump was elected.
Unfortunately, the FBI investigation into Russian involvement with the U.S. election and connections between members of the Trump administration and Russia caused some individuals and organization connected to the project to drop out. There also appeared to be little interest from the Saudis in funding the project. X-Co Dynamics Inc./Iron Bridge Group parted ways with Strategic Partners and began exploring involving China in a joint venture instead of Russia.
People involved with X-Co Dynamics Inc./Iron Bridge Group have said that they understood Flynn’s involvement to be restricted to approaching Egypt and Israel about the security aspects of the project. Flynn was not paid for his efforts and only received travel expenses.
Michael Flynn:
