Bush Expected to Announce Sale of 72 F-15s to Saudis

In another offer of political largess, President Bush intends to hand-deliver a major reward to Missouri’s aircraft industry today by announcing that his Administration will approve a major sale of 72 advanced F-15 fighters to Saudi Arabia, sources said Thursday.

The $5-billion contract is expected to save thousands of jobs for workers at the St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas Corp. and could bring new business as well to defense firms in Ohio and California that perform work on the project, the officials said.

The Administration has agonized for months over whether to approve the sale, which could antagonize supporters of Israel and could complicate the Middle East peace process if it is perceived in Jerusalem as a sign of a new U.S. tilt toward the Arabs.

But after a debate within the Administration threatened to jeopardize the sale, officials said Thursday that the White House had concluded the transaction will not upset the delicate balance of power in the region.

The announcement is certain to delight the defense firm, union officials and lawmakers who had warned that White House rejection of the contract would lead to the loss of as many as 20,000 aerospace jobs by next summer.

Bush is expected to present the plan during a morning appearance in Kansas City, Mo., just days after he had used another speech to scold Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton for attempting to steal a march on the White House by announcing that he would approve such a contract.

Senior White House officials said later that the President had not meant to imply that he was opposed to the sale, but was angered by Clinton’s having spoken out on the complicated issue without giving any sign that he had reviewed its implications.

Coming one day after Bush devoted a major address outlining his long-term vision for the nation’s economic future, the planned jet sale announcement reaffirms that his short-term plans for winning reelection include making the most of his control over a vast federal and foreign purse.

The planned sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia will effectively channel Saudi riches to Missourians’ pockets, following the model Bush employed only last week when he traveled to Dallas to sign off on the sale of $6 billion worth of 150 Texas-made F-16s to Taiwan.

In the last 10 days, Bush also has dispatched billions of dollars of federal disaster relief to hurricane-wrecked Florida and Louisiana, postponed a lowering of the sugar quota that would have hurt Louisianans, and ordered a massive increase in grain subsidies paid to American farmers.

The flurry of federal handouts, both direct and indirect, has angered Democrats who have suggested that Bush is abusing power for political purposes. The White House has denied such a motive, arguing only that good policy makes good politics.

In the case of the planned Saudi sale, the fact that House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) has been among its leading advocates may help to insulate Bush from some criticism. But leaders of major American Jewish organizations last week announced that they were opposed to the transaction.

Administration officials have suggested that the White House may attempt to mollify those critics and Israel by approving the sale of F-15 aircraft somewhat less capable than Saudi Arabia requested when it formally asked to buy 48 F-15E and 24 F-15H planes earlier this year.

The F-15E is an advanced air-to-ground attack configuration of the aircraft, and was used extensively by the Air Force during the Gulf War. The F-15H is among the most modern two-seat configurations of the air-to-air version of the fighter.

McDonnell Douglas already has had to lay off 1,000 of its workers as the production of F-15 fighters has decreased and as the sale of commercial airliners also made by the company has declined.

Until recently, it had appeared as if the Administration would wait until after the election to approve the sale, acting out of concern at alienating Israel and its supporters at a crucial stage of the Middle East peace process. Israel has taken unilateral steps to free Palestinian detainees and to announce its support for the land-for-peace concept and now believes that it is the Arab states’ turn to make similar concessions.

But proponents of the sale had argued that the importance of Missouri to Republican electoral hopes made it imperative that the White House act quickly, and they argued that the Administration’s decision to grant $10 billion in loan guarantees to Israel last month would be enough to quiet Israeli criticism.

As word spread that Bush was to visit Missouri this week, White House officials took pains to emphasize that he would visit Kansas City rather than St. Louis and stressed that the F-15 issue remained unresolved.

But the sources who said Thursday that the President would indeed make the announcement suggested that White House decision-making had been accelerated at least in part to ensure that the jet sale--rather than a Bush speech later today to the controversial Christian Coalition--dominates news coverage of the day.