Saudi Arabia Rules American Defense Subcontractor's Mysterious Death a Suicide

The Jewish Press reports:

Saudi Arabia has yet to release the body of a U.S. defense subcontractor who was working for Israel’s Elbit Systems when he died under mysterious circumstances after being sent to the country to help complete a weapons deal.

Christopher Cramer was working for Kollsman Inc., a firm that subcontracted for the Israeli defense electronics company, when he was found dead last month on the ground outside his third-floor hotel room in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

“We received a message from Kollsman Inc., Elbit Systems’ subcontractor in America, saying its employee Chris Cramer passed away during a work trip,” said a spokesperson for Elbit Systems.

“The circumstances of his death are being investigated by the American State Department. We have no further details at this stage and we are waiting for the State Department to update our American subcontractor. Cramer worked for the company for 12 years. We cannot provide details on the project he was working on, but this is a Kollsman product, an American product with no Israeli technologies involved in its production.”

According to the family attorney, Noah Mandell, the Saudi Arabian company that bought the equipment claimed it wasn’t working correctly. Cramer’s job was to investigate in order to make sure the Saudis were operating the equipment correctly and not trying to pull a fast one on Kollsman:

Mandell and a nephew of Cramer’s, Christopher Arsenault, suspect that Cramer was killed because his presence threatened to reveal the fact that Global Defense Systems, a Saudi company involved in the deal, was intent on sabotaging equipment that Cramer was sent to fix.

Cramer sent footage to his superiors showing that the equipment was working correctly. Shortly afterward, he sent text messages to his attorney begging him to get in touch with the State Department, explaining, “I think something bad is going to happen to me tonight. Please contact State Dept. ASAP. Bad things were said.”

The Saudis are holding Cramer’s body pending an investigation seemingly designed to prove their foregone conclusion that the American committed suicide. Despite protests from doubtful family and friends who anxiously await an autopsy on American soil the State Department is backing the Saudis, referring inquiries to the local police department in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.