Middle East military consultancy recruitment article goes missing from net

The Gulf News has removed an article on a Middle East military consultancy recruitment drive by US firm Booz Allen Hamilton – but the reasons why aren’t immediately apparent.

The Dubai-based English-language newspaper Gulf News – which is circulated throughout the GCC – has pulled an online article covering a recent recruitment drive for Booz Allen Hamilton’s Middle Eastern military advisory practice. Published on the 9th of May, the piece noted that the consulting firm had advertised at least 19 new defence-related jobs over the past month, but it has since been taken offline.

According to the report, the majority of advertised military analyst positions were for roles based in UAE and Saudi Arabia – with the two nations caught in an increasingly problematic stalemate in Yemen (an estimated 24 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance due to the ongoing conflict) – yet despite being advertised publicly, the Gulf News coverage was removed from the site.

With Booz Allen continuing to advertise MENA defence consultancy positions on its own website, albeit with the roles now seemingly based in the US, the reasons for removing the news report are unclear, but, curiously, a Google search archive link to the former article briefly featured a capitalised ‘DO NOT PUBLISH’ preceding the headline. The link itself leads to a Page Not Found notice, but gives no further explanation as to its disappearance.“The UAE and Saudi Arabia are spearheading a military campaign in Yemen in support of the country’s internationally-recognised government in a fight against Iran’s allied Al Houthi militants,” the report read in its only reference to the governments of either state, other than citing a separate report in the New York Times from last year on Boston Consulting Group working with the Saudi Ministry of Defence in the area of procurement and operational streamlining.

As per the Gulf News report, the recent positions advertised by Booz Allen included vacancies for multiple lead military analysts and land forces experts with “20-plus years of experience as a US military officer in a warfare speciality or intelligence speciality”, and a number of roles around the development of Saudi Arabia’s air force and fleet of Boeing F-15 fighter jets. It is far from a secret that Booz Allen provides expert advisory to the region’s security apparatus.

A reported bid by PwC’s UK arm to land a major contract helping Saudi Arabia to streamline and modernise its military however last year drew flak from campaign groups across Britain, while McKinsey & Company boss Kevin Sneader has made specific reference to the firm only working in the areas of education, healthcare, and economic development in response to criticism of its activities in the Kingdom.

Booz Allen, too, defends its position. “We have declined, and will continue to decline, proposed assignments anywhere in the world when we believe they are inconsistent with our firm’s purpose and values,” a company spokesperson told the Gulf News for its original article, which noted that the consultancy last year earned $4.3 billion in contracts with defence and intelligence agencies from around the world – accounting for 70 percent of its overall revenues.