Saudi Billionaire Arms Dealer Adnan Khashoggi Dies

Adnan Khashoggi had billions of dollars, much of it made by arms deals between Saudi Arabia and American weapons companies. He died Tuesday at age 81.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In Saudi Arabia, the arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi has died. His name was familiar to many people in the 1980s. That's when his arms business helped make him one of the richest men in the world.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The trade also brought him notoriety. He was a figure in the biggest political scandal of the 1980s. It was called the Iran-Contra affair - the Reagan administration's effort to trade weapons for hostages. Adnan Khashoggi was named as a middleman.

MARTIN: He was also famous for his lifestyle. This included lavish parties on a yacht that was 282 feet long. That's a boat nearly the size of a football field - really big. It was featured in a James Bond movie. And it was later owned, for a time, by one Donald J. Trump who renamed it the Princess Trump - rather, the Trump Princess.

INSKEEP: Khashoggi's yacht was even famous enough to get its own song by the band Queen.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KHASHOGGI'S SHIP")

QUEEN: (Singing) And then we took a holiday on Khashoggi's ship. Well, we really had a good, good time...

INSKEEP: Adnan Khashoggi has died at 81. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.