Tag Archives: Jamal Khashoggi

Nothing In Any Conspiracy Theory Is As Bad As What’s Being Done Out In The Open, by Caitlin Johnstone

Posted on November 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

Before you wade through the weeds of the government’s many conspiracies, consider what it does in broad daylight. From Caitline Johnstone at medium.com:

Yesterday President Trump posted a statement on the White House website saying his administration will be standing with the House of Saud despite the CIA’s assertion that Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman personally ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was living and working in the United States.

The statement reads like a long form version of one of Trump’s tweets, replete with gratuitous exclamation points and slogans like “America First!” and the lie that Iran is “the world’s leading sponsor of terror”, which will never be trueno matter how many times this administration deliberately repeats it. The world’s leading sponsor of terrorism is of course Saudi Arabia, along with Israel and the United States.

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U.S-Saudi Clash Could Spell Disaster For OPEC, by Cyril Widdershoven

Posted on October 19, 2018 | 1 comment

A US-Saudi clash might be both a disaster for OPEC and a boon for Russia and Iran. From Cyril Widdershoven at oilprice.com:

The Khashoggi case is far from over, as current harsh statements coming from Washington are showing.

Not only is there a long line of U.S. Senators calling for an in-depth investigation of the matter, some have even openly called for the removal of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin. Senior R-Senator Lindsay Graham, one of the staunchest supporters of US president Trump and Saudi Arabia, has broken ranks as he asked on US Fox-News to remove MBS from his position.

These moves from Washington are not only endangering the very strong ties between Washington and Riyadh, but also endanger the overall Middle East and internal stability of OPEC. The oil cartel, led by Saudi Arabia, is looking at a very stormy ride the next couple of months, while the U.S. is heading for another showdown in the Arab world.

The Khashoggi case has become a possible watershed in international relations. Statements made by US R-Senator Graham, already supported by other high-ranking U.S. officials, show that the position of Saudi Arabia as a strategic ally of Washington in the Middle East, and MBS in particular, is under severe pressure.

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Posted in Business, Energy, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments

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Obama’s National Security Advisor Continues To Work For The Saudis, by Tyler Durden

Posted on October 19, 2018 | Leave a comment

For decades the Saudis have spread an abundance of money around Washington, acquiring a great deal of political clout.  The Khashoggi murder may ultimately not change things much. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Among the major revelations connected to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of the Saudis is just how resilient and unshakeable relations between the Washington deep state and the Saudi royals actually are. Or rather we should say it has created an atmosphere where “hidden in plane sight” truth of America being joined at the hip to one of the Middle East’s most brutal autocratic regimes can no longer be ignored by the mainstream, or can no longer be shaded from public view by another David Ignatius puff piece fawning over Saudi “reformer” despots.

A new Daily Beast investigation has revealed that Obama’s first National Security Adviser, James L. Jones, now works for the Saudis — and despite a growing public movement of Western companies and media organizations to divest and distance themselves from their previous close relationship with the kingdom and events sponsored by crown prince MbS — Jones is refusing to budge. As The Daily Beast concludes in its report, “It’s another sign of the deep reach of Saudi money into the Washington elite.”

 

James (Jim) Jones, USMC (ret.), former National Security Advisor to President Obama. Image source: The National

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Posted in Crime, Cronyism, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Politics

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Murder Most Foul in Istanbul, by Eric Margolis

Posted on October 19, 2018 | Leave a comment

If Trump had his way, Jamal Khashoggi’s murder would go away. However, it might not. From Eric Margolis at lewrockwell.com:

After watching the Saudis behead and even reportedly crucify critics and opponents for decades, suddenly Washington’s great and good are outraged by a single murder.

The victim was a Saudi columnist from that nation’s elite who was noted for his moderate, cautious views, who was also linked to the former Saudi intelligence chief, Turki al-Faisal.

But even gentle criticism of the royal government, and particularly its strongman, crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (aka MBS), caused Khashoggi to be murdered and cut up into pieces in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, to where he was lured last week and from whence he never emerged alive.  Turkish intelligence secretly monitoring the Saudi consulate picked up the gruesome details as Khashoggi’s fingers were reportedly cut off, followed by his head.

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Should US-Saudi Alliance Be Saved? by Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted on October 18, 2018 | Leave a comment

If you climb into bed with the morally reprehensible, sooner or later the moral reprehensibility rubs off. From Patrick J. Buchanan at buchanan.org:

Over the weekend Donald Trump warned of “severe punishment” if an investigation concludes that a Saudi hit team murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Riyadh then counter-threatened, reminding us that, as the world’s largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia “plays an impactful and active role in the global economy.”

Message: Sanction us, and we may just sanction you.

Some of us yet recall how President Nixon’s rescue of Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War triggered a Saudi oil embargo that led to months of long gas lines in the United States, and contributed to Nixon’s fall.

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Skripal and Khashoggi: A Tale of Two Disappearances, by Finian Cunningham

Posted on October 18, 2018 | Leave a comment

The presumption of innocence, as applied by the US government, is far stronger for Mohammad bin Salman than it is for Vladimir Putin. From Finian Cunningham at strategic-culture.org:

Two disappearances, and two very different responses from Western governments, which illustrates their rank hypocrisy.

When former Russian spy Sergei Skripal went missing in England earlier this year, there was almost immediate punitive action by the British government and its NATO allies against Moscow. By contrast, Western governments are straining with restraint towards Saudi Arabia over the more shocking and provable case of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The outcry by Western governments and media over the Skripal affair was deafening and resulted in Britain, the US and some 28 other countries expelling dozens of Russian diplomats on the back of unsubstantiated British allegations that the Kremlin tried to assassinate an exiled spy with a deadly nerve agent. The Trump administration has further tightened sanctions citing the Skripal incident.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Crime, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Investigations, Law, Politics

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Jamal Khashoggi: Where The Road to Damascus & The Path to 9/11 Converge, by Kristen Breitweiser

Posted on October 18, 2018 | 1 comment

Politicians’ worst nightmare: someone who remembers their every word. From Kristen Breitweiser at washingtonsblog.com:

By Kristen Breitweiser, one of the four 9/11 widows – known as the “Jersey Girls” – instrumental in forcing the government to form the 9/11 Commission to investigate the 2001 attacks. Follow Kristen Breitweiser on Twitter: .

Road to Damascus Conversion: Derived from the Biblical story of Paul, the term “Damascus road conversion” is commonly used to refer to an abrupt about-face on a serious issue of religion, politics or philosophy. In this type of change, a single, dramatic event causes a person to become aligned with something he or she previously was against or support a position that he or she previously opposed. https://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-damascus-road-conversion.htm#didyouknowout

As a 9/11 widow who has spent the last 17 years fighting for accountability with regard to the 9/11 attacks that killed my husband and 3,000 others, I find the recent uproar over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance and alleged murder interesting and out of character for many of those decrying his disappearance and demanding an investigation and accountability.

Frankly, 9/11 Family members keep a running list of all those in Washington who have proved by their past actions to be against U.S. victims of terrorism and in support of nations like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a nation with a long history of supporting global Wahhabist terrorism. As victims of terrorism, we are ever vigilant and watchful about all those named on our lists. We follow these folks actions, their speeches, their legislation, because we know that they are never looking out for our best interests as U.S. victims of terrorism. As a group, our institutional memory is broad and long. And we never forget.

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Chill! by Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Posted on October 17, 2018 | Leave a comment

Trump will have to make some big decisions about Saudi Arabia. From Raúl Ilargi Meijer at theautomaticearth.com:

They can’t help themselves even as they hurt themselves. Look guys, chill! I saw someone imply on Twitter that Donald Trump is an accomplice in a murder cover-up. This person knows as well as all the ones who liked the tweet that they all just don’t know. They don’t know exactly what Trump knows about the chilling Khashoggi execution.

Just like they don’t know exactly what happened in the consulate. Information from anonymous Turkish sources is dripping through drop by drop, and it looks terrible -and terribly graphic-, but the conclusion that Trump wants to cover up a murder is multiple tokes over the line.

The Saudi attempt at labeling the execution a kidnapping gone wrong is out the window if only a tenth of the Turkish sources’ claims is true. What emerges is a picture of premeditated torture and murder. And one that was ordered by someone in the royal family. Which can really only be one of two people: the King or his son, MbS, and the latter seems more suspect. But what any of it has to do with Trump remains to be seen,

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Posted in Crime, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Investigations, Law, Morality, Politics

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The Saudi Collapse, by Justin Raimondo

Posted on October 17, 2018 | Leave a comment

It is long past time for the US to change, and perhaps end, its “special” relationship with the corrupt, repressive, and criminal Saudi Arabian government. From Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com:

The Saudis are doubling down on their denial that they had anything to do with the disappearance of Washington Post journalist and sometime Saudi insider Jamal Khashoggi: “enemies of the Kingdom,” they say are responsible. Nowadays that includes an awful lot of people, as the Washington cognoscenti rush to distance themselves from a regime once hailed as an exemplar of “reform.” It’s a stampede for the door, and soon there will be no on left standing: one rarely sees a collapse like this, at least when it comes to entire countries. One minute they’re on top of the world with Donald Trump, playing with swords and getting away with murder: the next minute they’re international pariahs.

Threatening “major consequences” if it turns out the Turks are right and the Saudis interrogated, tortured, and murdered Khashoggi, Trump may do far more than merely cut off Riyadh’s arms supply. He may decide to stop backing the Saudis entirely, abandoning their role as the anchor of US policy in the region, and subsequently downplaying and eventually abandoning the anti-Iranian obsession that has so far overshadowed our regional policy.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Crime, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Investigations, Morality, Uncategorized

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Journalist’s Disappearance Forces Trump’s Hand on Saudi Arabia, by Jason Ditz

Posted on October 10, 2018 | Leave a comment

The line out of the Trump administration, the mainstream media, and the well-funded Saudi Arabian public relations machine is that Saudi Arabia is becoming less repressive and is changing in other positive ways. It and Israel are the US’s strongest allies in the Middle East. From Jason Ditz at theantimedia.org:

he disappearance of high-profile Saudi journalist, and regular writer for the Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi has put the Trump Administration into an uncomfortable position, obliging them to raise the questions about the disappearance and presumptive murder of the man by Saudi officials.

Khashoggi’s connections with the Washington Post made this a much bigger story than the disappearances of most dissident journalists in the Middle East. That he was in exile for writings critical to the Saudi Crown Prince, and entered a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, but never came out, making it very likely he came to a bad end.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is calling for a “thorough” investigation by the Saudis into Khashoggi’s disappearance as well, which also virtually obliges the US to follow through when such an investigation doesn’t happen.

The Saudis, after all, insist that nothing happened to Khashoggi, and barring the Turkish government coming across his corpse at some point in the near future, that’s a position they’re likely to stick to.

 

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