OK, let me start off by acknowledging that Jamal Khashoggi has been murdered and that the Saudi government was behind his killing. But no one in this country would give a shit were it not that he began writing columns for the Washington Post last year. Now there is a clamor to punish Saudi Arabia. How are we going to do that?
We could freeze the bank accounts members of the royal family have in this country. But that’s hardly a drop in the bucket for those billionaires. We could freeze any Saudi government funds held in American banks. Another drop in the bucket.
Our Navy could block the Saudi shipments of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, but that would piss off the Europeans who depend on that oil.
We could bar Saudis from entering the US, but that would only hurt our hotels, nightclubs and any real estate investments they might want to consider. They’ll just spend their money elsewhere.
Although we won’t go so far as to sever diplomatic relations with the Saudi kingdom, we could send some Saudi diplomats packing. But that would be only expressing our displeasure, not really punishing the Saudis.
That just about leaves us with cancelling the contract for $110 billion in U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia. But we would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we cancelled that contract. That would only hurt American jobs and arms manufacturers. Meanwhile the Saudis could turn to the Russians who would be most eager to sell them weapons.
As I said, if it were not that Khashoggi was a Washington Post columnist, no one would give a rat’s ass about his murder. That sort of shit goes on in the Middle East all the time.
Let’s not forget that Saudi Arabia is one of our our allies and an enemy of our enemy Iran. The Saudis bankrolled 9/11 and al Oueda, and we did not punish them for that. So why punish them now?
By the way, Khashoggi has voiced his strong opposition to the Israeli settlements. Even though the Saudis now say that he was killed in a fist fight inside their Istanbul consulate and have arrested a number of their intelligence officials, why don’t we just say Mossad operatives sneaked into the consulate and killed Khashoggi. As for those audio recordings the Turks claim to have, we can always say they are recordings of Khashoggi being tortured by Israeli secret agents. That will give all those who hate Israel something else to bellow about.
President Trump and Congress are not likely to punish the Jewish state. The Europeans would be happy to put the blame on Israel, thereby taking the pressure off to punish the Saudis who supply them with the oil they need. That will also take the pressure off of Trump to shoot Uncle Sam in the foot.
Not our circus, not our monkey.
What this is really about is the leftists trying to put a wedge between Trump and MBS, now that they have formed an alliance to face down Iran. Also note that a lot of Saudi money for terrorism, Wahhabi mosques, etc. dried up after MBS took over and cracked down. Trump went to the Arab world and had a come to Jesus meeting, and the reforms in Saudi Arabia are a direct result of that. Even Iran has stopped harassing our Navy ships.
I wish these anti-American leftists gave a crap about our dead in Benghazi. Why didn’t they clamor for sanctions against Sos Hillary or Commander in Chief Obama? They don’t seem to give a crap about all the Mexican journalists who get killed each year. ‘
This guy was a Saudi citizen, a buddy of Osama bin Ladin and a Muslim Brotherhood hanger on. Hey, tough luck, guy. Should have made better life choices.
I will no doubt seem unsensitive and unfeeling, but why the hell are we getting bent out of shape about the murder of a Saudi citizen on Saudi territory? It is very likely a damn shame, but since when are we the literal, actual police force of the world. As far as I am concerned one less Hammas supporter in the world is a net gain. We have enough real shit of our own to worry about, we don’t need to be borrowing shit from other people to sweat over.
Aw bullshit. The 9/11 terrorists were mostly Saudis. We are supplying arms to these war happy sheikhs used to murder children in school busses and weddings. They teach hate for Christians and Jews in their madrasahs. Now the go after a dissenting journalist with a bone saw. Past time to call them to account.
“By the way, Khashoggi has voiced his strong opposition to the Israeli settlements.”
Why are you bringing Israel into this? Oh, right, that’s the hot button to push with conservatives. Why don’t you just stick to the facts. While Kashogi wasn’t a U. S. citizen, he WAS a U. S. resident and 3 of his children were U.S. citizens. But don’t let the murder, torture, and dismemberment of a fellow human being and U.S. resident get in the way of our business deals, is what you are really saying. In other words, we are NOT the “shining city on the hill” as Reagan liked to call us.
Karen, tsk, tsk, tsk. I’m surprised that you failed to see that I was being facetious with my reference to Mossad and Israel.
First a couple of things that are easily missed. Consular officials and consular premises do NOT have the same protections under international law as diplomats and embassies. Consular protections under international law apply only to the official duties of consular officials. That’s the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
Now, I guess it could be argued that torturing and killing a country’s own citizens is a legitimate consular function. I wouldn’t want to make that argument but it could be made.
The question is do we want to do business politically with a country at engages in that type of conduct condoned by its top leaders? As a practical matter, the Saudis have to sell their oil to somebody. They can’t drink it. They produce a hell of a lot more than they can ever use. As for the $110 billion in military arms sales, that’s a pipe dream. No where near that amount is under contract. And, where else will the Saudis get their military equipment — and spare parts and support for what they already have?
The Saudis have a terrible human rights record. The government supports “schools” that turn out terrorists all over the Muslim world. They are engaged in a bombing campaign in Yemen in which hundreds of civilians have been killed and they’ve done it with planes and bombs we sold them. Just last month, the Saudis bombed a school bus in the center of a city killing a bunch of school kids. It wasn’t a blip on the radar here but you can be sure it’s a big deal among people trying to recruit terrorists to attack us and our allies.
President Trump just said that if we stopped supporting the Saudi royal family, it would fall in three weeks. Maybe it’s time that we used some of that support the president says keeps the Saudi royals in power to get some meaningful change. And a good place to start would be with a crown prince who supports murder and torture in a Saudi consulate.
If anybody thinks what happened in Istanbul was done by a bunch of rogue intelligence types, I have some low tide lots in Florida I want to sell them. As soon as the tide goes out, I’ll show you the lots.
Ronald Reagan called the United States a shining city on a hill. Our traditions and respect for the rights of the individuals is included in human rights laws and international law throughout the world. We are what we stand for.
I have no love for the Saudis. As others have noted, they have an execrable record on human rights, they are often funders of terrorism, and seem to suck up a lot of time and effort in our foreign relations agenda.
On the other hand, they appear to be reasonable allies (militarily speaking), they provide a lot of balance vis-a-vie Iran, and, they seem to have forged a stable if wary relationship with Israel.
The reality is that if Jamal Khashoggi had been anyone other than a reporter for the Washington Post, his death would have gone completely unnoticed and unremarked. The ONLY reason that it’s even an issue is that a major media presence decided to make a fuss. No doubt, given that it’s the Washington Post, they’re trying to figure a way to blame the President.
If we want to lower the boom on the Saudis, fine. But we need to make sure that we do so in a way that furthers our National Interest, not make a knee jerk decision because an incident has blown up on social media. And, yes, I know, killing a man is more than “an incident”. Except, countries kill people all of the time. If we’re going to make that kind of value judgement, then we’re going to narrow our sphere of influence substantially.
We shouldn’t be selling arms to the Saudis regardless of whether they murder their own people in their own embassies.
These are subsidized arms sales. The US takes a loss on these sales.
Oh, the defense contractors make a tidy profit. The Saudis pay them above their cost.
But the US sends the Saudis money to more than make up the marked-up prices. The Saudi net cost is much less than the arms are worth.
It would be cheaper to just pay bribe money from the US treasury to the executives of the arms contractors and cut out the Saudis as middlemen. And we wouldn’t have to care who the Saudis murder in their own embassies, so long as they weren’t US citizens.
Well. . . . . maybe. But if the Middle East blows up (always a distinct possibility) it’s kinda nice to know that we have an ally, in theater, who’s well equipped to take the lead.
Yes, all that has been said seems to be verifiable truth. Additionally, we might consider that the Turks (who seem to want to stoke this conflict by adding narratives — one of which has been proven impossible) likely profited from the sale of ISIS oil. Since none of the Islamic states are pure, maybe we should focus on holding down the influence of the number 1 exporter of terrorist violence.
‘The Ugly Terror Truth About Jamal Khashoggi’ is an extensive article by Daniel Greenfield that was published in the October 18 issue of Canada Fee Press. If only half of what Greenfield wrote about Khashoggi’s association with terrorists is true, those of you who are condemning the Saudis for killing him should say good riddance instead.