Sunday, October 21, 2018

Pressure Growing For Justice For Khashoggi


The "Sawdi" regime's continuing attempts to explain and excuse the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in their consulate in Istanbul on October 2 aren't selling. The lies that they've told from the beginning are transparently ridiculous: Khashoggi came to the consulate but left (video and audio evidence that contradicts that), Khashoggi died as a result of a fight with 15 thugs sent by the regime in Riyadh, etc. (so why bring the bone saw, and where are his remains?). The regime is doing everything they can to protect the dementia-ridden King and his sinister son, Crown Prince Mohammed "Mohammed Bone Saw" bin Salman, or MBS.

Senior officials close to Turkish President Erdogan are warning the Sawdis that they will not permit a cover up. Numan Kurtulmus, the deputy chairman of Erdogan's ruling party, said this:
“A crime committed in a consulate cannot be carried out without the knowledge of the senior state officials of that country. If this crime was really carried out as has been said, if the evidence really leads to that conclusion, the situation will be dire and this must have very serious legal consequences.”
There's little question that an operation involving Sawdi security forces on foreign soil targeting a critic of the regime would have to have the approval of the Crown Prince. There's almost universal skepticism -- to say the least -- about the latest account from Riyadh. The UK, France and Germany issued a joint statement calling on Riyadh for further explanation of the murder. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland put it this way:
“The explanations offered to date lack consistency and credibility...Those responsible for the killing must be held to account and must face justice."
Retiring Republican Senator Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was uncharacteristically blunt in his assignment of the blame for the horrific murder:
“'Do I think [MBS] did it? Yes, I think he did it,' Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview with CNN’s 'State of the Union.'

Corker said he was waiting for investigations to be completed and hoped that Turkey would share any audio tapes of the killing of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

However, he made clear he believed the Crown Prince Mohammed directed the murder.

'Let’s let this play out but my guess is that at the end of the day the United States and the rest of the world will believe fully that he did it,' Corker said."
Increasingly, sociopath and friend-of-dictators Donald "Rump" Trump is seeing the blood handwriting on the wall, despite his and his corrupt son-in-law's craven desire to benefit personally from financial ties to the Sawdis. Whether Rump continues to flack for the Sawdis or not, the domestic and international outcry for justice for Khashoggi is building.

BONUS:
BONUS II: The WaPo reports that Rump is miffed with Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner's mishandling of the Khashoggi affair.

2 comments:

donnah said...

I suspect that the only Republicans who will speak out against the Saudi murder of a journalist are those who aren't running for re-election. Then they have something to say. And of course Trump is disappointed that Jared was careless, because it all leads back to him. They're the stupidest crime family in modern history, but they manage to squeeze out of punishment. Tax evasion, fraud, obstruction of justice...the Trumps are up to their necks in corruption. So I don't expect much to come of Jared's poor handling of the situation.

Hackwhackers said...

donnah -- The Trump crime family is busy cutting backdoor business deals for themselves with corrupt foreign powers, regardless of the damage to U.S. interests. They do their constant shilling for the likes of MBS and Putin out in the open, knowing that their cult members are clueless and worse, and will never hold them accountable.