Saudi "Sportswashing" And Trump

 

The corrupt regime of Saudi Arabia, led by murderous Crown Prince Mohammed bin "Bone Saw" Salman, has been busy ever since he ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 trying to wash its image by using sports as soap and water. One of the most visible efforts has been the LIV Golf tour sponsored by a fund 93% controlled by Bone Saw. LIV is trying to encroach on the PGA tour by bribing professional golfers to leave the PGA and join its operation. The PGA has sued LIV Golf for interfering with its players' contracts.

The Malignant Loser, a close friend of the Saudi leader and always eager to turn a buck no matter how corrupt, hosted  LIV Golf tournament events at his Bedminster, NJ, golf course last July, pocketing what was likely to be a tidy sum from the Saudis. The group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has called on the Justice Department and Congress to investigate the Saudi - Trump financial web, not only for LIV Golf but also the payment of $2 billion to the Malignant Loser's son-in-law Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner's new investment fund, per Newsweek:

"'The revelation that a fund controlled by Crown Prince MBS actually owns almost all of LIV Golf means that MBS has been paying Donald Trump unknown millions for the past two years, via their mutual corporate covers,' said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of DAWN.

'The national security implications of payments from a grotesquely abusive foreign dictator to a president of the United States who provided extraordinary favors to him are as dangerous as they are shocking.'  [snip]

DAWN is also asking the DoJ and Congress to look into how far back discussion for the former president and his real estate company The Trump Organization to host LIV tournaments at his resort took place.

'If Trump or his agents discussed any deals with LIV Golf or PIF while Trump was still in office, a criminal investigation would also be in order because federal law strictly prohibits this sort of business dealing by sitting federal officials with foreign governments,' said Whitson."  (our emphasis)

You can be certain that as his reelection hopes dimmed in 2020, the Malignant Loser would be casting about for a financial lifeboat to climb into, and what better partner than the sinister Saudi regime under the cover of "golf." Now that he's announced his candidacy for 2024, it's more urgent than ever to uncover his ties with the Saudis, and prosecute any violations of the law.

(photo: Bandar al-Jaloud / AFP / Getty Images) 

 

The Khashoggi Murder, One Year Later

(Tom Toles, Washington Post)

One year ago today, journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered in the Istanbul consulate of Saudi Arabia. The Washington Post has a special Opinions section today dedicated to Khashoggi's memory -- and, ultimately, to seeking justice for him. 

One year ago, Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered by a hit squad dispatched on the orders of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Evidence suggests the Saudis expected to dodge justice as Jamal’s case faded from memory. Initially, they stalled by denying any knowledge of Jamal’s whereabouts. When the international community still insisted on answers, they claimed Jamal was the victim of a “rogue" killing. Reports indicate that even months after the murder, Mohammed assured the plot’s ringleader that he would restore him to the royal inner circle as soon as the furor over Jamal’s death subsided.

Mohammed should expect to wait a long time. The world’s horror over Jamal’s murder won’t simply blow over, for many reasons...

Brutal scumbag Crown Prince Mohammed bin "Bone Saw" Salman ordered Khashoggi's murder believing that the U.S. Government, under the amoral, corrupt, tiny hand of Donald "Rump" Trump would carry on as if nothing had happened.  He was largely right.  Although our intelligence community clearly put the blame for Khashoggi's murder on Bone Saw, arms deals needed to be concluded, oil needed to keep flowing, and business deals for Trump and his corrupt family needed to be made.

The Post concludes an editorial on the Khashoggi murder saying,

...[W]e believe history will show that our lost friend and colleague Jamal Khashoggi was on the right side of the debate that Mohammed bin Salman thought, mistakenly, he could win with a bone saw.

It's a debate between freedom and tyranny that our own scumbag of a president also believes he can win, perhaps not with a bone saw, but with other tools just as vicious and deadly for our country.