Jamal Khasshogi was until this month a Saudi citizen resident in the US and a regular contributor to the Washington Post – a paper quite critical of Donald Trump. He was living in self-imposed exile because he wanted to be able to write about Saudi and Middle Eastern affairs entirely free from the control of the Saudi royal family and, in particular, the heir-apparent to the throne, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Because Saudi Arabia is a feudal kingdom sitting on a sea of hydrocarbons, it is strategically important – particularly to the US, and because it has the sovereign wealth funds and the defence budget to make itself into a mini regional super-power capable of counter-balancing Iran and capable of subjugating the Gulf states, Washington regards it as an ally. Or does it?
Current US strategy is to create a working alliance between the Saudis, Israel, Jordan and Egypt and to mobilise these allies into an anti-Iranian phalanx.
Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, want to force a settlement on the Palestinians by marrying then into a confederation with Jordan that would leave Israel in occupation of the occupied territories on the West Bank and would put paid to any hope of a “two-state” solution.
A few months ago, the Saudis actually summoned the Lebanese premier, Saad Hariri to Riyadh, arrested and detained him there, until he purported to resign as premier, all with a view to toppling the coalition government in Beirut. This strategy was implemented in consultation with the Israelis who launched a world-wide diplomatic offensive to coincide with the expected political crisis in Lebanon. The ploy failed.
Washington did not condemn Crown Mohammed Bin Prince Salman or Israel for that gross violation of international law and norms.
Emboldened by their unchallenged use of such criminal thuggery, the Saudis have been engaging in extra-territorial oppression of dissidents and critics.
Their sense of impunity has reached the point where it now appears that they lured Jamal Khashhoggi to their consulate in Istanbul with the intention of murdering him there.
Some reports indicate that the US administration was aware of an alternative Saudi plan to kidnap Khasshogi and bring him back to their fetid kingdom. If these reports are correct, one might have expected Washington to have warned the Saudis to abandon the plan and to make clear with the direst of threats the adverse consequences that Riyadh might expect if any harm came to Khasshogi.
One can only surmise that Washington did not warn off the Saudis in a credible way.
Reports from Turkey now indicate that Khasshogi was attacked, tortured, murdered and possibly dis-membered by a 15 man hit squad flown in from Riyadh specially to assassinate him.
Intriguingly, it now appears that eavesdropping by security sources on the ground actually may have produced audio recorded evidence of the murder itself.
US senators now accept that he was murdered by the Saudis.
Unless Jamal Khasshoggi suddenly turns up alive, it would seem that the Saudis have decided to emulate the behavior of Vladimir Putin and to murder those who they dislike even when their victims are under the protection of the UK and US as residents in those countries.
The apparent murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul was every bit as premeditated and barbaric as the Russian poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skypal in Salisbury; but at least the Russians had the shame to attempt to conceal their involvement.
What are the consequences?
The utterly amoral Donald Trump was quick to say that the killing of Khasshogi was not the killing of an American citizen. And it had happened abroad. How is that relevant? Would it have made any difference to the abhorrent killing if Jamal had obtained US naturalisation as distinct from US residency as a columnist?
Equally quickly he said that it would not interfere with the $110 billion arms deal the Saudis have with the US or the resulting American jobs. Such a consequence would not “be acceptable to me” as the Saudis might place their orders with Russia or China instead. You might recall that the arms deal was negotiated on Trump’s visit to Riyadh – the visit where Trump was brandishing a scimitar in a form of line-dancing.
He did manage to say, “We don’t like it even a little bit”.
So instead he asked the Saudi ambassador in Washington to go back to Riyadh and to return with a report. The Ambassador in question is Crown Prince Salman’s brother, Khalid Bin Salman!
Earlier this month, Trump told one of his red-neck rallies in Mississipi that: “I love the king, King Salman, but I said ‘King, we’re protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us. You have to pay for your military. You have to pay.”
Like a mediaeval Khan extracting gold tributes from his neighbours and protectorates, Trump said that he expected payment for protection from the Saudis and from Japan and South Korea as well. His red-neck audience whooped when the Trump plan for a world-wide protection-racket was thus described to them.
And so we have the monstrous House of Saud portrayed not merely as a vassal state but as a protection-racket client of the US as well. They are America’s regional enforcers in the Yemen (where they are barbarous mass-killers in a pathetically incompetent military intervention) and the Gulf. They and the Qataris funded the Islamists in the disastrous Syrian civil war.
So whenever you hear Nikki Haley, Samantha Power, Mike Pompeio or John Bolton attack the Assad regime, just remember what Trump really thinks of the Saudis – a rotten regime that would fall within a fortnight if their American protectors chose to let them go the way of all despots.
Not merely rotten but murderous; not merely murderous but unabashed.
How have things sunk so low that an American “ally” would feel free to murder with impunity a US resident in the largest city of a NATO member?
The answer is simple – Donald Trump. He doesn’t like the Turks much; he doesn’t like the Washington Post at all; he has contempt for the Saudis but tolerates them as long as they keep the dollars flowing into the States; he distinguishes between assassination victims on the basis of their nationality or the location of the crime; he is only concerned with his mega-billion arms deals regardless of the consequences for the innocent people of Yemen.
And are the British much different on this matter? Their relationship with the House of Saud is equally mercenary even if they appear to play Robin to Trump’s Batman in the middles east.
The Saudis are too rich to be sanctioned in just the same way as the Qataris have managed to survive the Saudi-led economic and political blockade.
But the fate of Jamal Khasshogi matters. Not just because he is an innocent victim of tyranny. Not just because he was a political commentator. Not just because his murderers were rich and important.
His death may prove to be the beginning of the process whereby
Jamal Khasshogi was until this month a Saudi citizen resident in the US and a regular contributor to the Washington Post – a paper quite critical of Donald Trump. He was living in self-imposed exile because he wanted to be able to write about Saudi and Middle Eastern affairs entirely free from the control of the Saudi royal family and, in particular, the heir-apparent to the throne, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
Because Saudi Arabia is a feudal kingdom sitting on a sea of hydrocarbons, it is strategically important – particularly to the US, and because it has the sovereign wealth funds and the defence budget to make itself into a mini regional super-power capable of counter-balancing Iran and capable of subjugating the Gulf states, Washington regards it as an ally. Or does it?
Current US strategy is to create a working alliance between the Saudis, Israel, Jordan and Egypt and to mobilise these allies into an anti-Iranian phalanx.
Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, want to force a settlement on the Palestinians by marrying then into a confederation with Jordan that would leave Israel in occupation of the occupied territories on the West Bank and would put paid to any hope of a “two-state” solution.
A few months ago, the Saudis actually summoned the Lebanese premier, Saad Hariri to Riyadh, arrested and detained him there, until he purported to resign as premier, all with a view to toppling the coalition government in Beirut. This strategy was implemented in consultation with the Israelis who launched a world-wide diplomatic offensive to coincide with the expected political crisis in Lebanon. The ploy failed.
Washington did not condemn Crown Mohammed Bin Prince Salman or Israel for that gross violation of international law and norms.
Emboldened by their unchallenged use of such criminal thuggery, the Saudis have been engaging in extra-territorial oppression of dissidents and critics.
Their sense of impunity has reached the point where it now appears that they lured Jamal Khashhoggi to their consulate in Istanbul with the intention of murdering him there.
Some reports indicate that the US administration was aware of an alternative Saudi plan to kidnap Khasshogi and bring him back to their fetid kingdom. If these reports are correct, one might have expected Washington to have warned the Saudis to abandon the plan and to make clear with the direst of threats the adverse consequences that Riyadh might expect if any harm came to Khasshogi.
One can only surmise that Washington did not warn off the Saudis in a credible way.
Reports from Turkey now indicate that Khasshogi was attacked, tortured, murdered and possibly dis-membered by a 15 man hit squad flown in from Riyadh specially to assassinate him.
Intriguingly, it now appears that eavesdropping by security sources on the ground actually may have produced audio recorded evidence of the murder itself.
US senators now accept that he was murdered by the Saudis.
Unless Jamal Khasshoggi suddenly turns up alive, it would seem that the Saudis have decided to emulate the behavior of Vladimir Putin and to murder those who they dislike even when their victims are under the protection of the UK and US as residents in those countries.
The apparent murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul was every bit as premeditated and barbaric as the Russian poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skypal in Salisbury; but at least the Russians had the shame to attempt to conceal their involvement.
What are the consequences?
The utterly amoral Donald Trump was quick to say that the killing of Khasshogi was not the killing of an American citizen. And it had happened abroad. How is that relevant? Would it have made any difference to the abhorrent killing if Jamal had obtained US naturalisation as distinct from US residency as a columnist?
Equally quickly he said that it would not interfere with the $110 billion arms deal the Saudis have with the US or the resulting American jobs. Such a consequence would not “be acceptable to me” as the Saudis might place their orders with Russia or China instead. You might recall that the arms deal was negotiated on Trump’s visit to Riyadh – the visit where Trump was brandishing a scimitar in a form of line-dancing.
He did manage to say, “We don’t like it even a little bit”.
So instead he asked the Saudi ambassador in Washington to go back to Riyadh and to return with a report. The Ambassador in question is Crown Prince Salman’s brother, Khalid Bin Salman!
Earlier this month, Trump told one of his red-neck rallies in Mississipi that: “I love the king, King Salman, but I said ‘King, we’re protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us. You have to pay for your military. You have to pay.”
Like a mediaeval Khan extracting gold tributes from his neighbours and protectorates, Trump said that he expected payment for protection from the Saudis and from Japan and South Korea as well. His red-neck audience whooped when the Trump plan for a world-wide protection-racket was thus described to them.
And so we have the monstrous House of Saud portrayed not merely as a vassal state but as a protection-racket client of the US as well. They are America’s regional enforcers in the Yemen (where they are barbarous mass-killers in a pathetically incompetent military intervention) and the Gulf. They and the Qataris funded the Islamists in the disastrous Syrian civil war.
So whenever you hear Nikki Haley, Samantha Power, Mike Pompeio or John Bolton attack the Assad regime, just remember what Trump really thinks of the Saudis – a rotten regime that would fall within a fortnight if their American protectors chose to let them go the way of all despots.
Not merely rotten but murderous; not merely murderous but unabashed.
How have things sunk so low that an American “ally” would feel free to murder with impunity a US resident in the largest city of a NATO member?
The answer is simple – Donald Trump. He doesn’t like the Turks much; he doesn’t like the Washington Post at all; he has contempt for the Saudis but tolerates them as long as they keep the dollars flowing into the States; he distinguishes between assassination victims on the basis of their nationality or the location of the crime; he is only concerned with his mega-billion arms deals regardless of the consequences for the innocent people of Yemen.
And are the British much different on this matter? Their relationship with the House of Saud is equally mercenary even if they appear to play Robin to Trump’s Batman in the middles east.
The Saudis are too rich to be sanctioned in just the same way as the Qataris have managed to survive the Saudi-led economic and political blockade.
But the fate of Jamal Khasshogi matters. Not just because he is an innocent victim of tyranny. Not just because he was a political commentator. Not just because his murderers were rich and important.
His death may prove to be the beginning of the process whereby Donald Trump’s amoral, dangerous and Darwinian policies finally unravel.
finally unravel.
;
