This Jamal Khashoggi atrocity...

[DaveInSeattle]

I didn't want this stuff to get lost in the indictment thread...but everything about this story is mindblowing to me.

First off...can anyone explain why the Saudi's, especially this Crown Prince, were so fired up about this journalist that they jumped through all these hoops to kill him?

[degenerasian]

He wanted the Arab world to be free and critisized the Crown Prince's policies. WaPo has published his last article.

[Pruitt]

I didn't want this stuff to get lost in the indictment thread...but everything about this story is mindblowing to me.

First off...can anyone explain why the Saudi's, especially this Crown Prince, were so fired up about this journalist that they jumped through all these hoops to kill him?

The prince sounds like a psychopath - he kidnapped the Lebanese Prime Minister and got away with it. He's clearly in a place where he feels no one can or will do anything to stop him - he extorted billions from some of the countries seemingly more powerful families.

Saudi Spat With Canada

It started with two tweets. On Aug. 2, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland wrote on Twitter that she was alarmed by the detention of Samar Badawi, a Saudi human rights activist whose brother, Raif Badawi, was arrested in 2012. Raif Badawi’s family lives in Canada. The next day, Global Affairs Canada weighed in, urging Saudi authorities to release civil and women’s rights activists.

Saudi Arabia was not having it. In a blustery Aug. 6 tweetstorm, the country’s Foreign Ministry announced that it was recalling its ambassador to Canada and gave the Canadian ambassador to Saudi Arabia 24 hours to leave. The state airline said it would stop flying to Toronto. Saudi scholarship students were told to pack their bags. Trade and investment were frozen.

Pulling ambassadors and threatening to suspend investment was a “massive overreaction” and offered an important lesson, said Thomas Juneau, assistant professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa. “The lesson was that MBS is reckless and completely overreacts to threats,” he added, using the crown prince’s nickname.

[Johnnie]

To further expand:



/

[Gunpowder]

Our friends the Saudis!

[The Sybian]

Our friends the Saudis!

Well, Trump spoke to the Saudis, and they very firmly said they didn't do it.

[The Sybian]

Holy shit, amidst all this, Trump goes to Montana and holds a rally for Greg Gianforte, the Congressman who physically assaulted a reporter, and praises him numerous times for assaulting a reporter.



https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/201 ... ot-vpx.cnn

[Pruitt]

Sadly and inevitably...

Conservatives mount a whisper campaign smearing Khashoggi in defense of Trump

[tennbengal]

I mean, we all know it is an authoritarian state now, right? The US?

[Joe K]

Trump and Co. are far less subtle about it, but unfortunately supporting atrocities from our “allies” is nothing new. Back in 2016, before the Election, Wolf Blitzer had Rand Paul on his show and Paul was critical of US support for the Saudis’ brutal bombing of Yemen, which has caused a tremendous civilian toll. Blitzer’s “rebuttal” was to point out how much money US companies were making off of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and questioning why Paul would want to risk that. This is no different, just without any semblance of professionalism.

[brian]

Saudis drop a Friday news dump.

[travzilla]

Sounds like they're gonna pin it on some middle-manager Chris Christie-style and a week from now the whole world will move on with MBS facing no repercussions.

[brian]

And they'll get away with it too.

[brian]

[A_B]

And they'll get away with it too.

Need some meddling kids.

[DaveInSeattle]

So now that the Saudi's have concocted their ludicrous cover-up, and Trump has said 'oh yeah, they are credible', commence with the 'victim shaming'...

Some conservatives and GOP lawmakers are quietly smearing Jamal Khashoggi, apparently to aid Trump

In a particularly pungent case of victim-blaming, "hard-line Republicans and conservative commentators are mounting a whispering campaign against Jamal Khashoggi that is designed to protect President Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident journalist's alleged murder by operatives of Saudi Arabia — and support Trump's continued aversion to a forceful response to the oil-rich desert kingdom," The Washington Post reports, citing four GOP officials involved in the discussions.

The campaign includes "a cadre of conservative House Republicans allied with Trump" who in recent days have been "privately exchanging articles from right-wing outlets that fuel suspicion of Khashoggi," a Post columnist and Saudi government critic, the Post says. Still, the murmurs have begun to "flare into public view" as conservative media organizations and personalities — Rush Limbaugh, Front Page, Donald Trump Jr., and a sanitized version on Fox News, to name a few — "have amplified the claims, which are aimed in part at protecting Trump as he works to preserve the U.S.-Saudi relationship and avoid confronting the Saudis on human rights."

[Gunpowder]

Sounds like they're gonna pin it on some middle-manager Chris Christie-style and a week from now the whole world will move on with MBS facing no repercussions.

Well I mean, he's a young leader. Sometimes you dismember a few people with bone saws while you're getting your feet wet in a new job.

[Gunpowder]

Trump and Co. are far less subtle about it, but unfortunately supporting atrocities from our “allies” is nothing new. Back in 2016, before the Election, Wolf Blitzer had Rand Paul on his show and Paul was critical of US support for the Saudis’ brutal bombing of Yemen, which has caused a tremendous civilian toll. Blitzer’s “rebuttal” was to point out how much money US companies were making off of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and questioning why Paul would want to risk that. This is no different, just without any semblance of professionalism.

Yeah it's been a joke forever that we're cool with the Saudis (and Turkey) over money but Trump was just so brazen about how cool he is with the Saudis because of money.

[rass]

Marco Rubio gets it.

[Pruitt]

Marco Rubio gets it.

Just falling in line behind the Dear Leader.

[EdRomero]

This is worth watching: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film ... di-arabia/

Of course, Trump and Saudi Arabia look terrible in this, but bin Salman has befriended so many other powerful people.

Also, Martin Smith is a damn good reporter.

[govmentchedda]

Can't wait until PBS hits YoutubeTV in the next month or so. Frontline is fantastic.