The charge, from human rights campaigners and some Democrats, follows the fifth anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi regime agents and comes amid mounting criticism of a proposed new defence treaty between Washington and Riyadh that could result in Saudi Arabia granting official recognition to Israel.
So Khashoggi gets murdered on Trump’s watch and Trump’s response about MBS is - and I quote from Woodward’s book - “I saved his a**,” “I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop.” And then, after Trump leaves office MBS gives his son, who has no hedge fund management experience, a $2B investment for his new hedge fund. But Biden is blamed for betrayal based in his desire to engage the country and not “walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia, or Iran.”
Did Putin ghost write this story for the Guardian himself, or is it run of the mill, mid-level Russian propaganda?
I don’t agree with all what the Guardian writes. It’s not Trump alone, though.
Biden administration says bin Salman should be granted immunity in Khashoggi lawsuit
The Biden administration declared on Thursday, November 17, that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should be considered immune from a lawsuit over his role in the killing of a US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a turnaround from Joe Biden’s passionate campaign-trail denunciations of Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the brutal slaying.
Biden is a laws-and-procedures man; one for the status quo. It’s why he’s getting a lot done in the US. It’s also why, short of agreeing that heads of state should be prosecuted in abstentia for crimes in foreign nations, he has no choice to admit that a foreign head of state is due immunity from prosecution. He’s told MBS that he holds him personally accountable, according to the article. But Khashoggi is a (very) unfortunate pawn in this game, and the only other three options are to kidnap, try, and jail/execute a foreign leader, place sanctions on or cut off all ties with one of the richest and most economically powerful [and nominally one of our few middle eastern allied] countries, or go to war and nuke the entire palace from orbit just to be sure. None of those three are viable - practically or politically - and so he’s fucking stuck with what he has.
There are, of course, inadequate solutions like not allowing him personally to arrive or transit the US, but that’s a bullshit limitation for someone worth half a trillion dollars and does nothing to stop him from killing again or bring peace to the Khashoggi family.
'Merica looked sooooo hard away from SA after 9/11 it will keep looking away for any and everything.
Yep not only willl the US Chiststained conservatives circle jerk the Saudi’s any time they come calling, They’ll also Blow Netanyahu anytime he needs anything. Two of the worst countries on earth that we should JUST BE DONE WITH entirely…but noooooo. Instead republicans pretend that aiding Ukraine is somehow taking the wrong side. I wish Joe would see through this shit but Neo-libs gonna Neo-lib…fucking idiots.
That being said… we all know who the worst bastards are… I hate Republicans… I Hate them !!!
This is one case where I’d advocate for radical violent intervention. MBS deserves a slow descent into a woodchipper.
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Joe Biden is facing accusations of betraying a pre-election promise to re-evaluate ties with Saudi Arabia over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in favour of pursuing a rapprochement with the kingdom aimed at repelling a challenge from China to US primacy in the Middle East.
Biden took office initially intending to downplay the traditional US role in the Middle East, a policy consistent with holding Saudi Arabia at arm’s length following the outcry that greeted Khashoggi’s murder.
The Biden administration’s initially cool relations towards Saudi Arabia began to warm, according to analysts, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year triggered international sanctions, forcing western countries to seek urgent alternatives to Russian energy supplies.
Now Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s prime minister and de facto ruler, is haggling for a pact – which could include security guarantees and US technology to develop a nuclear energy programme – in return for establishing full diplomatic ties with Israel, a prized goal of the Biden administration.
In October 2020, marking the second anniversary of Khashoggi’s murder, Biden pledged that his administration would “reassess our relationship with the kingdom … and make sure America does not check its values at the door to sell arms or buy oil”.
The letter also demands that Israel does not annex any part of the West Bank and stop the construction of settlements on the territory to meet Biden’s stated aim of “preserving the option of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
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