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Notes on the Khasshogi Case
The Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi story will someday be seen by historians (not in the US) as a near-perfect example of the failure of American policy in the Middle East begatting more failure. Only ignorance of history and the amazing sheepishness of the American people to have their opinions spoon fed to them will make things “work out.”Forget the current arms sales (the naughty thing the media says made Trump “pardon” Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman for supposedly ordering the murder, conveniently on a phone fully-tapped by the US, though sooner or later someone will claim the real driver is some sort of shady Trump real estates deal negotiated by Kushner) the US at present needs the Saudis as a hedge against the empowered Iran our wars of the last decades in Iraq inadvertently created, and of course as Israel’s new friend in that same regard in the music of the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” that powers the Jewish state’s relations in the neighborhood. Trump is boorish and gross, but he is just the ugly face of truth behind decades of US policy, a Few Good Men’s Colonel Jessup inside foreign affairs screaming we can’t handle the truth. The truth is every American president from Roosevelt to Trump bent over for the Saudis. And so will the next president, whether it’s Trump or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Representative Tulsi Gabbard eviscerating Trump as “Saudi Arabia’s bitch” is true enough, even if she was incomplete in not naming every other American leader since WWII. And, oh yeah, the Clinton Foundation, which was engorged with Saudi cash.
(Trump as Colonel Jessup telling us what we don’t want to hear is not restricted to Saudi affairs. When journalism cosplayer, now friend of the #Resistance, Bill O’Reilly demanded to know what Trump thought about Vladimir Putin being a killer, Trump responded: “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?… I think our country does plenty of killing also.”)
The truth is the Saudis can do whatever they want inside their own sphere as long as they serve our (shifting needs) for (example) oil, war in Afghanistan against the USSR, and now bulwark against Iran.
And the US is always happy to return a favor. Two Bushs waged wars that helped the Kingdom. Obama sent US forces into bloody work in Yemen for the Saudis. Stuff happens along the way — OPEC was unleashed out of a plan to control prices, 9/11 and al Qaeda out of the creation of the jihad against the Sovs, Desert Storm when then-US ally Saddam ended up too strong after we used him to knock back Iran in the 1980s and America had to defend the Kingdom’s oil so they could sell it to us, and this year the relatively minor kerfuffle (promoted by Erdogan for his own political purposes) of Khasshogi. But the US always looks the other way, whether it is Saudi funding to kill 2,997 Americans on 9/11 or the Soprano’s hit on Khasshogi. Meh.
The latter just caught the public’s attention because it fits with the media’s 24/7/365 need to create Trump-driven crisis fodder (don’t forget Mohammed Bin Salman — MBS to his friends and PR handlers — was a US-media darling only months ago because he was gonna let the ladies drive over there), plus of course Trump’s own willingness to constantly fan the flames with a Tweet or flippant comment. It’s nice to see them have such a symbiotic relationship. Meanwhile the greater American atrocity, supporting the slaughter of civilians by Saudi forces in Yemen, is left more or less untouched except as an adjunct to the Khasshogi case; the US may publically pull back there a symbolic bit as playful punishment. The real blowback from Khasshogi will be near-zero compared to what happened for example when OPEC crushed our economy and when al Qaeda sent us to war for 18 years.
US-Saudi relations are a constant clusterfutz where one unexpected horrible outcome is “fixed” by an even larger problem once envisioned as the solution. That domino effect, from 1945 through tomorrow, is what binds the US and Saudi Arabia as brothers in foreign policy crime, and if the Saudi’s play it right (as they have for decades) it always will.
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John Poole said...
1It also might be that the USA is anticipating having to import a huge amount of camels from the Saudis if the Southwest draught becomes permanent!
11/23/18 7:39 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
2McCain’s ghost: Bomb, Bomb, Riyadh.
11/23/18 9:24 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
3“The truth is the Saudis can do whatever they want inside their own sphere as long as they serve our (shifting needs) for (example) oil, war in Afghanistan against the USSR, and now bulwark against Iran.”
The truth is our only need, which is never shifting, is to create chaos in the region to keep them dependent on our arms sales.
11/24/18 3:16 PM | Comment Link
wemeantwell said...
4The certificate/privacy errors are in the process of being fixed. The SSL certificate expired and I’m getting a new one. All will soon be well.
11/24/18 4:38 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
5Hey, you’re back. So it wasn’t the Deep State that deepsixed your security certificate. We were curious “where was the server.”
11/27/18 8:27 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
6Khashoggi seems to be preferable to Khasshogi. Poor spelling will always discredit a person’s standing.
11/29/18 5:11 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
7Mueller is taking a bonesaw to Demented. Can’t wait to hear that tape.
11/29/18 6:18 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
8Bauer- So you are a fan of Mueller- a guy who relishes his time tasked to kill for empire in ‘Nam as the best years of his life?
11/29/18 7:24 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
9JP,
Not a fan. Remember that Mueller and Comey were the ones to shutdown the anthrax investigation, either deliberately to conceal the Deep State behind it, or out of incompetence just to close the case and save the Famous But Incompetent reputation.
Lambert, the lead agent on the case, got fired for pointing out the FBI investigation was incompetent.
11/29/18 8:20 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
10Useful info- thanks
11/30/18 9:24 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
11We have met the enemy and they are US.
11/30/18 10:05 AM | Comment Link
Chuckie said...
12Cohen Lied !!! Brennan did and got a contract. So did Clapper. Special is what it is…Stay Tuned… This just in Sheeple. Love, Ben Dover (peas…)
11/30/18 11:36 AM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
13Anybody ask the Yemeni how outraged they are about the Saudi bonesaw massacre?
More than 20 million Yemenis – over 70% of the population – are in need of humanitarian assistance that is being blocked.
11/30/18 12:40 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
14Bauer- welcome to a planet overseen by an apparent sadistic deity. I prefer the scenario of no deity in charge so we could freely change our ways.
11/30/18 1:12 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
15Deity: Don’t lay that shit on me. I just created you motherfuckers. You clowns are on your own.
11/30/18 1:25 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
16JP,
Genius is finite; mankind’s stupidity – and greed- are infinite.
11/30/18 1:29 PM | Comment Link
Chuckie said...
17Nice piece on Assange today by PVB.
11/30/18 8:05 PM | Comment Link
John Poole said...
18Chuck- PVB’s article on Assange seems balanced. Assange is a pretty flawed guy but aren’t we all? He released the Wiki trove to clearly damage Hillary which was wrong in my opinion. My fantasy (not really) is that Hillary runs in 2020 and wins and then as her first act as POTUS pardons Assange. Her act of magnanimity would prove we were wrong about Hillary. Nah!
12/1/18 1:52 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
19If Assange had a few billion to buy off Trump he would get out of jail free. Stick and stones and bonesaws…
12/1/18 8:03 PM | Comment Link
Rich Bauer said...
20Caught on read taps
AP— Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman communicated over 11 times with the team that was responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the hours before and after his death, according to a classified Central Intelligence Agency assessment obtained by the Wall Street Journal. ** Hey, Assange, see it’s all good to release classified reports.
The crown prince’s electronic messages were sent to Saud al-Qahtani, according to the CIA. Qahtani is the man who supervised the 15-person team that was responsible for killing Khashoggi, a critic of Saudi Arabia’s leadership, on October 2. Qahtani served as the royal court adviser but fired shortly after…he was caught on tape.
Damn, there goes Demented’s “maybe they did, or maybe they didn’t.” All these thugs get caught in the read taps.
12/2/18 6:31 AM | Comment Link