Murder of Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi

AD1184

Celestial
Meanwhile, Trump compares the case to the appointment of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, saying: 'Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent.'
Trump is quite keen to go along with this when it is not one of his allies who is assumed guilty (qv Syrian chemical weapons attacks leading immediately to US military action, and his calls to 'lock her up' over Hillary Clinton prior to any criminal trial). The world had much stronger evidence of Saudi guilt and Trump was saying there are still questions over whether Khashoggi was dead and whether it was the Saudi state who killed him.
 

Shadowprophet

Truthiness
The murder of Jamal Khashoggi: Key moments surrounding the writer's disappearance and death

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote critically of the kingdom's policies and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say a 15-men team tortured, killed and dismembered the writer, while Saudi Arabia says he died in a 'fistfight.'

Here are some key moments in the slaying of the Washington Post columnist:

BEFORE HIS DISAPPEARANCE

September 2017: The Post publishes the first column by Khashoggi in its newspaper, in which the former royal court insider and longtime journalist writes about going into a self-imposed exile in the U.S. over the rise of Prince Mohammed. His following columns criticize the prince and the kingdom's direction.

September 28, 2018: Over a year after the Post published his first column, Khashoggi visits the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, seeking documents in order to get married. He's later told to return October 2, his fiancee Hatice Cengiz says. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a plan or a 'road map' to kill Khashoggi was devised in Saudi Arabia during this time.

September 29: Khashoggi travels to London and speaks at a conference.

October 1: Khashoggi returns to Istanbul. At around 4.30pm, a three-person Saudi team arrives in Istanbul on a scheduled flight, checks in to their hotels then visits the consulate, according to Erdogan. The Turkish president says another group of officials from the consulate travel to a forest in Istanbul's outskirts and to the nearby city of Yalova on a 'reconnaissance' trip.

06263554000007D0-6306539-Jamal_Khashoggi_right_arriving_at_the_Saudi_Arabian_consulate_in-a-38_1540312506006.jpg

Jamal Khashoggi (right) arriving at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on October 2. He has not been seen since and Turkey has accused Saudi agents of murdering him

THE DAY OF HIS DISAPPEARANCE

3.28am, October 2: A private jet arrives at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport carrying some members of what Turkish media will refer to as a 15-member Saudi 'assassination squad.' Other members of the team arrive by two commercial flights in the afternoon. Erdogan says the team includes Saudi security and intelligence officials and a forensics expert. They meet at the Saudi Consulate. One of the first things they do is to dismantle a hard disk connected to the consulate's camera system, the president says.

11.50am: Khashoggi is called to confirm his appointment at the consulate later that day, Erdogan says.

1.14pm: Surveillance footage later leaked to Turkish media shows Khashoggi walking into the main entrance of the Saudi Consulate. No footage made public ever shows him leaving. His fiancee waits outside, pacing for hours.

3.07pm: Surveillance footage shows vehicles with diplomatic license plates leaving the Saudi Consulate for the consul general's home some 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away.

5.50pm: Khashoggi's fiancee alerts authorities, saying he may have been forcibly detained inside the consulate or that something bad may have happened to him, according to Erdogan.

7pm: A private plane from Saudi Arabia carries six members of the alleged Saudi squad from Istanbul to Cairo, the next day returning to Riyadh.

11pm: Seven members of the alleged Saudi squad leave on another private jet to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which the next day returns to Riyadh. Two others leave by commercial flights.

Erdogan confirms reports that a 'body double' - a man wearing Khashoggi's clothes, glasses and a beard - leaves the consulate building for Riyadh with another person on a scheduled flight later that day.

5325030-6311185-CCTV_images_showed_a_a_private_jet_alleged_to_have_been_used_by_-a-26_1540377284930.jpg

CCTV images showed a a private jet alleged to have been used by a group of Saudi men suspected of being involved in Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's death

INITIAL REACTION

October 3: Khashoggi's fiancee and the Post go public with his disappearance. Saudi Arabia says Khashoggi visited the consulate and exited shortly thereafter. Turkish officials suggest Khashoggi might still be in the consulate. Prince Mohammed tells Bloomberg: 'We have nothing to hide.'

October 4: Saudi Arabia says on its state-run news agency that the consulate is carrying out 'follow-up procedures and coordination with the Turkish local authorities to uncover the circumstances of the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi after he left the consulate building.'

October 5: The Post prints a blank column in its newspaper in solidarity with Khashoggi, headlined: 'A missing voice.'

October 6: The Post, citing anonymous Turkish officials, reports Khashoggi may have been killed in the consulate in a 'preplanned murder' by a Saudi team.

October 7: A friend of Khashoggi tells the AP that officials told him the writer was killed at the consulate. The consulate rejects what it calls 'baseless allegations.'

October 8: Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Turkey is summoned over Khashoggi's disappearance and alleged killing.

LEAKED FOOTAGE

October 9: Turkey says it will search the Saudi Consulate as a picture of Khashoggi walking into the diplomatic post surfaces.

October 10: Surveillance footage is leaked of Khashoggi and the alleged Saudi squad that killed him. Khashoggi's fiancee asks President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump for help.

October 11: Turkish media describes Saudi squad as including royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert. Trump calls Khashoggi's disappearance a 'bad situation' and promises to get to the bottom of it.

October 12: Trump again pledges to find out what happened to Khashoggi.

October 13: A pro-government newspaper reports that Turkish officials have an audio recording of Khashoggi's alleged killing from his Apple Watch, but details in the report come into question.

INTERNATIONAL UPROAR

October 14: Trump says that 'we're going to get to the bottom of it, and there will be severe punishment' if Saudi Arabia is involved. The kingdom responds with a blistering attack against those who threaten it, as the manager of a Saudi-owned satellite news channel suggests the country could retaliate through its oil exports. The Saudi stock exchange plunges as much as 7 percent at one point.
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Khashoggi (pictured), went missing after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul

October 15: A Turkish forensics team enters and searches the Saudi Consulate, an extraordinary development as such diplomatic posts are considered sovereign soil. Trump suggests after a call with Saudi King Salman that 'rogue killers' could be responsible for Khashoggi's alleged slaying. Trump says Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will travel to the Mideast over the case. Meanwhile, business leaders say they won't attend an economic summit in the kingdom that's the brainchild of Prince Mohammed.

October 16: A high-level Turkish official tells the AP that 'certain evidence' was found in the Saudi Consulate proving Khashoggi was killed there. Pompeo arrives for meetings in Saudi Arabia with King Salman and Prince Mohammed. Meanwhile, Trump compares the case to the appointment of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing, saying: 'Here we go again with you're guilty until proven innocent.'

October 17: Pompeo meets with Turkey's president and foreign minister in the Turkish capital, Ankara. Turkish police search the official residence of Saudi Arabia's consul general in Istanbul and conduct a second sweep of the consulate.

October 18: A leaked surveillance photograph shows a member of Prince Mohammed's entourage walked into the consulate just before Khashoggi vanished there.

October 20: Saudi Arabia for the first time acknowledges Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, claiming he was slain in a 'fistfight.' The claim draws immediate skepticism from the kingdom's Western allies, particularly in the U.S. Congress.

October 22: A report says a member of Prince Mohammed's entourage made four calls to the royal's office around the time Khashoggi was killed. Police search a vehicle belonging to the Saudi consulate parked at an underground garage in Istanbul.

CCTV emerges showing a Saudi intelligence officer dressed in a fake beard and Jamal Khashoggi's clothes and glasses on the day he went missing.

October 23: Erdogan says Saudi officials murdered Khashoggi after plotting his death for days, demanding that Saudi Arabia reveal the identities of all involved.

October 25: Changing their story again, Saudi prosecutors say Khashoggi's killing was a premeditated crime.

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Thank you, I needed this, It's difficult to find the full story all in one place.
 

wwkirk

Divine
CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination

The CIA has concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month, contradicting the Saudi government’s claims that he was not involved in the killing, according to people familiar with the matter.


The CIA’s assessment, in which officials have said they have high confidence, is the most definitive to date linking Mohammed to the operation and complicates the Trump administration’s efforts to preserve its relationship with a close ally. A team of 15 Saudi agents flew to Istanbul on government aircraft in October and killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate, where he had come to pick up documents that he needed for his planned marriage to a Turkish woman.


In reaching its conclusions, the CIA examined multiple sources of intelligence, including a phone call that the prince’s brother Khalid bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, had with Khashoggi, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence. Khalid told Khashoggi, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post, that he should go to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to retrieve the documents and gave him assurances that it would be safe to do so.


It is not clear if Khalid knew that Khashoggi would be killed, but he made the call at his brother’s direction, according to the people familiar with the call, which was intercepted by U.S. intelligence.


Fatimah Baeshen, a spokeswoman for the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said the ambassador and Khashoggi never discussed “anything related to going to Turkey.” She added that the claims in the CIA’s “purported assessment are false. We have and continue to hear various theories without seeing the primary basis for these speculations.”


The CIA’s conclusion about Mohammed’s role was also based on the agency’s assessment of the prince as the country’s de facto ruler who oversees even minor affairs in the kingdom. “The accepted position is that there is no way this happened without him being aware or involved,” said a U.S. official familiar with the CIA’s conclusions.

The CIA sees Mohammed as a “good technocrat,” the U.S. official said, but also as volatile and arrogant, someone who “goes from zero to 60, doesn’t seem to understand that there are some things you can’t do.”

CIA analysts believe he has a firm grip on power and is not in danger of losing his status as heir to the throne despite the Khashoggi scandal. “The general agreement is that he is likely to survive,” the official said, adding that Mohammed’s role as the future Saudi king is “taken for granted.”

A spokesman for the CIA declined to comment.

Over the past several weeks, the Saudis have offered multiple, contradictory explanations for what happened at the consulate. This week, the Saudi public prosecutor blamed the operation on a rogue band of operatives who were sent to Istanbul to return Khashoggi to Saudi Arabia, in an operation that veered off course when the journalist “was forcibly restrained and injected with a large amount of a drug resulting in an overdose that led to his death,” according to a report by the prosecutor.
The prosecutor announced charges against 11 alleged participants and said he would seek the death penalty against five of them.

The assassination of Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Mohammed’s policies, has sparked a foreign policy crisis for the White House and raised questions about the administration’s reliance on Saudi Arabia as a key ally in the Middle East and bulwark against Iran.

President Trump has resisted pinning the blame for the killing on Mohammed, who enjoys a close relationship with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser. Privately, aides said, Trump has been shown evidence of the prince’s involvement but remains skeptical that Mohammed ordered the killing.

The president has also asked CIA and State Department officials where Khashoggi’s body is and has grown frustrated that they have not been able to provide an answer. The CIA does not know the location of Khashoggi’s remains, according to the people familiar with the agency’s assessment.

Among the intelligence assembled by the CIA is an audio recording from a listening device that the Turks placed inside the Saudi consulate, according to the people familiar with the matter. The Turks gave the CIA a copy of that audio, and the agency’s director, Gina Haspel, has listened to it.

The audio shows that Khashoggi was killed within moments of entering the consulate, according to officials in multiple countries who have listened to it or been briefed on its contents. Khashoggi died in the office of the Saudi consul general, who can be heard expressing his displeasure that Khashoggi’s body now needed to be disposed of and the facility cleaned of any evidence, according to people familiar with the audio recording.

The CIA also examined a call placed from inside the consulate after the killing by an alleged member of the Saudi hit team, Maher Mutreb, a security official who has often been seen at the crown prince’s side and who was photographed entering and leaving the consulate on the day of the killing.

Mutreb called Saud al-Qahtani, then one of the top aides to Mohammed, and informed him that the operation had been completed, according to people familiar with the call.

This week, the Treasury Department sanctioned 17 individuals it said were involved in Khashoggi’s death, including Qahtani, Mutreb and the Saudi consul general in Turkey, Mohammad al-Otaibi.

The CIA’s assessment of Mohammed’s role in the assassination also tracks with information developed by foreign governments, according to officials in several European capitals who have concluded that the operation was too brazen to have taken place without Mohammed’s direction.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said his government has shared the audio with Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.

In addition to calls and audio recordings, CIA analysts also linked some members of the Saudi hit team directly to Mohammed himself. Some of the 15 members have served on his security team and traveled in the United States during visits by senior Saudi officials, including the crown prince, according to passport records reviewed by The Washington Post.

The U.S. had also obtained intelligence before Khashoggi’s death that indicated he might be in danger. But it wasn’t until after he disappeared, on Oct. 2, that U.S. intelligence agencies began searching archives of intercepted communications and discovered material indicating that the Saudi royal family had been seeking to lure Khashoggi back to Riyadh.

Two U.S. officials said there has been no indication that officials were aware of this intelligence in advance of Khashoggi’s disappearance or had missed any chance to warn him.

Khashoggi “was not a person of interest,” before his disappearance, and the fact that he was residing in Virginia meant that he was regarded as a U.S. person and therefore shielded from U.S. intelligence gathering, one of the officials said.

Trump has told senior White House officials that he wants Mohammed to remain in power because Saudi Arabia helps to check Iran, which the administration considers its top security challenge in the Middle East. He has said that he does not want the controversy over Khashoggi’s death to impede oil production by the kingdom.

One lingering question is why Mohammed might have decided to kill Khashoggi, who was not agitating for the crown prince’s removal.

A theory the CIA has developed is that Mohammed believed Khashoggi was a dangerous Islamist who was too sympathetic to the Muslim Brotherhood, according to people familiar with the assessment. Days after Khashoggi disappeared, Mohammed relayed that view in a phone call with Kushner and John Bolton, the national security adviser, who has long opposed the Brotherhood and seen it as a regional security threat.

Mohammed’s private condemnation of the slain journalist stood in contrast to his government’s public comments, which mourned Khashoggi’s killing as a “terrible mistake” and a “tragedy.”

U.S. officials are unclear on when or whether the Saudi government will follow through with its threatened executions of the individuals blamed for Khashoggi’s killing. “It could happen overnight or take 20 years,” the U.S. official said, adding that the treatment of subordinates could erode Mohammed’s standing going forward.

In killing those who followed his orders, “it’s hard to get the next set [of subordinates] to help,” the official said.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Khashoggi murder ‘planned and perpetrated by Saudi officials’, says UN human rights expert

The murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi was "planned and perpetrated by Saudi officials", the UN special rapporteur leading an independent human rights inquiry into the killing has said.

Agnes Callamard is writing a report to be presented to the Human Rights Council about the incident and has visited Turkey as part of the investigations into Mr Khashoggi’s death.

Mr Khashoggi, a prominent critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was last seen alive when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.

Premilnary findings have said it was almost two weeks before Turkish authorities were allowed to enter the consulate and have placed the blame on the Saudi state.

“Evidence collected during my mission to Turkey shows prime facie case that Mr Khashoggi was the victim of a brutal and premeditated killing, planned and perpetrated by officials of the State of Saudi Arabia,” Ms Callamard said.

“The murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the sheer brutality of it has brought irreversible tragedy to his loved ones. It is also raising a number of international implications which demand the urgent attention of the international community including the United Nations."

Ms Callamard was unable to examine the Saudi consulate where Mr Khashoggi was killed despite requesting access to the crime scene, prompting Turkish officials to add pressure on Riyadh.

She said the killing violated both international law and core rules of international relations, including the requirements for lawful use of diplomatic missions.

“Guarantees of immunity were never intended to facilitate the commission of a crime and exonerate its authors of their criminal responsibility or to conceal a violation of the right to life. The circumstances of the killing and the response by state representatives in its aftermath may be described as ‘immunity for impunity’,” she said.

Ms Callamard conducted her research between 28 January and 3 February; she was the special rapporteur’s first official visit to the country.

The team, which includes a UK barrister and a Portuguese forensic pathologist, met the minister of foreign affairs, the minister of justice, the chief of Turkish intelligence, the chief prosecutor of Istanbul and a number of other stakeholders, including from civil society and the media.

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CasualBystander

Celestial
Khashoggi was a paid disinformation agent of Qatar. And a member of the moslem brotherhood.

His interests were diametrically opposed to Saudi and US interests.

From a Saudi perspective he was a traitor.

The Washington post apparently published his commentaries knowing he was a paid Qatari agent and a member of the moslem brotherhood.

Didn't see this disclosure on any of his commentaries.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
An interesting bit...

Saudi Arabia HACKED Jeff Bezos' cell phone and leaked the texts that exposed his affair with Lauren Sanchez as revenge for the Washington Post's coverage of Khashoggi's murder, claims the Amazon CEO's security chief

11674452-0-image-m-9_1554001924645.jpg


Gavin De Becker, a longtime security consultant, said he had concluded his investigation into the publication in January of leaked text messages between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez (top), who the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper said Bezos was dating. 'Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information,' De Becker wrote.

In a Medium post, Bezos (seen bottom with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018) alluded to Saudi Arabia's displeasure at the Bezos-owned Washington Post's coverage of the murder of its columnist and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (inset). The killing of Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate last October strained the country's ties with Western allies, exposed the kingdom to possible sanctions and tarnished the image of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

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CasualBystander

Celestial
An interesting bit...

Saudi Arabia HACKED Jeff Bezos' cell phone and leaked the texts that exposed his affair with Lauren Sanchez as revenge for the Washington Post's coverage of Khashoggi's murder, claims the Amazon CEO's security chief

11674452-0-image-m-9_1554001924645.jpg


Gavin De Becker, a longtime security consultant, said he had concluded his investigation into the publication in January of leaked text messages between Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez (top), who the National Enquirer tabloid newspaper said Bezos was dating. 'Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information,' De Becker wrote.

In a Medium post, Bezos (seen bottom with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018) alluded to Saudi Arabia's displeasure at the Bezos-owned Washington Post's coverage of the murder of its columnist and Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (inset). The killing of Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia's Istanbul consulate last October strained the country's ties with Western allies, exposed the kingdom to possible sanctions and tarnished the image of de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

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It is bullshit.

The leak came from Sanchez brother.

BOZOS should shut up about this - this story is not going well for him.

His attack on the National Enquirer isn't smart either:

bezos_pecker.jpg
 

CasualBystander

Celestial
Trump is quite keen to go along with this when it is not one of his allies who is assumed guilty (qv Syrian chemical weapons attacks leading immediately to US military action, and his calls to 'lock her up' over Hillary Clinton prior to any criminal trial). The world had much stronger evidence of Saudi guilt and Trump was saying there are still questions over whether Khashoggi was dead and whether it was the Saudi state who killed him.

Well, yeah, the Saudis were bad, BAD SAUDIS, BAD SAUDIS.

On the other hand Khashoggi was a paid Qatari disinformation agent. And a member of the discredited Moslem Brotherhood.

Which the WaPo knew and concealed from their readers (the Truth dies in darkness because the WaPo smothers it with a pillow).

Khashoggi was a Saudi National, his actions make him a traitor to Saudi Arabia.


Killing him was politically unwise. But it looks like Erdogan knew this was going happen and sacrificed him for political propaganda points
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was juggling a new secret air hostess wife AND a Turkish student fiancee in the months before he was murdered - and they never knew about each other until he was dead



Jamal Khashoggi married an air hostess (left) in the US and got engaged to a graduate student (right) in Turkey in the months before he was murdered, the women have revealed. Mr Khashoggi, a fierce critic of the Saudi regime and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had been visiting the consulate in Istanbul where he was to meet his fate in order to retrieve papers to prove he was divorced from his ex-wife in Saudi.

It was only after he was butchered by assassins at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, that his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz learned that he had married a second woman just four months before his death. Egyptian Hanan El-Atr, a flight attendant for Emirates airline, told Yahoo how they were married by an imam at a northern Virginia mosque in the States in June.


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nivek

As Above So Below

Biden administration requests immunity for Saudi crown prince in Khashoggi killing: 'Beyond ironic'

The Biden administration declared Thursday night the official standing of Saudi Arabia's crown prince should grant him immunity in lawsuits for his alleged role in the brutal killing of a U.S.-based journalist. The request is a controversial one after President Biden promised "consequences" on his campaign trail for Saudi officials following the 2018 death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancée, and Democracy for the Arab World Now filed a lawsuit against Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for their roles in the murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

According to the Associated Press, the State Department called the decision to try to protect the Saudi crown prince from U.S. courts in Khashoggi's killing "purely a legal determination," citing "longstanding precedent."Rooted in international law, sovereign immunity protects states and their officials from some legal proceedings in other foreign states’ domestic courts. The State Department said upholding the concept helps ensure American leaders don’t have to worry about being hauled into foreign courts to face lawsuits in other countries.

The Biden administration's request for immunity is non-binding and will ultimately be decided by a judge, but it is expected to anger human rights activists and many U.S. lawmakers, according to the AP. Human rights advocates argued that Prince Mohammed and other authoritarian leaders around the world would be emboldened to commit more rights abuses if the Biden administration supported the crown prince's claim that his high office shielded him from prosecution.

Despite the recommendation to the court, the State Department reportedly said it "takes no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi."

(More on the link)

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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable

Biden administration requests immunity for Saudi crown prince in Khashoggi killing: 'Beyond ironic'

The Biden administration declared Thursday night the official standing of Saudi Arabia's crown prince should grant him immunity in lawsuits for his alleged role in the brutal killing of a U.S.-based journalist. The request is a controversial one after President Biden promised "consequences" on his campaign trail for Saudi officials following the 2018 death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi's fiancée, and Democracy for the Arab World Now filed a lawsuit against Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for their roles in the murder of Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

According to the Associated Press, the State Department called the decision to try to protect the Saudi crown prince from U.S. courts in Khashoggi's killing "purely a legal determination," citing "longstanding precedent."Rooted in international law, sovereign immunity protects states and their officials from some legal proceedings in other foreign states’ domestic courts. The State Department said upholding the concept helps ensure American leaders don’t have to worry about being hauled into foreign courts to face lawsuits in other countries.

The Biden administration's request for immunity is non-binding and will ultimately be decided by a judge, but it is expected to anger human rights activists and many U.S. lawmakers, according to the AP. Human rights advocates argued that Prince Mohammed and other authoritarian leaders around the world would be emboldened to commit more rights abuses if the Biden administration supported the crown prince's claim that his high office shielded him from prosecution.

Despite the recommendation to the court, the State Department reportedly said it "takes no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi."


(More on the link)

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Yes, well let's protect the Crown prince. He's Biden's fist-bumpy pal after all. Maybe he wasn't clear on the eating-hand and wiping-hand thing and wanted to play it safe. We also wouldn't mention that 15/19 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis. There's the thing about oil, makes you break bread with people you otherwise wouldn't or shouldn't associate with.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
It is increasingly being accompanied by similar compromises over rare earth minerals to power the green energy revolution.

There's a huge level of hypocrisy that comes along with the mining and acquisition of those rare earth minerals...Its a very destructive process in acquiring materials such as Lithium, yet its okay to do that because its material for the green ideology but drilling oil is out of the question...Almost all of the gases or minerals or metals we dig or drill the earth for are destructive to the environment...If the green ideology supporters want a perfect green earth then might as well ban all of our modern technology and go back to living in a stone age type of society...

...
 
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