Trump and Netanyahu Want Saudi Crown Prince Absolved of Cold-Blooded Murder
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Saudi Arabia is the worst of Arab world dictatorships. It’s notorious for committing some of the world’s most horrendous human rights abuses internally and cross-border.
It uses its oil wealth for pure evil, its ideological extremism only exceeded by oppressive Israeli apartheid state terror against Palestinians and America’s wars on humanity.
None of the above matters because the kingdom is a longtime strategic US ally, partnering in its imperial wars, supporting regional terrorists operating as Pentagon foot soldiers.
It opposes sovereign Iran, Israel’s main enemy, its government standing in the way of its aim for unchallenged Middle East hegemony partnered with Washington.
Netanyahu reportedly asked senior Trump regime officials to continue supporting Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), calling him a US, NATO, Israeli regional “strategic ally.”
Egyptian despot Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reportedly made the same request. He’s as much a butcher as Saudi regime hardliners. Israel is increasingly allied with Arab world tyrants, jointly involved in regional state terror.
Trump is all over waging sanctions war on Iran and other sovereign independent governments, along with hot war against multiple countries – none threatening the US or any other nations.
MBS clearly ordered Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, troubling to the international community only because it was committed abroad against a prominent figure.
Countless other kingdom high crimes are ignored – including mass murder and partnership with US imperial wars of aggression.
For over a month since Khashoggi’s brutal abduction and murder, Trump has been stalling for time, refusing to impose “severe punishment” he promised, wanting the issue to fade from media headlines.
He’s ignored congressional and other calls to impose sanctions on the kingdom and MBS personally, calling Riyadh a “great partner,” serving US interests.
Pompeo was less than candid, saying the Trump regime is “reviewing putting sanctions on the individuals that we have been able to identify to date that … were engaged in that murder,” adding:
“It’ll take us probably a handful more weeks before we have enough evidence to actually put those sanctions in place, but I think we’ll be able to get there.”
Whatever damning evidence Turkey has from likely bugging the Saudi Istanbul consulate, so does Washington, spying on everyone, Turkey a likely prime target, along with diplomatic posts in the country.
Plenty of damning evidence points to MBS’ direct responsibility for ordering Khashoggi’s murder. The Trump regime is fully apprised, failing to do anything so far, wanting nothing obstructing longstanding US/Saudis ties, both countries partnered in far more serious high crimes than eliminating a prominent journalist.
Separately, the Turkish language Sabah broadsheet reported that Khashoggi’s body was dismembered, his remains put in five suitcases, taken to the Saudi consul general’s residence on October 2, the day he disappeared and was murdered, citing an Erdogan regime source.
Three Saudi officials close to MBS were named as key figures involved in his assassination – Maher Mutreb, Salah Tubeigy and Thaar al-Harbi, directly involved in dismembering his body and its disposal, if the Sabah’s report is accurate.
Mutreb, a key intelligence official responsible for ruling family security, works closely with MBS. It’s believed he led the hit squad.
Close Khashoggi friend Yasin Aktay believes the Saudi regime “aimed to ensure no sign of his body was left.”
The so-called Saudi probe into the murder is all about concealing hard evidence linking it to MBS, wanting lower lever convenient patsies blamed for carrying out the crown prince’s orders.
On Friday, the Wall Street Journal said MBS media adviser Saud al- Qahtani “assembled the group that killed” Khashoggi.
If true, it’s more evidence that orders to eliminate him came from the regime’s highest authority, Qahtani acting on direct orders from MBS, the Journal saying:
“People with knowledge of the work of Saud al-Qahtani say he was intimately involved in the kingdom’s targeting of Mr. Khashoggi — from efforts to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia from the US, to the planning and execution of the operation that ended with his death in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.”
His alleged role “complicat(es) Saudi Arabia’s efforts to” shield MBS from the murder he clearly ordered. No one would dare circumvent his authority, acting on their own.
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
