JARED KUSHNER’S BEST FRIEND—PRINCE BIN SALMAN—A DANGEROUS LOOSE CANNON AND PERHAPS MUCH WORSE
US governments of the past have frequently called out the Syrians, the Iranians and the Russians for behavior that they argue goes beyond the norm of “civilized” nations. But the USA too often looks the other way in the case of Saudi Arabia. We should remember that this is the nation from which almost all of the 9-11 attackers came, from where they were financially supported and even from whence they were given information on where to get “flying” lessons. Yet somehow the Saudis escaped any and all condemnation for that horrific attack. The Bush administration instead directed the nation’s ire and military might at innocent Iraq, where no American companies had investments and interests.
As well as following long and unwisely held US custom and precedent regarding Saudi Arabia, President Trump has made a particular effort to cultivate the Saudis. He apparently wants to keep that oil rich nation pumping oil on USA demand, as well as to persist in purchases of $100s of billions of US dollars worth of US military hardware. The former keeps oil cheap so as to help maintain Trump’s bragging rights about the US economy, while the latter keeps some (too many) Americans gainfully employed in our massive arms industry.
Saudi Arabia (SA) is one of the few absolute monarchies left in the world. Though it mirrors in manners and absolute power the ancient kingdoms of the Middle Ages—it was in fact only established by the Brits in the 1930s as a means of stabilizing and controlling the vast oil wealth under the shifting sands and demographics of that desert nation. In this nation, ruled by an absolute monarch, the king (and now his son MBS) is head of state as well as the head of government. The monarchy controls the lives ( and deaths) as well as the fortunes of all of its citizenry with absolute power.
Our President made SA one of his first formal foreign state visits. There our President bowed and scraped to the recently installed new absolute monarch—- King Salman. The KIng, at four score years, is said to be in fragile health. Real power has been assumed by his inexperienced, pampered and young son, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS). It is MBS who wields all of the awful and absolute power of that wealthy oil kingdom.
The newly installed Prince has touted himself as a “reformer” who claims to have given Saudi women the right to attend public events and even drive an automobile. But he has sullied and shredded that putative reformist reputation by many deeds and misdeeds which reveal him to act more like brutal absolute rulers of the distant past, perhaps in the mold of the infamous Emperor Caligula (Roman Emperor 37AD-41AD)
Like that last male member of the Roman Empire’s Julian line, an inexperienced, headstrong young man with no one to warn him of excesses and with an empire to play with, as a kid with toy soldiers, can get himself and his nation into serious trouble. In 2015 Mohammad Bin Salman unwisely intervened militarily in the civil war in Yemen, a nation which borders SA to the south. In that poverty stricken nation a Shiite minority (Houthi) overturned the Saudi-supported and corrupt Sunni Hadi-led government The Saudis under MBS have conducted a vicious war against the insurgents mostly by way of by a US supported and indiscriminate bombing campaign—an air war. The SA air campaign has killed an estimated 15,000 civilians, attacked critical infrastructure, embargoed food and medical supplies, and generated circumstances which precipitated a severe cholera outbreak and mass famine in Yemen. The international community and Human Rights Watch have condemned the air campaign in Yemen as a war crime.
Adopting hawkish international strategies from the outset, the new SA regime under MBS is claimed to have kidnapped the prime minister of Lebanon, Saad al-Hariri, and while this man was incarcerated forced him to resign his post by way of a tv broadcast from SA. Hariri claimed his reason was an assassination plot against him by Iran and Hezbollah ( two Saudi betes noires). If that wasn’t enough chutzpah, when the German foreign minister suggested that the Kingdom had orchestrated the “resignation” of al-Hariri, MBS in angry response recalled the Saudi ambassador and cut back commercial ties with a number of prominent German companies in retaliation. The US press called these actions only examples of the young Prince’s (MBS’s) “assertiveness”.
Soon after this fiasco, MBS’s henchmen abducted and imprisoned scores of his own nation’s elite, wealthy aristocrats. While keeping them imprisoned in a commandeered 5 star hotel, the regime led by MBS, forced them to pay billions of dollars in tribute before granting them freedom.
Next, with no actual justification, the young Prince instigated an attack on an unassuming and innocent neighboring state: Qatar. Qatar, is a peninsula nation about the size of the Greek island of Rhodes, jutting from its land border with SA into the Persian Gulf . Bin Salman and co-conspirators in the UAE and Egypt embargoed all air and sea connections with Qatar, effectively cutting all that nation’s ties with the outside world. SA secretly planned to invade and take over its main city of Doha on spurious claims that that Qatar (site of one of the largest US air bases in the region) was supporting terrorism. Rex Tillerson who as Secretary of State at that time.worked feverishly to prevent the invasion. His efforts —unappreciated by the Saudis and their allies—and falling afoul of President. Trump’s wishes—may have contributed to Tillerson losing support with President Trump (who supported SA) and in the process lost his job as head of State Department.
When Canada’s foreign misinterpret called for the release of several women’s rights activists with ties to Canada and who were being held in Saudi jails—MBS in a outburst of temper, suspended diplomatic ties with Canada and imposed a halt on any new trade dealings. Canada’s currency fell and its stock market reacted to the news negatively. The press however, described these moves as “ just an example of the young Prince “signal sending” his displeasure.
Most recently we are slapped in the face with another act of SA brutality outside the norms of civilized nations in the form of a grizzly torture and execution of a US resident and Washington Post journalist—Jamal Khashoggi.
Jamal Khashoggi, a SA citizen and former editor, advisor to the former King and Saudi expat SA dissident and resident of the USA, where he was employed as a journalist for the Washington Post. Jamal Khashoggi frequently wrote articles for the Post and other journals that were critical of the Kingdom and of its young leader—MBS. Khashoggi left the USA where he was residing and traveled to Turkey where he was planning to marry his fiancée, a Turkish citizen. In order to prove his marital status to Turkish officials he made plans to visit the Saudi embassy to obtain official documents regarding his divorce. While his fiancée waited outside, Jamal—with, it is reported, some trepidation— entered the Embassy. But he never reappeared.
Turkish officials using security cameras which monitored the embassy’s enteracne and exits revealed last week that Khashoggi had entered the SA embassy but had never reappeared. Upon review of existing security videos and Kashoggit’s apple iPhone (left with his fiancée) they were able to conclude that Khashoggi had been intercepted within the building by a 15 man assassination team which had arrived from Saudi Arabia that same day. According to the Turks, who claim they have both video and voice evidence, Khassoggi was tortured, killed and his body was dismembered for disposal. It was reported in the Turkish press that the fifteen man assassination squad included a member from SA who was familiar with forensic autopsy—-and presumably knew how to wield a bone saw! All these fifteen individuals (but not Khashoggi) left the embassy shortly after Khashoggi’s demise and dismemberment and departed for SA—according to Turkish authorities.
What should our response be?
We can not ally ourselves—no matter how many F16 planes and bombs SA buys—with an international pariah—like MSB. In light of its new King and young inexperienced leadership— and its belligerent and overly aggressive foreign policy, we must reevaluate our—and the President’s—blanket approval of the Kingdom. They must know when they go beyond what is accepted international norms.
Mr. Kushner, the President’s (ill-advised) advisor and son-in-law should be the first to be removed from his nepotistic office for lack of perception and for causing general embarrassment to the nation.
Mr. Trump should make good on his threat of “severe punishment” if it proves true (there seems no other explanation) that an American resident journalist was brutally assassinated and his body dismembered in the capital of a NATO ally—only for being critical of Saudi Arabia and its leadership!.
US CAN NOT IGNORE SAUDI TREACHERY AND DESCENT INTO BARBARITY WITHOUT GETTING SMEARED WITH THE SAME BRUSH
Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian editor and publisher.
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