IGNORING THE EVIDENCE OF KHASHOGGI MURDER AND DISMEMBERMENT

On November 11, 2018 the AP reported on the discovery of the bodies of two young sisters, both Saudi nationals. The bodies—taped together with duct tape—washed up on the shores of  the Hudson River in New York City.  Evidence seems to suggest that the sisters were  alive when they were dumped into the river.

Other evidence indicates that the young women were seeking asylum in the USA after escaping from their father’s home in Virginia.  Their father traveled regularly to Saudi Arabia and maintained a home in the USA.  The NYC police are investigating the case as a possible suicide. (?)  But other evidence seems to indicate that the two young women were fleeing male relatives who in Saudi society have complete control over the lives (and deaths) of young unmarried women.  Male relatives control who these women can marry, where they can work, where they can travel, etc. etc.  through the so called “guardian” system.    The NYC investigators, always a bit hesitant at pointing the finger of criminality at the Saudi government, should evaluate how the two sisters were able to  tape themselves together, and then in this bound up condition, managed to throw themselves into the Hudson River.  It seems on first evaluation that what is more likely— that rather than a suicide—this is a murder case.  But then US officials tend to look the other way when it involves the Saudi government.

Which bring me to the case of the murder and dismemberment then dissolution of the body (in acid) of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  The Turkish government has released voice recordings of the brutal death and dismemberment  of the journalist.  However, National Security.Advisor to President Trump, John Bolton, who has not heard the tapes personally, claims that the tapes, which record the screams of the victim as well as the voices of the perpetrators (all liked closely to the top levels of government) as they dismembered the body, claims that there is no evidence to implicate the Saudi Crown Prince Bin Salman in the actual murder.  


I do not see this brutal murder being “swept under the rug”...even though the body of poor Mr Khashoggi—now reduced to its chemical elements—will never be recovered.  The stain of such a brutal act will spread to smear all those who  ignore the facts and facilitate the cover-up of those who clearly culpable.

There is an element of ugly hypocrisy here as well from the Trump Administration and the US media.  I recall the case of  President Putin of Russia (who is not purchasing “100 billion dollars worth of war materiel” or able to control world oil prices, was very quickly and summarily indited, and found guilty by the media—-of poisoning former Russian spy Sergei and his daughter Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, UK.  There was no credible evidence to attribute the crime to Putin, but that did not stop the media or Mr. Trump...it served their immediate political needs.

Mr. Trump must stand up for the rule of law and insist that those responsible—even in high places—must and should be punished.  To do otherwise will simply be unacceptable.

So Mr. Bolton please go back and listen to those tapes.