‘Vicious’ US Should Be Held Accountable for Khashoggi Murder

Rasa - Although the CIA says Saudi Arabia was behind the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, President Donald Trump insists he is not going to punish Riyadh, “we’re really all to blame, except of course for the Saudis.”

News ID: 441712

Date: 24 November 2018 - 15:23

RNA - The man who keeps praising the Saudis’ vast wealth further says “maybe the world should be held accountable, because the world is a vicious place. The world is a very, very vicious place.”

If the world is a vicious place, that’s all because of America’s endless wars and occupations. If the world is a vicious place, it’s all because America supports criminal regimes like Saudi Arabia and Israel to murder women and children in cold blood in Yemen and Gaza, and then vetoes any UN resolution against them at the Security Council. And if the world is a vicious place, that’s because the Saudis knew they would get away with murder after dismembering Khashoggi at their consulate in Istanbul. They were confident that Trump would leave them safely off the hook, insisting they are creating “really tremendous jobs” and keeping oil prices down.

Trump even claims Israel couldn’t exist in the Middle East without Saudi help, while further disavowing the CIA assessment that the Saudi crown prince MBS ordered the murder, saying he thinks the CIA just had “feelings” that was the case. Even if it was true, he mocked the notion of giving up “hundreds of thousands of jobs” and having the standard of not allying with people who assassinate reporters.

It all boils down to this: The Saudis are secure in their alliance no matter what they do. They won’t face charges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The terrorist threat that has arisen from Saudi Arabia is largely of Washington’s own making; and it is being nurtured by endless US support for the Saudis, by meddling in the region’s politics, and by the bombing and droning campaigns against Washington’s self-created enemies. At the root of Takfiri-Wahhabi based terrorism is the long-standing Washington error that America’s security and economic well-being depends upon keeping an unholy alliance with Riyadh with no strings attached.

That’s why even though Trump knows dissident journalist Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, he is not outraged at all. To kill a prominent critic in a violent, pre-planned attack against international laws and norms under diplomatic cover in a foreign country doesn’t look vicious to him either. Trump’s ‘vicious world’ rhetoric only makes matters worse.

That says why Israel is defending Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as well – despite evidence increasingly showing that the order for Khashoggi’s death came from the highest levels of the Saudi regime. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says: “What happened in the Istanbul consulate was horrendous and it should be duly dealt with. Yet at the same time, I say that it is very important for the stability of the world, of the region and of the world, that Saudi Arabia remain stable.”

In other words, it is because of American weapons and Saudi cash that Israel exists – same thing that forces Trump to admit that Israel couldn’t exist in the Middle East without Saudi help. For Israel, that’s a pretty clear position too:

According to Fars News Agancy, as long as Saudi Arabia is useful, we will look the other way while it dismembers its critics and bombs innocent civilians in Yemen - just like us bombing Gaza. We will also need Saudi support for the American-Zionist goals of creating a regional alliance against Iran, and to ensure Saudi pressure on Palestinians to agree to a peace plan with Israel that doesn’t exist, presided over by President Trump, who just doesn’t care as he has already moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem Al-Quds, the future capital of a Palestinian state.

For this plan to work, both Trump and Netanyahu need to keep MBS at the helm of Saudi Arabia. To destabilize the ambitious autocrat because of an international outrage over a graphic account of an extrajudicial killing doesn’t fit into the plan. Besides, who else is going to waste hundreds of billions of dollars to purchase all those useless American weaponry that we all know are only good to murder doctors, nurses and school children in Yemen?

As it happened, Khashoggi’s political murder was gruesome and well recorded. Both Saudi Arabia and the United States are the reason why the exiled Saudi journalist was throttled, dismembered and probably dissolved in acid in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last month. Turkish intelligence has leaked the faces and names of the 15-man hit squad sent from Riyadh on private jets. Western spooks have listened to audio recordings of Khashoggi’s last excruciating moments. Even after weeks of lies, the Saudi regime has admitted the guilt of its goons. What else needs to be done for President Trump to care and to act?

Or he just doesn’t care? Just as he doesn’t care as the Saudis murder the besieged people of Yemen in breach of International Humanitarian Law. For Trump and the War Party, the US will always remain a “steadfast partner” of Saudi Arabia. The despotic regime is a useful ally against Iran, a guardian of Israel, an oil supplier that can keep prices low, and a splendidly huge buyer of US arms.

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