Even as the scandal surrounding Saudi Arabia’s role in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi threatened one of the US’s most important strategic alliances in the Middle East, Defense Secretary James Mattis remained conspicuously tight lipped about who bore responsibility for the killing, saying only that diplomatic crisis undermined stability in the region.
Well, one day after President Trump declared that the CIA could still very well determine that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman didn’t know anything about the killing – despite Friday’s Washington Post report claiming that the agency strongly believed that the order to kill Khashoggi came directly from the prince – Mattis defended his boss during a Pentagon press conference, saying that neither the CIA nor the Saudi government have “fully established” who was behind the killing. And even if the CIA could find definitive proof, it wouldn’t change the fact that it’s in the US’s interest to work with the Saudis.
Because presidents don’t always get to work with “unblemished” strategic partners, Mattis said. Furthermore, it’s the president’s duty to balance competing interests, and that Khashoggi’s killers must be held accountable – but that the US must also work with the kingdom to end the humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
The Saudis have the death penalty for all sorts of Sharia crimes we wouldn’t bat an eye at.
Like adultery….more foreign female workers are killed annually by the Saudis for this than Saudi citizens.
Like witchcraft (sorcery) which is the reason a few foreign workers are beheaded annually.
Like thought crimes (often called “encouraging terrorism) which leads to the death of Saudi royal family political opponents once in a while.
Like “apostasy,” which can be disagreeing with the Saudi official version of Islam, like in Khashoggi’s case. Khashoggi wanted enough freedom of the press to allow the POV of the Muslim Brotherhood freely expressed in print in the Kingdom.
That’s a no-no.
Yeah.
They KILL you for that.
Just because he stayed outside the actual Kingdom didn’t free him of the execution.
As soon as he was on “Saudi soil” they executed him.
Perfectly within their own laws and rights.
Since when do we expect all our “allies” to agree with us on all our laws?
We don’t even do that inside the USA!
The left operates on what they WANT to be the truth, then they promote it as if it WERE true. Maybe he ordered it, maybe he didn’t, but what if he did? Trump has imposed some sanctions and should deliver a strongly worded condemnation. This guy wasn’t the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, you know… he was some radical Islamic instigator that wrote columns.
Trump is acting calmly and without emotion and it drives the left nuts. They are DYING for him to do something stupid so they can pounce on it with MORE whining.
Based on the head-up-trump’s-ass excuses and kowtowing from FA, what possible difference could that make?