Tag: Mohammed bin Salman

Trump joked about Jamal Khashoggi’s grisly murder in phone calls to Saudi prince: report

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Former president Donald Trump cracked a joke about the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi operatives, according to a new report.

The October 2018 murder of the U.S.-based journalist set off a crisis inside the White House, and Trump personally called Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father King Salman seeking answers about the slaying in Turkey, reported Yahoo’s “Conspiracyland” podcast.

“The president had multiple calls with MBS and with King Salman, specifically asking them, did you know anything about this?” said Kirsten Fontenrose, then the director of Gulf affairs at the National Security Council. “The president would flat-out ask, I mean, up to a dozen times on any individual phone call, whether it was with King Salman or with MBS or both of them, ‘Did you have any knowledge of this operation?’ ‘Did you know this was going to happen?’ ‘Did you give this order?'” Continue reading.

U.S. releases report finding Saudi prince approved Khashoggi operation

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Driving the news: The White House also announced sanctions on entities implicated in the murder, though not on MBS directly. Officials also announced a new “Khashoggi ban” under which individuals accused of harassing journalists or dissidents outside their borders can be barred from entering the U.S. 

Why it matters: The grisly October 2018 murder of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul sparked worldwide outrage and calls for the U.S. to fundamentally reevaluate its relationship with the Gulf kingdom.

  • Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines pledged in her Senate confirmation hearing to comply with a law passed by Congress in 2019 that required ODNI to release the names of the Saudi officials believed to be responsible or complicit in Khashoggi’s killing within 30 days. Continue reading.

Trump says he is ‘very angry’ over murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi but again defends Saudi crown prince in the case

Washington Post logoOSAKA, Japan — President Trump on Saturday professed to be “very angry” over the murder last year of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at a Saudi consulate, but the president again declined to pin responsibility on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom he called “my friend.”

Trump said nothing about Khashoggi at a photo op Salman before their meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit here, ignoring shouted questions about the matter from reporters. In brief remarks, Trump called it a “great honor” to be with the crown prince and noted that “Saudi Arabia is a good purchaser of American products.” Salman returned the compliment.

But asked at a news conference later in the day whether he raised the issue with Salman privately, Trump said Riyadh has prosecuted “13 people” in connection with Khashoggi’s death and suggested more prosecutions were coming.

View the complete June 28 article by david Nakamura and Seung Min Kim on The Washington Post website here.

Trump jets to Japan to wing it at G-20 summit as Iran tensions build

Official unable to lay out agenda for high-stakes meetings with Xi, Putin and MBS

After a week of brinksmanship and backing down, President Donald Trump  heads to a G-20 summit in Japan on Wednesday for talks with other world leaders amid a volatile confrontation with Iran and stalled trade talks with China.

Senior administration officials made clear this week that Trump, who admits his negotiating style is based on gut feelings and big bets, will largely wing it at the meeting. Officials declined to describe any set agenda for the president’s talks with world leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putinand South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

The Xi and Moon meetings will focus on trade and North Korea’s nuclear arms program. But on both matters, a senior administration official contended, “I don’t think the president is feeling any pressure on either of those accounts.”

View the complete June 25 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

U.N. investigator calls for probing Saudi officials in Khashoggi killing

Suspicions over the role of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the coldblooded murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi returned to the spotlight Wednesday, as a special U.N. investigator called for a criminal investigation of high-level Saudi officials.

Agnes Callamard, a human rights expert who is a special rapporteur for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, released a 101-page report on her months-long inquiry into Khashoggi’s death last year at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Callamard faulted the United States and other countries for not exerting more pressure on Saudi Arabia despite “credible evidence” that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was likely involved in some way. She called for sanctioning and freezing the prince’s assets until he is either cleared or implicated by a U.N. investigation.

View the complete June 19 article by Carol Morello and Kareem Fahim on The Washington Post website here.

Exclusive: Jared Kushner on MBS, refugees, racism and Trump’s legacy

Discussing the horrific death of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in an interview with “Axios on HBO,” White House adviser Jared Kushner was noncommittal on whether Saudi Crown Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) must account for Khashoggi’s body.

Kushner said he’s still waiting for results of a U.S. investigation to assign blame, even though the CIA reportedly determined with a high degree of confidence that MBS ordered the murder, and the U.S. Senate unanimously declared that he was responsible.

Why it matters: Kushner, who shares the president’s view that Saudi Arabia is a crucial partner to counter Iran, has formed a close relationship with MBS and helped promote him as a great reformer. We see here that even eight months after Khashoggi’s death in a Saudi consulate, the White House still refuses to publicly hold the Saudi leader accountable.

View the complete June 2 article by Jonathan Swan on the Axios website here.

Saudi Arabia ‘had access’ to Jeff Bezos’ phone: Investigator drops bombshell allegation against the Middle East kingdom

 

Renowned celebrity private investigator Gavin De Becker “concluded with high confidence” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had access to the cell phone of Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.

In a new column published by The Daily Beast, De Becker laid out what he learned in his investigation into how the Nationale (sic) Enquirer published salacious details of Bezos’ private life.

“Our investigators and several experts concluded with high confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos’ phone, and gained private information,” De Becker wrote. “We did not reach our conclusions lightly.”

View the complete March 31 article by Bob Brigham of Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Saudi Arabia’s anti-dissident death squad wants a bonus — and Donald Trump is silent

A new report reveals that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman kept his anti-dissident death squad so busy in 2018 that its members requested bonuses.

This is one of many revelations about the extent of Prince Mohammed’s use of the hit squad reported Monday by the New York Times. According to the article, Mohammed’s alleged ordering of the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October was only one part of a larger campaign to silence dissidents. Dubbed the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group by American officials, the group is believed to have been involved in at least a dozen violent campaigns starting in 2017. Their actions ranged from forcibly repatriating Saudi Arabians who had fled to other countries to torturing prisoners in palaces owned by Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman. On one occasion, a university professor who had written about the status of women in Saudi Arabia attempted suicide due to the extreme psychological torture she had experienced.

Although in theory Saudi Arabian law prohibits torture, that apparently hasn’t dissuaded the prince known around the world as MBS from allegedly ordering and endorsing the practice. Yet the prince’s power may now be diminishing, according to a recent report by the Guardian. MBS has not been involved in recent important ministerial and diplomatic meetings over the past two weeks, that article reports, and has also lost some of his authority over financial and economic matters. While this diminution of his power may only be temporary, it is nevertheless significant given that he had been seen as the dominant figure in the Saudi monarchy.

View the March 18 article by Matthew Rozsa with Salon on the AlterNet website here.