Thursday, October 11, 2018

LIKE OBAMA AND CLINTON, TRUMP GOES PUSSY FOR SAUDIS WHO MURDERED JOURNALIST JAMAL KHASHOGGI - The Saudi dictators were not worried!

Washington Post: Turkey has proof Saudi writer was killed



Washington Post: Turkey has proof Saudi writer was killed
The Associated Press
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s government has told U.S. officials it has audio and video proof that missing Saudi Arabian writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the Washington Post reported Friday.
The newspaper, for which Khashoggi is a columnist, cited anonymous officials as saying the recordings show a Saudi security team detained the writer when he went to the consulate on Oct. 2 to pick up a document for his upcoming wedding.
The Associated Press was not immediately able to confirm the report, and Turkish officials would not comment.
A delegation from Saudi Arabia arrived in Turkey Friday as part of an investigation into the writer’s disappearance, Turkey’s state-run news agency Anadolu said.
Saudi Arabia has called the allegation it abducted or harmed Khashoggi “baseless.” However, it has offered no evidence to support its claim he left the consulate and vanished despite his fiance waiting outside.
Anadolu Agency said the delegation would hold talks with Turkish officials over the weekend. It did not provide further details.
On Thursday, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Turkey and Saudi Arabia would form a “joint working group” to look into Khashoggi’s disappearance.
The 59-year-old journalist, who was considered close to the Saudi royal family, had became a critic of the current government and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 33-year-old heir apparent who has introduced reforms but shown little tolerance for criticism.
Khashoggi had been living in self-imposed exile in the United States since last year. As a contributor to the Washington Post, he has written extensively about Saudi Arabia, including criticism of its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women’s rights activists after the lifting of a ban on women driving.
Those policies are all seen as initiatives of the crown prince, who has also presided over a roundup of activists and businessmen.

Trump defends arms sales to Saudi Arabia as senators push for kingdom to be sanctioned over missing journalist feared to have been chopped up by its agents

  • In the Oval Office President Trump said the U.S. could not miss out on $110 billion in military equipment sales
  • Some senators are already pushing for sanctions on the country and say the suspected death of Jamal Khashoggi bolsters their case
  • Washington Post columnist Khashoggi was a long-term critic of the Saudi regime and has not been seen since entering its Istanbul consulate last week
  • Turkish police fear he was killed, chopped up and his remains smuggled out of the country by a 15-strong team of Saudi agents who flew in for just a day
  • Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has cultivated close ties with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman 
President Donald Trump defended continuing huge sales of U.S. weapons to Saudi Arabia on Thursday despite rising pressure from lawmakers to punish the kingdom over the disappearance of a Saudi journalist who lived in the United States and is now feared dead.
As senators pushed for sanctions under a human rights law and also questioned American support for the Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen, Trump appeared reluctant to rock the boat in a relationship that has been key to his strategy in the Middle East. He said withholding sales would hurt the U.S. economy.
'I don't like stopping massive amounts of money that's been pouring into our country. They are spending 110 billion on military equipment,' Trump said, referring to proposed sales announced in May 2017 when he went to Saudi Arabia in the first overseas trip of his presidency. He warned that the Saudis could instead buy from Russia or China.
Trump maintained that the U.S. is being 'very tough' as it looks into the case of Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi leadership and a contributor to The Washington Post who has been missing since Oct. 2. 
He had entered a Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul to get marriage paperwork as his fiancee waited outside and hasn't been seen since.
No go: 'I don't like stopping massive amounts of money that's been pouring into our country. They are spending 110 billion on military equipment,' Trump said as he rejected sanctions over the suspected state-ordered murder of Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi's Istanbul consulate
No go: 'I don't like stopping massive amounts of money that's been pouring into our country. They are spending 110 billion on military equipment,' Trump said as he rejected sanctions over the suspected state-ordered murder of Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi's Istanbul consulate
 No go: 'I don't like stopping massive amounts of money that's been pouring into our country. They are spending 110 billion on military equipment,' Trump said as he rejected sanctions over the suspected state-ordered murder of Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi's Istanbul consulate
Deal maker: Trump's son in law Jared Kushner struck up a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Trump welcomed him to the Oval Office in March to discuss arms sales 
Deal maker: Trump's son in law Jared Kushner struck up a close relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Trump welcomed him to the Oval Office in March to discuss arms sales 
Turkish officials say they fear Saudi Arabia killed and dismembered Khashoggi but have offered no evidence beyond video footage of the journalist entering the consulate and the arrival in the country of what they describe as a 15-member Saudi team that allegedly targeted him. Saudi Arabia has denied the allegation as 'baseless.'
In Istanbul, Turkish media said that Saudi royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert had been part of the team flown in and targeting Khashoggi. 
Those reported details, along with comments from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, appeared aimed at gradually pressuring Saudi Arabia to reveal what happened while also balancing a need to maintain Saudi investments in Turkey and relations on other issues.
Trump, questioned by reporters at the White House, said, 'If it turns out to be as bad as it might be, there are certainly other ways of handling this situation' besides canceling arms sales. He did not elaborate.
He said earlier on 'Fox & Friends' that 'we have investigators over there and we're working with Turkey' and with Saudi Arabia on the case, but he provided no evidence or elaboration.
Meanwhile, there was a clear and growing disconnect between many in Congress, who want tougher action, and the president.
Even before Khashoggi's disappearance, lawmakers had soured on a Saudi government they view as having a high-handed attitude. Some have been incredulous at its denials of wrongdoing and contention it has no recorded video footage from the consulate showing Khashoggi, who had been living in self-exile in Virginia for the past year.
'There's a sense of entitlement, I hate to use the word, arrogance, that comes with dealing with them,' said Sen. Bob Corker, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 'Part of that may be that they have an incredibly close relationship with the administration.'
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy voiced doubt there would be support in Congress to approve another arms sale to Saudi Arabia - although lawmakers haven't blocked sales before. 
He also called for at least a temporary halt in U.S. military support for the Saudi bombing campaign against Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen.
If Saudi Arabia is not telling the truth about Khashoggi, he told reporters, 'why would we believe them that they are not intentionally hitting civilians inside Yemen?' 
Murphy was among seven senators who wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday raising concerns over last month's certification that a Saudi-led coalition was taking actions to protect civilians despite what the lawmakers described as a dramatic increase in deaths.
The Trump administration, however, is heavily invested in the long-standing, U.S. relationship with Riyadh. with...
Secrets inside: A security guard checks on the entrance of Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul. Saudi royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert were part of a 15-member team from the kingdom that targeted missing writer Jamal Khashoggi
Eye of the storm: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who posed inside his plane with journalists traveling with him from a state visit to Hungary, has stepped up pressure on Saudi Arabia for answers to what happened to Jamal Khashoggi
Eye of the storm: Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who posed inside his plane with journalists traveling with him from a state visit to Hungary, has stepped up pressure on Saudi Arabia for answers to what happened to Jamal Khashoggi
It relies on Saudi support for its Middle East effort to counter Iranian influence and fight extremism. 
Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has cultivated close ties with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and was instrumental in last year's $110 billion arms package.
Those associations could become a political liability if Prince Mohammed is implicated in Khashoggi's disappearance. 
The Washington Post, citing anonymous American officials it said were familiar with U.S. intelligence, said the crown prince had previously ordered an operation to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and detain him. 
The Associated Press could not confirm that report, but a U.S.-based friend of Khashoggi said the journalist had told him he had received a call from an adviser to the Saudi royal court in late May or early June urging him to return to his homeland.
Khaled Saffuri said the adviser, Saud al-Qahtani, told Khashoggi 'that the crown prince wants him back and said you are our son, you are loyal, the crown prince would like you to come and be his adviser, stuff like that.'
Saffuri said he asked Khashoggi if he would return. 'He said: 'Are you crazy? I don't trust him for a minute.''
In Turkey on Thursday, a spokesman for President Erdogan told the state-run Anadolu Agency that Turkey and Saudi Arabia would form a 'joint working group' to look into the journalist's disappearance.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. was traveling to Saudi Arabia, and that the U.S. expects him to provide information about the Khashoggi case when he returns. She added that the U.S. had not requested the ambassador, Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, to leave.

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