US senators introduce resolution blaming MBS for Khashoggi murder

[T-Rex]

US senators introduce resolution blaming MBS for Khashoggi murder
Bipartisan group of senators introduces measure saying Saudi crown prince is 'complicit' in the killing of journalist.

The resolution urges the US government to hold the crown prince accountable for a number of actions [Sergio Moraes/Reuters]

Six top US senators from across party lines have introduced a scathing resolution to hold the Saudi crown prince accountable for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi more than two months ago.

The proposal, which was introduced on Wednesday, says the Senate "has a high level of confidence" that Mohammed bin Salman "was complicit in the murder".

If approved by the Senate, it would officially condemn Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS, for the killing of Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul in October.

"This resolution - without equivocation - definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardising our national security interests on multiple fronts," Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator and close ally of President Donald Trump, said in a statement.

The move by the US senators came as Istanbul's chief prosecutor filed warrants for the arrest of a top aide to MBS and the deputy head of the kingdom's foreign intelligence on suspicion of planning the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince.

Saudi Arabia has said the crown prince had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh later admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate and his body dismembered after negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.

Yemen war, GCC rift
The strongly-worded resolution also holds MBS accountable for alleged atrocities committed during the war in Yemen, which Saudi Arabia entered in 2015 through a massive bombing campaign.

OPINION

Torture, reform and women's rights in Saudi Arabia

by Hana Al-Khamri
Since then, the US-backed Saudi-UAE alliance has launched more than 18,000 air raids, part of a war which has killed tens of thousands of civilians.

The senators urged the kingdom to negotiate directly with representatives of the Houthi rebels to end the war in Yemen.

The resolution also called on Saudi Arabia to end a blockade imposed by itself and three other Arab states on Qatar in June last year and seek a political solution in the worst diplomatic rift to have struck the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

The bipartisan group of senators also wants the release of blogger Raif Badawi, women's rights activists and other political prisoners held in Saudi Arabia.

'Destabilising actions'
Their move came a day after some senators said there is "zero chance" MBS was not involved in Khashoggi's murder following a closed-door briefing by CIA Director Gina Haspel.

Tuesday's briefing came a week after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis had told senators that there was no hard evidence MBS was behind the killing and urged senators not to downgrade ties with Saudi Arabia over the incident. The CIA has reportedly assessed, however, that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of Khashoggi.

Trump has repeatedly avoided any assertion that Prince Mohammed was involved in the October 2 killing and said the CIA had "feelings" the royal was culpable but not a firm conviction.

Commenting on the senators' resolution, Nabeel Khoury, a former US diplomat and deputy chief of mission in Yemen, said the Senate is starting to see MBS as a destabilising influence.

"Trump has lost the debate with Congress on what should be done about the Khashoggi murder and while he was out with Mattis and Pompeo arguing about the value of Saudi Arabia, what Congress is telling him is, 'No one is contesting that, what we're contesting is the direction the Saudi policy has taken under MBS'," he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

"They have now linked all the destabilising actions that MBS has taken, starting with Yemen, passing by the Khashoggi murder onto Qatar and even Lebanon.

"The administration will have to act behind the scenes maybe to pressure Saudi Arabia into some kind of acceptable corrective force or this is going to get worse - in the end, Congress, especially the House, controls the purse strings and can eventually force the administration's hands."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...ing-mbs-khashoggi-murder-181206035658278.html

 

[Dexon]

dream is collapsing for mbs!...

 

[T-Rex]

If MBS goes I hope he takes down MBZ with him. They belong to each other.

 

[PeaceGen]

Well i'm glad not all Americans are abandoning the principle of supporting freedom of speech and all that goes with it (sharp satire + criticism + youtube + facebook these days).

However..

MBS has shown a real willingness to increase personal liberties in his country, by for instance allowing women to drive cars.

MBS and the rest of the male Saudi leadership, are in my opinion well-suited and well-equipped to guide their country and their people through this transition. And it'll probably never be as free or as western as some people like it to be. Or at least not for about a hundred years or so. The west itself took literally centuries to grant voting rights to our women over here.

These people getting targetted by MBS and his security services, i doubt their integrity and/or wisdom somehow.
If MBS ignores them, which i suspect he did for years, they get sharper in their satire, crossing the line into the territory of attacking the reputation and authority to lead instead of providing polite commentary on what could be done better by the Saudi leadership.

China, Russia, they're not much different when it comes to free speech.
And as a staunch advocate of constructive free speech, i must say that not all free speech can be tolerated by all people.

Highlighting only the wrongs of someone or a people or a leadership, can be considered a serious and dangerous verbal attack on that person or people or leadership.

So if you're going to criticize a leadership like the Saudi's, the Russians', or the Chinese's, or the Phillipine leadership, etc, etc,
then make sure you
(A) don't cross the line into hate-mongering through any means
(B) don't expose their most embarassing secrets[1]


[1] The Russian journalist who reported in Russian in Russia how the Russian government sent hundreds of mercenaries to their deaths in a true test of what the "average" American military base is capable of these days,
was found thrown off his own balcony, dead, a few weeks later.
I don't remember where i read about this, and i don't have the link to that page-12 news-report anymore, but as a fan of free speech i want free speech activists around the world to know about such dynamics, and i repeat this here to prevent such killings of people like that Russian journalist and Kashoggi in the future, because i do believe that a lot of people who make it their life mission to criticize governments, go about that mission in slightly stupid and reality-ignoring, deadly, ways.

 

[T-Rex]

Well i'm glad not all Americans are abandoning the principle of supporting freedom of speech and all that goes with it (sharp satire + criticism + youtube + facebook these days).

However..

MBS has shown a real willingness to increase personal liberties in his country, by for instance allowing women to drive cars.

MBS and the rest of the male Saudi leadership, are in my opinion well-suited and well-equipped to guide their country and their people through this transition. And it'll probably never be as free or as western as some people like it to be. Or at least not for about a hundred years or so. The west itself took literally centuries to grant voting rights to our women over here.

These people getting targetted by MBS and his security services, i doubt their integrity and/or wisdom somehow.
If MBS ignores them, which i suspect he did for years, they get sharper in their satire, crossing the line into the territory of attacking the reputation and authority to lead instead of providing polite commentary on what could be done better by the Saudi leadership.

China, Russia, they're not much different when it comes to free speech.
And as a staunch advocate of constructive free speech, i must say that not all free speech can be tolerated by all people.

Highlighting only the wrongs of someone or a people or a leadership, can be considered a serious and dangerous verbal attack on that person or people or leadership.

So if you're going to criticize a leadership like the Saudi's, the Russians', or the Chinese's, or the Phillipine leadership, etc, etc,
then make sure you
(A) don't cross the line into hate-mongering through any means
(B) don't expose their most embarassing secrets[1]


[1] The Russian journalist who reported in Russian in Russia how the Russian government sent hundreds of mercenaries to their deaths in a true test of what the "average" American military base is capable of these days,
was found thrown off his own balcony, dead, a few weeks later.
I don't remember where i read about this, and i don't have the link to that page-12 news-report anymore, but as a fan of free speech i want free speech activists around the world to know about such dynamics, and i repeat this here to prevent such killings of people like that Russian journalist and Kashoggi in the future, because i do believe that a lot of people who make it their life mission to criticize governments, go about that mission in slightly stupid and reality-ignoring, deadly, ways.

MBS is a terror kingpin that's the plain fact. He is above the law and he makes it very clear to all. People who support him should ask those 15 assassins how they are getting along with their boss right now. This is what happens to his supporters when he gets caught in his acts.

 

[PeaceGen]

MBS is a terror kingpin that's the plain fact. He is above the law and he makes it very clear to all. People who support him should ask those 15 assassins how they are getting along with their boss right now. This is what happens to his supporters when he gets caught in his acts.

that's standard in all black-ops : get caught, and you're on your own and we'll deny you ever worked for us in the first place.

 

[T-Rex]

that's standard in all black-ops : get caught, and you're on your own and we'll deny you ever worked for us in the first place.

Yes, it works out fine in 'James Bond' movies but real life is a bit more complicated. If it was so easy the US senators would not find MBS guilty.

 

[PeaceGen]

Yes, it works out fine in 'James Bond' movies but real life is a bit more complicated. If it was so easy the US senators would not find MBS guilty.

I suppose you're right. That russian chick who tried to infiltrate US politics via the US NRA (gun-lobby org), she got backed-up big-time by Moscow

 

[Sanchez]

US senators introduce resolution blaming MBS for Khashoggi murder
Bipartisan group of senators introduces measure saying Saudi crown prince is 'complicit' in the killing of journalist.

The resolution urges the US government to hold the crown prince accountable for a number of actions [Sergio Moraes/Reuters]

Six top US senators from across party lines have introduced a scathing resolution to hold the Saudi crown prince accountable for the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi more than two months ago.

The proposal, which was introduced on Wednesday, says the Senate "has a high level of confidence" that Mohammed bin Salman "was complicit in the murder".

If approved by the Senate, it would officially condemn Prince Mohammed, also known as MBS, for the killing of Khashoggi in the kingdom's consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul in October.

"This resolution - without equivocation - definitively states that the crown prince of Saudi Arabia was complicit in the murder of Mr Khashoggi and has been a wrecking ball to the region jeopardising our national security interests on multiple fronts," Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator and close ally of President Donald Trump, said in a statement.

The move by the US senators came as Istanbul's chief prosecutor filed warrants for the arrest of a top aide to MBS and the deputy head of the kingdom's foreign intelligence on suspicion of planning the killing of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist and a critic of the crown prince.

Saudi Arabia has said the crown prince had no prior knowledge of the murder. After offering numerous contradictory explanations, Riyadh later admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate and his body dismembered after negotiations to persuade him to return to Saudi Arabia failed.

Yemen war, GCC rift
The strongly-worded resolution also holds MBS accountable for alleged atrocities committed during the war in Yemen, which Saudi Arabia entered in 2015 through a massive bombing campaign.

OPINION

Torture, reform and women's rights in Saudi Arabia

by Hana Al-Khamri
Since then, the US-backed Saudi-UAE alliance has launched more than 18,000 air raids, part of a war which has killed tens of thousands of civilians.

The senators urged the kingdom to negotiate directly with representatives of the Houthi rebels to end the war in Yemen.

The resolution also called on Saudi Arabia to end a blockade imposed by itself and three other Arab states on Qatar in June last year and seek a political solution in the worst diplomatic rift to have struck the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

The bipartisan group of senators also wants the release of blogger Raif Badawi, women's rights activists and other political prisoners held in Saudi Arabia.

'Destabilising actions'
Their move came a day after some senators said there is "zero chance" MBS was not involved in Khashoggi's murder following a closed-door briefing by CIA Director Gina Haspel.

Tuesday's briefing came a week after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence James Mattis had told senators that there was no hard evidence MBS was behind the killing and urged senators not to downgrade ties with Saudi Arabia over the incident. The CIA has reportedly assessed, however, that Prince Mohammed ordered the killing of Khashoggi.

Trump has repeatedly avoided any assertion that Prince Mohammed was involved in the October 2 killing and said the CIA had "feelings" the royal was culpable but not a firm conviction.

Commenting on the senators' resolution, Nabeel Khoury, a former US diplomat and deputy chief of mission in Yemen, said the Senate is starting to see MBS as a destabilising influence.

"Trump has lost the debate with Congress on what should be done about the Khashoggi murder and while he was out with Mattis and Pompeo arguing about the value of Saudi Arabia, what Congress is telling him is, 'No one is contesting that, what we're contesting is the direction the Saudi policy has taken under MBS'," he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.

"They have now linked all the destabilising actions that MBS has taken, starting with Yemen, passing by the Khashoggi murder onto Qatar and even Lebanon.

"The administration will have to act behind the scenes maybe to pressure Saudi Arabia into some kind of acceptable corrective force or this is going to get worse - in the end, Congress, especially the House, controls the purse strings and can eventually force the administration's hands."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018...ing-mbs-khashoggi-murder-181206035658278.html

Is this devil murderer a commie or muslims? @UKBengali @Mage

 

[Cobra Arbok]

Spoiler Alert: Nothing will happen

 

[T-Rex]

Is this devil murderer a commie or muslims? @UKBengali @Mage

He surely enjoys the support of your CCP in all his crimes. I won't be surprised if he is invited to join the CCP.

 

[Lone Ranger]

mbs is not going anywhere so calm down n enjoy the show