10-12-2018, 04:38 AM
To me, the connections between 'Team Trump' and the Saudis is more insidious that those they had with the Russians. In both cases, I think for Trump it is only 'business interests' that steer him - not geopolitics....however, for the Russians, Saudis and others it is geopolitics and not profit motivating them. Something is going to 'give' soon and I think the current President is going to have to resign and certainly will not run again in 2020. That said, Trump never was the problem per se, he is only a symptom of the rot of the Republic and if not seen and fixed [and MAJOR, M A J O R changes would need to be changed to even begin to fix it], this is the new normal we have been drifting toward after WWII and with big shifts on 11.22.63 and 09.11.01 etc......
As to the below article, it is true that the Khashoggi mincemeat affair was horrible in the extreme, the USA and many other countries have secretly or more covertly done the same or similar to perceived opponents. Few big nations and even some small ones have clean hands on such things. However, that does not excuse the Saudis at all.....
As to the below article, it is true that the Khashoggi mincemeat affair was horrible in the extreme, the USA and many other countries have secretly or more covertly done the same or similar to perceived opponents. Few big nations and even some small ones have clean hands on such things. However, that does not excuse the Saudis at all.....
Quote:Kushner urged Saudi prince to weather the storm' after Khashoggi killing: New York Times
A 'bromance' form of diplomacy.
SAM FULWOOD III DEC 9, 2018, 12:03 PM
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WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER JARED KUSHNER ON THE LEFT AND SAUDI CROWN PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN CREDIT: FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/GETTY IMAGESIn what can best be described as an unseemly cozy consultation, Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior advisor on the Middle East, reportedly advised the besieged Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "to weather the storm" that followed the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who wrote for The Washington Post, was killed on October 2, and his body destroyed by Saudi agents, the newspaper reported following accounts given to it by two former senior American officials and two people brief by the Saudis.
His murder set off an international firestorm after intelligence agencies in the United States and around the globe said mounting evidence pointed to the prince as the person who ordered the killing.
Meanwhile, the newspaper said, Kushner became Salman's most important defender inside the White House, helping to persuade the president to avoid criticizing the Saudis for any direct role in the murder.
According to Saturday's editions of The New York Times, citing former White House officials and others briefed by the Saudi royal court, Kushner exchanged private, first-name emails with Mohammed in the days before and after news broke of Khashoggi's death.
[URL="https://thinkprogress.org/jared-kushner-mbs-saudi-arabia-story-khashoggi-fe581bdbbc3e/"]
Kushner dodges questions about Saudi Arabia's account of Khashoggi's death
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The newspaper said Kushner "has offered the crown prince advice about how to weather the storm" in the wake of the killing and to "resolve his conflicts around the [Mideast] region and avoid further embarrassments."
During the immediate aftermath of the Khashoggi murder, Kushner stood by Mohammed and declined to criticize Saudi officials for what increasingly appeared to be their involvement in the matter.
"I'd say that right now, as an administration, we're more in the fact-finding phase," Kushner said at a CNN event after being told of Saudi admission that Khashoggi had been killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul and 18 people had been arrested in connection with his death. "Once we have all the facts, we'll make an assessment."
At the time, Kushner's explanation didn't conform with earlier reporting about the case, including alleged intelligence provided by Turkey that Khashoggi's body was dismembered with a bone saw and removed from the consulate.
In a detailed article, reporters David D. Kirkpatrick, Ben Hubbard, Mark Landler, and Mark Mazzetti, trace how Kushner and Mohammed developed their close ties, noting that Saudi Arabia saw Kushner as a viable, impressionable target to get close to the White House. The reporters describe the Saudi effort as the "courtship" of Kushner, going back to the early days of the Trump administration.
Martin Indyk, a former Middle East envoy and current Council on Foreign Relations, told The New York Times that the "bromance" between the two men "constitutes the foundation of the Trump policy not just toward Saudi Arabia but toward the" entire Middle East."
At the very least, the private conversations between the two represents an off-the-book, back-door form of diplomacy that is as furtive as it is secretive.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass