By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published on November 19, 2018
On October 2, 2018, Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was tortured, murdered, and dismembered by a Saudi Arabian “hit squad” in the Saudi Embassy in Turkey. Initially, the Saudis attempted to cover-up this murder by simply denying it.
After the murder, President Donald J. Trump parroted every explanation the Saudi’s provided for Khashoggi’s murder and found each one of the ever-changing explanations "credible." Trump justifies his enduring passivity in this matter by saying he does not want Khashoggi’s murder to interfere with a multi-billion dollar arms trade deal that is supposedly in the works.
Last week, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally ordered Khashoggi’s murder. Once again, Trump is attempting to discredit the CIA, which is led by his own appointee, and defend the Crown Prince. He has refused to listen to audio tapes the CIA obtained of Khashoggi’s gruesome murder.
Yesterday, Trump defended Saudi Arabia as a “great ally” and insisted that intelligence reports from Turkey, Great Britain, and the CIA on the Crown Prince’s personal role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi are "premature."
Late last month, the Kingdom finally admitted that Khashoggi had been murdered. The Kingdom also admitted that the killers are linked directly to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the son of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner have close business ties to the Kingdom. As such, Trump has refused to take any meaningful action to address Khashoggi's murder case beyond protecting the Crown Prince and Trump’s private business interests in Saudi Arabia, at any and all means necessary.
Furthermore, Trump has a knack for embracing every murderous despot who will meet with him and stroke his oversized ego. He has shown absolutely no disdain for the use of murder as an acceptable political tool.
Nobody inside Trump’s inner circle of White House staff and cabinet members has been able to convince Trump that murder is not an acceptable political tool.
Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia following the arrests of his close friends, and took up residence in America. Since moving to the U.S., Khashoggi has been a U.S. “resident.” He was employed by the Washington Post and actually lived in the country.
Khashoggi was living in the US on the basis of an “O-Visa,” which is a classification of non-immigration temporary worker visa granted by the United States to a foreigner "who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or atheltics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements,” and to certain assistants and immediate family members of such foreigners.
Trump has promised a definitive report on Khashoggi’s murder by mid-week. Washington insiders expect Trump to trash the CIA’s investigative findings in order to save Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince from U.S. sanctions for Khashoggi’s murder.
It is well known that Donald Trump will place his private business interests ahead of America’s national interests whenever the two conflict, even if he has to condone the murder of a U.S. "resident" in the process. After all, the only thing that is sacred in Donald Trump's world is his money.
PHOTO: Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi (left) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (right).
