The Saudis have finally changed their story – they do not deny that Kashoggi was killed at the Consulate in Turkey, but say that it was merely an accident, due to a fist fight. And Donald Trump finds the story “credible,” in his capacity as apologist for Mohammad Bin Salman.
The Times’s Max Fisher writes a long article rationalizing the indifference of Western elites to the Yemeni slaughter by Saudi Arabia by saying that it’s much easier to relate to the death of one person, Jamal Khashoggi. Yes except that the Times had no problem relating to faceless victims when it’s Putin and Assad. Thus is propaganda justified.
Israel lobbyists Josh Block and EJ Kimball smear missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a terrorist. That’s because Israel and Saudi Arabia are now allied against Iran, evidently seeking an American-led war against the country, and all the attention to the writer’s rubout is throwing a wrench in the works.
Getting Americans to be honest about our war crimes is like pulling teeth. After leaving the Yemen war completely out of his book on foreign policy, Obama aide Ben Rhodes finally admits “We were wrong” to trust the Saudis by supplying them with arms for their onslaught on Yemeni civilians. Of course he blames Trump for being even worse.
Over the past week or so, Saudi Arabia has gotten more U.S. mainstream media coverage than at any time in decades. But conspicuously missing has been any reporting on the kingdom’s growing friendship with Israel — a de facto alliance that may help explain why Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman thought he could get away with ordering the murder of the dissident journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
Thank god for NYT columnist Tom Friedman for blurting out the elites’ real view of the Middle East: the likely murder of his Saudi friend Jamal Khashoggi was worse than the Saudi-perpetrated Yemen genocide. And PS, his newspaper was sponsoring a conference in Saudi Arabia.
The disappearance and probable murder of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi is the biggest Mideast development in a long time, and once again the U.S. mainstream media is ignoring or downplaying key elements of the story.
Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown Prince highly praised as a “reformer,” must now answer for the suspected murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. NYT columnist Tom Friedman slathered “MBS” with praise less than a year ago, surely in part because of the Crown Prince’s unspoken alliance with Israel against Iran.
In two separate incidents, groups of Israeli Jews celebrating Purim assaulted Palestinians, +972 Magazine reports.