President Joe Biden will visit Saudi Arabia sometime this summer. High oil prices during an election year means the President has to set aside his concerns over the 2018 murder of U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi in a Saudi consulate. Saudi dissidents "don’t understand this kind of dealing, or compromises, on American values, on human rights values."
Saudi dissidents may wish to consider that Trump's CIA Chief Gina Haspel observed the waterboarding of a Saudi national.
Testimony at a hearing last month in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, included a revelation about the former CIA director’s long and secretive career. James E. Mitchell, a psychologist who helped develop the agency’s interrogation program, testified that the chief of base at the time, whom he referred to as Z9A in accordance with court rules, watched while he and a teammate subjected al-Nashiri to “enhanced interrogation” that included waterboarding at the black site.
Z9A is the code name used in court for Haspel.
The U.S. charged Japanese soldiers for waterboarding a U.S. citizen in 1947.
In 1947, the U.S. charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian. Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.
Haspel has not been charged in a crime. She currently advises private equity chieftans on how to garner outsized profits in a complex global environment.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner started Affinity Partners and landed a $2 billion investment from a Saudi fund chaired by the murderous Crown Prince.
Enough of America's ruling elite prize the use of violence to achieve their greedy aims. There is never enough power or money. They believe the means justify the ends.
For citizens expecting accountability, it's been a several decade long slog. I don't expect it anytime soon.
Update 6-6-22: The Shark went
name calling golfers who chose not to affiliate with a Saudi backed
golf tour. Greg Norman called Jack Nicklaus a "hypocrite" and.Rory
McIlory "brainwashed".
Greg Norman, the public face of the breakaway LIV Golf series (sponsored by Saudi Crown Prince MBS' Public Investment Fund), says the executives and agents who currently run golf “are conspiring against LIV to protect an antiquated system that prevents golfers from realizing their own power and worth amid a global movement of athlete empowerment.”
As for antiquated social systems in Saudi Arabia that don't involve the murder of a U.S. journalist:
Reports emerged that the women activists who pressed for the policy change had been arrested and imprisoned. As of this morning, 13 are reported to have been arrested; most are women. Apart from the driving issue, they have campaigned against so-called guardianship rules which require Saudi women to receive permission from a male relative before making many life decisions, like traveling.
Update 6-11-22: The fiance of Jamal Khashoggi is horribly upset about the prospect of President Joe Biden meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince.
Update 6-14-22: The Biden trip to Saudi Arabia to meet with the Crown Prince will occur in mid-July.
Update 10-24-22: The Crown Prince mocked President Biden according to the WSJ.
Update 10-26-22: Crown Prince prefers Insane Red Team.
Biden aides believed they'd reached an agreement with the Saudis to increase oil production until December. Instead of handing Biden a much-needed political win, the crown prince abandoned the deal.
Update 10-27-22: Saudi Crown Prince seeks to humiliate President Biden. That's a very poor ally. The Prince intends to increase ties with nondemocratic China and Putin's Russia.
Update 11-2-22: Saudi surveillance, intimidation and pursuit of Saudis on U.S. soil have intensified as the kingdom steps up repression under its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Update 11-18-22: The Blue Lucys plan to shield the Saudi Crown Prince from a U.S. civil suit filed by the widow of WaPo journalist Jamaal Khashoggi.
Update 11-19-22: A former top State Department advisor called the move to protect the Saudi Crown Prince a bad strategy and is "carrying MBS's water."Update 12-6-22: The U.S. court case against the Crown Prince was dismissed under the guise of sovereign immunity, something the Prince did not have at the time of the execution. The judge said his hands were tied by the Biden administration's recommendation to the court. Thugs win.
Update 2-6-23: U.S. tech giants plan to invest nearly $10 billion in Saudi Arabia. Will that make it easier for the Crown Prince to imprison citizens for social media comments?
Update 5-5-23: Biden will dispatch top aide Jake Sullivan to Saudi Arabia for meetings this Saturday.
Update 5-6-23: The Saudi government plans to execute three tribesmen who protested against the new mega-city Neom. The three resisted forced evictions.
Update 9-10-23: President Biden shook hands with the Crown Prince at the G20 meeting in India.
