Trump lies

[Admin]

The great fudge is beginning..

US President Donald Trump has suggested "rogue killers" could be behind the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey. Speaking to reporters after a phone call with King Salman, he said the Saudi leader had firmly denied knowing what had happened to Mr Khashoggi. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is flying to Saudi Arabia immediately. Saudi and Turkish investigators are due to search the Saudi consulate where Mr Khashoggi was last seen. Turkish officials believe Mr Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate by Saudi agents nearly two weeks ago but Riyadh has always strongly denied this. The issue has strained Saudi Arabia's ties with its closest Western allies.

Jamal Khashoggi: Trump suggests 'rogue killers' to blame - BBC News

Rogue killers, yea right..

• Khashoggi entered the Embassy and he never left
  
• The Saudi's gave their non-Saudi employees the day off that day
  
• The Saudi's argued that their security camera's don't record (when asked for a recording of Khashoggi actually leaving the embassy)..
  
• His fiancee waited for 10-12 hours outside.
  
• There were curious black vans entering and leaving the embassy and going to the Ambassador's residence.
  
• The Turks are still not allowed to enter the Embassy, how much time do they need to clean the trail..
  

This is all nonsense. They killed the guy inside the Embassy and thought they could get away with it because their buddy Trump argues that the Press is the Enemy of the People..

[Admin]

Trump on Tuesday said Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman had denied any knowledge of Khashoggi’s fate, a statement that for the second day in a row sent the signal that the president is comfortable with the Saudi government’s explanations so far.  “Just spoke with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia who totally denied any knowledge of what took place in their Turkish Consulate,” Trump wrote on Twitter. He added that the crown prince had told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that his government would rapidly expand an investigation and that answers would be “forthcoming.” Later, Trump said in an interview with The Associated Press that blaming Saudi Arabia for Khashoggi’s disappearance is another example of “guilty until proven innocent,” an allusion to sexual misconduct allegations made last month against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Saudi mystery drives wedge between Trump, GOP | TheHill

The US’s defence of its most important Arab ally may become harder to maintain as further details of Khashoggi’s alleged murder emerge and its links to the powerful crown prince. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that four of the men identified by Turkish media as part of a 15-man hit squad sent from Riyadh to silence Khashoggi were members of Bin Salman’s personal security detail. Another, Tubaigy, holds a senior position in the Saudi interior ministry. The suspects’ direct links to the Saudi establishment weaken the suggestion made by Trump that the alleged murder could have been carried out by “rogue killers” in an unauthorised operation.

Jamal Khashoggi: gory reports of killing emerge as Pompeo meets Erdoğan | World news | The Guardian

Rogue killers, yea right. 

• Entering an Embassy, torturing and killing a guy while others were present ("just keep on working!").
  
• The non Saudi employees were given a day off.
  
• Many of the 15 people involved that were in and out in a couple of hours have been identified and have close ties to Bin Salman.
  
• They denied that the journalist was killed for weeks, argued that he had walked out of the Embassy alive..
  
• Where is the body?
  

Etc. etc.

Another Trump whitewash..

[Admin]

Hardly surprising..

“For the record, I have no financial interests in Saudi Arabia (or Russia, for that matter),” Trump said. “Any suggestion that I have is just more FAKE NEWS (of which there is plenty)!” This is not true — as a Fox News-affiliated Twitter account quickly pointed out. Fox News Research, a research group for the Fox News media company, published a rebuttal tweet less than an hour after the president’s remarks, delineating a history of Trump’s transactions with the Saudis that date to the early 1990s.

Fox News Research

✔@FoxNewsResearch

Trump & Saudi Business:
•1991: Sold yacht to Saudi Prince
•2001: Sold 45th floor of Trump World Tower to Saudis
•Jun 2015: I love the Saudis...many in Trump Tower
•Aug 2015: "They buy apartments from me...Spend $40M-$50M"
•2017: Saudi lobbyists spent $270K at Trump DC hotel
11:10 AM - Oct 16, 2018

Trump tweeted he has no ties to Saudi Arabia. A Fox News account proved him wrong. - Vox

And this is just what is known..

[Admin]

In the light of all the above, should the following be surprising? 

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday that the Trump administration is restricting access to information about a missing Saudi journalist, a move that comes as President Trump has publicly echoed denials of wrongdoing from top Saudi officials.  Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Washington Post that the administration had "clamped down" on sharing intelligence about Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government who has been missing for more than two weeks. “I can only surmise that probably the intel is not painting a pretty picture as it relates to Saudi Arabia,” Corker told The Post.

Corker: Trump administration 'clamped down' on Saudi intel, canceled briefing | TheHill

And Corker is no Democrat..

[Admin]

LOL

Who would have thought it would be Donald Trump to introduce a soft liberal attitude towards Islamic extremism? But we should give him credit for having the grace to change his mind. Because now he’s been presented with evidence the Saudis killed someone mildly critical of their regime, instead of making the usual speech about “never backing down before these evil murderers” and banning all Muslims from entering America, he’s modified his response to, “Oh well, I expect they couldn’t help it.”

Despite there being alleged tapes suggesting Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Trump has stayed as friendly as ever with the Saudi prince, and if he was shown film of the Saudis executing Khashoggi, he’d probably say, “Well, let’s not jump to conclusions. We haven’t seen what he did to irritate them.” After the disappearance, his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, was filmed laughing with the Saudi king, so the Trump regime seems to have adopted a pacifist “kindliness” approach towards violent forms of Islam. 

When asked if he was “giving the Saudis cover”, Trump said, “Saudi Arabia has been a very important ally of ours in the Middle East. Together we are stopping Iran.” And you can see what he means, because you can’t afford to get upset with dictatorships that kill their opponents when you need them in your moral battle against regimes so awful that they kill their opponents.

Who's to say it wasn't the Belgians who are responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance? Let's not jump to conclusions | The Independent

An American Secretary of State tells the world that he doesn’t want to talk about facts. Instead, as Mike Pompeo informed reporters, when they asked him if the Saudis had confirmed whether Jamal Khashoggi was dead or alive, Pompeo replied: “I don’t want to talk about any of the facts. They didn’t want to either, in that they want to have the opportunity to complete this investigation in a thorough way.”

Mike Pompeo's response to the Jamal Khashoggi case sums up Donald Trump's entire approach to foreign policy | The Independent

Of course, as the facts are rather inconvenient, and yea, let the murderers complete their own "investigation"..

[Admin]

The spin is on..

US officials are putting sustained pressure on Mohammed bin Salman to blame one of his favoured generals – the deputy head of Saudi intelligence – for the presumed death of Jamal Khashoggi, a move the Trump administration believes could allow both Washington and Riyadh a way out of the escalating crisis.

Jamal Khashoggi: Saudi prince under pressure to blame general | World news | The Guardian

But nobody is buying this, not even the most staunchest of allies:

A former head of MI6 has said all the evidence suggests Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and that the theory that rogue elements in the Saudi military were responsible was “blatant fiction”. Sir John Sawers told the BBC his assessment was based on conversations with senior Whitehall sources and his knowledge of the Turkish intelligence services... He said the “rogue elements” theory of Khashoggi’s death“simply doesn’t hold water” and that it“further undermines respect for America when it panders to such a blatant fiction”.

Evidence suggests crown prince ordered Khashoggi killing, says ex-MI6 chief | World news | The Guardian

[Admin]

The Saudis now claim the journalist dead was all an accident:

• A struggle broke out when the journalist entered the embassy and the journalist died from a chokehold as a result
  
• They've arrested 15 people some very close to the crown prince
  
• The crown prince himself is going to lead the investigation (sic!)
  

LOL:

President Trump on Friday night called Saudi Arabia's explanation for the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi credible and said that the arrests of more than a dozen Saudi nationals were "a good first step." "It's a big step. There's a lot of people involved," Trump said while speaking during a roundtable with top defense contractors in Arizona. Trump added that "Saudi Arabia has been a great ally, but what happened is unacceptable."  When asked if he found the Saudi's explanation credible, Trump responded, "I do."

Trump calls Saudi explanation for journalist's death credible, arrests 'good first step' | TheHill

He simply does not want to confront MBS (Mohammed Bin Salman, the crown prince and de-facto ruler). We have a few simple questions:

• Why did the Saudi's insist that Khashoggi (the murdered journalist) left the embassy unharmed?
  
• Why did they wait two weeks to come up with this?
  
• Where is his body?
  
• Why was a forensic expert with a bone saw flown in? 
  
• Why did they fly in a hit squad of 15 men for a couple of hours?
  
• Why did they send all the non-Saudi employees of the embassy home that day?
  
• How is it possible that people so close to MBS risk a stunt like this without the explicit support of MBS, given his track record? 
  

Etc. etc.

[Admin]

Not that we didn't know MBS before the Khashoggi killing..

While the crown prince has sought to cast himself as a reformer, there have for years been evidence of a darker side to him: the Saudis were involved in the mysterious disappearance of the Lebanese prime minister (he later reappeared) and rounded up and imprisoned hundreds of influential businessman and members of the royal family last year. MBS is overseeing a war in Yemen and a diplomatic blockade of Qatar and this year has engaged in an ongoing spat with Canada. The Trump administration, however, seems to like him..

Twitter, McKinsey were complicit in helping Saudi Arabia silence critics, NYT report shows - Vox

Read about the Canada 'spat', it's an incredible story (and disturbingly Canada received no support from the US).

[Admin]

Amazing again..

President Trump acknowledged late Saturday that Saudi Arabia has not been forthcoming in its explanation of what happened to journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but indicated that he does not believe Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a direct role in the dissident's killing. "There is a possibility he found out about it afterward. It could be something in the building went badly awry. It could be that's when he found about it," Trump told The Washington Post in an interview. He also indicated he expects more information to come out about Khashoggi's death and left open the possibility the crown prince was responsible. “Nobody has told me he’s responsible," Trump told the Post of the crown prince. "Nobody has told me he’s not responsible. We haven’t reached that point ... I would love if he wasn’t responsible.”

Trump: 'I would love' if Saudi crown prince wasn't responsible in Khashoggi killing | TheHill

Even if he wasn't responsible, which is entirely implausible but anyway, he is responsible for:

• A disastrous war in Yemen creating one of the biggest human catastrophes.
  
• Many other human rights violations in his own country.
  
• Keeping the Prime Minister of Libanon a prisoner for weeks
  
• The diplomatic blockade of Qatar
  
• Vilifying Canada because its Minister had the temerity to question his human rights record
  

For details see previous entry..

[Admin]

How is this for tone deaf?

Saudi Arabia's crown prince, the man suspected of ordering the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, could not understand why the Saudi journalist's disappearance was such a big deal, The Wall Street Journal reported. Mohammed bin Salman was shocked to see Khashoggi's disappearance in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul provoke such international outrage, and he called the White House adviser Jared Kushner to ask why, the paper said. Citing unnamed people who recently interacted with the prince, The Journal said Crown Prince Mohammed became angry that the episode had turned into a diplomatic crisis.

Crown Prince Mohammed called Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and Middle East adviser, on October 10, The Journal said, eight days after Khashoggi disappeared. Crown Prince Mohammed asked in English what the outrage was about, the report said, citing two people who were briefed on the conversation.

Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman didn't get Khashoggi outrage: report - Business Insider

Yea, in his world, killing journalists is basically routine.