Posted on 11/28/2022 1:18:27 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder
The Biden administration has determined that Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, should be granted immunity in a case brought against him by the fiancée of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, whom the administration has said was murdered at the prince’s direction.
A court filing was made by Justice Department lawyers at the request of the State Department because bin Salman was recently made the Saudi prime minister and as a result, qualifies for immunity as a foreign head of government, the request said. It was filed late Thursday night, just before the court’s deadline for the Justice Department to give its views in court on the immunity question and other arguments the prince made for having the lawsuit dismissed.
“Mohammed bin Salman, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, is the sitting head of government and, accordingly, is immune from this suit,” the filing reads, while calling the murder “heinous.”
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The decision has already drawn an angry reaction. Amnesty International, an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, said Friday that the US government “should hang its head in shame. This is nothing more than a sickening, total, deep betrayal.”
The White House had hoped the July trip by President Joe Biden to Saudi Arabia would get the rocky US-Saudi relationship back on track but since then, relations have only continued to sour.
The relationship is being reevaluated, the White House has said, in the wake of an oil production cut by Saudi-led OPEC+ that the administration saw as a direct affront to the US. Members of Congress, already infuriated by the oil cut and calling for a reevaluation, will likely only be angered further if the prince is given immunity.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
No quid pro quo here, that's for sure.
Not our business.
If you’re the Saudi Crown Prince how much could you care that CornPop and the US decided you’re immune. Of course, you’re immune.
You could damn near cripple the world in a week. Giving a damn about Khashoggi. Biden, et al certainly ain’t high on the list of anything
Khashoggi was no friend of the U.S.
Just FYI.
Exactly.
And for once, can a talking head announce that he was NOT a US citizen.
And, if I’m not mistaken, his family fortune came from his dad being a big time arms dealer. A legit arms dealer. Supplying wars and revolutions type of arms dealer.
Like most things, the US intelligence community were probably deeply involved in this business, from the start.
Its of course impossible to verify, but if Khashoggi was a "journalist" for Washington Post - to me, its a sign he connected to some three-letter IC agency in Washington (not to mention his connections to UAE)
Maybe MBS threatened to make it all public. Anyway, I suspect now maybe DC insiders want this case to go away.
Agreed.
Still referring to Khashoggi as a Wash Post journalist....that’s funny! I think it has been 10 years since he contributed anything to the Post.
Why is the US justice system pursuing a case of a foreign agent (he was not American nor a journalist by virtue of planting Qatari propo in the WashPo) ……executed by his own govt for the act of treason vs that govt….an execution committed in the sovereign territory ( embassy) of yet another foreign govt?
Enough.
The check for Joe’s 10% must have cleared the offshore account.
So if I were another prince, I wouldn’t be tried?l like Prince Andrew?
I agree, it’s not our business, but in all likelihood, there is a quid prop quo going on for KSA to “reconsider” its recent production cuts.
The Saudi’s kill a lot of their own citizens. It’s a brutal part of the world, some of them probably earned a brutal early deaths (terrorists) and some didn’t (dissidents). The only thing that makes Khashoggi different is that he was a journalist who published in the Washington Post. That makes his death the only outrageous and tragic one of all those many, many murders the Saudis commit on their own citizens.
Manuel Noriega was a head of state. It sometimes doesn’t matter.
Good things happen when The Big Guy gets his 10%
PLease...we really really need more oil.
Still using a US court
To sue the ruler of Saudi Arabia
oh do shutup...
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