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Time for Trump to Cut the Prince Loose?
Townhall.com ^ | October 23, 2018 | Pat Puchanan

Posted on 10/23/2018 9:43:17 AM PDT by Kaslin

Was the assassination of JFK by Lee Harvey Oswald still getting as much media coverage three weeks after his death as it did that first week after Nov. 22, 1963? Not as I recall.

Yet, three weeks after his murder, Jamal Khashoggi, who was not a U.S. citizen, was not killed by an American, and died not on U.S. soil but in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, consumes our elite press.

The top two stories in Monday's Washington Post were about the Khashoggi affair. A third, inside, carried the headline, "Trump, who prizes strength, may look weak in hesitance to punish Saudis."

On Sunday, the Post put three Khashoggi stories on Page 1. The Post's lead editorial bashed Trump for his equivocal stance on the killing.

Two of the four columns on the op-ed page demanded that the Saudis rid themselves of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the prime suspect in ordering the execution.

Page 1 of the Outlook section offered an analysis titled, "The Saudis knew they could get away with it. We always let them."

Page 1 of the Metro section featured a story about the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate in Virginia that began thus:

"Corey A. Stewart's impulse to use provocative and evidence-free slurs reached new heights Friday when the Republican nominee for Senate disparaged slain Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi...

"Stewart appears to be moving in lockstep with extremist Republicans and conservative commentators engaging in a whisper campaign to smear Khashoggi and insulate Trump from global rebuke."

This was presented as a news story.

Inside the Business section of Sunday's Post was a major story, "More CEOs quietly withdraw from Saudi conference." Featured was a photo of JP Morgan's Jamie Dimon, who had canceled his appearance.

On the top half of the front page of the Sunday New York Times were three stories about Khashoggi, as were the two top stories on Monday.

The Times' lead editorial Monday called for a U.N. investigation, a cutoff in U.S. arms sales to Riyadh and a signal to the royal house that we regard their crown prince as "toxic."

Why is our prestige press consumed by the murder of a Saudi dissident not one in a thousand Americans had ever heard of?

Answer: Khashoggi had become a contributing columnist to the Post. He was a journalist, an untouchable. The Post and U.S. media are going to teach the House of Saud a lesson: You don't mess with the American press!

Moreover, the preplanned murder implicating the crown prince, with 15 Saudi security agents and an autopsy expert with a bone saw lying in wait at the consulate to kill Khashoggi, carve him up, and flee back to Riyadh the same day, is a terrific story.

Still, what ought not be overlooked here is the political agenda of our establishment media in driving this story as hard as they have for the last three weeks.

Our Beltway elite can smell the blood in the water. They sense that Khashoggi's murder can be used to discredit the Trump presidency, expose the amorality of his foreign policy and sever his ties to patriotic elements of his Middle American constituency.

How so?

First, there are those close personal ties between Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, son of the King, and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of the president of the United States.

Second, there are the past commercial connections between builder Donald Trump, who sold a floor of a Trump building and a yacht to the Saudis when he was in financial straits.

Third, there is the strategic connection. The first foreign trip of the Trump presidency was, at Kushner's urging, to Riyadh to meet the king, and the president has sought to tighten U.S. ties to the Saudis ever since.

Fourth, Trump has celebrated U.S. sales arms to the Saudis as a job-building benefit to America and a way to keep the Saudis as strategic partners in a Mideast coalition against Iran.

Fifth, the leaders of the two wings of Trump's party in the Senate, anti-interventionist Rand Paul and interventionist Lindsey Graham, are already demanding sanctions on Riyadh and an ostracizing of the prince.

As story after story comes out of Riyadh about what happened in that consulate on Oct. 2, each less convincing than the last, the coalition of forces, here and abroad, pressing for sanctions on Saudi Arabia and dumping the prince, grows.

The time may be right for President Trump to cease leading from behind, to step out front, and to say that, while he withheld judgment to give the Saudis every benefit of the doubt, he now believes that the weight of the evidence points conclusively to a plot to kill Jamal Khashoggi.

Hence, he is terminating U.S. military aid for the war in Yemen that Crown Prince Mohammed has been conducting for three years. Win-win.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: houseofsaud; jamalkhashoggi; muslimworld; royals; trumpmiddleeast
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1 posted on 10/23/2018 9:43:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
Stewart appears to be moving in lockstep with extremist Republicans and conservative commentators engaging in a whisper campaign to smear Khashoggi

Pat is slurping the MSM koolaide here. Telling the truth about Khashoggi's ties to the Muslim Brotherhood is hardly a smear.

2 posted on 10/23/2018 9:46:45 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: Kaslin

However you slice it, when you deal with the Saudis, you deal with the devil.


3 posted on 10/23/2018 9:47:05 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Kaslin

Someone’s trying to gin up a game of let’s-you-and-him-fight.

I say we don’t oblige.


4 posted on 10/23/2018 9:47:54 AM PDT by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
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To: mewzilla

And anyone seen the head of Interpol lately...?


5 posted on 10/23/2018 9:48:35 AM PDT by mewzilla (Has the FBI been spying on members of Congress?)
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To: Kaslin

A dead Muslim Brotherhood jihadi dying overseas absolutely deserves...a yawn, and nothing more.

Let the sheep bleat.


6 posted on 10/23/2018 9:48:56 AM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: Kaslin

Does Vietnam still execute peopleM w/o trial?
How about Pakistan?
Russia?
Nigeria?
Mexico?
Many others?

Do we still do business with them? Yes.

This Saudi dustup is actually business as usual for them. It’s just that, now, Saudi has become a symbol of Trump’s diplomatic success and a possible solution to some longstanding problems in the Middle East. So the Left must make it a cause celebre.


7 posted on 10/23/2018 9:50:45 AM PDT by Migraine
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To: Kaslin

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia did not kill this guy. The government did. And they tried to hide it. And they lied about it. Not sure if our government would do the same thing. I bet our government does it all the time. Maybe the difference is that this guy was supposed to be protected. It may have been Bezos who thought he was protecting him.

We know Israel has hit squads. We have seen them at work. We know that the US government flies drones over people we don’t like and blow them away including their family. So the difference here seems to be that this guy had more friends than MBS has. Other countries take out journalists all the time. Mexico has a bad record, as does Russia and China. Do people really think Saudi’s are better?


8 posted on 10/23/2018 9:56:44 AM PDT by poinq
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To: Kaslin
It's news only because Trump isn't reacting the way the Left wants.
Under 0bama, it wouldn't have mattered.

9 posted on 10/23/2018 9:56:50 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: PGR88
Same with the Turks, and same with the Muslim Brotherhood.
There is no good guy, and no cause for involvement.

Every POS who wants to be involved in this, let them go.

With no exceptions, the people who want someone else outside of those three involve are themselves personally invested in either The Muslim Brotherhood, The Saudis, Or The Turks.

With the American Press, we watched them fawn over Valerie Jarrett and Huma Abedin for years, so we know its The Muslim Brotherhood.

For any others who wish US involvement it is the appropriate reaction to first relentlessly press them as to which of the three factions they are supporting as a prerequisite to further discussion. Because it matters, and they are personally supporting one of the three.

10 posted on 10/23/2018 9:58:11 AM PDT by MrEdd (Caveat Emptor)
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To: Kaslin

No surprise, Dincons, Never Trumpers and the clown Left all busy running around the Net being willing stooges for anIranian/Russian propaganda ploy

Note for the poltical Moron squad, NO ONE CARES that a terrorist mouth piece got wasted.


11 posted on 10/23/2018 10:00:58 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (They would have to abandon leftism to achieve sanity. Freeper Olog-hai)
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To: Kaslin

This is where I get off the boat with Pat Buchanan. He throws around “the Saudis” like there’s no difference between the Saudi government, any random Saudi rich guy, the Saudi opposition, Saudi religious leaders, etc., etc. I believe that we know 1% of what’s going on here, but Trump knows 100, so I’m rolling with whatever he wants to do at this point. One thing I do know is that there are lots of rough characters out there in the world.


12 posted on 10/23/2018 10:01:15 AM PDT by Behind the Blue Wall
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To: poinq

Turkey has murdered /imprisoned over 300 journalists. But of course, he a radical Islamist so they look the other way on his thuggery


13 posted on 10/23/2018 10:02:16 AM PDT by MNJohnnie (They would have to abandon leftism to achieve sanity. Freeper Olog-hai)
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To: Kaslin

Today, I am reading that the Turks have found body parts in the Saudi Consul’s front yard.

Can I get a WTF? How could the Sauds be so careless?

This seems too fishy and makes one wonder if this was some Turkish false flag all along.


14 posted on 10/23/2018 10:06:15 AM PDT by sevlex
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To: Kaslin

It would be incredibly stupid to cut loose the most reformist Saudi leader in decades over killing this reporter. The world is an imperfect place. The Saudis did something they shouldn’t have done. Apologize and move on to something more productive like the Prince fighting radical Islam in his own country.


15 posted on 10/23/2018 10:09:09 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: Kaslin

Two Central American armies now march on our southern border:

BUT WAIT..! Something MORE important..!

A single muzzie/SOMETIMES scribbler got waxed in some sh*thole on the other side of planet Earf.

—> BEAM ME UP <—


16 posted on 10/23/2018 10:10:27 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: BitWielder1

Under Ohaha, if it had happened in our Embassy he would have been out of touch and unmoved by it.


17 posted on 10/23/2018 10:14:01 AM PDT by Mouton (The media is the enemy of the people.)
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To: PGR88

Yet they are better than Iran, who want nukes to kill millions.
Trump should slow this down and wait it out. There is no need to do anything immediately.

This is all ginned up by the DNC Media to attack Trump as revenge for the stupid Iran deal that he viciously trashed. Obama was either naive or a subversive to push that Iran deal, and Trump spiked the ball on it. The left is still hurting from Trumps righteous beat down, and therefore will do anything to destroy Trumps progress in the middle east.

They want to make Trump look bad even if it threatens America.


18 posted on 10/23/2018 10:17:54 AM PDT by Titus-Maximus (The trouble with socialism is that you soon run out of other people's zoo animals to eat.)
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To: PGR88

Kinda like what we did when we dealt with the Ruskies during WWII


19 posted on 10/23/2018 10:19:11 AM PDT by ontap
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To: Kaslin

I just can’t get upset about some Saudi dictator killing some Saudi Islamofascist in the juhadist hellhole known as Turkey. I keep trying to be upset, but I just can’t get past not caring


20 posted on 10/23/2018 10:20:51 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory.)
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