Khashoggi, Kushner, Trump

[GMDino]

(10-12-2018, 09:09 PM)Dill Wrote: Can't believe no one has started a thread on this. Perhaps it has been introduced on another and I've missed it.

Turkish Officials Say Khashoggi Was Killed on Order of Saudi Leadership
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/world/europe/jamal-khashoggi-turkey-saudi-arabia.html?action=click&module=inline&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

Lured to the Saudi Embassy, tortured and killed, body chopped up and "disappeared"?  (If the Turks are to be beleived.)  

Anyway, the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi is startling and not without implications for U.S.-Saudi relations.

It is possible that MBS is a "reformer" who doesn't shy from Saddam-style repression of the press, regardless of who his friends are.

It could also be that after plentiful signals that the U.S. does not interfere in its friends' internal matters--as did that do-good busybody Obama--and after plentiful signals that contracts "trump" everything else, the Prince believed he had a green light from the U.S. to off an "enemy of the people."

Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/us/politics/jamal-khashoggi-disappearance-kushner.html

Mr. Kushner championed Prince Mohammed, 33, when the prince was jockeying to be his father’s heir; had dinner with him in Washington and Riyadh, the Saudi capital; promoted a $110 billion weapons sale to his military; and once even hoped that the future king would put a Saudi stamp of approval on his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

[MSB] may be less the risk-taking reformer the Trump family eagerly embraced than a reckless, untested ruler, who critics say has been emboldened by his ties to the Trumps to take heavy-handed actions at home and abroad.

American intelligence agencies have collected communications intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a plan to lure Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him, according to a former senior American official.

Saudi Crown Prince Boasted That Jared Kushner Was “In His Pocket”
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/21/jared-kushner-saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman/

The Donald doesn't think this flap should interfere with the claimed 110 billinion arms deal.
5 key moments in the Jared Kushner-Saudi Prince Mohammed bromance
https://www.jta.org/2018/10/12/news-opinion/5-key-moments-in-the-jared-kushner-saudi-prince-mohammed-bromance

“I don’t like stopping massive amounts of money that’s being poured into our country on — I know they’re talking about different kinds of sanctions,” he said Thursday, referring to moves in Congress to sanction Saudi Arabia, “but they’re spending $110 billion on military equipment and on things that create jobs, like jobs and others, for this country.”

I hadn't heard any connection to Kushner but I did hear Trump say he's worried they will take their money elsewhere if he does too much.

Which kind of flies in the face of the recent comments about how Trump has "proven to the world that he backs up his threats".