The U.S. continues to support the dictatorship of Saudi Arabia—as a key ally—even after the horrific murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the horrendous five-year bombing campaign on Yemen, writes Ann Wright.
By Ann Wright
in Istanbul
Special to Consortium News
Killing is not new for Saudi Arabia. While the world’s media has been focused on the horrific murder and dismemberment of Saudi defector Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul the Saudi’s horrendous five-year bombing campaign on Yemen has been overshadowed.
This bombing has killed over 16,000 people, destroyed water and sewage infrastructure, left one million people with cholera and created a naval blockade that has starved 13 million of the most vulnerable: children and the elderly. The United States facilitates the bombing by selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, refueling Saudi bombers and providing intelligence reportedly to decrease the number of civilian casualties, which it appears it has not done.
Outside the Crime Scene
On Oct. 13, just after midnight, after the closing ceremonies of the conference I was attending in Istanbul, I travelled to the Saudi Consulate to stand in vigil for the disappearance and, believed at that time to be the probable murder of Khashoggi. I was also there to acknowledge the catastrophic Saudi war on Yemen and U.S. complicity in that war.
The barricades set up by police were shining in the lights from the street lamps and from the spotlight that the Saudi Consulate had outside its now-infamous front door.
No Istanbul police nor consulate security guards were visible. The street was eerily silent. Barricades blocked traffic. “POLIS” signs hung on the barricades. None of the daytime activity from domestic and international television crews or print journalists was happening. The Saudi consul-general’s home, next door to the consulate (where it has now been reported Khashoggi’s body may be buried), was dark.
The author in Istanbul. (Ann Wright)
New friends from Istanbul whom I met at the conference, accompanied me. They had been to many vigils at the consulate in the past 10 days.
As we stood at the barricades, lights from a car in an alley flashed on, and several men emerged. I thought that we were going to have some sort of interaction with consulate guards or Istanbul police, but when TV cameras followed the men out of the car, we realized they were journalists. They said they have a 24-hour stakeout on the door of the consulate.
The journalists became interested that I was a former U.S. diplomat and asked my opinion of what was happening. I told them that I knew what the journalists were reporting about the disappearance of Khashoggi.
However, I mentioned violent actions have been associated with diplomatic facilities in the past. U.S. government personnel assigned to U.S. embassies, or using a U.S. embassy as diplomatic cover, had been a part of rendition, torture and deaths of people the U.S. alleged were part of terrorist activities after Sept. 11, 2001. Six days after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush signed a covert memorandum that authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to seize, detain and interrogate suspected terrorists around the world.
The CIA Connection
U.S. Embassy personnel arranged for the flights of U.S. government or private aircraft to pick persons up from one country and “render” them to other countries where they were tortured in “black sites.” Recently, a citizen’s commission in North Carolina published its report, “Torture Flights: North Carolina’s Role in the CIA Rendition and Torture Program,” that documented the use of private, U.S.-government contracted jet aircraft owned by Aero Contractors. Their flights originated from small, private airports in North Carolina with destinations all over the world to deliver alleged suspects. The report says the CIA abducted and imprisoned at least 119 individuals before the practice was officially ended and repudiated by Presidential executive order in 2009 during the Obama administration.
According to the report:
Many of the prisoners were taken to CIA “black sites,” where they experienced beatings, prolonged stress positions, temperature extremes, long-term isolation, various water tortures, mock executions and sexual abuse. In violation of international law, the CIA transported some prisoners to foreign custody where they were subject to torture and abuse. Kidnapping, torture and secret detention occurred without respect for victims’ innocence or guilt and absent any legal process for them to contact their abductions.
One of the U.S. government employees who was deeply involved in the rendition and torture during this period was CIA station chief Gina Haspel, now the director of the CIA. She flew to Istanbul on Oct. 22 ominously to represent the Trump administration during the Turkish investigation into the death of Khashoggi.
A few days before she arrived, on Oct. 19, the Saudi government finally acknowledged that Khashoggi died in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, claiming his death was the result of a fight that broke out between him and the 15 Saudi government officials, including four members of the Royal Guard and members of the Saudi Air Force and Army, who had flown into Istanbul on Oct. 2 and who left later in the day.
The audio that the Turkish government says it has includes recorded cries of Khashoggi as he was dismembered while still alive. The audio, which has not be released, reportedly captured the words of Salah Muhammad A. Tubaigy, chief of forensic evidence in the security division of the Saudi interior ministry, who was cutting him apart. He supposedly heard to tell the others in the room, the consul’s study, to “Put on earphones and listen to music.”
The latest information leaking from the Turkish government indicates that the dismemberment of Khashoggi was filmed and Skyped to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s senior aide, Saud al-Qahtani, who has since been reportedly sacked from his position. Al-Qahtani was reportedly Mohammad bin Salman’s right-hand adviser/enforcer in the kidnapping and interrogation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and of the detention and shakedown of many wealthy Saudi elite in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh.
Other than offering mild condolences to Jamal Khashoggi’s family, the Trump administration has slowly indicated concern about what happened in the Saudi diplomatic compound. But in a recent campaign stop, Trump applauded the actions of an official who “body-slammed” a journalist, and recall that in a Feb. 17, 2017, tweet, President Trump called the media “the enemy of the people.”
Journalists I spoke with in Istanbul cited President Trump’s comments on the U.S. press as one of the causes of the impunity of authoritarian governments to jail critical journalists, though such arrests certainly predate Trump’s presidency. Turkey has had more imprisoned journalists than any other country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Istanbul is filled with journalists who are exiled from their countries for their views on authoritarian regimes—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen. Journalists that I spoke with in Istanbul are fearful that the authoritarian governments from which they fled may attempt to silence their dissent by violent means such as the Saudi government used against Jamal Khashoggi.
Turkey’s Inconsistencies
Istanbul lets Middle Eastern-exiled journalists report from Turkey, but it is ironic that since the failed coups in July 2016, the Turkish government has jailed more than 150 Turkish journalists on charges of terrorism offenses for articles or social media posts. President Erdogan’s administration has shut down more than 180 media outlets, putting around 2,500 journalists and media workers out of work. On the World Press Freedom index, Turkey is 157 out of 180 countries. Of all the imprisoned journalists worldwide, one-third are in Turkish prisons.
Erdogan and Bush in 2008. (Chris Greenberg / White House)
The Committee to Protect Journalists states that worldwide in 2018, 44 journalists have been killed. In 2017, 262 journalists disappeared, and 61 are missing globally. From 1992 to 2018, 1,323 journalists have been killed.
Some members of the U.S. Congress are calling for the Trump administration to distance itself from the Saudi regime due to the murder of Khashoggi and take serious steps, including stopping weapons sales and sanctions. Little connection is made to the horrific number of deaths in Yemen from Saudi and U.S. bombings, with the exception of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ reintroduction of Senate Joint Resolution 54, which calls for the end of refueling and intelligence sharing after Congress reconvenes (and hundreds more Yemenis have been killed).
As the Saudi regime murders in its own country, its diplomatic missions in Turkey and through its proxy militias in Syria, Iraq, and other countries, the U.S. wrongly continues to support this dictatorship—as a key ally of the United States.
Ann Wright served 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves and retired as a colonel. She was also a U.S. diplomat and was in U.S. embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the U.S. government in March 2003 in opposition to the lies the Bush administration was stating as the rationale for the invasion, occupation and destruction of Iraq. She is the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”
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It never ceases to amaze me, there is almost always an air of astonishment when journalists, and others, recount the horrors of the CIA, how could they possibly be associated with horrors such as Saudi atrocities ?? Doesn’t anyone realize the CIA is nothing more or less than the dreaded Gestapo, of NAZI infamy ?????? They are one and the same, since the end of WW2, when they immediately transported thousands of NAZIS to various countries all through South and Central America. Set up NAZI governments, all CIA financed and backed, complete with death squads etc etc etc etc, .. . . . . . . . . It took years of bloody guerilla wars to cleanse those countries of the scum. And now its all starting over again, Venezuella, Argentina, Honduras, Guatamala, now Brazil……. How many “migrants” are required before the world acknowledges that millions of African peoples have been bombed back to the stone age, their places of worship destroyed, schools, markets, infrastructure, agriculture, all destroyed. By whom??????? Why, by the same NAZIS all over again. The people of Germany were defeated during the second World War, but the NAZIS weren’t, they now live in a country called the US of A…….
Excellent article, and this world has gone to hell if we are going to continue to support the Saudis and I am sickened by it. Thank you for writing this article, and unfortunately I need to say ‘stay safe’ too. Journalists are the bravest people and thank you so much Ann Wright!!
No More War
The Democratic party, which for the last 30 years has been the Clinton party, married the neoconservatives. The very same PNAC war profiteers who were Bush buddies. Notice how Dubya is all of a sudden getting hugs from the Obamas? There you go.
Hillary is one of them. Warmongers.
https://opensociet.org/2018/09/30/the-pax-americana-utopia-a-liberal-world-order-by-robert-kagan/
Trump has no ideology except for “Me.” He’ll do whatever gets himself social status. Therefore, although Trump is not a neoconservative, he’ll let them run the show. Bolton, Pompeo, the list of villians and henchmen is endless.
Trump didn’t drain the swamp or lock her up, he let them multiply like bacteria and take over the refrigerator. Botulism. Black plague.
Trump, Hillary, Obama, Bush, at the end of the day it’s irrelevant. They’re all murderers. Legalized murder is America’s number one export. War profiteering off murder tech and brown people.
https://theintercept.com/2017/07/17/with-new-d-c-policy-group-dems-continue-to-rehabilitate-and-unify-with-bush-era-neocons/
“The Free World” is what they used to call our allies. I don’t hear the term used so much any more, but it included countries where they sawed up people while still alive.
“Killing is not new for Saudi Arabia”. What about the US? Under both Dem and Rep presidents, the US has destroyed the lives of millions. Yet we’re being told that if we don’t vote Dem we might lose our medicare or social security, as if the murdering of millions of innocent men, women and children isn’t an issue. If Charles Manson promised to protect your entitlements would you vote for him?
https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2016/10/24/hillarys-war-crime/
I don’t know why anyone should be surprised by our abetting the crimes of Saudi Arabia. The US is the most vicious terrorist nation on Earth. Get used to that reality – it explains all our behavior as a nation. Trump only makes our Mafia Government more obvious. Greed and unlimited violence are our trademarks.
Ms. Ann Wright — “As the Saudi regime murders in its own country, its diplomatic missions in Turkey and through its proxy militias in Syria, Iraq, and other countries, the U.S. wrongly continues to support this dictatorship—as a key ally of the United States.”
Thank You, and may God continue to bless you for your many past, and now current endeavor to shine a piercing light of Truth upon the virulent character of United States foreign policy.
As relates to the Trump statement (paraphrased) that $$110 Billion of weapons sales meant more to him than a pursuit of justice on behalf of the victim of a grotesque and diabolical murder, admittedly committed by the weapon purchasers speaks, in a thunderous volume, of a very flagrant decadence and degeneracy of very basic Human Values. (“The love of money is the Root of all Evil”)
— President Trump is, above-all-else, a self-decieved and invidious scoundrel — who will one day find himself “hoisted on his own petard” of arrogant self-worth, self-aggranding bigotry and self-appointing of Place. There’s not a hint of ambiguous obscurity in Trump’s purpose, he’s All About Money, Power, and Fame , — , with No Thought / Or Concern for the Well Being of HUMANITY.
In that particular Vein/ or, line of reasoning, Trump is the polar opposite of, say, Jimmy Carter. …
==========================================================================
Now these are the last words of David.
2 Samuel 23:1-4
Thus says David the son of Jesse;
Thus says the man raised up on high,
The anointed of the God of Jacob,
And the sweet psalmist of Israel:
“The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me,
And His word was on my tongue.
The God of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me:
‘He who rules over men must be just,
Ruling in the fear of God.
They appear to have issues. A comment I made and several others are not visible
Evidently, when you post, you get to see everything….
Yes, you get to see what is going on briefly. Then it goes away.
I have no idea how many comments there really are or who can see what. It changes for me and assume it does for everyone else. Sometimes 7 comments, sometimes 4, sometimes 2. Right now I can see 27 but the number will change as soon as I squint hard…
Israeli surveillance software ‘Pegasus’ tracked in 45 countries. — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HaHXwcz9Y
TERRIFIC piece, Ann. You surely have a knack for being where the action is, for reporting on it, AND for having done the kind of homework that enables you to include hard facts not readily available elsewhere.
These days, “Special to Consortium News” has come to mean even more than it used to. Yours is a piece to emulate.
Thanks.
Ray
The problem with comments and articles disappearing and then reappearing is unprecedented here at CN. I believe it began when they shut down the comments for the John Kiriakou article early because of a troublesome commenter. I think this site has been hacked, and they need an IT person to look into it and fix it. I watched the number of comments posted for different article off and on all day yesterday, and the numbers remained constant. No one posted anything all day? I doubt it. CN needs to let us know they are working on a fix or they will lose supporters, including me.
On the deaths inflicted in Yemen by Saudi Arabia, Patrick Cockburn offers a convincing argument that the number is five times larger than what we typically read:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/yemen-war-death-toll-saudi-arabia-allies-how-many-killed-responsibility-a8603326.html
Stalin was an ally, the Shah was an ally, Saddam was an ally, and of course the Sauds. Something about a name starting with S
Yes, but it is all about world empire.
Nothing better illustrates the actual nature of America abroad than the friends and allies that it keeps.
Some truly disgusting people, but they are useful to Washington’s power establishment.
When America goes after a “tyrant” it is only because he does not toe the policy line or he has shown some independence of mind in some matter of consequence. That isn’t allowed.
In many cases, America actually effectively grants licenses to kill to favored governments. In Central America. In Saudi Arabia. In Egypt. In Israel. And other places.
I truly think the average American still does not understand this and believes his country stands for principles internationally of human and democratic rights.
Nothing could be further from the truth. It’s like believing an old sobby Jimmy Stewart movie reflects real life rather than melodramatic fantasy.
And as I often stress, there is absolutely no difference between Republicans and Democrats in this. None.
They are only separated by rhetoric about domestic social issues, and it is just rhetoric because there’s no real will or resources left after the efforts at empire for doing anything decent for the citizens.
Yes, O. I posted after you and I can’tsee mine even though I could see it earlier.
I can’t help but compare Mr. Khashoggi with the Skripals. In the case of the Skripals, Russia was instantly blamed, no evidence was ever produced (sorry, but CCTV imagery of a couple of guys walking down the street isn’t evidence of anything more than a couple of guys walking down the street. Bellingcat’s claim to have IDed them as a couple GRU types is interesting since they got that from MI6. Bellingcat is immediately suspect since they’ve clearly taken on the role of mouthpiece for MI6 propaganda and eye witness identifications are notoriously unreliable. Britain has been unwilling to share their evidence with Russia (just as they did in the Litvinko case) yet NATO countries all kicked Russian counselor officers out of their countries and the US and the UK are trying to get sanctions imposed over Skripal. All on no evidence. And no Skripals since Britain has disappeared them and won’t even let any of their relatives into Britain to see them.
Mr. Khashoggi’s death, on the other hand, has been traced straight to Saudi Arabia. Turkey has been sharing the information and evidence that they have collected with Saudi and anybody else as far as I know. They’ve even found Khashoggi’s body parts buried in the Saudi’s counselor’s house’s garden. Number of diplomatic expulsions – zero. Number of calls for sanctions (outside of the rabid Democrats in Congress) – zero. Go figure.
I figure there is an “Axis of Evil” which is composed of hard core members Deep State America, Israel and Saudi Arabia, with ass-kissing vassals across the entire European peninsula hard up to the frontiers of the Russian Federation, out to the farthest reaches of the Five-Eyes Anglosphere in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and including the compliant junior varsity in Pacific Rim Asia, namely Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan and even the Philippines–whether the latter like it or not.
Apologies to Dubya for stealing his catch phrase, but it has finally become relevant in a real way. This worldwide conspiracy comprises the essential components of what is also known as the “Empire.” Many, if not most, other countries are subservient to the Empire either voluntarily or under duress and every nation on Earth is expected by that Empire to one day come under its formal jurisdiction.
This arrangement neatly explains the discrepancies between platitudes and facts that analytical people such as yourself commonly see when weighing the actions of the Empire versus the fanciful narratives it chooses to disseminate. Anything said or done in the service of the Empire, especially involving its Axis of Evil members, is permitted, praised and excused, no matter how reprehensible. Anything said or done to damage the interests of those few countries farthest from the Empire’s enforced “consensus,” most notably Russia, China or Iran, is also permitted, praised or excused, usually in lockstep by the Axis of Evil and ALL of its vassal appendages. To deviate even slightly from this enforced consensus is exceptionally rare and usually quickly punished by the Axis. The vassals are expected to swallow hard and enforce whatever policies emanate from Washington no matter how detrimental to their own interests, which are never allowed to evolve into independent policy. Right now the European vassal states (and soon the East Asian ones as well) are asked not only to sabotage large components of their own economies to facilitate American economic sanctions against Russia, China and Iran, but also to make themselves targets of retaliatory nuclear strikes after Washington launches first strike nuclear-tipped intermediate -range land based missiles against Russia, for clearly that is why Washington has repudiated the relevant Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Anyway, that’s what I figured in response to your apt request to “go figure.”
President Putin is simply making it clear that he will fulfill his role in a scenario of assured mutual destruction if compelled to do so. This is necessary to insure that the MAD formula has it’s best chance to maintain a nuclear war free world, if possible. Any doubt in the minds of US planners of Putin’s firm intention for full retaliation, would create a very dangerous situation, where they might be tempted to venture a preemptive first strike. The warning last March about Russia’s advanced weapon capabilities had the same purpose of warning against foolish doubts concerning Russia’s retaliatory capacities.
Paranoia is a mental disease that afflicts those who have turned their backs on conscience and morality, and are hence incapable of trust, and see only enemies everywhere. Russia has repeatedly offered to engage in peace processes to avoid his dangerous situation. The US has repeatedly rejected the offer of entering into such negotiations, thus forcing Russia to play the games of MAD. When a nation like the US embraces the goal of world domination, paranoia becomes inevitable for it’s leaders.
Jeff, mike k, and Realist-
Great comment thread. You guys are a big reason I continue to visit and support this site.
Perfect illustration of what I wrote above.
The Crown Prince is very useful to Washington, especially because of his warm relations with Israel.
Putin is the opposite, he represents a barrier.
So the two cases get completely different treatments.
The Prince gets away with grisly murder, and the proof of his guilt is there because everything we know comes from actual Turkish audio and video recordings.
To this day, no one even knows what happened with the Skripals and no one can even see or talk to them, but that didn’t stop a huge diplomatic row and sanctions.
We really do live in an upside-down world.
As I said above, America actually effectively gives some its helpers abroad a licence to kill.
For its imagined enemies, as Russia, it as only contempt and threats and belligerence.
Apologies to Ann Wright for the noise.
Here’s one from Robert Parry in 2012:
https://consortiumnews.com/2012/12/23/comments-about-comments/#
I could not find a post from which addresses the glitch that results in appearing and disappearing posts and comments. I give up.
Can anyone see these comments or the article itself?
The world noticed Israel tells America what to do. So the Saudis – being the used camel salesmen they are – pretend to be friends with Israel so they can tell the US what to do too.
Right now, all three are pretending Iran is the problem; hence, the three amigos are united by their persecution of the common enemy they’ve manufactured.
https://opensociet.org/2018/10/21/why-wont-trump-condemn-the-saudis-hint-its-israel-also-iran/
I see the article and your 4 comments at 8:25 PM EST. I have had my own comments disappear but not articles. Maybe CN is being spoofed by a site copy, but likely it was just changing in the editing process.
Thanks for the feedback. I posted these 4 comments around 12 hours ago. So it took that long for anyone else to see the comments, and probably to see the article itself. It was invisible, which is why people don’t notice the article is missing.
I could only get this article to appear when I used the direct URL to the article. No comments appeared though until just now.
This happens often with CN these days. It used to happen when Robert Parry was here too. Something weird about this website.
Like I said, I give up trying to get people to notice it or fix it. It’s obviously running people off though.
Soon Saudi Arabia will be protected from condemnation by the UN by the US just like Israel. We will have two pariah playmates to protect. American values have fallen from torture to vivesecting dissidents.
> Can anyone see these comments or the article itself?
Yes, and I never experience the problems you and a couple of others complain of.
I am beginning to suspect there is some problem at your end.
What browser do you use to read CN?
This site has a couple of Google scripts running. Do you have NoScript or an equivalent active?
Do you go straight to the Web address, or via some search engine, “[anti]social media”, et al.?
Indeed, not only did my previous comment disappear, all comments are invisible and the count says 0. The article itself disappeared from the CN homepage as well. The only way I was able to find my way back here is by tracking down the URL on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Consortiumnews?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Twitter says this article was posted 15 hours ago… and it isn’t visible on my PC when I go to the CN homepage. That’s a problem.
Hi, I’m seeing the same thing for the first time.
My comments to this and another article disappeared.
Hello, Consortium Editor, this problem needs attention.
Egads, they just magically re-appeared.
For the second time today my comments have disappeared.
There’s another article about the UK and Wikileaks doing the same thing. It too disappears from the CN homepage. Can only find it with the direct link.
Comment count on that article has been stuck at 2 all day. Probably others commenting and I can’t see them. Probably some can’t see the article itself.
Hopefully everyone knows by now the problem isn’t censorship. Don’t take it personally. Happening to everyone.
Again, it isn’t cache or cookie or browser dependent. I can erase everything and change browsers and the problems still persist. Doesn’t happen at other websites, just CN.
Been trying to troubleshoot but not gotten any feedback from the admins.
This used to happen last year too. I didn’t say anything then because no one complained. The point being, the problem isn’t new and no one offers an explanation.
I’m out of ideas. Someone on the CN end can fix it because I can’t on this end.
> The article itself disappeared from the CN homepage as well.
No it hasn’t …
This article was posted 12 hours ago, yet just now became visible on my phone. It will disappear once again, as soon as I push the “Post Comment” button.
Unfortunately, Consortium News is losing readers because of this glitch. People cannot see the stories to read them
.
Do you think it’s just a “glitch?” Those who would get independent news sites banned, gagged or otherwise impeded as “fake news” I’m sure have “talent” on hand who can hack and mount cyber attacks on targeted sources with the utmost of ease. Washington has just torpedoed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty because it is in the process of preparing a nuclear first strike against Russia in blatant violation of that treaty. So they project their own malefactions upon Russia and cast aside formal promises they made to the civilised world two generations ago, now putting everyone at risk to lose everything. It is child’s play for them to muck up the dissemination of truths inconvenient to them. They are always my first suspects, an honor they have repeatedly earned with their own actions.
I use different language than you do, Realist, but we mean the same thing. Ultimately, we are toast.
Could be. We know the government uses sock puppets and bots and taps our phones and email and GPS and who knows whatelse on its own citizens.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks
Whatever the cause, and I suspect foul play, timelliness has gone out the window. Putin had a good one prepared for Bolton–did you see?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0pfheFqp6fY
The eagle tried to eat the olives but I think Bolton snatched them away for himself first. Then he ate the eagle and hired a vulture to posture as our national emblem. Even the vulture doesn’t trust him.
Ha! Even the vulture.