The Strange Disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi

On October 2, Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who wrote monthly columns in the Washington Post criticizing the policies of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, vanished at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. After his strange disappearance, Saudi officials claimed that he left the consulate alive and well. They also stated that he was a target of a rogue operation, conducted by Saudi intelligent services. On October 20, 18 days after Khashoggi vanished, it was announced that Khashoggi was strangled in a fight that broke out on October 2 when Saudi agents attempted to convince him to return to the kingdom and sadly died. It wasn’t until Thursday that a new account was published by a Saudi-owned media, which included evidence of a planned assassination. The director of the CIA has been expected to receive an audio recording of the killing as well as evidence that Turkey have said point to orders from the upper levels of the Saudi Royal family to kill Khashoggi.

On Tuesday Trump was asked by the Wall Street Journal if he believed Mohammed bin Salman. He replied by saying “I want to believe him. I really want to believe him. They've been a very good ally. They've been a tremendous investor in our military equipment and other things. They buy tremendous amounts of things from our country. It probably amounts to millions of jobs, you know, a million jobs. That's a lot of jobs. So I certainly want to believe him.” (Click here to learn more about Trump’s comments)Many people are upset with Trump’s comment because they feel Trump is bending over backwards so that the US and Saudi government can keep their beneficial relationship.

What would you do if you were president? Would you give Saudi Arabia a second chance? Do you think that Mohammed bin Salman should be punished?

Comments

  1. Colin HOctober 25, 2018 at 5:42 PM

    Great post Luke! If I were President, I would be very offended that the leader of another country set out to murder a journalist from my country just because he was doing his job, writing about foreign countries. I would think this is saying that Saudi Arabia wants to try to start something and I would take this as a threat. I would stop all business with Saudi Arabia because I could not trade with a murderer, who then tried to cover it up saying it was an inside job. I realize that Saudi Arabia is a large investor in American goods but I could not allow myself or country to trade with a country that would do such a thing. I think that Mohammed bin Salman should be removed from his position of leader for his horrible actions and should be put in jail for it.

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  2. Gavin YOctober 26, 2018 at 11:30 AM

    Nice blog post Luke, If I were the President, I would warn the Saudi Arabian leaders that what they did could be an act of war. This is because what they did was unacceptable since there are so many possible peaceful solutions to this. I wouldn't give Saudi Arabian leader another chance since this is an action of war, since that means there is not safe for any person to criticize the the Saudi Arabian ways. I think that Mohammed bin Salman should be punish, I don't know how, but there needs to be a punishment.

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