The Khashoggi Affair

First let it be stated that there's little doubt that agents of the bin Salman government killed Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. The dissident journalist had angered the Saudi regime and clearly was targeted for assassination.

The Western media Establishment has gone haywire and the coverage has been relentless....

And yet consistently shallow and as a result misleading.

The murder was of course a heinous crime and yet the crimes of the media cannot be overstated either. How can 'journalists' as well as a host of figures connected to the US government keep a straight face as they on the basis of moral and ethical concerns, call for the US-Saudi relationship to re-evaluated in light of this affair?

From the late 1940's until the 1970's the United States conducted such assassinations almost routinely and with impunity. This has been established and though some still try to deny it, most historians will agree that the CIA was an aggressive killing machine during this period. The CIA has rightly been labeled as Murder Inc.

From the mid-1970's to 2001 these programmes continued but were kept deeply secret and were only allowed to emerge in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

Subsequent to 2001 they were still secret but were allowed to function within the official bureaucracy. Throughout the following decade many of these programmes were revealed to the public and yet no one has been held to account. In fact one of the chief agents of the murder and torture regime has been promoted to head the CIA, a move overwhelmingly backed by the Establishment. It has been particularly humorous if obscene to witness figures like John Brennan denounce the brutality of the Saudis. This is even as he headed an agency that is notorious for torture and murder and in reality has been doing so since its inception. The media helps to hide and obscure this and refuses to challenge him or other officials for their hypocrisy. He also knows the US has long collaborated with the Saudis in a host of 'dirty deeds'. Truly John Brennan is a man possessing no conscience at all. It's simply been eradicated.

The US regularly assassinates people and has even admitted to killing some of its own citizens. And yet it's not murder (we're told), it's extra-judicial killing.

If the Saudi's had labeled Khashoggi a terrorist and killed him from 10,000 feet with a missile fired from a drone, would we be having the same discussion? Wouldn't it just be a case of extra-judicial killing?

I am not speaking to the morality of such policies. Indeed I believe states such as the United States and Saudi Arabia are at the core murderous and evil but given that the policies reflect the views of the Establishment and its media, these questions must be asked. The media won't ask them.

The bin Salman regime's assault within the Istanbul consulate was brazen and by 'industry standards' reckless. The US has killed many of its enemies and sometimes in brutal fashion but (it would seem) Langley et al. know how to cover their tracks and at least leave the question of guilt in a state of ambiguity.

The Israelis have assassinated almost too many to count and in many cases they've done little to hide their tracks. They simply don't care and they know the US will back them... and so they have little to fear.

And yet is anyone in Congress calling the US-Israeli relationship into question? Is anyone demanding that it be re-examined or re-evaluated?

So what's this about? Why is the media in such a frenzy? Why has congress become involved? In the past Saudi Arabia has always been given a blank check and has been largely exempt from criticism. As recently as 2011 the Saudi led crackdown on Arab Spring uprisings in Bahrain were largely ignored even while the situations in Libya and Syria were hyped and spun. Why is the Western Establishment suddenly so concerned about the death of a dissident Saudi killed in Turkey?

I'm sorry to say it but these people care little about a journalist named Khashoggi. It comes down to politics.

For some news outlets like Al Jazeera, it's geo-politics. They are (in this case) representing the views of Doha and pursuing a line in accord with the Qatari state. They are in a state of enmity with bin Salman's Saudi Arabia and this story discredits his regime and has the potential (if pursued) to turn Saudi Arabia into a pariah-state. Their coverage is so extensive as to be almost absurd and the channel has become almost unwatchable. This is yet another chapter in the channel's decline since about 2013... but that is another story.

The West's response to the Khashoggi killing is completely hypocritical. The US has been closely linked with the Saudi regime for decades and particularly so since the latter part of the 1970's. While some activist groups have called attention to the regime's discriminatory and totalitarian policies and its regular employment of the death penalty, the truth is Washington is happy to abandon 'liberal' values when it comes to controlling the world's largest reserves of oil. It has a long record of ignoring Saudi violations of human rights.

So again, why now?

There are many factors at work but there are two glaring points that deserve reflection, one of which the media has (to my knowledge) completely ignored. But that's hardly surprising.

Mohammad bin Salman is the young crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. His tenure has generated confusion as some would see him as a liberalising reformer and others as a despot. The latter charge is particularly interesting (if silly) given the nature of the Saudi monarchy.

Who considers him to be a despot? Well, certainly the many individuals and families subject to his ongoing purge. His treatment of portions of the Old Guard and anyone questioning his policies has been harsh. These parties have been subject to brutal treatment and few would contest the charge that bin Salman has a considerable amount of blood on his hands. Various Saudis, once wealthy and powerful have been imprisoned, killed or in other cases have disappeared.... some are undoubtedly dead, others incarcerated and some are in hiding. Others like Mansour bin Muqrin died under rather suspicious circumstances and there's good reason to believe that he (and others) were murdered.

Bin Salman has sought to reorient Saudi Arabia and some in the West believe this is necessary. He's 'cleaning house' if one wishes to speak bluntly. His policies and agenda seem to overlap with US plans for the Middle East and he's shown a willingness even an eagerness to work with Israel. Not a few in Washington are pleased with his vigorous anti-Iranian agenda and his desire to expand the 'Cold War' between Riyadh and Tehran. His aggressive geopolitics, economic reforms and liberalising social policies mean that for many within the Western Establishment, this is the leader they've been looking for, one poised to rule the kingdom for many decades.

But then Donald Trump came to town and he and bin Salman got on rather well and have brought the two countries into an even closer relationship. Trump angered many by effectively endorsing his programme. Bin Salman was emboldened and with Khashoggi... a door has opened for intrigue and a plot was hatched. And both Trump and bin Salman have walked right into the trap.

Both of these men have big plans and both have significant enemies and this is the key to understanding what this Khashoggi episode is all about.

Trump's domestic enemies are using this scandal as an excuse to break his foreign policy and re-subjugate it to the Establishment. They want egg on his face and in destroying his credibility they hope to score political gains. It's caused great stress in his White House and has certainly brought a great deal of contention and drama to his administration.

But remember and... here's the part the media is choosing to ignore.... bin Salman has lots of enemies too. And who are these enemies? Who are these corrupt figures that he's driven from power in the Saudi kingdom? Many are connected to the West and Khashoggi himself is part of a family with deep ties to Western intelligence. His uncle was part of the Iran-Contra and BCCI orbit. Many of these ties date back to the Afghan War of the 1980's. There's a lot of money that was passed around, a labyrinth of corruption and a host of secrets... all wedded to the Saudi Establishment, the same Establishment bin Salman (with his somewhat shaky claims to power) has now sought to purge. These are powerful people with deep connections to the Pentagon, Langley and Wall Street. Incidentally Khashoggi's cousin was the late Dodi Fayed, another connected figure (in this case) to the British Establishment made famous by his 1997 death with Princess Diana in Paris. Jamal Khashoggi himself may have been connected to Western intelligence and this may help to explain why he (as an exile) landed a job at the CIA-connected Washington Post. It's noteworthy that the Post and the New York Times, the newspapers of record, the mouthpieces of Establishment policy have been pursuing the Khashoggi affair with great zeal.

These dispossessed Saudi factions are undoubtedly some very powerful and angry people and some (if not many) of their friends are people within the US Establishment that want to see Trump taken down. So far his resilience has proven formidable. Trump is a veritable criminal and yet his criminality in so many ways is interwoven with the Western system and taking him down via those pathways will bring down many more and potentially the whole house.

So instead the Establishment has conveniently pursued the Russia angle and yet thus far to little avail as the evidence is weak, in many cases contrived and the narrative fails several key tests.

The Khashoggi scandal is but another chapter in the Establishment Civil War and the Atlanticist/Multi-Lateralist Mainline's war against the Unilateralist/Nativist factions, a conflict that for the most part transcends political parties. The media is waging its side of the war and unintentionally exposing its hand (once again) as a completely partisan and anti-journalistic fraternity bent on pursuing Mainline Establishment interests.

There are many in Congress who share these views, have been influenced by them or have effectively 'signed on' to the agenda. There are clear leaders and not all of them are necessarily holding top positions within the hierarchy. Some like Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia wield considerable power by virtue of the committees they serve on and the connections they have fostered.

While it's difficult to objectively to prove, it is well known that many figures within the international business and diplomatic community establish deep ties with Congress. There are the obvious ties to figures within the Pentagon and State Department but for investors and other players there's a real attraction and even necessity to establish direct ties to figures within Congress who shape and approve federal legislation and in other cases can open doors within states for business transactions and strategic plans. One would have to be deliberately blind to not see the connections between some members of congress calling for a 'revisiting' of the US relationship with bin Salman and their longtime Saudi friends.... some of which are presently in difficulty and even distress. These factions want to see bin Salman removed. His Saudi takeover has affected not only the Arabian kingdom but a host of US interests. This is even while certain sectors of the US economy and military complex have greatly benefited from his tenure... hence the divisions. The conflict within US politics is also divided over bin Salman and thus his actions have become an aspect of the larger struggle in the West.

In other words their war against Trump has overlapped with the fight against bin Salman. Khashoggi's death symbolises this conflict. And again given his familial connections... it all makes sense.

I suppose the most surprising thing about this episode is that bin Salman could make such a dumb miscalculation. Has power gone to his head? He had to know that people would be able to figure it out and additionally the Khashoggi family had deep Turkish connections. Given Erdogan's tentative relationship with both Washington and Riyadh, the move was (all morality aside) not well thought out.

In fact it seems that while Khashoggi was set up, Western intelligence agencies may have known it was going to happen and let it take place in order to capitalise on the scandal. They literally pounced on bin Salman and left Trump looking like a deer caught in headlights.

Even practically speaking the move was foolish and the fact that it was done in Turkey made it doubly so. And of course Trump's stubbornness has only made the situation worse for him as he digs himself into a hole even while Ankara, Doha and his many Western enemies seek to capitalise on these events.

A man is dead which is tragic but that's not the real story here. The media is obsessing on the gruesome details but that's just to keep the pressure on. The US has killed many journalists, politicians, academics, scientists and others and in many cases the details are tantalising enough that the media should be all over it.... and yet they refrain.

This fact alone is cause enough for suspicion. Khashoggi was murdered and there's a real story to be told but you won't hear about it in mainstream sources. Their zeal in this case only exposes their hypocrisy and the fact that they are in the end... compromised.

Postscript (17Nov2018):

And perhaps one of the great ironies is that if the Saudi-US relationship is sundered, then Riyadh will necessarily choose new allies. Where can they go? Beijing and Moscow are the only real choices.