Sanction-mania has now swept over the Democrat-controlled House, Senate and White House, putting U.S. national security in peril, with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pushing 78-year-old President Joe Biden to sanction 35-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS]. Recently declassified intel report about the Oct. 2, 2018 death of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, Schiff criticized 74-year-old former President Donald Trump for doing nothing when word came out that Bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s hit. Whatever declassified report came out Feb. 25, there’s nothing new, implicating Bin Salman in authorizing a 15-member Saudi hit squad to travel to the Saudi Istanbul embassy to murder Khashoggi. Khashoggi was warned before her entered the Saudi embassy Oct. 2, 2018. Khashoggi spent two years criticizing Bin Salman for his repressive ways.
Khashoggi said he went to the Istanbul embassy to get divorce papers needed to clear him to marry his Turkish fiancé Hatice Cengiz. Cengiz watched Khashoggi enter the Saudi embassy with his dismembered body slipping out several hours later. Whatever happened to Khashoggi, Trump concluded over two years ago that it wasn’t enough to stop U.S. arm sales to the Kingdom, or, for that matter, interfering with U.S.-Saudi business relations. Releasing the declassified report doesn’t mean that it’s factual, any more than other declassified intel reports giving the U.S. narrative on various matters of U.S. foreign policy. Seventeen U.S. intel agencies said in that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election, but couldn’t account for how Russia’s alleged involvement changed one vote. Yet U.S. intel agencies staked their reputation on Trump colluding with the Kremlin in 2016.
U.S. intel agencies, especially the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency [DIA] and National Security Agency [NSA] all concluded that Trump colluded with Russia in 2016 warranting an FBI counterintelligence investigation. When the spurious charges were examined by 76-year-old former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, he found no Russian collusion after a 22-month, $40 million investigation. So, U.S. intel agencies are subject, like most things, to political narratives, just like the 2020 election, where Democrats contended that Trump committed “incitement of insurrection.” Another impeachment trial had the U.S. Senate acquitting Trump Feb. 13, unable to get the necessary votes for conviction. Yet Democrats once again pushed by Schiff and others want Biden to rock-the-boat with the Saudis, risking another oil shock, should Bin Salman decided to retaliate at Western allies.
So f ar, Biden has resisted calls to sanction Bin Salman for approving the Oct. 2 hit on Khashoggi. There are eerie parallels to what happened to Khashoggi and more recently 44-year-old Russian dissident Alex Navalny. Like Khashoggi, Navalny couldn’t contain his arrogance returning to Moscow, knowing he was subject to arrest, conviction and sentencing for violating his probation. Why Khashoggi returned to the Istanbul-based Saudi embassy is pure hubris, believing the Bin Salman wouldn’t dare threaten his life. Khashoggi and Navalny found out the hard way what happens when they antagonize their governments, then return to their home countries subject to arrest and persecution. Yet the best advice Schiff can give Biden is to punish MBS for something that took place on Trump’s watch. Schiff has zero common sense urging Biden to sanction the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia.
Schiff thinks it’s the politically correct thing to do to punish MBS for ordering the targeted assassination of Khashoggi. “The Biden administration should explore ways to ensure the repercussions for the brutal murder of Mr. Khashoggi go beyond those who carried it out, to the one who ordered it—the Crown prince himself. He has blood on his hands,” Schiff said. How much blood does the U.S. have on its hands for ordering the Jan. 3, 2020 predator drone attack that killed Iran’s Al-Quds’ Chief Qassem Soleimani and Kataib Hezbollah chief Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandris near the Baghdad airport? “Mohammed bin Salman is guilty of murder. Biden should not give a pass,” said the Washington Post editorial board. That’s the same board that’s calling for Biden to sanction Russian President Vladimir Putin for convicting and sentencing Navalny to two-years-eight-months in prison.
Biden faces an avalanche of left-wing papers and Democrat TV pundits calling for harsh economic and travel sanctions against Bin Salman. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof pleaded with Biden for some kind of justice. “Instead of imposing sanctions on MBS, Biden appears ready to let the murderer walk,” Kristof said. Krsitof isn’t concerned if he creates another oil shock, something world financial markets cannot afford in the ongoing Covid-pandemic recession. “I spoke yesterday with the King, not the prince,” Biden told Univision Feb. 26. “And made it clear to him that the rules are changing . . . We are going to hold them accountable for human rights abuses,” Biden said, in a press release. Biden knows that King Salman does not run Saudi Arabia. Saudi’s government officially rejects the U.S. intel report blaming Bin Salman for Khashoggi’s targeted hit.
