When Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents Oct. 2, 2018, the U.S. press condemned former President Donald Trump for not breaking off diplomatic relations with the Kingdom. Two years later, President Joe Biden ran for president saying he would never recognize 38-year-old Crown Prince Monhammed bin Salman, the defacto leader of Saudi Arabia. Trump’s approach was the only practical way to move forward with an old, reliable U.S. ally. Yet Biden insisted through his 2020 campaign that Bin Salman was responsible for the death of Khashoggi. Going one-eighty, the White House said today the their legal department thinks Bin Salman, as head of state, is protected with “sovereign immunity from lawsuits brought by Khashoggi’s former fiancée Hatice Cengiz and DAWN, a nonprofit organization dedicated to human and civil rights.
DAWN’s director Sarah Leah Whitson commented on the hypocritical move by the White House on Khashoggi’s death. “It’s beyond ironic that President Biden has single-handedly assured MBS can escape accountability when it was President Biden who promised to the American people he would do everything to hold him accountable,” Whitson said. U.S. journalists went ballistic Oct. 2, 2018 when Khashoggi walked into the Saudi embassy in Istanbul and never came out, al least in one piece. Compelling evidence linked Khashoggi’s hit and disappearance to Bin Salman, knowing that nothing happens in the Kingdom without his approval. “It’s impossible to read the Biden administration ‘s move today as anything more than a capitulation to Saudi pressure tactics, including slashing oil output to twist our arms to recognize MBS’s fake immunity ploy,” Whitson said.
U.S. journalists and human rights groups don’t get that the wheels of U.S. industry don’t turn without fossil fuels. Biden acquiesced for global back-slapping to take the U.S. off fossil fuels in the future. Yet when U.S. consumers were sweating it out with skyrocketing gas prices, Biden knew he would pay a draconic price at the polls in the Midterm elections. All the Democrat claptrap about how well Democrats did under Biden’s watch Nov. 8, they’ve maintained control of the U.S. Senate and lost the House of Representatives. For Republicans to take the House, it was a clear rejection of Biden’s leadership, low approval ratings and a scary U.S. economy with escalating interest rates and slowed economic growth. Democrats like to talk about Republican failures but who controls the House of Representative? Republicans had to flip nearly 20 seats to retake the House.
Once Biden traveled over the summer July 15 to grovel in front of Bin Salman in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, his Green New Deal backers led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex threw a fit. Biden went to Bin Salman to ask him to increase oil exports to the U.S. to help offset record high pump prices. Biden’s high hopes were dashed when Bin Salman, in consultation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other OPEC members, refused to increase production to keep crude oil prices high. Once Biden realized his trip to the Kingdom backfired, he threatened to take unspecified actions against the Kingdom for refusing to increase oil exports to the U.S. Biden’s latest move for immunity to Bin Salman shows campaign rhetoric, especially to the gung-ho liberal press, only goes so far in the real world. Biden needs Saudi Arabia must the same what he needs Moscow to deal with global crises.
Biden’s White House was given a deadline today to stake out their positions of “sovereign immunity.” Heads of state are not subject to lawsuits. Unless White House lawyers can argue that Bin Salman is not the sovereign leader of Saudi Arabia, they have no legal standing for lawsuits. Whitson wants to hold Biden’s feet to the fire but in reality “sovereign immunity” is practiced by heads of state around the globe. But beyond giving Bin Salman sovereign immunity, it’s time for the U.S. press to stop prosecuting cases in the court of public opinion and accept limits of media influence. Biden got to contrast himself in 2020 to former President Donald Trump, becoming an instant media darling to the U.S. press. No U.S. print of broadcast outlet gives Trump any credit for anything other than turning the U.S. into a fascist state. Biden tried to play that up before the Nov. 8 Midterm election.
Biden set the record straight today that he’s not going to alienate Bin Salman anymore than he has over the last two years. When he asked Bin Salman to bump up Saudi oil production, Bin Salamn remembered all of Biden’s insulting remarks, including holding him accountable for Khashoggi’s death. Whether climate change advocates or the press likes it or not, there are limits to what a president can do to protect the U.S. economy. Gutting the fracking industry after taking office, canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, Biden wanted approval from his party’s climate change wing.. When it came to Bin Salman, Biden realized there’s no reason to alienate Saudi Arabia any more than possible. Already wrecking U.S.-Russian and U.S-Chinese relations, Biden realized he’s painted U.S. foreign policy into a corner. Granting Bin Salman sovereign immunity should help mend fences.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
