MEGHAN MCCAIN: The butchery of Khashoggi was out of a horror movie —and Biden said Saudi would pay for it. How humiliating for America that his word means nothing
There is no justice in the world or at least there isn’t when blood and oil are involved.
President Joe Biden has elected to betray the memory of brutally murdered, dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and all victims of human rights abuses in favor of a partnership with the Saudi Royal family.
That’s the truth of it.
His administration is on the record, saying that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is entitled to legal immunity as a foreign ‘head of government’.
The decision stops in its tracks a lawsuit filed by Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancé, who is attempting to hold MBS responsible for the murder of Jamal in Turkey in 2018.
The news apparently shocked Republicans and Democrats too.
Congresswoman Debbie Dingle said she was ‘very disturbed and stunned’ when she heard the report. She struggled to give any justification for it whatsoever.
But let’s be honest here.
Should we be surprised?
No, not particularly.
You may hear Jamal’s name or see his grieving fiancé pop up on a cable news show in the next couple of days, but Biden’s move will soon be largely forgotten.
Already the White House is spinning it, lamely claiming this was a, ‘State Department decision.’
Okay, but last time I checked they answer to the president.
‘The President has been very, very clear and very vocally so about the brutal and barbaric murder of Mr. Khashoggi, and of course our condolences continue to go out to the family, and he has worked to hold the regime accountable,’ said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
That’s not how it looks to me.
Biden’s message to the world is that the United States only pretends to care about human rights. And he may be right about that.
President Joe Biden has elected to betray the memory of brutally murdered, dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and all victims of human rights abuses in favor of a partnership with the Saudi Royal family.
His administration is on the record, saying that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is entitled to legal immunity as a foreign ‘head of government’.
If you have forgotten the repulsive details of Jamal’s murder, he was believed to have been tortured, killed and then dismembered by a Saudi assassination squad inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The Turkish government likely had the consulate bugged, capturing the sounds of the killing. They released those recordings to the United Nations. The details leaked to the media.
It’s something out of a horror movie.
You can reportedly hear Saudi hitmen discussing how they would kill and then cut up Jamal’s body.
Has ‘the sacrificial animal arrived,’ one man is heard saying.
‘Cut it into pieces, it will be finished,’ another adds.
Then Jamal enters the room and realizes he’s going to be killed.
‘Are you going to give me drugs?’ he asks.
‘We will anaesthetise you,’ he’s told.
Then there are reportedly sounds of a struggle, plastic sheets being unrolled and a saw.
It’s absolutely nauseating.
By November 2018, the CIA had concluded MBS was responsible for all of it.
So, how should America have responded?
President Trump’s choice was clear almost immediately. His administration wouldn’t respond.
‘I’m extremely angry and unhappy about a thing like that taking place,’ Trump said at a G20 summit after meeting with MBC. ‘But as of this moment, more than 13 people are being prosecuted, and I hear the numbers are going to be going up,’ he continued, echoing the Saudi government’s claim that they were acting against any of their citizens involved in the murder.
Biden, then campaigning for president, took a different approach.
‘Khashoggi was, in fact, murdered and dismembered, and I believe on the order of the crown prince,’ he said in 2019 on a Democratic debate stage.
If you have forgotten the repulsive details of Jamal’s (above left) murder, he was believed to have been tortured, killed and then dismembered by a Saudi assassination squad inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
‘And I would make it very clear we were not going to, in fact, sell more weapons to them, were going to, in fact, make them pay the price and make them, in fact, the pariah that they are. There’s very little social redeeming value of the — in the present government in Saudi Arabia.’
Wow, that’s a strong statement.
If only he meant it.
Not only did Biden not punish ‘the pariah,’ as president he travelled to Saudi Arabia in July 2022 and grinned as he fist-bumped MBS.
In August 2022, he approved the sale of $3 billion in defensive missiles to Saudi Arabia. The White House has never imposed any sanctions, of any kind, on MBS.
Real defender of freedom against human rights violators, right?
As of Thursday, Biden has completed his 180-degree turn, by granting MBS immunity from prosecution, something even the Trump administration did not do.
So, what are we to make of this all? Did I really believe that Biden was going to live up to his pledge?
No.
When push came to shove and the United States found itself in need of Middle East oil, because Biden and Democrats crippled U.S. energy production, he went crawling back to MBS to beg for his help.
The gross hypocrisy is almost too much to stomach.
At least we knew what Trump was going to do. Trump put the immediate interests of the United States over the goal of human rights.
I don’t like it, but can we please all grow up and admit that’s what Biden is doing now?
But oh… Biden was going to be different.
‘America is back,’ he loves to repeat over and over again.
Give me a break.
The decision stops in its tracks a lawsuit filed by Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancé (above), who is attempting to hold MBS responsible for the murder of Jamal in Turkey in 2018.
Biden has compromised the integrity of the United States, just as much if not more than Trump ever did.
At least when Trump made a threat on the world stage, there was credible fear that he was just crazy enough to see it through.
What of Biden’s word?
The next time he threatens another country to get its act together and clean up its human rights record, I doubt that they’ll be shaking in their boots.
In fact, Biden probably did a greater disservice to the cause of human rights by opening his mouth. It would have been better to have more discretion and dodge the question like every other craven politician.
What can America do to end human rights abuses around the world? The truth is – not very much, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop trying.
The very least Biden can do is not lie about that reality.
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