Free Republic

Over five years, the Saudi crown prince has steadily accumulated power by ruthlessly targeting perceived rivals and critics. Here's an overview of the hundreds of Saudis impacted When Saudi Arabia's King Salman ascended to the throne in 2015 and named his 29-year-old son, Mohammed, as defence minister and then as deputy crown prince, there was talk of the rising star who would reshape the kingdom. Five years later, Mohammed bin Salman, now apparently poised to become king, has consolidated his control and shaken the foundations of the House of Saud by ruthlessly eliminating or neutralising his perceived rivals and vocal...

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said Monday that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was “cowardly” for announcing that he would not defend Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and would not campaign for his election. Ryan made his announcement on a conference call with fellow members of the Republican caucus on Monday morning, just hours after Trump had turned in a strong debate performance against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in St. Louis on Sunday night. “Leaders are supposed to stand firm and solid in moments of crisis,” Rohrabacher told the Orange County Register. “Instead, he’s in a panic. It’s not good...

Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s most powerful and richest men, is levelling severe allegations against the Saudis, and once again, he has nothing to show for them. The media has been set ablaze by an “exclusive” report in The Guardian, a United Nations report, and even a documentary film, all dropped at once, alleging that Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) of Saudi Arabia is personally responsible for “hacking” into a personal phone belonging to Jeff Bezos, one of the world’s richest men and the owner of Amazon and The Washington Post.The “bombshell” report in The Guardian, published Tuesday evening, was...

The Washington Post’s ties to Islamic terrorists are a national security risk. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is not only the richest person in the world, with an estimated $156 billion, but is a heavyweight political donor who has outspent other S&P 500 CEOs by a factor of 10. Bezos was the 12th biggest political donor of the 2018 cycle, coming in behind Bloomberg and Soros. And, even more importantly, Bezos owns the Washington Post. The powerful political tabloid sets the agenda in the government city, but it’s also raising questions about whether Amazon is a security risk for reasons that...

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE - Pope Francis said Tuesday that the latest round of financial scandal at the Vatican is actually a success story, because the situation was revealed thanks to an internal Vatican probe, which he said demonstrates that new controls are working. The pontiff also called both owning and deploying nuclear weapons “immoral,” saying that point should be added to the Catholic catechism, and suggested that it might be time to re-think the veto power wielded by a handful of countries in the United Nations Security Council. His comments came during an airborne news conference on the return...

White House efforts to limit access to President Donald Trump's conversations with foreign leaders extended to phone calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, according to people familiar with the matter. Those calls -- both with leaders who maintain controversial relationships with Trump -- were among the presidential conversations that aides took remarkable steps to keep from becoming public. In the case of Trump's call with Prince Mohammed, officials who ordinarily would have been given access to a rough transcript of the conversation never saw one, according to one of the sources. Instead, a...

While the Left was spinning conspiracy theories about conservatives and Russian trolls on social media, its own social feeds were filled with Iranian and Qatari propaganda showing a Pallywood production of "starving children" in Yemen caused by the Saudi campaign against Iran's Houthi Jihadis. The Iranian-Qatari propaganda has been so successful that even a number of Republicans voted for a Qatari Senate resolution targeting the Saudis and backing Qatar, and by extension, Iran. But the media has been the greatest vector for propaganda on behalf of the Iranian terror campaign in Yemen. Take the latest Washington Post report on the...

President Trump would have designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization right after his inauguration in 2017, but has faced strong opposition from the Swamp JULY 12, 2019 BY BARENAKEDISLAM This latest push for the designation appears to be the result of Trump’s recent meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi. “The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in May. Be sure to watch the video at the end where Muslim...

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mitt Romney took issue with President Donald Trump defending his relationship with the Saudi Arabian leader who allegedly ordered the hit on a Washington Post columnist. Trump said he was "extremely angry and very unhappy" about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi but claimed "nobody has directly pointed a finger" at Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite U.S. intelligence and a United Nations report saying otherwise. Trump had breakfast with the crown prince in Osaka, Japan, over the weekend, but did not press him on his involvement in Khashoggi's murder. "The President’s praise for MBS,...

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday shrugged off the brutal dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, just days after a United Nations report described how a team of Saudi assassins called Mr. Khashoggi a “sacrificial animal” before his murder. The U.N. report urged an F.B.I. investigation into the slaying. But in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Trump said the episode had already been thoroughly investigated. He said the Middle East is “a vicious, hostile place” and noted that Saudi Arabia is an important trading partner with the United States. “I only say they spend $400...

I am troubled by this administration's almost obsessive embrace of Saudi Arabia. I am even more troubled by conservative media's failure to challenge that embrace. Most conservative media outlets state the following narrative regarding Saudi Arabia: "Saudi Arabia is no longer our enemy. It has become our ally. Thanks to President Trump's hard resolve to fight radical Islamic terrorism, King Salman has appointed his son, MbS, to institute widespread reforms, prosecute pro-terrorist elements, and consolidate an 'Arab NATO' alliance that is intended to contain terrorism and its sponsors in Iran and Turkey. Those who oppose Saudi Arabia now are useful...

FULL TITLE: Alleged UAE spy under investigation for possible links to Jamal Khashoggi killing found dead in Turkish jail =========================================================== An alleged spy for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) being investigated for possible links to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi was found dead in his Turkish jail cell, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Turkish prosecutors on Monday said wardens had found the suspect, Zaki Y.M. Hassan, hanged inside his solitary cell in Istanbul’s Silivri prison, according to the newspaper, which added that prosecutors are calling for an investigation into the death. Turkish authorities were reportedly investigating Hassan and...

The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee joined Democrats Saturday in criticizing President Trump’s failure to send a report to Congress on the murder of Saudi Arabian dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said he is “deeply troubled” by the administration’s failure to meet the deadline on Friday for submitting a report on the slaying that is linked to the Saudi royal family. The White House said in a statement that Congress can’t force the president to act. “Consistent with the previous administration’s position and the constitutional separation of powers, the president maintains his...

For the first time ever, The Washington Post is airing a Super Bowl commercial during Sunday's game between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. The 60 second spot will air during the fourth quarter, shortly before the two minute warning. According to the news outlet , the ad is narrated by actor Tom Hanks and the message focuses on the danger journalists face. The theme is, "Democracy Dies in Darkness." Hanks was chosen as the voice for the ad because of his role as former WaPo Executive Editor Ben Bradlee in "The Post," which focused on...

A key US senator on Saturday said the Saudi crown prince was responsible for Jamal Khashoggi's murder and must be "dealt with", as he threatened new sanctions. Republican Lindsey Graham, an influential ally of President Donald Trump, has previously said that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was complicit in the grisly killing of Washington Post contributor Khashoggi in October. "I have concluded that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and the United States cannot move forward until MBS has been dealt with," Graham said, using the initials for the crown prince. Graham also threatened new sanctions against those suspected of involvement...

Jamal Khashoggi’s op-eds published in the very influential Washington Post certainly qualify as attempts to change U.S. policy against Saudi Arabia and in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Washington Post has caused itself a major scandal since it has come to light they and their martyred “reformer” Jamal Khashoggi were publishing anti-Saudi propaganda for Qatar. They tried to bury this in a pre-Christmas Saturday news dump, but that can’t stop the damage this will do to their reputation.“Text messages between Khashoggi and an executive at Qatar Foundation International show that the executive, Maggie Mitchell Salem, at times shaped the...

When Donald Trump announced that his first trip abroad as president would take him to Saudi Arabia and to Israel, it was a signal that the new administration had returned America’s traditional alliances in the Middle East to their privileged status. For the prior eight years, the Obama White House had, in contrast, prioritized relations with these countries’ regional adversary in Iran and embraced the Islamic Republic’s regional allies, Turkey and Qatar, as key interlocutors and partners. The Obama administration also supported Islamist movements in the Middle East, principally the Muslim Brotherhood, that threated to topple regimes and instigate more...

After the revelations from The Washington Post which cast doubt on the authenticity and credibility of pieces they published under late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s name, analysts are questioning what’s next for the newspaper and how they will handle the fall-out from their coverage.

Khashoggi’s murder is only a symptom of a much bigger problem. The biggest mistake the Trump administration made in the Jamal Khashoggi case occurred while Khashoggi was still alive: letting Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, think he could get away with something so heinous — and so heinously stupid. But the bell was rung, as it were, and there is no way to unring it. The Saudis surely made everything worse by lying about it. But the aftermath is such a complicated mess because it illuminates decisions made long before Prince Mohammed’s goons brought a bone saw to...

With the chamber set to take up two competing measures denouncing Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday morning urged his colleagues to show restraint and embrace a more modest bill that would condemn Riyadh for the killing of a U.S. journalist but wouldn’t formally cut off all backing for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. Speaking on the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, told fellow senators they should vote against a bipartisan bill that would end all U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s war against Houthi rebels in Yemen. Instead, he said lawmakers should...