Free Republic

It seems to me the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, last seen in Istanbul, is Erdogan-brand Turkish taffy, a confection of sugary lies made to inflame Americans against the Saudis and aid the far more dangerous to our well-being mullahs of Iran I confess to prejudice in this matter. I think Iran is a grave threat to the world, and the Saudis are aiding us in constraining the mullahs. Like Matthew Continetti, I believe the Saudis are now an important counterterrorism ally and roiling the waters there would disrupt “energy markets, create pockets of instability in which jihadists and Iranian-backed militias...

Saudi Arabia’s stock market tumbled in early Sunday trade on concerns about relations with the international community following the disappearance of a a Saudi journalist.

.....I never had anything to do with "The Kingdom" except in so far as it was an intelligence collection or analytic target of the US. I never worked in retirement for any company that did contract work for Saudi Arabia. That was a deliberate choice for me. I know the place well and it has ALWAYS been a sinkhole of medieval theocratic barbarism adorned with modern infrastructure that was constructed by foreign contract "slaves". When I arrived in SA many years ago to be military attache in the US Embassy, I discovered that my five immediate predecessors were all retired...

The missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has caused world leaders to focus on not only the role Saudi Arabia may have played in his disappearance but also its role in the Yemeni civil war. The missing Saudi journalist (a U.S. resident) is apparently the victim of a political assassination of the sort that occurs much too frequently throughout the Middle East and the world, e.g., Iran, Pakistan, Russia, China, et al. No journalists should be subjected to threats of intimidation or threats on their life, much less murder for expressing political opposition. Saudi Arabia must be required to make a...

Full Title: Missing Saudi journalist 'recorded his own death on his Apple Watch with moments of his interrogation, torture and killing sent to his phone and the iCloud' Missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi may have recorded his own death on his Apple Watch, it has been claimed. He turned on the recording function on the device before walking into the Saudi Arabia embassy in Istanbul on October 2, according to Turkish newspaper Sabah. Then his 'interrogation, torture and killing were audio recorded and sent to both his phone and to iCloud', the newspaper report. His assailants tried to hack into...

President Donald Trump has said the US will inflict "severe punishment" on Saudi Arabia if the kingdom is found to be responsible for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He said he would be "very upset and angry if that were the case", but ruled out halting big military contracts. Mr. Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, vanished on October 2 after visiting its consulate in Istanbul...…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — High above Yemen’s rebel-held city of Hodeida, a drone controlled by Emirati forces hovered as an SUV carrying a top Shiite Houthi rebel official turned onto a small street and stopped, waiting for another vehicle in its convoy to catch up. Seconds later, the SUV exploded in flames, killing Saleh al-Samad, a top political figure. The drone that fired that missile in April was not one of the many American aircraft that have been buzzing across the skies of Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan since Sept. 11, 2001. It was Chinese.. Across the Middle East,...

A delegation from Saudi Arabia has arrived in Turkey... Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca, made his brief visit in his capacity as special adviser to King Salman, indicating that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is treating the issue as a priority. Later the same day Turkey said the two countries had agreed to form a joint working (effort) to investigate the situation…

CNN host Jake Tapper said Friday that President Trump appears to be tougher on singer Taylor Swift than on the Saudi Arabian government "President Trump has been harsher about Taylor Swift this week than he has about [Mohammad Bin Salman]," Tapper said on CNN's "The Lead," referring to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Tapper's comment came amid reports that Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. The Post reported Thursday that the Turkish government said it has video and audio recordings that prove Khashoggi was killed. Khashoggi went missing...

Khashoggi never had much time for western-style pluralistic democracy. In the 1970s he joined the Muslim Brotherhood, which exists to rid the Islamic world of western influence. He was a political Islamist until the end, recently praising the Muslim Brotherhood in the Washington Post. He championed the ‘moderate’ Islamist opposition in Syria, whose crimes against humanity are a matter of record. Khashoggi frequently sugarcoated his Islamist beliefs with constant references to freedom and democracy. But he never hid that he was in favour of a Muslim Brotherhood arc throughout the Middle East. His recurring plea to bin Salman in his...

They're really asking for this time with this murder/disappearance. Saudi Arabia could implode with the entire royal family going the way of the Tsar. Worst case scenario is the entire country shuts off ALL it's oil production. Then what? The entire world would be in chaos and the U.S. would not be able to make up the difference. At least Trump is putting us in the best possible position with our production. In some ways it would be like Katrina, a blessing in disguise. You gotta admit with all those haters in that part of the world keeping the lid...

Was Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and then his body cut up with a bone saw and flown to Riyadh in Gulfstream jets owned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman? So contend the Turks, who have video from the consulate, photos of 15 Saudi agents who flew into Istanbul that day, Oct. 2, and the identity numbers of the planes. Supporting the thesis of either a murder in the consulate or a "rendition," a kidnaping gone horribly bad, is a Post story that U.S. intel intercepted Saudi planning, ordered by the prince, to...

He had an appointment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to collect some documents he needed to marry his Turkish fiancee -- a certificate showing that he was divorced from his first wife. He entered the consulate on Oct. 2 at 1:14 p.m., asking his fiancee to wait outside for him. She did. Until 2 a.m. He never emerged. A number of news outlets, citing Turkish sources, are reporting that Jamal Khashoggi, the former editor of a Saudi newspaper, regime critic and Washington Post contributor, was murdered. The New York Times quoted sources who said that 15 Saudi agents from...

Turkish authorities suspect that missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared on Tuesday after entering Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, was killed inside the consulate, Turkish sources told Middle East Eye and news agencies on Saturday. A senior Turkish police source told MEE that police believed that Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, was "brutally tortured, killed and cut into pieces" inside the consulate after visiting the building on 2 October. "Everything was videotaped to prove the mission had been accomplished and the tape was taken out of the country," the source said.

A big drop in stock prices yesterday with the Dow Jones going down 3 percent in value and NASDAQ even more at 4 percent. Asian markets in Japan and Hong Kong also fell overnight and in Europe today there were also declines.... Two are reported dead after Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle and southwestern Georgia.... An emergency landing this morning in Kazakhstan for an American and a Russian astronaut headed for the international space station.... President Trump stumped for Republicans at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania last night..... President Trump says that the United States is demanding answers...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered an operation to detain missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi after luring him back to Saudi Arabia, U.S. intelligence revealed, according to The Washington Post. U.S. officials speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Post that Salman and other Saudi officials tried to get Khashoggi to return to Saudi Arabia, where he is from, with offers of government employment and protection. The officials said the intelligence further ties the Saudi government to Khashoggi's disappearance at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Turkish police have said that Khashoggi was likely killed by a Saudi security...

The man dubbed the "far-right candidate" had a very strong first round finish in Brazil's presidential election..... Two Israelis were killed and a third injured in a terrorist attack in the West Bank Sunday morning at an industrial park...... Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met from North Korea's ruler Kim Jong-un for more than three hours Sunday..... The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an accident involving a stretch limousine in upstate New York that killed 20 people..... The Turkish regime believes that Saudi government critic Jamal Khashoggi was murdered when he visited the Istanbul consulate of Saudi Arabia last...

Jihadist terrorism until recently had Europe on the defensive. Now the continent is getting tough and fighting the threat with measures that would have been unthinkable six or seven years ago. The old notion that Europe is weak on terrorism gained traction in the mid-2010s. Between 2015 and 2017, some 350 people were killed by jihadists across Europe. Terrorism rose to the top of polls of public concerns, and criticism of European counterterrorism capabilities grew explicit. A PBS “Frontline” investigation into the 2016 Brussels attacks revealed “a scale of dysfunction remarkable in the annals of modern counterterrorism.” Many wondered if...

"When it comes once again the debt crisis will come back and hit cause actually national borrowing, corporate borrowing and individual borrowing is even bigger than it was back in 2008 when we had those huge problems.." Nigel Farage-"The Nigel Farage Show"-9/10/2018 "Democrats...tax and spend...Republicans...spend and spend" Michael Savage-"The Michael Savage Show"-10/1/2018 ".....British interests involve almost total subjection to the wishes of Saudi Arabia. So their current stance of supposed horror on the subject of Chemical Weapons, especially when (as was not the case in Halabja), their use has not been established beyond doubt, may be less than wholly genuine..."...

Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour on Friday launched a racial attack against Sen. Susan Collins, saying the Maine Republican was guilty of espousing “white supremacy” with her decision to support the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Ms. Sarsour, a prominent Palestinian-American activist, blasted Ms. Collins on Twitter as a “white woman” and the “mother & grandmother of white women in America who gave us a Donald Trump presidency.”