The U.S. just resumed sales of bombs and missiles to the Gulf state, which still owes $15 million for jet fuel from its war on Yemen.
The U.S. Fueled Saudi Jets Bombing Yemen. Now the Saudis Won’t Pay Their Gas Bill.
Tag: Saudi Arabia
While America churns China turns to the Yemen The Saudis and Biden loses out
“Biden promised to end the war in Yemen. Two years into his presidency, China may have delivered on that promise.”
In October, the Saudi-led OPEC cartel of oil-producing countries slashed output by two million barrels per day to drive prices higher. Now – heedless of an angry US president who has threatened unspecified “consequences” – it is cutting production again. As Biden looks on powerlessly, one of the biggest winners is likely to be Vladimir Putin.
Source: Russia-Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin set to cash in on oil move
You probably already know that, as reported by Alex Kane for In These Times in 2019, “Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s richest countries, has been bombing Yemen, the fifth-poorest nation in the world, since 2015—with support from the United States.”
Dan Sabbagh of The Guardian reported in 2020 that “BAE Systems sold £15bn worth of arms to Saudis during Yemen assault.” That number is two years old. It’s many billions higher now.
BAE Systems doesn’t want us to only think of them as serial murderers. According to their Public Relations Department, they are also interested in reading fairy tales to children.
Source: Weapons Contractors Destroy Lives While Reading Fairy Tales To Children – scheerpost.com
So now it’s Israel, the Saudis, China, and Trump screaming at the Israeli government
Al Jazeera reports that Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz on Thursday signed an agreement with visiting Chinese Premier Xi Jinping at the Yamama Palace regarding a “comprehensive strategic partnership” between the two countries. Xi announced that his visit to the kingdom would inaugurate a “new era” in the relationship of China to the Arab world, the countries of the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia itself.
Here’s a reason not to “take the money” If Trump had not been the failed businessman he is, he’d have $12 B just from investing his father’s gift conservatively when he first started. Today he has $2B and 4000 court cases in his wake. Hardly a person to take business advice from.
‘If you don’t take the money now, you will get nothing after the merger takes place, and only say how smart the original signees were.’ Donald Trump
On his trip to the Middle East, Joe Biden’s efforts to paper over nominal allies’ atrocities against Americans sends a message of impunity.
Source: Biden to Saudi Arabia and Israel: Sure, Kill Our Journalists
When Trump abandoned the Kurds in Syria he actually helped cement Russian influence in the Middle East along with Israel’s. Simply follow the money and the damage he caused and it becomes obvious that he was Russia’s puppet starting a war with China. Henot only divided America but the Western world.
Moscow’s partnership with Saudi Arabia has grown dramatically in recent years, granting the two largest oil producers in the world the unprecedented ability to collude in oil export decisions. The desert kingdom’s relationship with the U.S. has chilled in the meantime, as demonstrated earlier this month, when President Joe Biden pleaded with the Saudis to increase oil production — a move that would not only have helped to alleviate rising inflation and gas prices, but also reduced Russia’s extravagant profits amid its aggression against Ukraine. The Saudi king declined.
Source: Saudi-Russia Collusion Is Driving Up Gas Prices, Worsening Ukraine Crisis
Virtually every bit of “evidence” that Jeffrey cites is either false or inflated, to include the claim of use of chemical weapons and the responsibility for the refugees. As for who actually created the terrorists, that honor goes to the United States, which accomplished that when it invaded Iraq and destroyed its government before following up by undermining Syria. And, by the way, someone should point out to Jeffrey that Russia and Iran are in Syria as allies of its legitimate government.
Ambassador James Jeffrey maintains that “Russia needs to change its policies.” That is not correct. It is the United States that must change its policies by getting out of Syria and Iraq for starters while also stopping the deference to feckless “allies” Israel and Saudi Arabia that has produced a debilitating cold war against both Iran and Russia. Another good first step to make the U.S. a “normal, decent country” would be to get rid of the advice of people like James Jeffrey.
The Washington Post reported over a year ago that the CIA had concluded, on evidence that included intercepted phone calls, that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman ordered the killing. His close friendship with Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner has certainly contributed to the impunity he has so far enjoyed. One way to punish Saudi Arabia is through sanctions and denial of military aid — options that were open until just last week, when Congress passed, and sent to the White House for Trump’s signature, the $738 billion 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. Sen. Bernie Sanders and California Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna issued a joint statement calling the NDAA “a bill of astonishing moral cowardice,” in part for failing to deny aid to Saudi Arabia.
via Let 2020 Be the Year of a Truly Free Press | The Smirking Chimp
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform has issued a Report on a plot to make billions of dollars by selling Saudi Arabia sensitive American nuclear technology that could allow the Kingdom to develop nuclear weapons. The scheme required breaking US law, which forbids technology transfers that might allow nuclear proliferation.
This scheme is the ultimate in criminality, where US government resources (remember the Manhattan project?) are given away to another government by the white collar criminals now running the US government so that they can scoop up private massive fortunes rivaling those of the richest persons in the world such as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Trump, Israel, Australia, UK, and France wonder why the rest of the world is so pissed (ODT)
Some 85,000 children under the age of five may have died of acute malnutrition during the last three years of war in Yemen, the United Kingdom (UK)-based Save the Children announced yesterday.
“The number is equivalent to the entire under-five population in the UK’s second largest city of Birmingham,” Save the Children added.
American Ethics on Display (ODT)
US President Donald Trump has signalled his administration will not seek any further sanctions against Saudi Arabia following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul last month.
Trump, instead, said his top priority is preserving America’s “steadfast” alliance with the kingdom.
via Trump stands behind Saudi Arabia after killing of Jamal Khashoggi
“It’s not surprising at all, but there is something extra evil about ordering the death of a bunch of people who tortured and murdered a dissident on your orders while you pretend you had nothing to do with it.”
In his first comment on the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the murder as “horrendous” but defended the Saudi royal family and described its members as “friends”.
via Israel’s Netanyahu urges Saudis be Given a Pass for “Horrendous” Khashoggi Murder
Saudis have learnt from Trump and Fox News just yell “fake news” hard and for long enough and a good bit of policing and you will get the support of your people and some from outside as well. After all Trump is onside. (ODT)
In Saudi Arabia, major media outlets have cast the disappearance and apparent murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi as a foreign conspiracy to denigrate the image of the kingdom. The media accounts, which come from outlets run with the backing of Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf monarchies, are spinning the coverage of Khashoggi’s disappearance as a plot by rival governments and political groups to hurt the kingdom — going so far as to make false claims about the Washington Post’s owners.
via Saudi Media Casts Khashoggi Disappearance as a Conspiracy, Claims Qatar Owns Washington Post
As the US influence in the Middle East wanes, it increasingly associates itself with dictatorships like Saudi Arabia, whose “dark face” and “role in supporting terrorism is known to everyone in the region,” a high ranking Iranian Revolutionary Guard official told RT.
Source: US seeks to ‘milk’ terrorism sponsor Saudi Arabia – Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to RT — RT News
“It was a great day,” Trump said. He cited “tremendous investments in the United States … and jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Source: Donald Trump signs ‘tremendous’ deals with Saudi Arabia on his first day overseas
Militants in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo continue to receive help from foreign powers that support the forces opposing President Assad’s troops, the Financial Times reports. That’s despite Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists forming a large part of the opposition.
Source: Arab monarchies pour in funds to support terrorist militants in Aleppo – UK media — RT News
Islamic State has been able to infiltrate Saudi Arabia through digital recruiting, and it has found devotees willing to kill fellow Sunnis, as well as Shiites, to destabilise the monarchy.
Source: Islamic State incites Saudis to kill their own relatives
We cannot defeat IS without defeating Wahhabi theology. And that means spending just as much effort defending liberal ideas.
Source: When terror strikes, Saudi Arabia evades responsibility
The West should take the horrific occasion of the Paris attacks to reconsider its acquiescence in Saudi priorities for Syria and the Middle East. From the vantage point of Riyadh, the great danger emanating from the Middle East is the spread of Iranian influence.
Source: France Should Stop Listening to Saudi Arabia on Syria | The Nation
Abd al-Wahhab argued that all Muslims must individually pledge their allegiance to a single Muslim leader (a Caliph, if there were one). Those who would not conform to this view should be killed, their wives and daughters violated, and their possessions confiscated, he wrote. The list of apostates meriting death included the Shia, Sufis and other Muslim denominations, whom Abd al-Wahhab did not consider to be Muslim at all. There is nothing here that separates Wahhabism from ISIS.
‘Forgive me if I see Tony Abbott’s trumped up fear and warmongering for what it is — the last ditch attempts of an unpopular prime minister to gain some support in a country that is sick of his political posturing. It’s the George Dubya Bush school of crisis management — concoct a war, ramp up the terror and let fear and loathing for the unseen enemy unite the country behind he who so bravely leads the charge.’ Sophie Love
Saudi Arabia Our Allies Beheaded 79 people in 2013 foreigners were amongst them
And because we are so isolated in our own homes, cars, and offices, it is easy to convince the vast majority that there is a terrible terror threat ‘out there’. That we are under attack.
That “they hate us” and want to bring us down. In February 2003. Over a million people could see that Bush and Blair’s considered oratory and fear mongering was a web of lies, masking simpler and more sinister political and private industry needs. The same people are falling for the LNP spin and rhetoric. Have we learned nothing?
Wake up, my friends, this is just the last ditch efforts of a floundering government to win friends and influence people. Don’t be a patsy to their political bravado. Watch what the other hand is doing. Sophie Love
ISIS are a long way from here. Quite frankly we have more to fear crossing the road or driving our cars. The current Government seems to want to close our open and generous hearts with all the rhetoric about the threat to our shores, the terror threat, the budget emergency… fear and loathing in Australia.
The Australia I chose 27 years ago was one of hope, open hearts, open minds and welcoming arms. Please don’t change… Sophie Love
olddogthoughts 
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