#jamal kashoggi

[follow-up-news]

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s widow has asked the U.S. government and United Nations to intervene and help her recover her husband’s electronic devices from the Turkish government so she can take legal action before the statute of limitations runs out later this year, according to letters, papers and other details about her efforts shared with NBC News.

It’s been more than a year since Hanan Elatr Khashoggi first requested the laptop, tablet and two cellphones of the Washington Post columnist who was killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, and she’s now hoping to increase pressure on Turkey to comply by getting help from Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The letters, sent in November and January say that she believes the devices “will reveal previously undisclosed details about my husband’s murder that are critical to knowing the full truth.”

“I have the right to receive all of his possessions, particularly now as I am embarking on legal action in the United States against all parties responsible for my husband’s murder,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi wrote in both letters, naming NSO Group, an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm, and the Saudi and Emirati governments as planned targets of future lawsuits.

She said Turkey recovered the devices shortly after her husband’s death and wrote in her letters that her personal appeals to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the phones, laptop and tablet “have not been honored.”

[thebreakfastgenie]

Sarah I humbly request ur top 5 funniest US political scandals -ypq

okay so caveat that there are niche scandals that are funnier I'm just drunk and don't remember

Watergate - everything about it is so fucking stupid

Clinton impeachment - also a lot of stupid decisions here, the president saying "it depends on what the meaning of is is," the Republicans having to can Newt as speaker because he was having an affair with a staffer too and it looked bad, having to ditch one candidate to replace him because he was also having an affair, and finally landing on Hastert (who is an actual pedophile), just the part where Republicans were so sure public opinion would come around but people mostly wanted to stop hearing explicit details about the president's sex life.

idk if this counts as a scandal but the Army McCarthy hearings - if for no other reason than opposing counsel forcing the word "fairy" into the conversation as a microaggression against Roy Cohn

Iran-Contra - the guy who set the whole thing up was an insane grifter/arms dealer and no one even knows for sure who he really was. He took a polygraph and failed everything including his name which might be because polygraphs are bullshit but also he could totally have been lying about his name. might have been lying about his nationality. probably was lying about everything else. definitely was lying about how he could totally get those hostages out of Lebanon by selling weapons to Iran. we sold the weapons through Israel (they wanted to prolong a war between Iran and Iraq so both would be too busy to attack them, they were fine with people dying) and one time they showed up in Iran with a giant Star of David on them. this only got linked to the Contras in Nicaragua when Ollie North and company realized this operation which rescued net zero hostages (one guy did get released but someone else got taken hostage immediately) was turning a profit and used it to solve the problem of "we want to fund a right-wing paramilitary but Congress won't let us :(" also one of the other arms dealers involved was Adnan Kashoggi, uncle of murdered journalist Jamal Kashoggi, and he owned a yacht that was a notorious party boat and where Queen once attended a party. they wrote a song about it called Kashoggi's ship. there were rumors that it was an orgy but it probably wasn't. several people have owned the yacht since including, for a while, Donald Trump.

Alger Hiss and the secret pumpkin - some people thought Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers were gay and these people included Richard Nixon. also there was a pumpkin involved (used to hide microfilm)

honorable mention to Obama wearing a tan suit

whatever Trump has going on - it's gonna be even funnier in like 20 years when we all have some distance also maybe he'll have died in prison by then

[seewetter]

As per usual, I like to fact-check my news:

Rob DenBleyker is the guy behind Cyanide & Happiness. Fun!

Disclose.tv on the other hand is is a far-right disinformation outlet!

But wait! A broken clock is right (no pun intended) twice a day. Could Netanyahu maybe have actually said that horrific sentence with all its implications?

So, to fact-check this, I typed the sentence into a search engine and found this video, uploaded 6 hours ago to "Middle East Eye" YouTube channel. But if Disclose.tv are liars, then who are Middle East Eye?

Well according to wikipedia again, they are a UK based website that claim without evidence that Jamal Kashoggi worked for them (and did so under a pen name for safety) and they have had some unpleasant controversies involving praise of Adolf Hitler.

So I played a few seconds of the YouTube video, because if a known news outlet is promoting a Netanyahu deepfake to catch him in the act of declaring genocide, that probably would be a juicy story covered by lots of outlets. Unfortunately, Netanyahu isn't speaking in English and the genocide declaration is dubbed over. Oof. If anyone knows Hebrew-speaking people (I presume Netanyahu is speaking Hebrew) who don't have skin in the "game", then maybe ask them if you trust them or are them. For the rest of us, this remains a bit sketchy.

Except wait!

The search engine turned up more news results for Netanyahu saying this phrase: among them salon.com, newrepublic.com and Ben Shapiro's home and native journalism land, the Republican melting pot of Zionism and Christian fundamentalism: dailywire.com

For context, New Republic is typically classified as progressive, as is Salon.

So defenders of Zionism at the Daily Wire are uncritically praising Netanyahu for a press release in which, according to their journalistic efforts, he is using a phrase previously described by him as genocidal.

In short, I can't prove Netanyahu said this. But this has conclusively proven that people working at the Daily Wire are not being careful in what they endorse at best or more than happy to endorse genocide at worst.

And it might be good to know how widely this fact or fabrication is reported.

And to be careful from where you report your facts. Because you don't want to end up like Cyanide and Happiness, whitewashing far-right misinformation DIRECTLY FROM THE FAR-RIGHT SOURCE! I know Cyanide and Happiness is not politically aligned with the far-right, I've seen enough of their comics over the years. But sharing (and thus sanitizing) disinformation websites is not a good idea and we should all be careful.

[bllsbailey]

Biden Approves Lethal Aid Package For Ukraine, Weapon Sales To Saudi Arabia

The United States is sending weapons of war to Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.

The war pigs are feasting from their troughs.

On Friday, the Biden White House announced its latest lethal aid package to Ukraine. It is part of America’s $175 billion investment in the country.

Officials say Ukraine is being hit by attacks from Russia and needs all the support it can get from its allies.

“This would be our 63rd tranche of equipment since August of 2021, and the 10th since the president signed the National Security Supplemental in April,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said. “Included in this package are Stinger missiles, more 155- and 105-millimeter artillery ammunition, which has been instrumental, in anti-armor systems as well.”

Meanwhile, Joe Biden announced he’s reversing his ban on the sale of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia.

Biden campaigned on making Saudi Arabia a pariah state over its alleged involvement in the murder of Washington Post reporter Jamal Kashoggi and role in the devastating civil war in Yemen.

However, like all administrations, Biden’s capitulated to the kingdom on all things security.

Experts say the administration is also taking the middle eastern proverb, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, to heart.

They say officials are trying to bolster ties with Saudi Arabia to help take on Iran.

This comes as tensions between Iran and Israel are boiling over after Israel assassinated a top Hamas official in Iranian soil.

National security officials have been worried that Iran could strike at any moment.

“I’m certainly not going to speak to what Iran may or may not be planning,” Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department said. “Other than to say, as we’ve said for several days now, and it’s been the, the, focus of our diplomatic engagements is we continue to make clear to Iran that they should not escalate this conflict. They should not take, any further escalatory steps, that those steps are not in their interests. They’re not in the interests of a, the wider region.”

In the meantime, it is unknown when lethal aid will be sent to Saudi Arabia or what weapons of war will be provided.

Biden seems to want his legacy to be marked by one thing, making sure America is the number one weapons peddler in the world.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

[theculturedmarxist]

Bryan Fogel’s “The Dissident” was too hot to handle.

The documentary about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist and political activist who was allegedly killed in 2018 on the orders of the Saudi Royal Family, was one of the hottest films at last year’s Sundance. It had glowing reviews, a ripped from the headlines subject, and a big-name director in Fogel, fresh off the Oscar-winning “Icarus,” a penetrating look at Russian doping that got the country banned from the Olympics.

And yet, Netflix, which had previously released “Icarus,” and other streaming services such as Apple and Amazon steered clear of “The Dissident.” Without any interested buyers, the film languished until last fall. That’s when Briarcliff Entertainment, an obscure distributor run by former Open Road CEO Tom Ortenberg, announced it would release the movie on-demand.

Fogel thinks the subject matter was too explosive for bigger companies, which have financial ties to Saudi Arabia or are looking to access the country’s massive population of well-to-do consumers. Using interviews with Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz, as well as friends and fellow activists, Fogel creates a damning portrait of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s apparent involvement in brutally silencing the writer and thinker and the country’s crackdown on free speech. Thanks to previously unreleased audio recordings, “The Dissident” draws a direct line between Khashoggi’s assassination at the Saudi embassy in Turkey and the Saudi government’s anger over his outspoken criticism of the country’s human rights abuses and mismanagement.

“The Dissident” is currently available on-demand, but its rather muted release isn’t the way Fogel had dreamed of provoking a larger conversation around Khashoggi’s murder. He spoke to Variety about the difficulty of making “The Dissident” and then getting it seen and why he thinks his new movie had the major streamers running scared.

Why did you want to make “The Dissident”?

After the success of “Icarus,” I felt a great burden and social responsibility to make a worthy follow-up. I was looking for a story regarding human rights, regarding freedom of speech, freedom of press, journalism. I also wanted a story that had real world implications that could create real world change through social action or political action.

As the investigation into the murder of Jamal unfolded, my ears perked up and I immediately started reading more about this man. I hadn’t heard of him, but I found out how trusted and regarded he was as a voice on the Middle East. He was also being presented in many media circles as a terrorist sympathizer or member of the Muslim Brotherhood or a friend of Bin Laden. This was not true. He was a moderate, who was fighting for free speech for his country and believed women should have rights. He believed Mohammed Bin Salman’s policies were putting the country on the wrong direction.

Was it difficult to get his friends and fiancee and family to speak to you?

It was very very difficult. This is where the accolades and recognition of “Icarus” and the Academy Award really changed the conversation. In those weeks following his death every journalist was after Hatice. As I approached her and other people, they were able to see my prior work. Hatice invited me about a month after his murder to come and meet with her in Istanbul. I didn’t bring a film crew. I spent the next five weeks there just building trust. It was a harrowing time in her life and I just kept explaining that I was not there for a day or a week or a month. I told her: if we do this, we’re going to go on this journey together. I promised that if she let me into her life, I was going to protect Jamal.

At the Sundance premiere, you challenged distributors to “…not be fearful and give this the global release that this deserves.” How did that turn out?

[Netflix CEO] Reed Hastings was there that day and so was Hillary Clinton. We had a standing ovation. People were wiping tears from their eyes as Hatice took the stage. It was the same scene at each one of our screenings. We were blessed with incredible reviews from all of the trades. In any normal circumstance, you’d think of course this film is going to be acquired and distributed. And yet not only was it not acquired and distributed, there was universal silence. Not a single offer. Not for one dollar or not 12 million dollars, which was what was paid for another documentary title at the festival. Nothing. It was literally as if nobody knew me. It was that startling and that shocking.

Six months later Tom Ortenberg and Briarcliff Entertainment stepped forward and said, hey we want to distribute this film. That’s wonderful. People will be able to rent this film on-demand. But what I wanted was for this film to be streaming into 200 million households around the world. I wanted people to have easy access to it. Instead we pieced together global distribution here and there.

Will this have a chilling effect on movies that want to tackle these kinds of controversial subjects?

This is a depressing and eye-opening moment that any filmmaker that wishes to tell a story like this needs to pay attention to. These global media conglomerates are aiding and abetting and silencing films that take on subject matter like this despite the fact their audiences want content like this. I was told that “Icarus” has had somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 million views. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but I know it was substantial. The decision not to acquire “The Dissident” had nothing to do with its critical reviews, had nothing to do with a global audience’s appetite to watch a docu-thriller, but had everything to do with business interests and politics and, who knows, perhaps pressure from the Saudi government. Netflix did remove Hasan Minhaj’s episode of “Patriot Act” [at the Saudi government’s request] in 2019 and defended that decision by saying, “we’re not a truth to power company. We’re an entertainment company.” It has been a struggle to get this film into the world and to shine a light on the human rights abuses that are happening in that kingdom. These companies, that have chosen not to distribute this film, in my opinion, are complicit.

Have you had conversations with these companies about why they didn’t want to release “The Dissident”? If so what has been their response?

It has been to not respond.

Is this about money? Are they wary of angering the Saudi Royal Family because they have money from Saudi Arabia or want to access their market?

My guess is both. Decisions are being made that it’s better to keep our doors open to Saudi business and Saudi money than it is to do anything to anger the kingdom. Netflix released a statement regarding Black Lives Matter that is in direct contrast to their statement regarding Hasan Minahaj. One stands behind truth to power and the other says we’re not a truth to power company, so it appears they are a truth to power company when it is convenient. But when their business doesn’t align with that or it might impact their subscriber growth, they’re not. The same can be said for all the streaming companies. In the film, there’s Jeff Bezos on the stage with Hatice. Jamal worked for Jeff Bezos [at the Washington Post, which Bezos owns]. So the same can be said of Amazon. I don’t want to point a finger at anyone because it’s all of them. This is a situation where business, subscriber growth, investment was more important than human rights. There’s got to be greater accountability. Not just on a business level, but on a political level. Trump vetoed the desire of both the House and the Senate to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for this crime. He continued to sell them weapons. He’s trying to get the Justice Department to grant Mohammed Bin Salman immunity from prosecution.

Would you still work for Netflix or the other streamers who declined to release “The Dissident”?

Listen, this is my career. This is my work. I’m sure that I will have other projects that might not take on subject matter like this and are not at odds with their business interests. When those projects come along, I will be glad to work with any of these companies. Look, I love Netflix. I really, really do. I’m so grateful to them because without Netflix, “Icarus” would not have become what it became. I’m not insulted by this. I’m not personally offended. I don’t view anything that is happening as personal. I just view it as business. I can understand it on a business level. I don’t agree with it, but I get it. I’m not mad. I’m disappointed.

What message do you want viewers will take away from the film?

There’s a hashtag #JusticeForJamal and the question has to become what does justice mean? We know that Mohammed Bin Salman will not stand trial for this murder. We know that the henchmen he sent are unlikely to truly stand trial. We have to look to the future. So what I hope people will take from the film is knowledge, because knowledge is power. Just like “Icarus” or “Blackfish” or “The Cove,” I hope this film has the ability to change hearts and minds. As more and more people come to “The Dissident,” I hope there’s a call to action. I hope that takes place on social media or through writing letters to congressmen or senators. The first thing I hope is people will spread the word. The second thing is I hope they will use the power of free speech that we have in this country and are so blessed to have to change the narrative. The Arab Spring happened because of Twitter, the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements took hold because of social media. We’ve seen that through combined action, change can come.

Disclosure: SRMG, a Saudi publishing and media company which is publicly traded, remains a minority investor in PMC, Variety’s parent company.

[beingpeople]

Of course “its not like he’s Jamal Khashoggi”

Jamal Kashoggi had the protection and was treated as though in better interests of the United States.

[thepoliticalcure]

Post 289: Saudis sentence five to death for journalist's murder

Read: 23 November 2019

A statement by the Saudi public prosecutor said a total of 31 individuals were investigated over the killing and that 21 of them were arrested. Eleven were eventually referred to trial at the Riyadh Criminal Court and the public prosecutor sought the death penalty for five of them. 

Human Rights Watch said the trial, which took place behind closed doors, did not meet international standards and that the Saudi authorities had "obstructed meaningful accountability".

."Bottom line: the hit-men are guilty, sentenced to death. The masterminds not only walk free. They have barely been touched by the investigation and the trial," Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard wrote on Twitter.

Investigators concluded that Khashoggi was forcibly restrained after a struggle and injected with a large amount of a drug, resulting in an overdose that led to his death, Mr Shalaan said. His body was then dismembered and handed over to a local "collaborator" outside the consulate, he added. The remains were not found.

Frank Gardner, BBC’s security correspondent commented that “Saudi Arabia, with its vast oil wealth and allies in the White House, will doubtless be expecting that any outrage will soon give way to business as usual.”

[thenib]

From Scott Bateman.

[berniesrevolution]

The suspected murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabia is pushing the U.S. government toward a major internal confrontation over its role in the war in Yemen, one that could have significant consequences for a Saudi-led, U.S.-backed intervention that has exacerbated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

On Monday, 55 members of Congress, led by Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., wrote to the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, asking whether the intelligence community knew about a plot to apprehend Khashoggi ahead of time, and whether the U.S. government fulfilled its “duty to warn” him.

The letter — the text of which was already made public by Khanna and Pocan — states that the DNI’s answers will inform coming votes on the Yemen war. “We look forward to your timely response to our inquiry as both the House of Representatives and the Senate consider privileged resolutions this fall … which invoke Congress’s sole constitutional authority over the offensive use of force to end illegal U.S. military participation with Saudi Arabia in Yemen,” the letter reads. It also promises to “use the full force of Congressional oversight and investigatory powers” if the Trump administration does not respond.

The Post reported earlier this month that U.S. intelligence had intercepts of Saudi government officials, which showed “that the crown prince ordered an operation to lure … Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia.” But it is not known whether U.S. officials knew of the threats to harm him, and if they did, whether they took any action to make Khashoggi aware of them as required by a 2015 intelligence community directive.

The results of the upcoming midterms may determine the significance of congressional outrage over Khashoggi’s killing. Signatories of the DNI letter include Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the ranking member of the House Judiciary, and Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the ranking member of House appropriations, meaning that if Democrats take control of the House of Representatives next month, they could investigate the intelligence community’s response and potentially call government witnesses to answer in a classified hearing.

The midterms could also affect a resolution introduced last month invoking the 1973 War Powers Act, which directs President Donald Trump to remove U.S. forces from “hostilities” related to the three-year, Saudi-led intervention in Yemen. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced a companion bill in the Senate last week.

The resolution will almost certainly receive a vote in each chamber, which will be the first time Congress has voted on a measure that could cut off U.S. support for the Saudi-led intervention. Khanna told The Intercept last week that he expects the resolution to pass, and that Khashoggi’s death had “permanently damaged” the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

(Continue Reading)

[porterdavis]

“Very strong denial”

Wow, even foreign leaders are now playing Trump like a mark. The King of Saudi Arabia denied ‘very. very strongly” having anything to do with the WAPO journalist’s death. Trump went before the cameras and repeated this verbatim. (See also: very, very strong denials by Vladimir Putin, Roy Moore, Brett Kavanaugh). 

Within 24 hours the King cut the ground out from under Trump saying it was an interrogation gone wrong, so sorry for any confusion. Trump is now twisting in the wind with his assurances of the King’s assurances. Marked and played for a sucker.

[margaretismyjoy]

The Guardians and the War of Truth

Jamal Khashoggi is the Washington Post columnist murdered for his criticism of the Saudi crown prince. His murder has prompted a global reassessment of the Saudi crown prince and a really long overdue look at the devastating war in Yemen.

Maria Ressa is the editor of a Philippine news website renowned for its critical coverage of its president’s controversially violent policies

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are two Reuters journalists who were arrested in Myanmar while investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine, Myanmar.

The Capital Gazette is the paper targeted by a gunman who opened fire into the newsroom, killing four journalists and a sales assistant.

“They are representative of a broader fight by countless others around the world — as of Dec. 10, at least 52 journalists have been murdered in 2018 — who risk all to tell the story of our time,” Felsenthal wrote in his essay.

[bwookleen]

There will never be justice in this world. No matter how hard we try, powerful men get away with murder and sexual assault. Their heels are crushing our necks and they grow ever more defiant when we try to push back. This age of public relations and clout means that no one is accountable for their actions. They weasle their way around the law using the influence they’ve garnered when the world was a shittier, more illusive place. Now their corruption is on full display because the masses clamoured for transparency in the age of the internet and social media. Yet those same powerful men twist that tool meant for enlightenment to their advantage, muddying the waters and sending the world back into a shroud of confusion and false transparency. We’ve been divided and conquered through misinformation that appealed to our most base instincts. There will never be justice in this world because no matter how loud we yell or scream or lament the injustices of the powerful, they will find a way to suppress us.

[anestheticx]

Trump doesn’t give a shit that the Saudi’s murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, because he “doesn’t want to ruin a great financial deal.” He has basically condoned murder in the name of profit. This is a scary time for journalists who report even in the slightest form of truthful resistance. Human rights mean nothing to Trump. On top of that Trump then attempted to explain how it’s hilariously okay for his daughter to do what he wanted Hillary Clinton locked up for. This is the behavior of a dictator. #IvankaIsAJoke #LockHerUp #Ironic #RememberKhashoggi

[menalovers]

Interesting story. Apparently, the mainstream media are failing to tell us that Khashoggi for most of his career was a big supporter of the Saudis.

Rather than telling the truth, the media make Khashoggi out to be some hardcore dissident who was murdered for speaking out. Anyway, I knew the whole story was fishy. John Brennan, Obama era CIA director wanted MBS replaced with MBN so the CIA orchestrate this whole story. I’m happy Trump is not going along with it.

[realcleverissues]

P.s. Aside from Lyin Trump’s usual “fake news” BS, insulting reporters, and recently banning a reporter, I want to remind everyone that WaPo journalist Jamal Kashoggi was recently murdered, and it’s believed he was dismembered and then dissolved in acid. (The body is still missing.) Low IQ Trump has done nothing to address it.