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South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said that Saudi Arabia “can’t fight out of a paper bag” when confronted with Middle East Challenges including Iran, during an interview with Fox News on December 9th.
He insisted that the US has the necessary leverage to punish the Saudi leadership and namely Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
“Let me put it this way — I want to be very blunt with you. If it weren’t for the United States they’d be speaking Farsi in about a week in Saudi Arabia,” Graham said.
Lindsey Graham was one of the eight senators who sat at the briefing of CIA Director Gina Haspel on December 4th.
Following the briefing, Graham said that there is “zero chance” that MbS was not involved in the Khashoggi killing.
“There’s not a smoking gun. There’s a smoking saw,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham
On December 9th, Graham elaborated further on what went on in the briefing.
“It’s the most brilliant briefing I’ve ever received in my time in Congress,” Graham said. “You had two analysts that walk us through the crown prince’s focus on Mr. Khashoggi for about two years. This operation was very sophisticated. The person in charge of executing the operation is MBS’s right-hand man. There is no doubt by any senator who received this briefing that MBS was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi.”
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he believes if the crown prince were put on trial, a jury would find him guilty in “about 30 minutes.”
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, also confirmed Graham’s words on CNN’s State of the Union on December 9th.
“We don’t need direct evidence that he ordered the code red on this thing. The bottom line is that there is no way that 17 people close to him got a charter plane, flew to a third country, went into a consulate, killed and chopped up a man, and flew back, and he didn’t know about it, much less order it.”
The US imposed a slew of sanctions against the individuals who US intelligence has determined were involved in the murder.
But the White House has voiced fears that taking more aggressive action against Saudi Arabia might unnecessarily compromise U.S. strategic interests, as well as arms deals worth more than $100 billion. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis have also expressed their concern against angering Saudi Arabia, because it appears to be against US National Security interests.
However, Lindsey Graham had the following to say regarding the fears:
“They give us 9 percent of our oil imports. We need them a lot less than they need us. I don’t buy this idea you’ve got to hook up to a murderous regime, a thug like MBS, to protect America from Iran. Quite the opposite. I think by hooking up with him we hurt our ability to govern the region.”
Graham further claimed that MbS is targeting others too:
“It’s not just this dissident he’s going after. He’s going after others, people have been captured in other countries and brought back to Saudi Arabia because they’ve been critics in these countries. He put the Lebanese prime minister under house arrest in the most bizarre episode I’ve seen in 20 years and it goes on and on and on.”
He further claimed that the Crown Prince’s aim is to sever US and Saudi Arabia ties, calling him a “wrecking ball” and “crazy.”
“Well, we’re going to label him complicit. We’re going to have a vote in the Senate saying that MBS was complicit in the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. I’m never gonna support any more arms sales to Saudi Arabia.”
His final words refer to a bipartisan push for a resolution calling MbS “complicit” in the Khashoggi killing. Graham introduced the measure.
McClatchy.dc published an article calling the agreement between Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham “the End Times.”
The two senators who were always opposed in terms of foreign policy, appear to be of the same mind regarding Saudi Arabia.
“It’s a sign that this president’s foreign policy has gone badly askew when Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham are generally in agreement,” said Sen. Chris Murphy.
The vote on the bill that would ban US arms sales to Saudi Arabia, which Graham and Paul are both supporters of will more than unlikely not be up for vote in Congress before the end of 2018.
Who would want to ally up with a regime that is so poor at everything (except oil) that they plan an assassin@tion and bring a guy with a full head of hair to act like a double for a guy that has been bald for 10 years at least (or bring a bone saw through customs). These are guys that will always be more dangerous as friends than as enemies because they are so inept at everything.
Who said they brought a bone saw though customs? What proof? If they did they would have brought it in diplomatic bags.
That would have made them official diplomats (which they weren’t) and then it would have been even worse. :’) Customs found it in their bags.
They actually gave the bone saw to those who flew commercial. Most of them escaped by private plane. Hahah! Idiots! That is what you get sitting on your backside all day ,thinking you are superior whilst bringing in bucketloads of foreigners to do the real running of the country!
So this is the opening parrley into bringing democracy to saudi arabia.
Was this ever about Iran??
It’s there already: named Saudi Aramco and it is above the law. They are independent from the government and issue their own Visas etc. Had been there, and it is a totally different world than the rest of KSA. And it is run by US Americans.
Saudi oil is the one egg in us treasury basket…makes sense they would protect it.
There will never be ‘democracy’ in Saudi Arabia. Because the holy cities of Mecca and Medina reside in SA it will always be a Theocracy or a muslim led monarchy as exists today. Any attempt to form a democracy in SA would be met with rebellion and war. There is no sense in even considering democracy in SA and I doubt even the most myopic neo-con would ever consider beating his head against that wall.
Why not? How about a constitutionnal monarchy? Thats what kashoggi was advocating for.
Works for us? Why beat on the wall when there is a door?
“Why not?” The Arabs are loyal to family first then the state and it’s been such for 5000 years. The Arabs are also muslim …. a faith that demands loyalty to the faith above loyalty to the state.
“How about a constitutionnal monarchy?” You could give it a try but you have to think along Arab time scale. They, like China can spend 200 years pondering the merits of a constitution whereas in the west we tend to make decisions around 24 hour news cycles or 4 year election cycles. Societal change will never come fast to the Arab culture and without going into a lengthy explanation the muslim faith tends toward theocracy. The few Muslim states that have tried on democracy tend to fall into despotism.
“Thats what kashoggi was advocating for.” and look what happened to him.
“Works for us?” Who is us and what would compel Arabs to want to become like “us”?
“Why beat on the wall when there is a door?” Exactly …. except the door is shut, the west has been trying to pry it open with bribes and warfare for centuries and this is the root of Islamic terrorism and kings who spend $$$ billions on weapons they have no idea how to use. Smart people would have learned the lesson by now unfortunately greed trumps brains 99% of the time and they have a hell of a lot of oil on the Arabian peninsula.
Thanks for a well thought out reply.
When i said works for us…i meant you and me my snowy buddy. Pretty sure your north of 49 just like me ;)
The idea of a constitutio nal democracy in saudi arabia is not mine, read kashoggi’s imperialist trash, i read it once and it was enough for me. The people would not benefit at all from this i agree. The ony beneficiaries would be western corps who would rush in to buy all the saudi assets.
Imagine russia under Eltsin…
Who is to say the greedyoligarchs
A big societal change like handing power from an autocratic clan to individuals is never a peaceful proposition. Once that stabilizing autocracy is lifted you have people seeking revenge for thousand year old slights or insults and other seeking a leg up in the new power structure.
In my opinion if you have an autocratic system that allows the country to function the people are better off with that system than removing the system and having the country descend into chaos.
Some people simply want autocracy and /or aren’t prepared or socialized for democracy. Today even among westerners I don’t see a lot of support for democracy. What I see is people paying lip service to democracy but then being completely autocratic in their actions and the politics they support.
Western democracy is about 250 years old and any old culture considering the merits of democracy would likely say “never in a million fucking years” after watching the shit show of the last 20 years.
Well the idea is not far fetched grumpy, they tried it in Iraq next door. Your assuming that the people of SA will have a choice in what is shoved down their throat.
I hope your right…
Khashogshi was a sack of shit that was pals with the former goat fucking king. Do not take his assassination as a sign that he was smart or morally a good person.
Edit: reading your below comments I understand you already know this, please carry on :)
Haha yes ive been picking on the poor fucker for days now.
I wont mourn an imperialist like him, besides, the imperial media is doing a good job with those crocodile tears….oscar vote anyone???
“I think by hooking up with him we hurt our ability to govern the region.”
Since when was any part of the Middle East US territory to be “governed”?
I thought it was the USA’s evangelical mission to spread freedom and democracy throughout the world yet here we have a US senator publically admitting the USA partners with tyranical regimes to “govern” people they have no right or authority to rule over.
I realize that the USA has been using that “freedom and democracy” line forever while in reality they have supported some of the most repressive, fascist regimes of the 20th and 21st centuries but it’s so rare that a high ranking US senator representing the party in power has a slip of the tongue that reveals the true nature of US foreign policy
Its an obvious CIA set up of MBS. MBS a little too open mouth, buying S-400, visiting Russia too much, investing in Russia too much, in the way for Great Israel.
Not really, the Saudis are literally dumber than a rock. I worked in Saudi Arabia in the 80’s and saw that the average Bedouin could not even change a car tire and used to abandon flat tire cars on the desert highways and then Pakis and other south Asian mechanics would fix them. I saw a Saudi airforce training exercise at Tabuk airfore base when a formation of 4 BAE Hawks were put on show, one the planes had a flame out or an engine failure and all the 4 pilots from all jets ejected. The Saudis are dumber than dumb.
“…we hurt our ability to govern the region.” (The faggot Graham said.)
Well, at least somebody admitted it.
The Saudi Bedouin illiterate scum have been sold a $TRILLION in inflated priced worthless weapons from the US, UK, France and other EU puppets since 1960. Most of the weaponry has been stockpiled for NATO use as they did in the invasion of Iraq and terrorism in Syria. The Saudi “military” is mostly made up of Pakis, Sudanese and other mercenaries while the puppet officer corps is controlled by the CIA. The Saudis have no real command structure or training. The Americunt morons fuel their planes, maintain them and even provide targeting info and weapons arming. The Saudi shitheads have the most modern armor in the world, consisting of M1 Abrams and French Le Clerc tanks but don’t have trained operators to even drive them let alone manage the computerized battlefield systems. The Ansarollah are wreaking havoc on the Saudis and their mercenaries by sheer dint of courage, determination and cohesion. At least Lindsey Graham is stating the obvious. A group of Hezbollah youth scouts can defeat the whole Saudi military, and that is a FACT!
They’re getting sloppy
Saudi Arabia is controlled by the Jews. Inside sources have said that a number of the Royal family studies the Talmud not the Koran. These are the reasons why these events are transpiring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLU8l1C9NKY
I always get nervous when graham makes sense.
Saudi Arabia is a western weapons forced sales exhortation racket. The US, Canada and EU nations sell downgraded weaponry to the Saudis at Jew sale prices. The Saudi pilots sent to the US for training normally spend their time raping redneck boys, rather than learning how to fly.
A 25-year-old Saudi Arabian air force officer was sentenced to at least 35 years in a US prison for oral and anal rape of a 10 year old American boy. However, Mazen Alotaibi’s will serve minimum prison time and will be deported to avoid negative publicity, since Saudi Arabia is the US largest weapons export market. Alotaibi came to the U.S. for military training at Keesler Air Force base in Biloxi, Mississippi.
I’m sure Salman had Khashoggi killed, I’m also sure senior members of the US Government had Seth Rich killed. The US killed Zhang Shoucheng a few days ago.
Why is it OK for the US to murder people, but not KSA?