Trump gives Saudi prince pass on Khashoggi slaying

By refusing to allow the FBI to investigate the assassination of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a resident of the U.S., President Donald J. Trump has delivered this reassuring message to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: I have your back, my friend.

Salman, who is in line to succeed his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, as ruler of the oil-rich Middle Eastern nation, is implicated in the brutal slaying of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist.

But despite President Trump’s willingness to hold the Saudi royal harmless, a chilling report published recently by the United Nations’ special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings blamed the Saudi government for the murder.

Agnes Callamard’s report provides gruesome details about Khashoggi’s death last October in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey.

The 59-year-old journalist, a Saudi citizen who had been harshly critical of Crown Prince Salman and other government officials, had gone to the embassy to secure paperwork he needed to get married.

According to Callamard’s findings, Khashoggi was referred to as a “sacrificial animal.”

The Guardian newspaper of Britain reported that one Saudi official at the consulate asked whether it would “be possible to put the trunk in a bag.”

Another replies: “No. Too heavy. It is not a problem. The body is heavy. First time I cut on the ground. If we take plastic bags and cut it into pieces, it will be finished. We will wrap each of them.”

Transcripts of conversations after Khashoggi’s arrival at the consulate include the journalist saying: “There is a towel here. Are you going to give me drugs?”

The reply: “We will anaesthetise (sic) you.”

That exchange is just one of many contained in U.N. rapporteur Callamard’s report.

Salman’s bodyguard

It is noteworthy that the individual who called the journalist a “sacrificial animal” was none other than Maher Abdulaziz al-Mutreb, a senior Saudi intelligence officer and bodyguard of Crown Prince Salman.

And yet, President Trump, who has boasted about his close relationship with the Saudi royal family, won’t point the finger of blame.

In an interview with NBC, Trump said he wasn’t going to order an FBI investigation because “I think it’s been heavily investigated.”

Asked who had conducted investigations, the president replied, “By everybody. I mean, I’ve seen so many different reports.”

There haven’t been many different reports – only Turkey’s release of transcripts of conversations inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and now the compelling findings by the U.N.

But the real reason for Trump’s willingness to bestow upon Crown Prince Salman a presidential kiss has to do with money.

The president told NBC that Saudi Arabia spends billions upon billions of dollars buying U.S. weapons.

“I only say they spend $400 billion to $450 billion over a period of time, all money, all jobs, buying equipment,” he said.

But as The Guardian newspaper noted, the figures cited by Trump are drastically overinflated.

“In fact Saudi Arabia last year signed ‘letters of offer and acceptance’ for $14.5bn in military purchases from the U.S.,” according to the newspaper.

It is noteworthy that the U.S. Senate has voted to block the Trump administration selling arms to Saudi Arabia. Seven Republicans joined Democrats in passing the measure.

Trump has pledged to veto the legislation and proceed with the sale of arms.

So how does Republican Trump, a self-acclaimed billionaire real-estate developer from New York City who won election in 2016 by touting his business credentials, respond to suggestions that he has placed the sale of arms above the life of an innocent human being who was only doing his job as a journalist?

“I’m not like a fool that says, ‘We don’t want to do business with them.’” Trump told NBC. “And by the way, if they don’t do business with us, you know what they do? They’ll do business with the Russians or with the Chinese …”

Incidentally, Trump also wants to do business with China, which must worry the thousands of demonstrators in Hong Kong who have been railing against Beijing’s heavy-handed policies.

How would the White House respond if the dictatorship decided to quell the protests with brutal force?

Although Trump has imposed wide-ranging economic sanctions against China, he has said a trade agreement that benefits the U.S. is in the offing.