bu, bu, but mah Uranium ONE! https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/tru...eals-saudi-arabia-khashoggi/story?id=63492793 Trump administration approved 2 nuclear deals to Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul The Trump administration approved two nuclear technology transfers to Saudi Arabia after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to Democratic lawmakers who oppose the deals. The news Tuesday is the latest outrage for Congress, which has grown increasingly frustrated with the Saudis and especially President Donald Trump's defense of the kingdom after its war in Yemen and Khashoggi's brutal slaying by Saudi agents inside its consulate in Istanbul. In particular, lawmakers have expressed concern about Saudi Arabia's pursuit of nuclear weapons and a lack of oversight on these agreements. But much of the ire also is focused on the Trump administration for moving ahead on high-level deals with the Saudis after a U.S. resident was murdered.
Facebook Twitter Flipboard Email Copy NEWS Saudi killers called Khashoggi ‘sacrificial animal’ before murder: UN report By Max Jaeger June 19, 2019 | 2:12pm Enlarge Image Jamal KhashoggiGetty Images MORE ON: JAMAL KHASHOGGI UN: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should be investigated for Khashoggi's murder Senators to introduce more legislation opposing Saudi arms sales Judge blasts feds for delays on Jamal Khashoggi documents Goldman Sachs back to business in Saudi Arabia despite Khashoggi murder The Saudi operatives who killed journalist Jamal Khashoggi referred to their prey as the “sacrificial animal,” according to a new report by the UN Human Rights Council’s The Special Rapporteur released Wednesday. The report, which also found “credible evidence” that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was liable for the “execution,” detailed how Riyadh goons plotted the Washington Post columnist’s death, dismemberment and disposal before he ever stepped foot in Istanbul’s Saudi Arabian consulate where he was on Oct. 2. Minutes before Khashoggi entered the consulate seeking guidance on a marriage license at 1:15 p.m., Saudi intelligence officer Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb and Saudi Interior Ministry forensic specialist Dr. Salah Mohammed Tubaigy hatched their plot to dispose of Khashoggi’s body, according to a recording from inside the consulate that was provided to investigators. Will it “be possible to put the trunk in a bag?” Mutreb asked. “No. Too heavy,” Tubaigy responded, musing he hoped the disposal would “be easy.” Then Tubaigy laid out the plan: “Joints will be separated. 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,” he said, also referencing “Leather bags,” according to the UN report. Afterward, Mutreb asked if “the sacrificial animal” had arrived, to which another person responded, “He has arrived.” The two never mentioned Khashoggi by name, but moments later, his voice appears on the tape. At 1:22 p.m., Mutreb can be heard asking Khashoggi whether he is carrying any phones — then instructing the journalist to “Send a message to your son.” When Khashoggi asked what he should say, Mutreb offered to coach him through it. “You will type a message – let’s rehearse; show us,” he said according to the report, which does not indicate what Khashoggi’s message to his son was. SEE ALSO UN: Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should be investigated for Khashoggi's murder Khashoggi refused and Mutreb shot back: “Type it, Mr. Jamal. Hurry up. Help us so that we can help you because at the end we will take you back to Saudi Arabia and if you don’t help us you know what will happen at the end; let this issue find a good end.” Minutes later, Khashoggi can be heard remarking that “there is a towel here. Are you going to give me drugs?” — to which Mutreb responded they would “anesthetize him.” Next, the sounds of a struggle can be heard. Investigators believe the Saudis sedated Khashoggi and suffocated him using a plastic bag, according to the UN report. According to the report, the killers made statements including: “Did he sleep?” “He raises his head,” “Keep pushing,” and “Push here; don’t remove your hand; push it.” The remainder of the recording captured the sounds of heaving and grunting as the Saudis dismembered the slain journalist and likely wrapped his body in plastic sheets. In December, Turkish intelligence officials revealed that a sawing sound could be heardon the recording, but the UN The Special Rapporteur could not confirm the source of the noises. By 3 p.m., their gruesome work was finished, and several men were seen on CCTV leaving the consulate in a van and then hauling plastic bags into the Consular General’s residence two minutes later
to misdirect: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...?utm_source=google&utm_medium=bd&cmpId=google Trump Briefed on Reports of a Missile Strike in Saudi Arabia President Donald Trump has been briefed on reports of a missile strike in Saudi Arabia, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Wednesday night. “We are closely monitoring the situation and continuing to consult with our partners and allies,” Sanders said in a statement. She did not provide further details, and there was very little information about the apparent missile strike, including where, exactly, it occurred. Her statement was released amid growing tensions in the Middle East, and between the U.S. and Iran after attacks on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman last week. A news agency operated by the Houthi rebels in Yemen said that the Houthis had hit a power station in Jazan, Saudi Arabia, with a cruise missile. That report could not be independently confirmed, but the Houthis have attacked targets on Saudi territory with drones and missiles. In 2015, a Saudi-led military coalition entered the Yemeni civil war on the side of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. His government has been battling the Houthis, who have received support from Iran.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/23/us/politics/trump-khashoggi-killing-saudi-arabia.html Trump Shrugs Off Killing of Khashoggi by Saudi Agents, Saying Saudi Arabia Is an Important Trading Partner WASHINGTON — President Trump on Sunday shrugged off the brutal dismembering of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, just days after a United Nations report described how a team of Saudi assassins called Mr. Khashoggi a “sacrificial animal” before his murder. The U.N. report urged an F.B.I. investigation into the slaying. But in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Trump said the episode had already been thoroughly investigated. He said the Middle East is “a vicious, hostile place” and noted that Saudi Arabia is an important trading partner with the United States. “I only say they spend $400 to $450 billion over a period of time, all money, all jobs, buying equipment,” the president told Chuck Todd, the show’s moderator. “I’m not like a fool that says, ‘We don’t want to do business with them.’ 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.” "but our top 5 trading partners are treated like garbage because my own business interests don't line up with theirs"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...329a9c-a8ce-11e9-9214-246e594de5d5_story.html House votes to block Trump’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia, setting up a likely veto The House voted Wednesday to undo President Trump’s bid to sidestep Congress and complete several arms sales benefiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, sending three disapproval resolutions to the Oval Office, where they are expected to be vetoed. The Trump administration announced in May that it would invoke emergency authority to push through 22 deals worth more than $8 billion, sales that include missiles, munitions and surveillance aircraft. A bipartisan majority in both the House and Senate — but not a veto-proof majority — objected to the move, which would replenish part of the Saudi arsenal that lawmakers say has been used against civilians in Yemen’s long-running civil war. Members of both parties also object to the idea of rewarding Saudi leaders at a time when most lawmakers want to punish them for the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But only four Republicans — Reps. Mike Gallagher (Wis.), Trey Hollingsworth (Ind.), Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Alex Mooney (W.Va.), plus newly independent Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.) — joined Democrats to pass the resolutions, which the Senate approved last month. The Trump administration has insisted that the weapons sales are necessary to counter an increasing threat from Iran, which is suspected in attacks on petrochemical tankers in recent weeks and shot down a U.S. Navy surveillance drone. House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that the resolutions were an “extraordinary but necessary” step to counteract an “abuse of power,” charging that the Trump administration had created “a phony emergency to override the authority of Congress” to prevent the deals. Trump has stymied most congressional efforts to punish Saudi Arabia — including a measure this year to end U.S. support for the Saudi-led military coalition operating in Yemen. The promise of the president’s continued opposition is complicating lawmakers’ efforts to determine their next move. The clash is playing out acutely in the GOP-led Senate, where Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James E. Risch (R-Idaho) recently unveiled legislation to sanction Saudi leaders allegedly involved in Khashoggi’s killing by denying them U.S. visas — but stopped short of more aggressive steps that Democrats and some Republicans have endorsed. “You can either have a fig leaf that gives you political cover, or you can really do something,” the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), said in an interview, comparing Risch’s bill to a measure he has penned with a bipartisan group of senators, led by himself and Sen. Todd C. Young (R-Ind.). That bill would couple sanctions on Saudi leaders — including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom U.S. intelligence agencies say ordered Khashoggi’s killing — with a moratorium on transfers of nondefensive weapons to the kingdom. None of those measures, Risch said, could become law. “I’m not criticizing Bob [Menendez]. He has a view that he wants to do something stronger than what this bill is, and I agree with him in many respects,” Risch said in an interview. “The difficulty is, it will never become law . . . and I want to have a say about this.” Democrats are frustrated that Risch is having the committee vote for his and Menendez’s bills separately next week instead of joining forces to deliver GOP leaders a compromise they could force the president to accept. On Wednesday, Menendez accused Risch of breaking a deal they made last month, saying he was trying split the vote and ensure that only the Republican bill — what he called “the weaker one” — would ever make it to the Senate floor. “It will give Republicans cover to say they did something on Saudi Arabia, they did something on the Khashoggi murder, but without much consequence whatsoever,” Menendez said. Risch rejected that charge — and the notion that there was any practical room for compromise with Menendez’s legislation. “My bill is the middle ground. It’s bipartisan. It has been heavily shopped with the administration, both the White House and the State Department. My bill can become law,” he said. “If my bill leaves the committee looking like [Menendez’s] bill, it is not going to become law.” Democrats may try to amend Risch’s bill next week to make it more like theirs. But if they are successful, Risch said, he would personally advise Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) not to put it on the floor. “I’m trying to make this committee relevant, to having a voice in foreign relations,” he said. “The way you do that is, you have to have some type of give and take with the second branch of government, who has a lot to say about this. This bill is that product.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...047c32-ae65-11e9-a0c9-6d2d7818f3da_story.html Trump vetoes Congress’s attempt to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia President Trump on Wednesday vetoed three resolutions that Congress passed to stop several arms sales benefiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which the president pushed through without congressional approval. Earlier this month, bipartisan majorities — but not a veto-proof majority — in the House and Senate voted to block the arms deals, worth more than $8 billion. The sales would replenish part of the Saudi arsenal that lawmakers say has been used against civilians in Yemen’s civil war. Many lawmakers also object to the idea of rewarding Saudi leaders after the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. https://nypost.com/2019/07/24/trump-vetoes-resolutions-to-end-arms-deals-with-saudi-arabia/ Trump vetoes resolutions to end arms deals with Saudi Arabia President Trump on Wednesday vetoed three resolutions that would end US arms deals with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates amid rising tensions between the US and Iran. The Senate voted last month in support of 22 resolutions that would block Trump’s military aid to the countries, three of which were approved by the House last week. Trump pledged to veto the bills last week after they passed through both chambers of Congress. Lawmakers are not expected to have enough votes to override the veto.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/senate-fails-to-override-trumps-veto-on-saudi-arms-sale-2019-07-29 Senate fails to override Trump’s veto on Saudi arms sale Meanwhile, House report reveals Trump friend Tom Barrack sought job in administration as he lobbied for Saudi nuclear plan WASHINGTON — The Senate failed Monday in a bid to override a trio of vetoes issued by President Donald Trump, allowing the administration to move forward with plans to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Trump’s decision to sell the weapons in a way that would have bypassed congressional review infuriated lawmakers from both parties. In a bipartisan pushback, Democrats and Republicans banded together to pass resolutions blocking the $8.1 billion weapons sales to the U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf. Votes to override Trump’s vetoes failed, 45-40, 45-39 and 46-41. A two-thirds vote was needed in each case. The White House argued that stopping the sales would send a signal that the United States doesn’t stand by its partners and allies, particularly at a time when threats from hostile countries such as Iran are increasing. Saudi Arabia has long been a regional rival to Iran. Its strategic importance has grown as tensions with Iran have mounted after Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 accord that restricts the Iranian nuclear program. The Senate votes came as the House Oversight Committee released a report criticizing the Trump administration over its apparent willingness to allow the president’s friends and allies undue influence over U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia. New documents obtained by the committee “raise serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the president’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons,” the report said. The report “exposes how corporate and foreign interests are using their unique access to advocate for the transfer of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s Democratic chairman. Cummings, who has repeatedly targeted the Trump administration in a series of investigations, came under sharp attack from Trump this weekend, when the president called the congressman’s district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.” The 50-page Oversight report, released Monday, says Trump’s longtime personal friend, campaign donor and inaugural chairman, Tom Barrack, negotiated directly with Trump and other White House officials to seek positions within the administration, including special envoy to the Middle East and ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, Barrack was promoting the interests of U.S. corporations seeking to profit from the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia; advocating on behalf of foreign interests seeking to obtain U.S. nuclear technology; and taking steps for his own company, Colony NorthStar, to profit from the proposals, the report said. One of the companies leading an effort to build nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia, IP3 International, repeatedly pressed the Trump administration not to require Saudi Arabia to commit to a rigorous “gold standard” in any agreement with the U.S., complaining it would lock them out of lucrative nuclear contracts, the report said. IP3 officials had “unprecedented access” to the highest levels of the Trump administration, including meetings with Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Cabinet Secretaries Rick Perry, Steven Mnuchin, Mike Pompeo, Rex Tillerson, James Mattis and Wilbur Ross, the report said. The report also criticized the White House for refusing to produce any documents in the investigation and said communications obtained from outside sources indicate that Kushner and other officials used personal email or text accounts to communicate about Saudi-related deals. The private communications appear to violate White House policy and the Presidential Records Act, the report said. The White House did not respond to requests for comment Monday. A spokesman for Barrack said he has been cooperating with the Oversight panel and provided documents the committee requested. The spokesman, Owen Blicksilver, said Barrack’s investments and business activities are well known and are intended to “better align” Middle East and U.S. objectives. Barrack has never served in the Trump administration. The Trump administration has approved seven applications for U.S. companies to sell nuclear power technology and assistance to Saudi Arabia. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns that Saudi Arabia could develop nuclear weapons if the U.S. technology is transferred without proper safeguards. Congress is increasingly uneasy with the close relationship between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia. Trump has made the kingdom a centerpiece of his foreign policy in the Middle East as he tries to further isolate Iran. In the process, Trump has brushed off criticism over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudis’ role in the war in Yemen. “From the start, this administration has failed to demonstrate what kind of national security threat or quote-unquote ‘emergency’ from Iran warranted fast-tracking the sale of these weapons to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.,” said Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The pending sale “not only is a Saudi jobs program, it is also a give-away of sensitive U.S. military technology,” Menendez said.