US President Meets Saudi Prince After Journalist's Dismemberment
The mainstream media will cover these meetings as routine diplomacy, a dance of global power brokers. But absent from The Hill's 'watch live' coverage (from 2021, mind you) is the glaring backdrop: just two years prior, U.S. intelligence determined MBS ordered the brutal murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Yet, here he is, warmly welcomed in
the Oval Office. One might wonder what 'strategic interests' outweigh the summary execution of a U.S. resident and journalist. This isn't just a lapse; it's a pattern. The 'special relationship' with Saudi Arabia consistently prioritizes oil, weapons deals (U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia totaled over $17.8 billion between 2016-2020 alone, according to SIPRI ), and regional 'stability'—read:
maintaining the status quo—over human rights, press freedom, or even the basic decency of not hosting international assassins. Hypocrisy, it seems, is a bipartisan foreign policy.