Thursday Open Thread | The Magnitsky Act triggered over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance

BREAKING NEWS: “Senators Leahy, Menendez, Corker & Graham have triggered the Magnitsky Act over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. The Trump administration must determine if Jamal Khasshoggi was a victim of killing, torture or gross violation of human rights. If yes, then automatic sanctions on the Saudis”.

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, ordered an operation to lure Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him, according to U.S. intelligence intercepts of Saudi officials discussing the plan.

The intelligence, described by U.S. officials familiar with it, is another piece of evidence implicating the Saudi regime in Khashoggi’s disappearance last week after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. Turkish officials say that a Saudi security team lay in wait for the journalist and killed him.

Khashoggi was a prominent critic of the Saudi government and Mohammed in particular. Several of Khashoggi’s friends said that over the past four months, senior Saudi officials close to the crown prince had called Khashoggi to offer him protection, and even a high-level job working for the government, if he returned to his home country.

Khashoggi, however, was skeptical of the offers. He told one friend that the Saudi government would never make good on its promises not to harm him.

“He said: ‘Are you kidding? I don’t trust them one bit,’ ” said Khaled Saffuri, an Arab American political activist, recounting a conversation he had with Khashoggi in May, moments after Khashoggi had received a call from Saud al-Qahtani, an adviser to the royal court.

The intelligence pointing to a plan to detain Khashoggi in Saudi Arabia has fueled speculation by officials and analysts in multiple countries that what transpired at the consulate was a backup plan to capture Khashoggi that may have gone wrong.

A former U.S. intelligence official — who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter — noted that the details of the operation, which involved sending two teams totaling 15 men, in two private aircraft arriving and departing Turkey at different times, bore the hallmarks of a “rendition,” in which someone is extra­legally removed from one country and deposited for interrogation in another.

But Turkish officials have concluded that whatever the intent of the operation, Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate. Investigators have not found his body, but Turkish officials have released video surveillance footage of Khashoggi entering the consulate on the afternoon of Oct. 2. There is no footage that shows him leaving, they said.

The intelligence about Saudi Arabia’s earlier plans to detain Khashoggi have raised questions about whether the Trump administration should have warned the journalist that he might be in danger.

Intelligence agencies have a “duty to warn” people who might be kidnapped, seriously injured or killed, according to a directive signed in 2015. The obligation applies regardless of whether the person is a U.S. citizen. Khashoggi was a U.S. resident.

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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86 Responses to Thursday Open Thread | The Magnitsky Act triggered over Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance

  1. Ametia says:

    Great segment on voter suppression

  2. ametia says:

    https://youtu.be/hZxe7BKYxgI

    Straight up, Coontastical Minstrel 👨‍🎤 show

  3. What kind of white supremacy ISH is this? RESIGN NOW @BrianKempGA

    https://twitter.com/JamilSmith/status/1050458090657599488

  4. Ametia says:

    GET OUT & VOTE

  5. Ametia says:

    Cat 4 hurricane, Kavanaugh, A MRUDERED journalist working for the WASHINGTON POST and RUSSIA. And yet 45 wants folks LOOKING@you-MEDIA to film a shit show with a mentally ILL black man, at the WH & KLAN rallies with a bunch of rednecks and bleach-blonde women.

    STOP THE MADNESS

  6. Did y’all watch Kanye at the White House? OMG! It was pitiful. He was rambling. It made no sense. He’s in need of some serious mental care.

  7. Liza says:

    This is the little beach town where Michael made landfall.
    https://twitter.com/Sean_Breslin/status/1050406458809114625

  8. Ametia says:

    Don’t fall for 45’s hate rallies & other sideshow fuckery, folks.

    RUSSIA, KAVANAUGH,SCOTUS, GOP UNRAVELING ANY & ALL 20TH CENTURY GAINS IN CIVIL RIGHTS, IMMIGRATION, SOCIAL SAFETY NET, ANY & ALL ECONOMIC GAINS WE’VE MADE UNDER THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.

  9. Ametia says:
  10. Liza says:

    Slideshow of hurricane damage, 152 photos right now. I also just saw some film footage of Mexico Beach where the hurricane made landfall. It looks like Puerto Rico. Houses totally demolished,only the slabs remain.

    This is absolutely devastating.

    https://weather.com/safety/hurricane/news/2018-10-09-hurricane-michael-photos

  11. rikyrah says:

    Voting Rights Become A Flashpoint In Georgia Governor’s Race
    ASSOCIATED PRESS • OCT 9, 2018

    Marsha Appling-Nunez was showing the college students she teaches how to check online if they’re registered to vote when she made a troubling discovery. Despite being an active Georgia voter who had cast ballots in recent elections, she was no longer registered.

    “I was kind of shocked,” said Appling-Nunez, who moved from one Atlanta suburb to another in May and believed she had successfully changed her address on the voter rolls.

    “I’ve always voted. I try to not miss any elections, including local ones,” Appling-Nunez said.

    She tried re-registering, but with about one month left before a November election that will decide a governor’s race and some competitive U.S. House races, Appling-Nunez’s application is one of over 53,000 sitting on hold with Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office. And unlike Appling-Nunez, many people on that list — which is predominantly black, according to an analysis by The Associated Press — may not even know their voter registration has been held up.

    Tuesday is Georgia’s deadline to register and be eligible to vote in the November General Election.

    Kemp, who’s also the Republican candidate for governor, is in charge of elections and voter registration in Georgia.

    His Democratic opponent, former state Rep. Stacey Abrams, and voting rights advocacy groups charge that Kemp is systematically using his office to suppress votes and tilt the election, and that his policies disproportionately affect black and minority voters.

  12. rikyrah says:

    Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄

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