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Also see: Jamal Khashoggi; journalists; Yemen; Syria; Myanmar; torture; Turkey;
Undated:
The Magnitsky Act, formally known as
the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law
Accountability Act of 2012, is a
bipartisan bill passed by the
U.S. Congress and signed into law by President
Barack
Obama in December 2012, intending to punish Russian officials responsible
for the death of Russian
tax accountant
Sergei Magnitsky in a
Moscow prison
in 2009.
Since 2016 the bill, which applies globally, authorizes the US government to
sanction those who it sees as human rights offenders, freezing their assets, and
ban them from entering the U.S.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitsky_Act -- 2017 --
Back to top March 9:Deep State: Inside
Donald Trump's Paranoid Conspiracy Theory
May 20: President Trump got the royal
treatment in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, receiving a lavish welcome that he hopes
can erase two weeks of bad headlines, refocus his presidency and unite
allies against terrorism.
May 21: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates will donate a combined $100 million to a World Bank fund for women
entrepreneurs that was the brainchild of Ivanka Trump.
The announcement by World Bank President Jim Young Kim came during a visit to
Saudi Arabia by President Trump, who was accompanied by his wife, Melania,
daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
May 21: As a presidential candidate, Donald
Trump railed against President Barack Obama for failing to utter the words
“radical Islamic terrorism.” He accused the foundation run by Bill and Hillary
Clinton of corruption for accepting charitable contributions from Saudi Arabia
and chastised first lady Michelle Obama for not covering her head during a visit
to the Kingdom.
June 5: President Trump's hotel received
$270,000 from Saudi Arabia
The Trump International Hotel recently took in about $270,000 in payments tied
to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as the country fights to roll back a U.S.
terrorism law, according to newly filed lobbying reports.
The spending, which covered lodging, catering and parking expenses,
was disclosed in Justice Department filings last week by MSL Group Americas, a
public relations firm. The
filings detailed the work the firm engaged in between Oct. 1, 2016 and March
31, 2017 on behalf of the Saudis, Bahrain and other foreign governments.
June
8: “I have just returned from a trip overseas where we concluded nearly
$350 billion of military and economic development [with Saudi Arabia] for the
United States, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.” — President Trump, remarks in the Rose Garden,
June 1, 2017
June 14: Trump’s Conflicts of Interest in
Saudi Arabia
President Donald Trump’s early entanglements with Saudi Arabia largely consisted
of wealthy Saudis buying his assets on the cheap as he veered time and again
into bankruptcy. In 1991, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
purchased Trump’s yacht, Trump Princess, after Trump was forced to surrender
it to creditors because he was roughly
$900 million in debt. Talal’s purchase
provided Trump “with desperately needed cash” at the time, according to
Newsweek. In 1995, Trump’s lenders pressured him to sell the Plaza Hotel in
New York City, which Talal
purchased for $325 million, $65 million less than what Trump paid for it in
1988.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2017/06/14/433956/trumps-conflicts-interest-saudi-arabia/
July 6: Trump and Saudi Arabia Against the
World ... This is a formula for disaster on a global scale.
Could there be a more perilous place on Earth, including North Korea? Not
likely. The planet’s two leading nuclear-armed powers backing battling proxies
amply supplied with conventional weapons; terror groups splitting and spreading;
religious-sectarian wars threatening amid a plethora of ongoing armed
hostilities stretching from Syria to Iraq to Yemen. And that was before Donald
Trump and his team arrived on this chaotic scene. If there is one region where a
single spark might start the fire that could engulf the globe, then welcome to
the Middle East.
https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-and-saudi-arabia-against-the-world/
November 4: The Yemeni Air Force targeted
King Khalid International Airport in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Saturday
with a ballistic missile, according to Yemen's Houthi-controlled Defense
Ministry.
The missile [called the "Burqan 2H."] was intercepted over north-east Riyadh,
Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense said in a statement carried on Saudi-backed
Al-Arabiya television.
November 4:
[While on his first Asian trip],
Donald Trump has
publicly pleaded with
Saudi Arabia to sell shares in its national oil
company, Aramco, on the New York Stock Exchange.
November 5: The list [of those arrested]
includes Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the billionaire businessman who owns 95% of
Kingdom Holding, which holds stakes in global companies such as Citigroup,
Twitter, Apple and News Corp.
December 21: Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas
met on Wednesday with Saudi King Salman in Riyadh, seeking support for his
efforts to galvanize Arab, Islamic and international rejection of US President
Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital into sustained
backing for the Palestinian cause.
January 22:In a gesture inspiring both praise and scorn, Saudi Arabia announced
Monday that it would donate $1.5 billion in new humanitarian
aid to Yemen
[after devastating Yemen in bombing campaign], where almost three years of
war has devastated the country's infrastructure, tanked the economy and caused
widespread hunger and disease.
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-global-saudi-yemen-aid-20180122-story.html
February 20: Why Trump might bend nuclear
security rules to help Saudi Arabia build reactors in the desert
For Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the reactors are a matter
of international prestige and power, a step toward matching the nuclear program
of Shiite rival Iran while quenching some of the kingdom’s domestic thirst for
energy.
May 20: ... the Russians weren’t the only
foreign power trying to hook up with Donald Trump Jr. and give a boost to the
Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 election. The New York Times
reported on Saturday there was yet another secret Trump Tower meeting during
the campaign where the president’s son and aides met with shadowy foreigners
offering to help Make America Great Again. On August 3, 2016, instead of
Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, an emissary for the crown princes of
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said the de facto rulers were eager to
help Trump win the White House, and the offer reportedly got an approving
response from Trump Jr. An Israeli expert in “social media manipulation” was
there too, and explained how his company could give the Trump campaign an
advantage. Both offers, if accepted, would have violated U.S. election laws, and
special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators have already been looking into
this and other subsequent meetings.
July 9:
Disastrous Deal Staggers Trump Ally Thomas Barrack
Thomas Barrack has been one of the most prominent money men of the Donald Trump
era. In the past two years, Barrack has been in the public eye like never
before—fundraising for Trump’s presidential campaign, delivering a prime-time
television address at the Republican National Convention and serving as chairman
of Trump’s inaugural committee. Barrack introduced Trump to his former campaign
manager, Paul Manafort, and facilitated conversations that strengthened Trump’s
ties to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, helping to realign the Middle
East.
But during the exact time Barrack was busy helping his friend Trump, he was also
in the midst of the biggest deal of his business career, merging the real estate
investment firm he spent his life building, Colony Capital, with another firm to
form a $58 billion real estate colossus. The deal he struck in June 2016 has
been nothing short of a disaster, decimating Barrack’s net worth and sending him
scrambling to find a fix.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesdigitalcovers/2018/07/09/disastrous-deal-staggers-trump-ally-thomas-barrack/#a875e8e191af
October 17: A major evangelical leader has
spoken in defense of US-Saudi relations after theapparent
killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggiin
a Saudi consulate, saying that America has more important things — like arms
deals — to focus on.
Pat Robertson, founder of theChristian
Broadcasting Network, appeared on its flagship television show The 700 Club
on Monday to caution Americans against allowing the United States’ relationship
with Saudi Arabia to deteriorate over Khashoggi’s death.
“For those who are screaming blood for the Saudis — look, these people are key
allies,” Robertson said. While he called the faith of the Wahabists — the
hardline Islamist sect to which the Saudi Royal Family belongs — “obnoxious,” he
urged viewers to remember that “we’ve got an arms deal that everybody wanted a
piece of…it’ll be a lot of jobs, a lot of money come to our coffers. It’s not
something you want to blow up willy-nilly.”
https://www.vox.com/2018/10/17/17990268/pat-robertson-khashoggi-saudi-arabia-trump-crisis
October 19: Investor and Trump friend Tom
Barrack not going to Saudi conference
Billionaire investor and one of President Donald Trump's closest allies Tom
Barrack will not be attending the Future Investment Initiative conference in
Saudi Arabia, CNBC has learned.
Barrack will no longer be attending as his speaking session was cancelled by the
conference hosts after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pulled out of attending
on Thursday, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
Mnuchin and Barrack were slated to be on a panel together next Tuesday in
Riyadh.
October 23: “Jared Went from Running Point
on the Mideast to Running”:
With M.B.S. and the Khashoggi Murder, Trump Is in a Trap Kushner Helped Build
Insisting on thinking outside the box, Jared Kushner
pushed Trump to build his Mideast strategy on M.B.S. and the Saudis. Now the
West Wing is left with few good options. And some are joking that Kushner is
probably going to take off soon for a well-timed vacation.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/jared-kushner-mbs-khashoggi-murder-trump
November 4: Report: Saudi investigators
worked to remove evidence
Members of a team from Saudi Arabia sent to help Turkish authorities investigate
the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi worked instead to remove evidence of
the slaying, a senior Turkish official said Monday.
November 20: The CIA has reportedly
concluded that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an ally to the Trump
administration, ordered Khashoggi's death. On Tuesday, Trump cast doubt on that
assessment, saying in his statement "maybe he did and maybe he didn't!"
Democratic leaders lambasted Trump's statement on Tuesday.
November 20: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.,
who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees accused
Trump of "siding with murderous foreign dictators over American intelligence
professionals."
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence
committee, said that in his view, it is "inconceivable" that Prince Salman was
not involved in Khashoggi's killing.
November 21: President Trump’s embrace of
Saudi Arabia has exposed a foreign policy rift in the Republican Party, as some
of his GOP colleagues warn that not punishing the kingdom for its role in
killing a U.S.-based columnist will have dangerous consequences.
Many Republicans – even Sens. Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul, who share their
views on the matter with the president – have denounced Trump’s decision not to
levy harsher penalties on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the death
and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
November 21: The CIA has a recording of a
phone call in which Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is instructing
“silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible,” according to a report Thursday in
a Turkish newspaper.
November 22: Mr. Trump doubled down on his
Tuesday statement that he sides with the Saudis, saying the Saudi crown prince
and his father both "vehemently" deny a role in his death. The CIA, Mr. Trump
said Thursday, never "concluded" that the Saudi royals were responsible in the
death, although
CBS News has confirmed that CIA intelligence points to Saudi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordering the murder. Mr. Trump has refused to listen
to audio of the killing.
Asked who should be held responsible for Khashoggi's death, the president said
Thursday, "Maybe the world should be held accountable because the world is a
vicious place."
November 22: Turkey's foreign minister has
criticized President Trump, saying the U.S. leader appears to want to "turn a
blind eye" to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents at the
kingdom's consulate in Istanbul. Mevlut Cavusoglu also described many European
nations' response to Khashoggi's killing as "artificial" and "cosmetic."
Cavusoglu was referring to bans imposed by some countries on the Saudi citizens
detained in Saudi Arabia over the killing, from entering European nations.
Cavusoglu spoke to Turkey's CNN-Turk television on Friday.
November 26: Jared Kushner pushed to inflate
Saudi arms deal to $110 billion: Sources
The state official described the five-page list of potential arms sales as items
the Saudi officials had signaled interest in or were deemed among their needs by
U.S. defense analysts.
Brookings Institute defense strategy expert Michael O'Hanlon, who has seen the
photograph of the letter of intent provided by ABC News, called it “amateurish
quality.”
“It acknowledges it's not binding,” O’Hanlon told ABC News.
“It's a multi-billion dollar transaction with three short lines of information
as if that's meaningful. It's like you're taking notes on the back of a napkin
over dinner. It's not a contract. It’s the idea of putting all of these numbers
in the interest for the biggest number you can find.”
November 28: Pompeo refuses to answer why
Gina Haspel didn't appear at Saudi Arabia briefing
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deflected questions Wednesday about why CIA
director Gina Haspel did not appear at a Senate briefing on military aid to
Saudi Arabia, and claimed that there is "no direct reporting connecting the
crown prince to the order to murder Jamal Khashoggi."
November 28: Angry senators on Wednesday
accused the Trump administration of stonewalling in an effort to avoid linking
Saudi Arabia's crown prince to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
December 3: Khashoggi Friend Accuses Cyber
Security Firm Of Helping Saudis Spy On Their Messages
A Saudi dissident based in Montreal, Canada, filed a lawsuit this week against
the NSO Group, an Israeli cyber security firm. The suit alleges the Saudi
government used software from the company to spy on conversations with the
journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Omar Adbulaziz filed the case in Tel Aviv. He told NPR he had exchanged hundreds
of text messages with Khashoggi through encrypted messaging apps, before being
informed that their communication had been intercepted.
December 5: Saudi-funded lobbyist paid for
500 rooms at Trump’s hotel after 2016 election
Lobbyists representing the Saudi government reserved blocks of rooms at
President Trump’s Washington, D.C., hotel within a month of Trump’s election in
2016 — paying for an estimated 500 nights at the luxury hotel in just three
months, according to organizers of the trips and documents obtained by The
Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/
December 11: On Fox News, Kushner Ignores
the CIA and Glosses Over Saudi Crown Prince's Connections to Khashoggi Murder
December 13: The U.S. Senate delivered a
rare double rebuke to President Donald Trump on Saudi Arabia on Thursday, voting
to end U.S. military support for the war in Yemen and blame the Saudi crown
prince for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The votes were largely symbolic because to become law the resolutions would have
to pass the House of Representatives, whose Republican leaders have blocked any
legislation intended to rebuke the Saudis.
It was the first time either chamber of Congress had backed a resolution to
withdraw U.S. forces from a military engagement under the War Powers Act. That
law, passed in 1973, limits the president’s ability to commit U.S. forces to
potential hostilities without congressional approval.
March 1: The first face-to-face meeting
between President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and Saudi
Prince Mohammed bin Salman was denounced as “shameful” by an international human
rights group.
The meeting between Kushner and Crown Prince Mohammed, the day-to-day ruler of
Saudi Arabia, was the first between the two men since
the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in
Istanbul in October 2018. The Trump administration has maintained its support
for the Saudi crown prince in spite of U.S. intelligence agencies concluding
that Mohammed bin Salman most likely ordered the killing.
“It’s shameful that Jared Kushner met with the crown prince but failed to even
raise a single question about his role in ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,”
Sarah Leah Whitson, the Executive Director for Human Rights Watch in the Middle
East and North Africa, told Newsweek via email.
Whitson also decried Kushner’s failure to challenge Crown Prince Mohammed over
Saudi Arabia’s continued war in Yemen or the government’s persecution and
torture of female activists. “Jared may think he can sweep the piles of cadavers
MBS is responsible for under some magic carpet, but neither the American people
nor the newly elected and very empowered Congress will tolerate this,” said
Whitson.
https://www.newsweek.com/jared-kushner-meeting-saudi-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-shameful-questions-1348899
May 24: Trump bypasses Congress to
push through arms sales to Saudis, UAE
