Vermont’s three representatives in Congress are calling for sanctions against Saudi Arabia after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Turkey.
Khashoggi entered the consulate October 2 and hasn’t been seen since. The Saudi government — after initially denying any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance — has acknowledged that the critic of the Saudi government was killed inside the consulate in a premeditated plot.
In an op-ed in Thursday’s New York Times, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the United States should end its military aid for Saudi Arabia’s ongoing war against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“The United States is deeply engaged in this war,” Sanders wrote. “We are providing bombs the Saudi-led coalition is using, we are refueling their planes before they drop those bombs, and we are assisting with intelligence.”
Sanders said Khashoggi’s killing, which appears to have been carried out at the orders of Saudi government officials, should make the U.S. rethink its alliance with the oil-rich monarchy.
The U.S. must “show that the Saudis do not have a blank check to continue violating human rights,” he wrote.
Vermont’s junior senator introduced a resolution in the Senate in February calling on Trump to stop America’s support for the war. The Senate voted 55 to 44 against the proposal, Sanders said, but he plans to introduce it again in November.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee. That gives him power to influence legislation that provides funding to foreign governments.
Leahy joined Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to send Trump a letter that triggers the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The law requires the Trump administration to investigate alleged human rights violations and report to Congress within 120 days on its findings.
If there is a determination of wrongdoing, the president has the power to implement sanctions against the offending country.
Leahy accused the president of seeking to do the opposite.
“If ever a story reeked of a coverup, it is this one,” Leahy said in an October 19 statement. “It’s taken three weeks for the Saudis to even admit that an American resident and journalist died in the Saudis’ own consulate. And throughout this ordeal, the only urgency apparent in our President’s handling of this crisis has been a compulsion to buy time for the Saudis to construct a story to protect the royal family.”
Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is a cosponsor of legislation in the House that would ban the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and halt military aid to its government if the State Department confirms that Khashoggi was killed by Saudi officials.
“For too long the United States has blindly supported a Saudi government engaged in a horrific campaign against the people of Yemen,” Welch said in an October 17 statement. “And now we learn that the Saudis were, at a minimum, complicit in the murder of a journalist who was critical of the Saudi regime. It is long past time to stop military assistance and the sale of arms to this brutal dictatorship.”
Leahy has joined eight Democratic senators demanding that Trump disclose his family’s business ties with the Saudi government as well.
“Our country must not be complicit in this coverup,” Leahy said.
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This is a hit piece by the left. Calling Shahoggi a “jounalist” is like calling Jack the Ripper a “night person”. Shahgoggi has been aliegned with John Brennon’s corrupt CIA in building one of the world”s largest drugs/weapons smuggling ring and land-grab business. When Crown Prince Solman took power, he began to stop them which got the very angry. Khashoggi had proposed a coup to the guards present in Turkey meeting which led to a partial payment to them. a fight began and some of the loyal guards used this proof of treason against Salmon and brutally killed Khashoggi. Incidently, this was also in response to the Oct. 1 shooting in Las Vegas in the first coup attempt against Salmon.
Imo, our federal deligation is pure corrupt deepstate and needs to be voted out of office Nov. 6. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PuMsfmmLWhc
The USA has totally lost all its moral authority in the world so obviously nothing will be done about this.
No surprise that the USA & Saudi Arabia are the two most obese countries in the world,it shows in many ways !
“This is a hit piece by the left. Calling Shahoggi a “jounalist” is like calling Jack the Ripper a “night person”.”
Oh, so I guess it’s ok for Saudia Arabia to torture him, kill him, dismember his body, and lie about it all. Good to know. Thanks for clearing this all up for us.
But.. but… but… they give us so much money!
“Calling Shahoggi a “jounalist” is like calling Jack the Ripper a “night person”. “
This sure looks like a journalist to me:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/jama…
The USA has been supporting dictators, thugs, and despots for decades. It isn’t going to stop now. The CIA ( Capitalism’s Invisible Army) has overthrown many democratically elected governments at the behest of Corporate America. That is how empires work and we are an empire, on the down slope, but an empire whose reach has extended beyond its grasp as we drain the world of its resources so we can stuff our faces with Big Macs.
The 3 demo are screaming about Jamal Khashoggi. Well where in the hell were their voices when the 4 Americans were left to be killed in Benghazi Libya. ..While obama and hillary ordered a “stand down” when 2 ships were on their way to help. The 4 Americans pleaded for help for hrs while obama and hillary went to bed, in their safe beds. can you hear the chirping???
Guess if you’re Americans you don’t matter right. Remember Benghazi Sept 11- 2012
Donna Boutin’s comments about Benghazi are totally unsupported by the facts, as the Republican led investigation (costing taxpayers millions of dollars) finally pointed out. Facts matter.
Nor am I going to point out that whataboutism is tiresome at the very best.
The US government does not spend billions of taxpayer dollars to support Libyan terrorists, but it DOES support the Saudi war in Yemen.
Our congressional delegation is absolutely right to call for an end to this support.
@ JohnGreenberg so you are saying that Benghazi wasn’t real??? Do you think that these 4 Americans faked their death or killed themsleves ? As wasting the taxpayers money what about this witch hunt that Mueller is doing..2 yrs of bull??? No Americans were killed in the witch hunt…and billions are being spent on a con job by the democrats..!!!!