Business Takes Precedence Over a Free Press

A report by the Biden administration tell us now that the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman, personally permitted the brutal murder of exiled former Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. A declassified report released on the 26th of February illustrated how the Crown Prince personally saw to the murder of Khashoggi, and this was followed up quickly by a series of State Department sanctions, revoking the visas of 76 Saudis. Biden, however, didn’t hit the mark in penalising Salman.

Trump famously ignored the murder of Khashoggi in what seemed like an attempt to keep things cool between him and Saudi Arabia, the state which America had been giving funds to to fight rebels in Yemen. It’s no secret that Saudi Arabian forces target Yemanese civilians, and due to the state which the rebels have left the country in, and the hostile ‘help’ which has been sent in to defend them, Yemanese people have been suffering to the point of starvation. Some have to boil leaves so they can simply have something to eat. What was once an anti-terrorist intervention became an active part in the committal of war crimes.

The decision not to penalise Salman has left many Saudi Arabian dissidents baffled and confused, and with an oncoming barrage of criticism hurled at Biden on several matters (now, mostly, his decision to send an airstrike which killed 22 people), it seems he will not be escaping this one either if he does not penalise the Crown Prince.

This is not the first time that the United States has stomped on the free press in order to fund or take part in wars that should, more or less, be illegal. Gary Webb reported on the war that the American government funded in Nicaragua, which indirectly placed them responsible for the mass influx of crack cocaine into black communities, causing a huge ripple still felt today. Gary Webb was later found dead with two gunshots in the back of his head, and the government called it a suicide.

The jeopardisation of military interests in Saudi Arabia took the forefront, according to two election officials, and took precedence over justice for Khashoggi, who has now become the poster-boy of imprisoned, targeted or murdered journalists. ‘Well if it happens to him, what the hell are they gonna do to me?!’

Khashoggi is, though, merely a broken egg in the myriad of them to make an American-Arabian omelette. The interests of the American military and it’s allies are, for some reason, putting away that idea of freedom and liberty. Biden says though he’s taking it up with the King, and that Bin Salman himself is out of the picture. Things, according to Biden, are changing. Rules are changing. Not very like what Biden said on the campaign trail, when asked what he’d do about the Saudis.

It was announced earlier this month that Biden would be withdrawing from Yemen, however, thereby no longer supporting the Saudis in their efforts to quell the raging civil war.

‘We are also stepping up our diplomacy to end the war in Yemen, a war which is a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe,’ Biden said.

Withdrawal from Yemen, changing the rules of the relations with Saudi Arabia? It’s more than Trump did, but that’s not an extremely high bar than any means. Biden seems to be taking this seriously, as he should, but the final judgement should come depending upon how he punishes Saudi Arabia on Monday. That’s where journalists will be paying attention.