A Fist Fight Killed Khashoggi. Really? . . . Ok.

10/20/2018

A Fist Fight Killed Khashoggi. Really? . . . Ok.

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by
Julio Gonzalez, M.D., J.D.

"Okay. Let's just pretend THIS is real. . ."
Judge in Seventeen Again while holding Ned Gold's law degree.

Last night, The Wall Street Journal reported the statement by the Saudi Arabian Attorney General admitting that Saudi Arabian nationalist and Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, had been killed in the country's Turkish consulate.  Amazingly, the explanation provided by Saudi Arabian news agencies and the Saudi government is so patently absurd that it, in and of itself, speaks to their backwardness.

In short, Saudi Arabia expects us to believe that Mr. Khashoggi, an out of shape, middle aged man who is known for fighting only with his pen and not his fists, actually allowed himself to get into a fight with 15 Saudi Arabian thugs while sitting in a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey. Even if he was sufficiently foolhardy to allow himself to get into such an altercation, Saudi Arabia next wants us to believe that the 15 "agents" were unable to subdue Khashoggi without killing him.  Even if you argue that Khashoggi had suffered some sort of medical emergency such as a heart attack or stroke, the good faith response would have been to immediately transport the victim to a Turkish hospital.  We know, of course, that this did not happen.

The Saudi Arabian explanation is (frankly) so stupid and amateurish that it insults the intelligence of the recipient audience. In fact, it may well be that their usual audience, the Saudi Arabian people and their regional partners, are so kept in the dark that they buy this nonsense from their officials, but Saudi Arabia must suspect that their explanation cannot fly in the United States.

Americans are arguably the most media savvy people in the world.  Practically every American who has been paying attention to this story is aware of the events leading to Khashoggi's death.  They have already heard of the alleged existence of audio recordings depicting Khashoggi's violent death while inside the Saudi Arabian consulate.  They are aware that 15 Saudi Arabian nationalists flew into Turkey and made their way to the Saudi Arabian consulate in anticipation of Khashoggi's arrival and left shortly thereafter.  They know that Khashoggi only went to the consulate seeking documents that would allow him to marry his fiancé who was waiting for him outside of the building while he was being killed.  They know that Khashoggi is hated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and that the ostensibly progressive Crown Prince is amazingly repressive and intolerant to views opposite his own.  They also know that Khashoggi previously left Saudi Arabia because he feared for his life.  And they know that Khashoggi went into the consulate building and never came out, at least under his own power.

So, who would ever be stupid enough to posit a story as ridiculous and ill-contrived as this and expect Americans to buy it?

Oh yeah.  I forgot. Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice as evidenced by the story they contrived when they tried to explain the attack on the American Embassy in Benghazi.

It is very likely that, at this point, President Donald J. Trump knows what happened inside that building.  He knows this because Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had to have listened to the recording of Khashoggi's murder while visiting Turkey last week.  We can conclude this with certainty because if the tape were not real, Pompeo would have said so publicly.  And if he did listen to the tape, he would have been duty bound to report his findings to the President.

So now, President Trump finds himself in an unenviable situation.  He has little choice but to preserve a strained relationship with a repressive dictatorship in a region where no one wears a white hat.

There is a reason why the President will likely accept the Saudi's explanation for Khashoggi's death, and it has to do with Iran, and terrorism, and evils greater than being forced to accept a lie.

Dr. Julio Gonzalez is an orthopaedic surgeon and lawyer living in Venice, Florida. He is the author of The Federalist Pages and serves in the Florida House of Representatives. He can be reached through www.thefederalistpages.com to arrange a lecture or book signing.

3 Comments

Gina Arabitg, MD

10/20/2018 04:54:00 am

I think you should have CAPITALIZED “IS” in the last paragraph.
Just sayin....
Otherwise it is a good point and a worthwhile read.

Robert Greenwald

10/20/2018 05:57:44 am

I agree and disagree with Dr Arabitg. She is correct in that the only worthwhile statement to us Americans is in the last paragraph. Unless Dr. Gonzales was writing a lesson for prosecutors, I C no purpose to this particular blog. It just adds fuel to the liberals who would like to use this argument to the detriment of our President.

The real point to be made is that our President feels and he is correct, is that his first obligation is to the American people. Because of his wisdom, we are no longer a prisoner to Arab oil as we have always been until now...We are now the largest producer of energy in the world.And again we do not need the Saudi's or the Russians for energy, and our great President tried to explain that to Merkel as she is asking for a pipeline from Russia to Germany.

Back to the Saudi's. We need them because they R an enemy of the major sponsor of terrorism in the world, and that of course is Iran, which thanks to Obama has more money than ever to do this. And we need them because they will be supplying 500,000 American jobs with the order of 50 billion dollars of American made defense products.

Dr. Gonzalez is a wise man who usually writes erudite blogs which I look forward to for my education and to understand world events. And I am awed by his ability to accomplish so much each day. But he needs to understand that this is his blog, and he is under no obligation to produce a blog a day. Better no blog than one that is not useful.

Loren Bartels

10/20/2018 06:33:02 am

We have much for which to be thankful. We have to remember that only Israel is a democratic republic in the Middle East, only Israel. We have to remember that all Muslim nations are variations of authoritarian tribalism in which disagreements with power structures put one’s life and liberty at risk. But, not just Muslim nations. Remember that Putin, an authoritarian, regularly imprisons and/or murders former spies and others. We have to keep in mind that the head of Interpol has been detained and hidden by China. Of course, we all know that Kim Jong Un murdered his uncle, personally and had his half brother killed. And, that is among nations with an industrialized base of sorts, nations that trade with the West. Realize that in Iran, dissidents are regularly tortured and hanged. Realize that in Syria, Sudan, the Congo, and Libya, disagreements lead to assassination. Realize that in places like Argentina and Venezuela, political assassinations are not unheard of.
What’s the point? We live in what we call Westernism. It is what David Gelernter called Americanism and what he wrote derives from the original Puritanism. Oh, forget the sexual stigma and think again about the political foundation of Puritans as they came to this nation. The foundation of the West is the New Testament concept that we are all to be equal before God’s law and that is fundamentally the key in John 3:16: “whoever” believes, Paul amplified that to say that “all have sinned” and come up short.” Paul further stated explicitly that before God race, slavery status, and religious status do not matter.
The West is founded on this narrow fundamental for if we are equal before God’s law, no one’s speech is more privileged than another’s. From it comes freedom of speech, assembly, and press which are essential for freedom of religion. Critical to maintain these freedoms is that corruption be rooted out as part of due diligence. Those who corrupt the law abridge the freedoms of others.
The Saudis live in a tribal culture that has not embraced the core principles of Westernism but neither have the Russians or Chinese or Iranians or Syrians or Libyans or North Koreans or Pakistanis or Afghanis or many, many other nations.
Am I surprised that the Saudis murdered a dissident? Not really though the details are shocking. I am no more surprised than we should be about the horrors of ISIS or Bashar al Assad and his thugs or even of Erdogan’s unjust round up of alleged conspirators. Nor should we be surprised about the similar problems in Egypt or even among Fatah or Hamas. We should remember that while Iraq is a very messy place, now, it was at least as ruthless in the Saddam Hussain era and prior.
What is the solution? The Saudi’s have to remove the Crown Prince from governance but, perhaps, they’ll find a way not to do so. Remember, what he has done may not be illegal in Saudi Arabia. We call Khashoggi’s assassination murder. In Saudi Arabia, it may be a socially justifiable liquidation, rather than murder. Killing is only murder if it is illegal. The death may be murder in Turkey if it really was illegal in Turkey.
My guess is that what happened is that the Saudi’s attempted to kidnap Khashoggi and take him back to Saudi Arabia to be imprisoned and that Khashoggi resisted that process so vehemently that the thug response was to torture and murder him. My guess is that the murder was a kidnapping gone awry. In that sense, assuming that Mohammad bin Salman personally authorized the kidnapping, then he shares responsibility for the fact that the process went badly.
While Khashoggi may have been a prickly character, no friend of Israel, possibly a friend of the Muslim Brotherhood, we don’t have reason to believe that he deserved either imprisonment or assassination.
Let’s count our high pitched political arguments in the West as a wondrous privilege. As Nikki Haley said recently, our political opponents in the West are not evil...just opponents. They may be as devious as professional athletes in sly methods but harder to regulate than athletes. But, let’s call out devious political behavior and not devolve into viciousness. Let’s be incredibly thankful that the recent Trump revolution has not sent armed tribes into the streets in assassination squads. Let’s be grateful that the horrors that erupted over Kavanaugh allowed his accusers to retreat honorably. And, let’s rejoice that even Kavanaugh can now choose a path of easing the lingering resentments of both sides in how he behaves, in what speeches he gives, and in how he functions on the bench.
BTW, if any of you know Kavanaugh personally, please advise him to find ways in speeches to show a tender heart towards people, especially women, who feel abused. Remember, we have many boys who were abused by priests, too. And, perhaps Kavanaugh can also be one who teach

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