John Chuckman
EXPANSION OF COMMENTS POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
“Saudis plotted journalist's 'savage murder' for days, Turkish president says
“Suspects should be tried in Turkey, Erdogan says, after 18 arrested in Saudi Arabia”
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Response to a comment:
Because those countries you listed, except for Germany, are not "calling out” Saudi Arabia, any more than their ally the US.
Only Ms. Merkel has taken a somewhat serious step in halting arms deals.
The West's reactions here have been pathetic, and even distasteful, but then that has long been the case for the "butcher of Yemen" and the man who has pay-rolled many of the terrorists operating in Syria. And I never heard anyone speak of his atrocities inside Saudi Arabia against its minority Shia.
Our Foreign Minister's one frail little effort at something, over the arrest of one woman, touched on none of these horrors. It itself was, to my mind, pathetic. She earned no “creds,” creating a big international disruption over the very smallest of any of Saudi Arabia’s many crimes. One could seriously question her judgment, quite apart from the ethics of silence in the face of true horror.
When Theresa May put on her big hate-Russia show months ago, the Skripal Affair, everyone immediately jumped on the bandwagon, including Canada, with expelling diplomats and piling up more American sanctions, even though to this day we do not know what happened to Skripal. He's alive, but no one can even talk to him., many months after the event, whatever its actual nature.
Here, we have an almost an open-and-shut case of the most gruesome political murder at the top, and no one, except Ms. Merkel in Germany, has done a thing, except utter platitudes.
The key difference in the reactions to the two events is simply that, in the one, a man America treats as an enemy (and with no justification, other than he has proved an inconvenience to some of their dirty work abroad) was accused and, in the other case, a man America regards as a useful associate in some of that same dirty work abroad, is accused. America much values the Killer Crown Prince.
That's some idea of justice, isn't it? And values? But that's our current American imperial world. Power corrupts… and, my God, is America corrupt.
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Response to another comment on Erdogan’s own dark record:
Erdogan is no hero, as all informed people know, but remember that in our courts of law, many important convictions take place only because a criminal is given immunity in exchange for his testimony.
Also, this is not the Crown Prince's only crime, only the most public in details.
Almost no one speaks of his butchery in Yemen and in Syria because that involves activities the United States values.
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Response to another comment about how Erdogan’s statement failed to fulfill his pledge to reveal all Turkey knows about the killing:
Erdogan got some late urgent phone calls, I'm sure, and I guarantee they were not in favor of revelation.
We are dealing with very dark forces here, and I'm not referring to Turkey or Saudi Arabia, but a power much closer to home.
