The Saudis are legitimately stupid people. It looks as if they murdered a journalist inside their own consulate and are now vowing to retaliate if sanctioned over the incident.
Saudi Arabia on Sunday warned against threats to punish it over last week’s disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as European and U.S. allies piled on pressure.
Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and Washington Post columnist critical of Riyadh’s policies, disappeared on Oct. 2 after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Turkey believes he was murdered and his body removed. Saudi Arabia has denied that.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened “severe punishment” if it turns out Khashoggi was killed in the consulate, though he said Washington would be “punishing” itself if it halted military sales to Riyadh.
“The Kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats and attempts to undermine it, whether by threatening to impose economic sanctions, using political pressures, or repeating false accusations,” the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted an unnamed official as saying.
“The Kingdom also affirms that if it receives any action, it will respond with greater action, and that the Kingdom’s economy has an influential and vital role in the global economy,” the official added, without elaborating.
There are reports from the German media indicating that Khashoggi had connections to Saudi intelligence which is something I suspected earlier considering his family relationships. So if we assume that this is true, the Saudis may have had him killed because he knew too much and was conspiring against their interests. Even still, it was not smart to kill him in the manner that he was alleged to have been killed.
The fact that they’re vowing retaliation if sanctioned is ridiculous. What power do they think they have on the world stage? They’re a bunch of low IQ desert dwellers sitting on a bunch of oil. The only power they have is to increase the price of oil by limiting production. The rest of the world can squeeze them dry if they so choose. They wouldn’t even exist as a country if it weren’t for American military power.
It’s looking increasingly likely that we’ll see Donald Trump take some type of action against them. It’s becoming harder and harder to believe that this guy wasn’t murdered inside their own consulate. Hopefully this situation results in the Saudis becoming a full fledged adversary. After all, it is a proven fact that many Saudis were involved in the 9/11 attacks.
