Ron Paul Liberty Report - Weekly Update - The Saudis Keep Changing Their Story on The Murder Of Khashoggi
Aired: 2018-10-22
Duration: 04:19


=== Saudi Spin on Khashoggi (04:16) ===

[00:00:02]  Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the weekly report.
[00:00:06]  The Saudis keep changing their story on the murder of a Khashoggi.
[00:00:11]  What should we do?
[00:00:12]  The Saudi version of the disappearance and murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi seems to change every day or so.
[00:00:20]  The latest is the Saudi government claimed that the opposition journalist was killed in a botched interrogation at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
[00:00:31]  Or was it a fist fight?
[00:00:34]  What is laughable is that the Saudi king has placed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a prime suspect, in charge of the investigation of Khashoggi's murder.
[00:00:44]  Though the official story keeps changing, what is unlikely to change is Washington's continued relationships with Saudi Arabia.
[00:00:54]  It is a partnership that is in no way beneficial to Americans or the U.S. national interests.
[00:01:01]  President Trump has promised severe punishment if the Saudi government is found to have been involved in Khashoggi's murder.
[00:01:10]  But he also took off the table any reduction in arms sales to prop up the murderous Saudi war on Yemen.
[00:01:19]  It's all about jobs, said President Trump.
[00:01:22]  So the Saudi killing of thousands in Yemen can go on.
[00:01:25]  Some murders are more important than others, obviously.
[00:01:29]  The killing of Khashoggi puts the Trump administration in a difficult position.
[00:01:35]  President Trump views Iran as designated enemy number one.
[00:01:40]  Next month, the U.S. administration intends to impose a new round of sanctions designed to make it impossible for Iran to sell its oil on the international market.
[00:01:53]  To keep U.S. fuel prices from spiking over this move, Trump is relying on other countries, especially Saudi Arabia, to pump more and make up the difference.
[00:02:03]  But the Saudis have threatened $400 a barrel oil if President Trump follows through with his promise of severe punishment over the killing of Khashoggi.
[00:02:13]  The Saudis have also threatened to look for friendship in Moscow or even Tehran if Washington insists on punishing the regime of Riyadh.
[00:02:22]  For a superpower, the U.S. doesn't seem to have many options.
[00:02:27]  What whole mess reveals is just how wise our founding fathers were to warn us against entangling alliances.
[00:02:36]  For too many decades, the U.S. has been in an unhealthy relationship with the Saudi kingdom, providing the Saudis with a U.S. security guarantee in exchange for cheap oil and the laundering of oil profits through the U.S. military-industrial complex by the purchase of billions of dollars in weapons.
[00:02:56]  This entangling relationship with Saudi Arabia should end.
[00:03:00]  It is unfortunate that the tens of thousands of civilians dead from Yemen to Syria due to Saudi aggression don't matter as much as the murder of one establishment journalist like Khashoggi.
[00:03:13]  But as one Clinton flack once said, we should not let this current crisis go to waste.
[00:03:20]  This is not about demanding that the Saudis change their ways, reform their society on the lines of a liberal democracy, or allow more women to drive.
[00:03:29]  The problem with our relationship with Saudi Arabia is not about Saudi Arabia, it's about us.
[00:03:36]  The United States should not be in the business of selling security guarantees overseas to the highest bidder.
[00:03:44]  We are constantly told that the U.S. military guarantees our own safety, and so it should be.
[00:03:51]  No, this is about returning to a foreign policy that seeks friendship and trade with all nations who seek the same.
[00:03:59]  But that heeds the warning of George Washington in his farewell address that a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.
[00:04:10]  If we care about the United States, we must heed this warning.
[00:04:14]  No more passionate attachments overseas.
[00:04:17]  Friendship and trade for everyone.