Murder and Murderers

By Lawrence Wilkerson

October 09, 2019 "Information Clearing House" -  Last week, Human Rights First and others hosted a panel discussion on Capitol Hill aimed at keeping the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist and Virginia resident Jamal Khashoggi in the forefront of Americans’ thoughts as the one-year anniversary of his death approached. Eleven Members of Congress—five senators and six representatives—made appearances that were more than cameos. They offered serious statements concerning the murder and the perpetrators thereof, the Saudis. Several even declared Mohammad bin Salman, the young Saudi crown prince whose strategic mistakes are embroiling the Kingdom in possibly its worse morass since its creation, culpable of ordering the murder. The majority of the U.S. Intelligence Community backs them up. The important question is: how do those of us who care obtain redress?

As the policy-related attachments to the current military spending bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, make their way through the conference process now occurring with regard to that some $740 billion defense authorization, we need to take note that two such attachments concern respectively Khashoggi’s murder and, very much connected, the horrible war in Yemen. These two attachments, along with several other contentious policy matters, will be the difficult issues in the conferencing process, not the almost three-quarters of a trillion dollars allocated to the military. That part is a done deal.

The Khashoggi policy issue is contained in the provisions of Subtitle K of HR 2500 (the NDAA).  These provisions mirror legislation labeled the Saudi Arabia Human Rights and Accountability Act (HR 2037), which was sponsored by Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) and Ann Wagner (R-MO) and passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan majority, 405 to 7.  Members of both parties have spoken out repeatedly about the need for accountability for the Khashoggi murder. A companion bill (including the same language) was introduced in the Senate with bipartisan support by Senators Chris Coons (D) and Lindsey Graham (R) (S. 2351).