i also just want to say, you know, human rights abuses happen around the world. and often the human rights abusers look exactly like the people they are abusing. look at the philippines, what the law enforcement is doing there with this unbelievable attack on the community around drug enforcement. those people look the same. they talk the same. human rights abuses are about power, often discredited and marginalized minorities get the brunt of it. but it s about power. so we have to start saying we don t want human rights abuses in the united states from any color cop and don t want the black community to continue to bear the brunt of it. i know a pivotal moment in your life as a human being, as a black man, also as a lawyer, was the rodney king beating. 30-some years ago, i remember being in california watching these images as a kid play out. yes, very traumatizing. you dedicated much of your
i can speculate only it was political gain in the country and also to potentially influence u.k. politics. now we also heard from the british prime minister, rich rishi sunak. when it comes to those human rights abusers, we ve learned from amnesty international as well as the u.s. state department there are reports that he faced torture and treatment in solitary confinement. while in detention he was forced into making false confessions. they re calling on a full investigation. there are serious concerns we will continue to see the iranian
president. so, i want to discuss is going on in saudi arabia, what should be going on in saudi arabia. joining me now is bill, he s the head of the global justice campaign. he is the reason the magnitsky act exists, he was this man s lawyer. the magnets dias is meant to punish human rights abuses. he s also the ceo of he s the author of freezing order, a true story of russian money laundering, murder, and surviving vladimir putin s wrath. bill, good morning to you, thank you for being with us. i noticed when this happened that you tweeted out responding to the mbs immunity decision, very ugly and dangerous decision. obviously you re very close to one of the world s most prominent spokespeople on issues of human rights, i assume you are saying mbs and saudi arabia are human rights abusers. why is the u.s. seemingly okay with this? yeah, so, as you said, you
cutting the supply of oil and pushing up the price of oil. so, you know, there is no other reason that i can think of why we should be giving him a free pass. he s a murderer, it s clear, it s been well-established. this idea that because he is [inaudible]. bill, we re about two weeks away from it being ten years since the magnitsky act was started, it obviously came into place at different times in different countries. how do you evaluate success as a tool for punishing human rights abusers? it s been an amazing tool in the sense that has scared dictators all over the world. there is more than 500 people and company sanctions by the magnitsky act visas canceled, and it breeds the fear of don into them and everyone around them. by the way, it was intended to be used in, against the saudis,
shannon: saudi arabia, this week the biden administration got involved in a federal lawsuit here in the states. they were asked to weigh in on whether or not they have a position on whether the crown prince has sovereign immunity. they did, through the state department, say that there is sovereign immunity in this lawsuit regarding the death of u.s.-based journalist jamal khashoggi. fred ryan, publisher and ceo of the washington post said this: president biden is failing to uphold america s most cherished values, he s granting a license to kill to one of the world s most egregious human rights abusers. president biden had talked about making hem pariahs when he was campaigning. then july, the visit, the fist bump, all the things that have happened. do you agree the president is betraying american values i by weighing in to say sovereign immunity? what the administration decided this week is in keeping with the practice, the custom of lawsuits involving foreign heads of state. it wo