regarding their uncertainty in an increasingly stable middle east. the saudis were distressed after the attack on their oil facilities backed by yemen, the trump administration did practically nothing to retaliate. the ua faced a similar attack in january and was equally stressed that the biden administration was not more active in responding. there s a wage for washington to forge a new security umbrella in the region that includes israel, egypt and the gulf states. it would stabilize the community environment, foreclose the prospects of a nuclear arms race in the region and provide access to energy for the industrialized world. but that path would have to include making up with mohammad bin salman. i don t make this argument lightly. jamal khashoggi was my friend. in fact, when i visited saudi arabia in 2004, he was my companion and guide. i miss him dearly, even now. but the fact of the matter is mbs is likely to rule saudi arabia for the next 50 years. he is an absolute ruler like
post reported that the four separate countries had been caught chattering about how he was susceptible to manipulation because of the things sam laid out, his inexperience, business ties, bad debt. and right now opposite the michael cohen hearings just of this week where was he? he was visiting mbs, the ruler of saudi arabia, the modernizer who the administration has bent over backwards to defend despite his implication in the murder of jamal khashoggi. so everything s bad about this and the president lied and the administration then lied in return. and to quote george conway, kellyanne conway s husband in a tweet, trump lied? knock me over with a feather. difference is that this has real national security implications in the is why lies matter. and i can just add on that? because i went to work every day for four years and sat down in the room and never thought to myself, wow, the guy sitting across the table could have something else on his mind other than u.s. national security.
ordered this killing and it is kind of interesting watching the political left and now embrace the cia conclusions. suddenly the cia is to be trusted at all times. funny how that has changed especially in relation to the middle east analysis in the few decades. i think what is a problem here is that the crown prince and saudi arabia has sold himself as a modernizer who wants his country to enter the 21st century to adopt western-style tolerance transparency, etc. and we are not seeing it and we are not seeing it with the news reports of women being tortured. essentially political prisoners inside saudi arabia, we would like to see the proof of modernization. i covered asia, south korea when it was run by a dictator and they attempted to kill the opposition leader. i was covering the philippines
his regime obviously not making it any easier. whether or not he actually ordered this killing and it is kind of interesting watching the political left and now embrace the cia conclusions. suddenly the cia is to be trusted at all times. funny how that has changed especially in relation to the middle east analysis in the few decades. i think what is a problem here is that the crown prince and saudi arabia has sold himself as a modernizer who wants his country to enter the 21st century to adopt western-style tolerance transparency, etc. and we are not seeing it and we are not seeing it with the news reports of women being tortured. essentially political prisoners inside saudi arabia, we would like to see the proof of modernization. i covered asia, south korea when it was run by a dictator and they attempted to kill the
not to mention the fact, i mean we re talking about jamal khashoggie case really tells us is it brought a lesson about them at least, not just saudi arabia and the arab world, i mean this notion of the just dictator, the notion of the authoritarian leader or modernizer, the cultive personality. that s the base loss of mismanage, deepening authoritarianism. it s surprising for me, fareed, that the crown prince mohammad, this is a man who is traveling a similar road that had been traveled by other dictators in the middle east, a road leads to nowhere, and is littered with mine fields for the people of saudi arabia and for the people of saudi arabia. the big question for the united states is what to do,