I think there will be more on this too. Khashoggi is a cousin or something of Dodi al Fayed of Diana, Princess of Wales fame, whose father owns half of London, including Harrods. Khashoggi’s son has made it out of the country. He came to New Zealand about a week ago, and is now living here. I’m not sure about Khashoggi’s father.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, New Zealand is not an ally of the US. We stopped being allies in the early 1970s when we stood up to them over our nuclear free status. We are a nuclear-free country and it’s a condition of coming into our ports that all ships etc have to state whether they are nuclear-powered or carrying nuclear weapons. If they have nuclear weapons, they can’t come here. The US wanted to, “neither confirm nor deny,” but that wasn’t good enough for the government of the time, so the US said if you won’t accept that you’re no longer allies thinking we would buckle. We didn’t.

Even last year there was a war games exercise in Hawaii and to make the point that we’re not allies, the NZ ships etc that were part of the exercise were put in a different port than the dozens of other countries taking part. We’re still part of “Five Eyes” and essential for that.

Sadly, I think you’re right.

I now think you were right all along Nicky. It’s MsB who’s killing his own citizens as part of his cover up. I was wrong to think Turkey might be taking revenge for their citizen (Khashoggi’s fiancee).

It’s awful that these guys have to have their lives destroyed to cover up for MbS and his cronies. And there will be plenty who will believe the story unfortunately.

VERY good question. I wish I knew the answer. She’s pretty inscrutable.

The problem is that it’s up to the king to name his successor, and he named MbS because he was his favourite son. The king is only lucid for a short time each day, and it’s hard for others to get to him and persuade him that MbS is screwing up big time.

So the world has to put up with Crown Prince MbS and Crown Prince Jared Kushner and we have to hope that people can get to the king, and young people make the effort to get out and vote.

I was thinking of writing a post about that FBI building yesterday – you’ve reminded me by mentioning it. There was an extensive piece about it on CNN too, but I can’t remember which show – Anderson Cooper I think. It was absolutely outrageous!
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/10/18/fbi-headquarters-move-trump-ath-vpx.cnn

That was my mistake, not yours! I don’t know much more about them. I have a vague memory of high levels of corruption? Perhaps that has something to do with it.

Because of the antipathy between Saudi and Turkey. Saudi did this on Turkish soil and Khashoggi’s fiancee is Turkish. Turkey could be taking revenge.

But you’re right too – it could just as easily be Saudi cleaning up afterwards. Maybe the guy killed was a weak link and felt guilty about the murder, and they felt he might flip on them and tell Turkey or the US what really happened.

Yes – the election is a real worry. As everyone is aware, turnout of young people will be key and they’re notoriously good at protesting, but notoriously bad at turning up when it really counts – the ballot box. Obviously, a lot of Republicans are motivated too because they’re scared there’s going to be a blue wave. The thought of losing power and control is a terrifying prospect for conservatives – it’s what makes them conservatives of course – and conservatives are good at voting.