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Gumpendorf · 20/10/2018 09:56

Thanks for the Russia indictment, Roussette.

The detail is extraordinary. It sets out the strategy for Russian interference since the election, the cost of the operation and the messages it was trying to push (See pic). Messages that supported the Trump strategy and went after his opponents. Messages that Trump himself has repeated. It raises the question of whether the Russians are pulling the strings or being an echo chamber for Trump.

It would caused an earthquake a few months ago but, like the NYT tax story it will probably not last too many news cycles.

Couldn't think of a pithy quote so have this instead. Trump #85
ohmymimi · 20/10/2018 10:08

So the Saudis are essentially claiming that Jamal Khashoggi died from a choke hold, because he had to be restrained after he became violent. So an accident for which he was partly responsible.

ohmymimi · 20/10/2018 10:25

Jamal Khashoggi, a vocal opponent of the blockade, would approve of very much. So that would make his barbaric death worth it, thenAngry

'Jamal Khashoggi's Disappearance Could Be A Watershed Moment In US-Saudi Relations - If Donald Trump Has The Will
The US President could well use Khashoggi’s disappearance as leverage to wrest concessions out of Saudi Arabia on important issues to the West'

While reports today focused on a grisly search for the remains of Jamal Khashoggi in a Turkish forest, one story slipped by relatively unnoticed.
This was an announcement that Donald Trump is to appoint a US ambassador to Qatar for the first time in 16 months.
The US President could well use Khashoggi’s disappearance as leverage to wrest concessions out of Saudi Arabia on important issues to the West.........
.........Could it be that behind the scenes Trump has persuaded the bullying Saudis to call off the boycott so there is a united Arab front ahead of his planned sanctions on Tehran?
Let’s hope so because that would be something which Jamal Khashoggi, a vocal opponent of the blockade, would approve of very much.

Anthony Harwood is a former foreign editor at the Daily Mail, and former Head of News and US Editor at Daily Mirror
www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jamal-khashoggi-us-saudi-relations_uk_5bc9d99be4b0a8f17eeb9e6e

Gumpendorf · 20/10/2018 10:42

Lots wrong with that last piece mimi. 

I doubt Trump wants to use leverage over the Saudis to do anything. He and Kushner have too much at stake personally. 

Gumpendorf · 20/10/2018 10:53

Good piece in the New Yorker. It will be instructive to see if she is right.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/trump-never-handles-anything-right-the-president-is-acting-like-saudi-arabias-lawyer-in-the-khashoggi-affair

I’m not surprised by Washington’s obsession with the story: it’s the Trump Presidency distilled to its morally compromising, press-bashing, truth-denying essence.

I spoke with one of the many lobbyists who have been caught up in the Khashoggi affair now that it has become a classic Washington moment, in which a money gusher deemed acceptable by the Beltway’s élite suddenly becomes politically untenable. The lobbyist blamed M.B.S. for not being what Washington wanted him to be. “We can’t all go and live in this guy’s lie. No way. It’s just too vivid and too morbid,” the lobbyist told me. “This isn’t one for everybody to get on board. It’s not going to work that way.” But he was also furious with Trump for exacerbating the scandal and turning it, once again, into a story about Trump himself. “Trump never handles anything right,” the lobbyist, a Republican, said. “Never. Never.”

lionheart · 20/10/2018 11:06

intel

'Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker warned the Trump administration on Thursday that its information “clampdown” on the alleged killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi can’t go on.

The Tennessee Republican said in an interview he sought to view recent U.S. intelligence on Monday and Tuesday regarding Khashoggi’s disappearance and likely murder in Turkey this month but was told by U.S. officials that he could not do so. Corker suggested that the administration’s current opaque position on who may have killed Khashoggi and whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is responsible may be untenable.'

ohmymimi · 20/10/2018 13:49

Shane Harris
@shaneharris
New: CIA officials have heard audio that Turks say paints a much different story about Khashoggi’s death than the one the Saudis are telling. Saudi claims that he died in a “brawl” draw immediate skepticism.

Saudi claims that Khashoggi died in a ‘brawl’ draw immediate skepticism
washingtonpost.com
mobile.twitter.com/shaneharris/status/1053483403675426817

ohmymimi · 20/10/2018 14:17

Full indictment:
The Department of Justice has filed a criminal complaint and supporting affidavit against Elena Khusyaynova with a conspiracy to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. §371. The Washington Post reports that the charges are related to attempted meddling in the 2018 midterm elections. The charges were brought by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
www.lawfareblog.com/document-justice-department-charges-russian-national-2018-election-meddling

lionheart · 20/10/2018 17:17

18 arrests. Hmm

www.ft.com/content/d642cbe2-d3ed-11e8-a9f2-7574db66bcd5

cozietoesie · 20/10/2018 20:11

That would be the ex Crown Prince. (He's been badly weakened by all this and he's not short of ......rivals.)

ohmymimi · 20/10/2018 20:13

Mr Dale's Diary - he is worried about spin:

Daniel Dale
@ddale8
Trump is doing a campaign rally in Elko, Nevada. Tweets in this thread.
6:46 pm · 20 Oct 2018
mobile.twitter.com/ddale8/status/1053703967023267845

There is some discussion on the thread about what a weird choice of location Elko is:

@_jablonski
If you’ve never been to Elko it is hard to convey how bizarre it is that he’s there.
@DebbieS10872122
How so?
@_jablonski
It is a tiny town in the middle of the Nevada desert with no industry. It’s bleak. When you pass through it on a road trip you wonder how anyone could live there.
@leftcoastlefty5
Elko is a town of 20,000 in the middle of nowhere. They do have 4 brothels though!
@march4progress
Ah, now we know why Trump chose it. GOP #familyvalues.

cozietoesie · 20/10/2018 21:20

The political landscape might be changing sooner rather then later. 

cozietoesie · 20/10/2018 21:21

than

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