Last Call For Meat The Press, Con't

The case of missing Virginia resident and Saudi journalist dissident Jamal Khashoggi is only getting worse, as the Turks insist they have boatloads of physical evidence that he was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and executed, while US intelligence swears the Saudi royals wanted to "rendition" him out of the country.   Since the Trump regime is covering for the Saudis, and all eyes are firmly on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the supposed reformist prince now faces international condemnation starting with Europe.

Britain, France and Germany have issued a joint statement telling Saudi Arabia they were treating the case of the missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi with “the utmost seriousness”.

The foreign ministers of the three countries demanded an investigation into Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance and called for a “detailed response” from Saudi Arabia.

“There needs to be a credible investigation to establish the truth about what happened, and – if relevant – to identify those bearing responsibility for the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, and ensure that they are held to account,” the foreign ministers said in the joint statement.

“We encourage joint Saudi-Turkish efforts in that regard, and expect the Saudi government to provide a complete and detailed response. We have conveyed this message directly to the Saudi authorities.”

Either way, nobody seems to know where he is, and with heavy bipartisan efforts to pressure Donald Trump into sanctions on Riyadh, the Saudis are already warning that they could easily drive the price of oil through the roof right before US midterm elections.

The Saudi stock market lost $33 billion of its value on Sunday amid investor worries about deteriorating international relations, one of the first signs of the economic pain that Riyadh could suffer over the affair.

In a column published just after the SPA statement, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya channel’s General Manager Turki Aldakhil warned that imposing sanctions on the world’s largest oil exporter could spark global economic disaster.

“It would lead to Saudi Arabia’s failure to commit to producing 7.5 million barrels. If the price of oil reaching $80 angered President Trump, no one should rule out the price jumping to $100, or $200, or even double that figure,” he wrote.

U.S. senators have triggered a provision of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act requiring the president to determine whether a foreign person is responsible for a gross human rights violation. The act has in the past imposed visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials.

Anti-Saudi sentiment in the U.S. Congress could conceivably raise pressure to pass the so-called No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act, which would end sovereign immunity shielding OPEC members from U.S. legal action.

Needless to say, oil at $200 a barrel would decimate the US economy overnight, and the Trump regime knows it.  Don't expect them to do anything about Khashoggi's disappearance.  If anything, expect them to continue to help cover the crime up.