SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
U.S. President Joe Biden greets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman with a fist-bump at the Al Salam Royal Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 15, 2022. (Photo: Saudi Press Agency)
From 'Bone Saw' to 'Pariah' to 'Fist Bump': Outrage as Biden Greets Murderous Saudi Prince
"The bloody fist bump seen around the world," responded one human rights defender.
Jul 15, 2022
Making a mockery of his own campaign vow to treat the repressive Saudi kingdom as a "pariah," U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman--who intelligence agencies believe approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi--with an amiable fist bump as he arrived at the royal palace in Jeddah.
Already furious over the president's decision to meet with the crown prince despite his role in the brutal 2018 murder of Khashoggi and subsequent cover-up attempt, human rights defenders responded with outrage to the greeting, which the Saudi regime swiftly blasted out on social media.
"The bloody fist bump seen around the world," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). "You have humiliated our entire country."
Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Khashoggi--a U.S. resident who wrote for The Washington Post before he was tortured, killed, and dismembered with a bone saw inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul--replied on Twitter:
\u201cWhat Jamal Khashoggi would tweet today:\u201d— Hatice Cengiz \u062e\u062f\u064a\u062c\u0629 (@Hatice Cengiz \u062e\u062f\u064a\u062c\u0629) 1657904826
The meeting between Biden and the Saudi crown prince, commonly known as MBS, is expected to touch on a range of issues, from the U.S.-backed Saudi war on Yemen to oil production in the midst of Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine. Biden on Thursday refused to commit to bringing up Khashoggi's murder during the meeting.
In an interview ahead of Biden's visit, Cengiz told the Associated Press that Biden is "backing down" on human rights in the interest of boosting oil production. Just under three years ago, during his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden promised to make the Saudi leadership "pay the price" for the Khashoggi murder and "make them in fact the pariah that they are."
"It's a very huge backing down actually," Cengiz said Thursday. "It's heartbreaking and disappointing. And Biden will lose his moral authority by putting oil and expediency over principles and values."
MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan noted in a segment Thursday night that "even by Saudi standards, Mohammed bin Salman is a truly brutal ruler--the worst of the worst."
"Whatever we are getting from this meeting--maybe, maybe a slight fall in gas prices--is it really worth selling out the family of Jamal Khashoggi, the people of Yemen, and our own moral authority and values?" Hasan asked.
Watch:
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Making a mockery of his own campaign vow to treat the repressive Saudi kingdom as a "pariah," U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman--who intelligence agencies believe approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi--with an amiable fist bump as he arrived at the royal palace in Jeddah.
Already furious over the president's decision to meet with the crown prince despite his role in the brutal 2018 murder of Khashoggi and subsequent cover-up attempt, human rights defenders responded with outrage to the greeting, which the Saudi regime swiftly blasted out on social media.
"The bloody fist bump seen around the world," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). "You have humiliated our entire country."
Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Khashoggi--a U.S. resident who wrote for The Washington Post before he was tortured, killed, and dismembered with a bone saw inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul--replied on Twitter:
\u201cWhat Jamal Khashoggi would tweet today:\u201d— Hatice Cengiz \u062e\u062f\u064a\u062c\u0629 (@Hatice Cengiz \u062e\u062f\u064a\u062c\u0629) 1657904826
The meeting between Biden and the Saudi crown prince, commonly known as MBS, is expected to touch on a range of issues, from the U.S.-backed Saudi war on Yemen to oil production in the midst of Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine. Biden on Thursday refused to commit to bringing up Khashoggi's murder during the meeting.
In an interview ahead of Biden's visit, Cengiz told the Associated Press that Biden is "backing down" on human rights in the interest of boosting oil production. Just under three years ago, during his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden promised to make the Saudi leadership "pay the price" for the Khashoggi murder and "make them in fact the pariah that they are."
"It's a very huge backing down actually," Cengiz said Thursday. "It's heartbreaking and disappointing. And Biden will lose his moral authority by putting oil and expediency over principles and values."
MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan noted in a segment Thursday night that "even by Saudi standards, Mohammed bin Salman is a truly brutal ruler--the worst of the worst."
"Whatever we are getting from this meeting--maybe, maybe a slight fall in gas prices--is it really worth selling out the family of Jamal Khashoggi, the people of Yemen, and our own moral authority and values?" Hasan asked.
Watch:
From Your Site Articles
Making a mockery of his own campaign vow to treat the repressive Saudi kingdom as a "pariah," U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman--who intelligence agencies believe approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi--with an amiable fist bump as he arrived at the royal palace in Jeddah.
Already furious over the president's decision to meet with the crown prince despite his role in the brutal 2018 murder of Khashoggi and subsequent cover-up attempt, human rights defenders responded with outrage to the greeting, which the Saudi regime swiftly blasted out on social media.
"The bloody fist bump seen around the world," said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). "You have humiliated our entire country."
Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Khashoggi--a U.S. resident who wrote for The Washington Post before he was tortured, killed, and dismembered with a bone saw inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul--replied on Twitter:
\u201cWhat Jamal Khashoggi would tweet today:\u201d— Hatice Cengiz \u062e\u062f\u064a\u062c\u0629 (@Hatice Cengiz \u062e\u062f\u064a\u062c\u0629) 1657904826
The meeting between Biden and the Saudi crown prince, commonly known as MBS, is expected to touch on a range of issues, from the U.S.-backed Saudi war on Yemen to oil production in the midst of Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine. Biden on Thursday refused to commit to bringing up Khashoggi's murder during the meeting.
In an interview ahead of Biden's visit, Cengiz told the Associated Press that Biden is "backing down" on human rights in the interest of boosting oil production. Just under three years ago, during his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden promised to make the Saudi leadership "pay the price" for the Khashoggi murder and "make them in fact the pariah that they are."
"It's a very huge backing down actually," Cengiz said Thursday. "It's heartbreaking and disappointing. And Biden will lose his moral authority by putting oil and expediency over principles and values."
MSNBC's Mehdi Hasan noted in a segment Thursday night that "even by Saudi standards, Mohammed bin Salman is a truly brutal ruler--the worst of the worst."
"Whatever we are getting from this meeting--maybe, maybe a slight fall in gas prices--is it really worth selling out the family of Jamal Khashoggi, the people of Yemen, and our own moral authority and values?" Hasan asked.
Watch:
From Your Site Articles
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.