Hard-line GOP Conservatives & FOX: Khashoggi Smearing Underway as Trump Cover

Arrogant, aggressive, smug, stubborn, insecure hard-core pose 

Excellent story and analysis from the Washington Post via MSN and the Seattle Times:

My introduction to the story: First of all, it is an open absolute truth that Trump hates the media and anyone involved in it, except of course his fav BFF, FOX News, Hannity and Alex Jones-types. More to the point for today:

The GOP’s sustained “smear/discrediting/insulting/demeaning” anti-journalist Jamal Khashoggi campaign driven by Trump and his hardcore, raw, hateful loyalists has reached a new low (again).

So, how much lower than they go: Well, how deep is the Mariana Trench (nearly 36,000 feet). So, maybe that low. 

The latest GOP-Trump-FOX rightwing smear campaign coverage:

Hard-line Republicans and Conservative commentators are mounting a whispering campaign against Jamal Khashoggi that is designed to protect Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident journalist’s alleged murder by operatives of Saudi Arabia — and support Trump’s continued aversion to a forceful response to the oil-rich desert kingdom.

In recent days, a cadre of conservative House Republicans allied with Trump has been privately exchanging articles from right-wing outlets that fuel suspicion of Khashoggi, highlighting his association with the Muslim Brotherhood in his youth and raising conspiratorial questions about his work decades ago as an embedded reporter covering Osama bin-Laden, according to four GOP officials involved in the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Those aspersions — which many lawmakers have been wary of stating publicly because of the political risks of doing so — have begun to flare into public view as conservative media outlets have amplified the claims, which are aimed in part at protecting Trump as he works to preserve the U.S.-Saudi relationship and avoid confronting the Saudis on human rights.

Trump’s remarks about reporters amid the Khashoggi fallout have inflamed existing tensions between his allies and the media. 

For example, at a rally in Montana recently, Trump openly praised Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) for assaulting a reporter in his bid for Congress last year, saying to loyal crowd: “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of — he’s my guy.” The crowd roared their approval.

Tail of the tape in Trump's own words, not mine:

October 18, 2018 at Montana rally

Hours earlier, prominent conservative television personalities were making insinuations about Khashoggi’s background, for example and of course, Harris Faulkner and her FOX show “Outnumbered” said: “Khashoggi was tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. I just put it out there because it is in the constellation of things that are being talked about.” 

(Note: Faulkner then dismissed another guest who called her claim “iffy.”)

The message was echoed on the campaign trail. Virginia Republican Corey Stewart, who is challenging Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), told a local radio program recently: “Khashoggi was not a good guy himself.”

While Khashoggi was once sympathetic to Islamist movements as young man, he moved toward a more liberal, secular point of view, according to experts on the Middle East who have tracked his career.

Khashoggi knew bin-Laden in the 1980s and 1990s during the civil war in Afghanistan (where BTW the U.S. helped the Mujahedeen forces against, at the time, the former Soviet Union Army 1979-1989 era). 

However, his interactions with bin-Laden then were as a journalist with a point of view who was working with a prized source just as any reporter would have done at the same time (nearly 40 years ago).

My 2 cents and also noteworthy: Yes, Khashoggi was acquainted with Osama bin--Laden in the 1980s and 1990s (when he was nearly 30 years old and as a reporter) in Afghanistan while bin-Laden was championing his jihad against the USSR Army at the time. 

He interviewed bin-Laden several times, usually meeting him in Tora Bora, and once more in Sudan in 1995 (when he was 37 years old). During that period, he was employed by Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies to try to influence bin-Laden into making a compromise with the Saudi royal family in their rivalry. 

Al-Arabiya reported that Khashoggi once tried to persuade bin-Laden to quit violence. Khashoggi was the only non-royal Saudi Arabian who knew of the royals' intimate dealing with al-Qaeda in the lead-up to the 9/11 attacks.

After that, he dissociated himself from bin-Laden totally. Khashoggi wrote in response to the September 11 attacks: “The most pressing issue now is to ensure that our children can never be influenced by extremist ideas­ like those 15 Saudis who were misled into hijacking four planes that fine September day, piloting them, and us, straight into the jaws of hell.” 

So, no reason the Saudis would not want him dead, um, Mr. Trump? What, cat got your tongue? 

Hope you enjoyed the article. 

Thanks for stopping by.