PRESIDENT’S GOOD FRIEND THINKS UNITED STATES IS WORSE THAN SAUDI ARABIA

…This man, Tom Barrack, is not an appropriate advisor of America’s values to our US president

Saudi Arabia is actually a “Tier 3 Watch List” nation.  That’s the worst category for being a humanitarian nation.

Okay, let's look at what the maligned view of the truth is between the Middle East and the West.

The following are a few statements by the billionaire, Tom Barrack.  Barrack is Donald Trump’s long-time friend; an informal adviser; and he was the chairman of the president’s inaugural committee.

Statement #1: Asked at a Milken Institute gathering in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), about the murder of The Post’s contributing columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, who was a US resident.  The journalist was ambushed, killed and dismembered with a bone saw by Saudi agents in Turkey.  This was apparently done at the direction of the Saudi Crown Prince (MBS).  Mr. Barrack stated the following about that event: “Whatever happened in Saudi Arabia, the atrocities in America are equal to or worse than the atrocities in Saudi Arabia.” He added: “For us to dictate what we think is the moral code there . . . I think is a mistake.”

Statement #2: Per Mr. Barrack: “The problem with what’s happened with the Khashoggi incident is the same problems of the West misunderstanding the Middle East” for a whole century.”  Barrack said. “The West is confused about the rule of the law, and doesn’t understand what the rule of law is in the [Arabian] kingdom.”

So, Trump’s pal thinks it’s a “mistake” to make a fuss over the murder of an American journalist.

This reminds me that during the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump was asked by the MSNBC’s Morning Joe host, why Trump admired dictators such as Vladimir Putin? 

Joe Scarborough had said: “Well, I mean, he’s [Putin] is a person who kills journalists, political opponents and invades countries, obviously that would be a concern, would it not?

Trump responded: “He's running his country, and at least he's a leader, unlike what we have in this country. [meaning President Obama]”

Trump added:  “There are plenty of killers in the US.  Do you think our country is so innocent?”

Apparently both the president and his wealthy friend think that the United States’ atrocities are equal to or worse than the Saudis’.

Saudi Arabia today is responsible for the deaths of thousands in Yemen, and they are using foreign mercenaries, killing children in a war that has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.  Many of the 11 million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia are subjected to forced labor and sexual abuse, as well as having their passports confiscated and wages withheld.

Saudi children and activists are sentenced to death, non-violent offenders beheaded, thousands held without charges and tortured and Saudi women are controlled by their male “guardians”.  Saudi authorities executed one Indonesian domestic worker recently for killing her employer who she said was trying to rape her.   And now come reports that Saudi diplomats are helping Saudi nationals escape from the United States before they can be prosecuted for their alleged crimes committed here.

Tom Barrack told the people attending the Milken Institute gathering: “I have only amazing things to tell you about Donald Trump.”  Barrack added:  “Donald Trump is good enough, tough enough, smart enough and well-versed enough." 

A CNN journalist has provided an audio recording of these Barrack remarks, which were reported by the Gulf News.

After all this had been reported, Mr. Barrack issued a written statement saying the Khashoggi killing “was atrocious and is inexcusable,” and he apologized “for not making this very clear.”  But he added in the written report that the “acts of a few should not be interpreted as the failure of an entire sovereign kingdom,” and he repeated his claim that the West is very confused about the East.

It is disgusting that Barrack failed to criticize the Khashoggi murder in front of the Saudis.  His misplaced comment of the “acts of a few” in a murder that US intelligence personnel have determined it had to have been blessed by the Saudi Crown Prince.  (Nothing like this would happen without the knowledge and blessing of the head of the Saudi government: MBS.) Mr. Barrack also didn’t apologize for saying that the United States’ atrocities “are equal to or worse than those of Saudi Arabia”.

No one knows what makes Mr. Barrack take such a dim view of our American values.  However, the New York Times reported last year that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates provided 24% of the $7 billion that Barrack’s business raised in the 17 months after Trump’s inauguration.

Of greater major concern, is that Barrack advises a president who seems to think the same as Tom Barrack.  Remember when Trump, was reminded that Russian President Vladimir Putin was a killer, Trump replied by saying “You think our country is so innocent?” and Trump has also said:  “I think that our country does plenty of killing, too.”

At a prayer breakfast last week, Trump spoke about the “bondage of human trafficking” and said, “I directed the State Department to cut off development aid to nations that do not demonstrate a commitment to ending human trafficking.”  Actually, such a cutoff was already required by law, but the Trump administration has been giving special treatment waivers to its Saudi friends.

Most Americans are ignorant to the fact that under the US government’s annual Trafficking in Persons report, Saudi Arabia, was on a “Tier 2 Watch List,” but was due for a downgrade in 2017 to Tier 3.  That is the worst category for a humanitarian nation.  However, the Trump administration has up to now protected Saudi Arabia with waivers in both 2017 and 2018. 

Now those waivers are expiring, and the administration has to decide whether to put Saudi Arabia back in Tier 3, which would cut aid and would claim that the Saudi kingdom isn’t “making significant efforts.”

A US State Department report last year acknowledged “the [Saudi] government did not demonstrate increasing efforts compared to the previous poor reporting period.”

S. Bader-Blau, director of the advocacy group Solidarity Center, testified to Congress that, in Saudi Arabia, “virtually the entire migrant low-wage workforce is in some spectrum of human trafficking.”

Will the Trump administration punish Saudi Arabia?  Or will it follow the blame-America-first logic expressed by Trump’s pal, Barrack?

Asked about the Khashoggi killing, Barrack actually joked about the time the crown prince detained his rivals in a luxury hotel before he told the audience that “the corrupt hand of the West has been the primary instigator in the Saudi kingdom.”  

What is really “corrupt” is Trump and his friend sucking up to Khashoggi’s killers.

Copyright G. Ater 2019