Paul Ryan with his Saudi Daddies on April 6, 2016-Al Arabiya. (Establishment Republicans like Ryan love hob nobbing with the greatest sponsors of global Islamic terror. Back home and calling the headslicers "our allies," Ryan protects Saudis from litigation from 911 families)

Image caption: "Saudi King Salman speaks with US Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. (SPA)"

Saudi headslicers welcome Paul Ryan who proved his cred as a  national embarrassment on the global stage in Sept. 2012 vs Laughing Joe Biden. So it was no surprise in May 2016 when Ryan joined Democrat moves to protect Saudis from litigation of 911 families as he'd signaled on April 19.

4/7/16, "Saudi King receives US Speaker of the House Paul Ryan," Al Arabiya "Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud received Speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan at Al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh on Wednesday.

The delegation from the United States included a number of House members, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, member of the House from Texas Panhandle William Mac Thornberry, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from California Devin Nunes, member of the House of Representatives from Ohio Michael Turner, member of the House of Representatives from New York Gregory Meeks, member of the House of Representatives from South Dakota Kristi Noem, member of the House of Representatives from Wisconsin Ron Kind, member of the House of Representatives from Texas’s 23rd congressional district Will Hurd, and the chief aide to House speaker Jonathan Perks.

The visit comes on the same week where US Secretary of State John Kerry visits Bahrain to hold talks with GCC foreign ministers on regional security issues.

The visit also ahead of a scheduled visit by US President Barack Obama, who is attending a GCC summit in Riyadh on April 21, where Washington’s policies towards the Middle East are likely to come under the microscope.

A version of this article first appeared in the Saudi Gazette on Apr. 07, 2016."

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Additional photo from Saudi Gazette:

4/6/16, "King receives speaker, members of US House of Representatives," Saudi Gazette

"Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman receives Speaker of the US House of Representatives Paul Ryan at Al-Yamama Palace in Riyadh on Wednesday. The delegation included a number of House members, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, member of the House from Texas Panhandle William Mac Thornberry, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence from California Devin Nunes, member of the House of Representatives from Ohio Michael Turner, member of the House of Representatives from New York Gregory Meeks, member of the House of Representatives from South Dakota Kristi Noem, member of the House of Representatives from Wisconsin Ron Kind, member of the House of Representatives from Texas’s 23rd congressional district Will Hurd, and the chief aide to House speaker Jonathan Perks." from Saudi Gazette

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11/20/2015, "Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It," NY Times op-ed, Kamel Daoud. "Kamel Daoud, a columnist for Quotidien d’Oran, is the author of “The Meursault Investigation.” This essay was translated by John Cullen from the French."  
 
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1/20/2015, "How Saudi Wahhabism Is the Fountainhead of Islamist Terrorism," Huffington Post, Dr. Yousaf Butt, London. updated, 03/22/2015

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8/8/2015, "How Saudi Arabia exports radical Islam," The Week staff

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In May, 2016. "Republican" Speaker Paul Ryan just back from a trip to Saudi Arabia backed efforts by Obama and Schumer to shield Saudis from litigation of 9/11 families:

May 24, 2016, "Schumer upends 9/11 Saudi suit bill at 11th hour," NY Post, Paul Sperry

"Last week’s unanimous passage of a Senate bill making it easier for 9/11 families to sue Saudi Arabia and other foreign terror sponsors was widely heralded as a major victory

It’s more of a cruel hoax.

It turns out that just before the vote, Sen. Charles Schumer and other proponents of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act stuffed an amendment into the final draft allowing the attorney general and secretary of state to stop any litigation against the Saudis in its tracks....

GOP Speaker Paul Ryan, who recently returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia, where he met with King Salman, has sided with President Obama against the bill. He’s not expected to let the bill come to a floor vote.

But for added insurance, the Saudi government has unleashed an army of lobbyists on the Hill, where they’re handing out a bound, 104-page document claiming, “The kingdom is one of the leading nations in combating terrorism and terror-financing.”"

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In April 2016 Paul Ryan signaled he'd protect Saudis from litigation by 911 families:
 
4/19/2016, "McConnell, Ryan decline to back 9/11 lawsuit bill," CNN 

"The two top Republican leaders in Congress declined Tuesday to embrace a popular bill moving through the Senate that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia. 

House Speaker Paul Ryan expressed caution about unintended consequences of the legislation, which would clear the way for suits over Riyadh's alleged role in the terror attacks, and said the House would not rush the bill....

"I think we need to look at it," Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said in response to a question at a news conference. "I think we need to review it to make sure that we're not making mistakes with our allies and that we're not catching people in this who shouldn't be caught up in this."...

Saudi Arabia has long denied any role in the 9/11 attacks, but victims' families have repeatedly sought to bring the matter to court. In the past they've been rebuffed after Saudi Arabia has invoked legal immunity under current law."...

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Added: US sells cluster bombs to Paul Ryan "allies" the Saudis who use them against civilian targets in Yemen:
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4/19/16, "Obama Shouldn’t Trade Cluster Bombs for Saudi Arabia’s Friendship," NY Times op ed, William D. Hartung
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"When President Obama visits Saudi Arabia this week for a meeting with representatives from the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, he should avoid doing what he did at Camp David last May, the last time he met with them: promise more arms sales. Since Mr. Obama hosted that meeting, the United States has offered over $33 billion in weaponry to its Persian Gulf allies, with the bulk of it going to Saudi Arabia. The results have been deadly.
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The Saudi-American arms deals are a continuation of a booming business that has developed between Washington and Riyadh during the Obama years. In the first six years of the Obama administration, the United States entered into agreements to transfer nearly $50 billion in weaponry to Saudi Arabia, with tens of billions of dollars of additional offers in the pipeline.

The Pentagon claims that these arms transfers to Saudi Arabia “improve the security of an important partner which has been and continues to be an important force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.” Recent Saudi actions suggest otherwise.
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A prime example of what’s wrong with unbridled American weapons transfers to the Saudi government is the Saudi-led war in Yemen. According to the United Nations, more than 3,200 civilians have been killed since Saudi bombing began last March. A majority of these deaths have been a result of airstrikes, many of which have been carried out with aircraft, bombs and missiles supplied by the United States and Britain, including United States-supplied cluster bombs.
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The use of cluster bombs is of particular concern. These munitions are banned by an international treaty — a treaty that neither the United States nor Saudi Arabia has signed. The United States also provides logistical support to the Royal Saudi Air Force for its airstrikes in Yemen.

President Obama with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, center, and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in May 2015. Credit Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

The Obama administration says that it has urged restraint from the Saudis, but that doesn’t appear to have worked. Human Rights Watch has reported that two Saudi strikes on a market in the Yemeni village of Mastaba in mid-March killed at least 97 civilians, including 25 children. This was just one in a series of Saudi strikes on marketplaces, hospitals and other civilian targets, attacks that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said may constitute war crimes.
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But American arms transfers to Saudi Arabia are questionable not only on human rights grounds. They also have negative strategic consequences. The Saudi-led incursion against Houthi rebels in Yemen has opened the way for jihadist groups to gain territory and influence. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is now firmly entrenched in the Yemeni city of Mukalla and has reportedly used its position there to raise over $100 million by looting banks and charging fees for the use of the local port.
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Mr. Obama seems to understand that uncritical support for the Saudis will only make the security situation in the Middle East worse. In an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, the president acknowledged that competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran "has helped to feed proxy wars and chaos in Syria and Iraq and Yemen,” and he said that Riyadh and Tehran should “share the neighborhood and institute some sort of cold peace.” This isn’t going to happen if billions of dollars worth of American arms continue to flow to Saudi Arabia with no effective conditions on how they are used.

One justification that has been put forward for the continued flow of weaponry from the United States to Saudi Arabia is that it provides reassurance to the kingdom’s leadership that Washington won’t tilt toward the Iranians in the wake of the deal reached last year over Iran’s nuclear program. But if demonstrating a commitment to the Saudi government entails supporting deadly and reckless initiatives, like the war in Yemen, the policy is not worth the price.
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Another reason the arms deals with Saudi Arabia keep coming is that they are a bonanza for American arms makers that need foreign markets to make up for a leveling off of Pentagon procurement. But domestic economic concerns should not be allowed to override American security interests in the Middle East.
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Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, have introduced legislation that would stop transfers of air-to-ground munitions to Saudi Arabia until the kingdom focuses its efforts in Yemen on attacking terrorist organizations and takes “all feasible precautions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure.” This is a good start.
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Mr. Obama should also use his trip to press King Salman to adhere to a newly imposed cease-fire in Yemen and agree to permanently end his country’s indiscriminate bombing there as part of United Nations peace talks. And the president should make clear that transfers of (US) bombs and missiles to the kingdom will stop until King Salman does so. That should be the first step in a much-needed re-evaluation of the security implications of open-ended arms sales to Saudi Arabia."

"William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy and a senior adviser to the Security Assistance Monitor."


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