Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 186 posts

Re: Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

#121

Post by curious_cat_163 »

adamc wrote: post #67

Legally, I am not qualified to comment. But as a citizen of the US, this makes me very, very angry.

> "This is a legal determination made by the State Department under longstanding and well-established principles of customary international law," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in a written statement.

...

> "It has nothing to do with the merits of the case."

Pretty strange that this is how the international law works in 2022. We have ways to go, I suppose.

FWIW. This also looks like a pretty convenient loophole for the Biden administration to 'normalize' the relationships with the KSA and MBS, in particular. They'll keep calling him names like murderer and say that our hands are tied because of the international law.

Re: Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

#122

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

diego_moita wrote: post #36

This is called "Realpolitik": international relations are meant to serve your national interests, not ethical principles. By now, the main national interest in the West is to not give oil money to the psychotic butcher in Moscow. The Saudi butcher is a little less psychotic by comparison. There are dozens of philosophers that advanced this idea: Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes,... Many of the most famous statesme…

But this "Realpolitik" was already contested successfully by India ( among others ). Are you saying that this example does not test the rule? Perfect should not be the enemy of the good?

I buy your argument, but your example is not good.

Re: Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

#125

Post by [deleted] »

Jiro wrote: post #11

If we object to a foreign country killing their own citizens, we can invade the foreign country and overthrow the ruler to make them stop killing (or threaten to invade unless they stop the killing). If we don't want to do that, we could try to put sanctions on them. If we can't do that either, there's not much we can do.

[deleted]

Re: Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

#126

Post by throwaway0asd »

ghufran_syed wrote: post #85
meaydinli wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is investigation of Modi by "Supreme court of India" an independent investigation? It is the classic case of "we looked into our wrong doing and found nothing"

analogously, would you also agree with the following statement? “How is the investigation of US president trump by the US congress an independent investigation…?”

Yes, the investigation is independent. What I believe you mean to suggest is that it is not impartial and lacks the adversarial natural of a US legal tribunal.

Re: Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

#127

Post by whimsicalism »

mgfist wrote: post #109
spamizbad wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is problematic because one of the underpinnings of western liberalism is the notion of Rule of Law: that, at the end of the day, we are all bound to the same rules.

We're not all bound to the same rules and laws. For example, the president of the US can decide to kill with near immunity.

We're all bound by the rule: "if you are president of the US, you can kill with near immunity."

Re: Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

#129

Post by naasking »

criddell wrote: post #63
chrsig wrote: post #10

Shameful. There shouldn't be such a thing as immunity over murder.

Just yesterday I saw a clip on CNN of Merrick Garland saying nobody is above the law . At the time he was being asked about the Jan 6 investigation. I guess he should have said "only current heads of state are above the law".

Hardly new. Every US president of the last 20 years has ordered the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians through drone programs and wars. It is worth getting angry over, but the rot starts at the top.

Re: Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi leader given US immunity over Khashoggi killing

#130

Post by peoplefromibiza »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #89
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

In case this is serious, we didn’t sue Hussain or Gadaffi out of office.

No, you bombed them out of life.

Gheddafi in particular, he was killed like a rabid dog when was hiding in a hole in the ground and was harmless.

But I guess that if you buy enough billion in weapons from the US, you're fine.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kDWcjB2-OXA/maxresdefault.jpg

What both Saddam and Gheddafi together have done is peanuts compared to what SA has done in the middle east.

The US are becoming more and more a problem, they do not understand anymore that power means using it responsibly.

There are people all over the world banning the access to American cultural products to their children, must mean something.

Post reply on HN