Sign this petition re: Justice for Jamal Khashoggi

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi was dehumanized and brutally murdered, causing justified international outrage.

Dear MoveOn member,

Journalists play a critical role in the fight for justice, documenting key moments in history, discovering and exposing corruption, and amplifying community stories and voices. Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who did exactly that. He often was critical of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who was known for silencing dissent by any means necessary, which put Khashoggi in danger and forced him to leave the country in fear for his life.

In 2018, Khashoggi's fears became a reality when he was brutally murdered and dismembered while visiting Turkey, causing justified international outrage. At the time, even Trump's very own CIA director concluded with high confidence that Prince Mohammed ordered Khashoggi's killing.¹ Trump, who incited an insurrection led by white supremacists and got away with it, unsurprisingly denied it, shielding the Prince from accountability. Trump later boasted about his obstruction of justice by telling journalist Bob Woodward, "I saved his ass" and "I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to get them to stop."²

It's already shameful enough that white supremacy, Trump, and the spineless GOP Treason Caucus weren't held accountable for their attacks on our democracy in our own country. No justice for journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident and journalist for The Washington Post, will send a clear message across the globe that those in positions of power like Prince Mohammed can abuse that power and face zero consequences for it. President Biden must immediately place sanctions and a U.S. travel ban on Prince Mohammed bin Salman or he sets a precedent of impunity, further risking the lives of journalists overseas.

The Biden administration provided more transparency than the previous administration did by recently releasing a U.S. intelligence report that finally clearly states that "Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi."³

Although the current administration has already begun to place sanctions on many of the assassins involved, they have yet to place sanctions on the person who ordered the assassination: Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a human rights violator.  

By not placing sanctions on him, the Biden administration is sending the terrible signal that the U.S. will maintain its relationship with Saudi Arabia's dictatorship instead of standing up for human rights. We must be more committed to seeking justice for human rights violations than to maintaining relationships with those very same human rights violators.

It is long past due for the U.S. to end its alliance with the Saudi monarchy.

Add your name to tell President Biden to immediately place a travel ban and sanctions on Mohammed bin Salman.

Thanks!

–Sunjeev Bery, Freedom Forward

Sources: 

1. "Jamal Khashoggi: All you need to know about Saudi journalist's death," BBC, February 25, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/53035?t=9&akid=291491%2E10220574%2ElJOq-6

2. "Trump reportedly said he protected Saudi crown prince from Congress: 'I saved his ass,'" The Hill, September 10, 2020
https://act.moveon.org/go/150193?t=11&akid=291491%2E10220574%2ElJOq-6

3. "US intelligence report finds Saudi Crown Prince responsible for approving operation that killed Khashoggi," CNN, February 26, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/150194?t=13&akid=291491%2E10220574%2ElJOq-6

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