The Trump Administration is bound and determined not to draw any conclusions about Saudi Air Force gunman Mohammed Alshamrani, who killed three people on Friday in Pensacola. There seems to be a palpable fear that anything terror-related would make the Saudis look bad.
This could be a problem, since Lt. Alshamrani tweeted right before the attack exactly why he did it, which was related to US support for Israel and US hostility toward Muslim people. This puts the incident in an ideological context that would make it terrorism.
On top of that, the gunman hosted a dinner party where he and other Saudi students watched videos of mass shootings just days before the attack. One of those attendees filmed the Pensacola attack, and two other Saudis on the base were watching from a car.
This all puts the incident into a more Saudi context. Yet US officials are now saying they believe Alshamrani “acted alone,” despite having a camera man, and are insisting no one else was arrested, despite initial reports suggesting that multiple Saudis were held on the base.
Holding Saudi Arabia accountable has been something that US governments have long resisted, with evidence of Saudi officials’ complicity in 9/11 long a closely-guarded secret. Even after that went public, the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi fueled outrage, but the administration took the position that financial interests in selling the Saudis weapons outweighed this.
Given this, Pentagon officials were quick to make clear that having a Saudi Air Force officer killing people at a US base would in no way effect having Saudi troops on US bases in the future. Though that’s bound to lead to some questions going forward, officials are already fighting tooth and nail to downplay what happened, and have even suggested an alternative motivation that he may have been made becaus an instructor made fun of his mustache.
The mustache explanation doesn’t make much sense, and certainly wasn’t mentioned by the gunman in his tweet, but its likely to remain a topic of discussion, because if nothing else it wouldn’t be the Saudi kingdom’s fault.
“which was related to US support for Israel and US hostility toward Muslim people.”
Not terrorism??
Well, if it’s any consolation, wherever US bombs fall, the “terrorists” will be underneath em.
Plus a bunch of innocent civilians. US will target markets, hospitals, Mosques, apartment buildings, electrical grid, water purification plants, etc.
https://youtu.be/FbIX1CP9qr4
The coverup and denial it was terrorism is beginning to crack:
“Navy Suspends Flight Training for Saudi Military Students”
Students from Saudi Arabia have been grounded in the wake of a shooting at a Pensacola Navy base that left three people dead.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/10/us/pensacola-florida-shooting-saudi-students.html
The USA, UK, France, Israel & Saudi Arabia are the 5 biggest terrorist, warmongering meddlesome nations in the world. I’m sick & tired of the media praising people for serving in the armed forces.
And these countries wonder why others seek revenge. Not hard to figure out.
Saudi society is filled with jihadists. The 9-11-2001 attacks were done by Saudis. I’m sure a significant fraction of the Saudi recruits sent to the US for training are jihadists – no matter how hard the kingdom tries to root them out. Now, Saudi soldiers aren’t great warriors for their King – the Houthis are kicking their butts. That is probably because they don’t really believe in their King. [Likewise, when these Saudi trainees graduate flight school, their mission will be to kill Houthis. Maybe they don’t really want to do this.] But plenty of Saudis are willing to sacrifice themselves for the Islamic cause.