“Khashoggi Ban”…”Saudi Crown Prince has blood on his hands,”
“The Biden Administration should ensure that repercussions for the brutal murder of Khashoggi go beyond those who carried it out, to the one who ordered it. The blood of an American resident and journalist. We must have accountability, congressman Adam Shiff said. He was referring to the unclassified documents release implicating the Saudi Prince. Congressman Adam Schiff of the Intel Committee is demanding action.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s release today gave the details:
In October 2018, the world was horrified by the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a lawful permanent resident of the United States, in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Individuals should be able to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms without fear of government retribution, retaliation, punishment, or harm. Jamal Khashoggi paid with his life to express his beliefs. President Biden said in a statement released last October on the second anniversary of the murder that Mr. Khashoggi’s death would not be in vain, and that we owe it to his memory to fight for a more just and free world.
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted an unclassified report to Congress, providing transparency on this horrific killing. Alongside the transmission of that report, and as part of the President’s pledge, the United States Government is announcing additional measures to reinforce the world’s condemnation of that crime, and to push back against governments that reach beyond their borders to threaten and attack journalists and perceived dissidents for exercising their fundamental freedoms.
To that end, today I am announcing the ” a new visa restriction policy pursuant to section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Khashoggi Ban allows the State Department to impose visa restrictions on individuals who, acting on behalf of a foreign government, are believed to have been directly engaged in serious, extraterritorial counter-dissident activities, including those that suppress, harass, surveil, threaten, or harm journalists, activists, or other persons perceived to be dissidents for their work, or who engage in such activities with respect to the families or other close associates of such persons. Family members of such individuals also may be subject to visa restrictions under this policy, where appropriate.
To start, the U.S. Department of State has taken action pursuant to the Khashoggi Ban to impose visa restrictions on 76 Saudi individuals believed to have been engaged in threatening dissidents overseas, including but not limited to the Khashoggi killing. When identifying individuals for purposes of the Khashoggi Ban, we will also review them for designation under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2020, as carried forward by the CA Act of 2021, which authorizes the denial of visas to them and their immediate family members as well as their public identification.
As a matter of safety for all within our borders, perpetrators targeting perceived dissidents on behalf of any foreign government should not be permitted to reach American soil.
I also have directed that the State Department fully report on any such extraterritorial activities by any government in our annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The United States will continue to shine a light on any government that targets individuals, either domestically or extraterritorially, merely for exercising their human rights and fundamental freedoms.
While the United States remains invested in its relationship with Saudi Arabia, President Biden has made clear that partnership must reflect U.S. values. To that end, we have made absolutely clear that extraterritorial threats and assaults by Saudi Arabia against activists, dissidents, and journalists must end. They will not be tolerated by the United States.
Congressman Adam Schiff has been on the case since it unfolded. In 2018 he stated:
U.S. Representatives Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Co-Chairs of the Freedom of the Press Caucus, released the following statement on the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi, a renowned journalist who has been a critic of the Saudi regime:In 2018, the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi intelligence officers acting on explicit orders of the Saudi Government underscored the extent to which those in power will go to stifle the freedom of expression, silence their critics, and eliminate the threat they believe inde-25 pendent journalists pose to their rule.
“The disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is deeply concerning, and the reports that he was murdered are outrageous. If Mr. Khashoggi is indeed dead, and all evidence points to his death inside the Saudi consulate, this will dramatically alter the US-Saudi relationship. As Co-Chairs of the Freedom of the Press Caucus, we are deeply concerned that an independent voice, one who has urged greater openness and reform, has apparently been silenced in the most brutal and abhorrent fashion. The world over, authoritarian regimes attack the freedom of the press and threaten journalists who seek to shine a light on corruption and other issues that those in power hope to keep hidden. It is therefore all the more important that the United States stand firmly for the right to freedom of expression, in the case of Saudi Arabia and around the world.”