We have a unique opportunity right now, because of the leverage of the National Defence Authorization Act, to get prisoner’s of conscience freed in all nations receiving military aid from the US. In particular Saudi Arabia. Sending another letter now, including the names of these individuals.
** Update 11/17 * — Karen Attiah of Washington Post provided a list of names that Jamal Khashoggi mentioned in his articles, as being unjustly imprisoned:
Loujain Hathloul
Essam Al Zamel (@essamz)
Aziza Yousef
Saleh al-Shehi
Please forward a request to your Senators and House reps to raise the names of these people — getting them freed to speak out would be the most meaningful consequence of Jamal’s murder.
** Update 11/15 * — Found another twitter user who is tracking dissidents:
** Update 11/14 * — asking readers to call your senator, especially if they are on the foreign relations committee, and comment with any response you get. Ask to leave a voice mail for a specific staffer on this issue. The goal is 1) to get the names of the dissidents below mentioned publicly to protect them and 2) to get real sanctions directly on MBS or others high up in govt and 3) end funding of the war in Yemen **
On Thursday Nov 1, almost exactly a month after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, I had a somewhat promising conversation with Colin Timmerman, a staff member of Sen (I know, I know) Flake. I had felt anything but hopeful when making contact with Flake’s office, and had given his Arizona staff an earful already. However, this staffer did call back from DC and listed several actions they would be looking into “immediately” when they return to session, which will be Nov 13. Thus, I am following up now, and reminding him of the specifics in this open letter, emailed to him and copied to Sen Cardin’s and Sen Booker’s staff members, and posted here:
Hello Brian,
I appreciated speaking to your fellow staff member Colin T_ back on Nov 1. I have since been in touch with a person who knew Jamal Khashoggi personally and who strongly believes he was murdered because of his defense of free speech, in particular because of his support of the ‘Bee Army’ idea, of giving dissidents sim cards. I hope the Senate will take strong and immediate action as you stated in our conversation. I would love to hear which of the ideas he described will be moving forward, when, and how I can support them. In particular I believe Colin said that the Senate would:
- Take the lead on a response to the murders, and are looking into pursuing immediate action when they return to session. Looking at the calendar, that will be Nov 13.
- Apply the Global Magnitsky Act “up to and possibly including MBS”.
- Bring up for consideration blocking future weapons sales
- Review section 1274 of the National Defence Authorization Act, in particular
(3) Whether any United States coalition partner committed gross violations of internationally recognized human rights while conducting operations in Yemen that would make such coalition partner ineligible for any training, equipment, or other assistance for a unit of a foreign security force under section 362 of title 10, United States Code.
I am very glad to hear that the Senate is considering serious action to stop the massive famine and destruction in Yemen and to send the strongest possible message that the murder of Jamal Khashoggi will not be accepted by the United States. As you mentioned, the NDAA is reauthorized each year and provides a great deal of leverage. Please do not be intimidated by threats to our ‘relationship’ with the Saudi regime. Our relationship should be with free peoples everywhere, not with murderous dictators.
In addition, I hope you will do whatever you can to protect dissidents who are now in danger. You may have sources that can tell you better than I can, but I believe this includes the individuals
Egyptian singer Amal Maher
Khalid al-Alqamy
Sulaiman Al-Duweesh
Safar Al-Hawali
Abdulrahman al-Sadhan
Also please see twitter.com/… for a fuller list.
I look forward to your response and to the action by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Thank you
--Golda Velez
Arizona Voter
Below is the original open letter that I sent on October 29, which I posted on Medium: Not Acting Emboldens Murders
At that time I was primarily concerned with protecting Omar Abdulaziz’ brothers and friends. However there are concerns there that I don’t understand — I’ve had contacts with some people and then had them cut off — and so rather than pursuing that issue specifically I am following up now with the items that Sen Flake’s staff told me would happen, to hold them to it. I am very glad that we may get Sinema now, and hoping she is strong and has backbone. But this is what we got, and I’m going to work with it.
To (staff members of Sens Flake, Cardin and Wicker):
The Jamal Khashoggi case has fallen out of the news cycle, but it seems that other dissidents are being brutally targeted in its wake, and the regime seems emboldened by a lack of response in the West.
Turki Al-Jasser, who Omar believes has been killed in prison
Khashoggi was reported to be partnering with Omar Abdulaziz on a project to help Saudi dissidents get information out of the country. Since then I have been following Omar’s twitter feed, and he reports that his brothers are being beaten and possibly tortured, that his friends have been disappeared, and in particular that he believes fellow dissident Turki Al-Jasser has been killed. He lists as well
Egyptian singer Amal Maher
Khalid al-Alqamy
Sulaiman Al-Duweesh Safar Al-Hawali
Abdulrahman al-Sadhan
as having disappeared or been imprisoned in the days since Jamal’s murder. It seems incomprehensible to me that even after this murder, nothing is being done and they are brazenly murdering other, less well known, dissidents.
I do not have more specific evidence, but Omar may.
https://twitter.com/oamaz7/status/1055497107401068545
https://twitter.com/oamaz7/status/1053537166809272321
https://twitter.com/JohnSimpsonNews/status/1053941739021631489
Is there anything we can do to prevent additional deaths or to get Omar’s family released?
I understand this may not be enough information to be actionable, but are there steps we can take to stop the killing of dissidents, meant to intimidate all others from speaking out?
It can’t be that there is nothing to do.
Can someone respond and let me know what the next steps are? I am not experienced in this kind of advocacy but there has to be something.
Thank you
Not surprisingly, the only Senate staff that responded to me in an email and asked me to provide names of dissenters, was Sen Corey Booker’s staff. Sent this email to them:
Thanks so much! I have been trying to dig into this on my own, you may be able to vet or produce a better list, but what I have is:
Specifically associates of Omar Abdulaziz, who was Jamal's colleague and who had the 'Army of Bees' conversation with him that Omar's friend told me they think is the real reason Jamal was killed:
Egyptian singer Amal Maher
Khalid al-Alqamy
Sulaiman Al-Duweesh Safar Al-Hawali
Abdulrahman al-Sadhan
I had only brief contact with Omar and an associate, and now cannot reach them, I am not sure why. I think he has strong credibility right now because of his association with Jamal.
This organization 'Saudi Prisoners of Conscience' is supposed to be maintaining a current list, but I do not know anything about them:
Sorry not to have a sort of 'final list' for you, but this is what I've got. If we can leverage the publicity and sanctions to get even a few people freed, I think that is huge. I would be happy to follow up or do further research/contacts if that is helpful.
If anyone has better ideas, knows anyone, or has an idea how to produce a good list of dissidents we could maybe get freed as part of this process, please let me know. Thanks Kospers!
