Saudis compete with Israel for the bigger threat to US prize

Lawsuit blames Saudi Arabia for deadly 2019 attack at Naval Air Station Pensacola

…from Navy Times, via AP

[ Editor’s Note: It was a surprise to see this old story pop up today, and another sad reminder how slowly justice proceeds, even in cases where the government has huge resources at hand.

But another reason investigations ‘go slow’ is that some fannies need to be covered somehow in terms of responsibility. What we learn from the article excerpt below is the shocker that ALL of the Saudi shooter’s fellow trainees were aware of not only what he was going to do, but one of them even videoed the event.

Such a brazen act suggest these trainees were dumber than dirt, or knew that higher ups back home would enjoy seeing the footage and they would earn some brownie points for it.

I chose my title twist with Israel included as a reminder that we have ‘allies’ that do this crap to us when and where they want, and who have no fear of repercussions, as they have all the people on the take that they need in Congress or the administration to not fear any blowback from it.

This Navy Times story begs the question of why were not these ‘trainees’ under closer surveillance, and of course the same thing could be said a hundred times over for the massive Israeli espionage that goes on here, even the out in the open kind, with no repercussions whatsoever.

It is not deemed a security issue, or a political or diplomatic one. It is similar to bad weather, something that just ‘is’ and you have to learn to deal with it, as nothing can be done to stop it.

To rub salt in the wound, Saudi Arabia stiffed the victims’ families from the ‘help’ it had promised. With friends like this, who needs enemies? … Jim W. Dean ]

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First published … February 23, 2021

WASHINGTON — Victims of a 2019 shooting at a Florida military base and their families are suing Saudi Arabia, claiming the kingdom knew the gunman had been radicalized and that it could have prevented the killings.

The suit, filed Monday, also claims that Saudi trainees knew in advance about plans for the shooting but did nothing to stop it.

…The lawsuit casts a wide net of blame beyond Alshamrani. It alleges, for instance, that Saudi Arabia knew about Alshamrani’s associations with al-Qaida and his radicalization and yet failed to monitor, supervise or report him.

It also says the gunman told fellow Saudi trainees at a dinner party the night before the attack that he planned to carry out the shooting the following day, but instead of reporting it, they called out sick morning of the killings. One recorded the shootings while standing outside the building; two others watched from a car nearby.

“None of the Royal Saudi Air Force trainees at the scene of the attack reported Al-Shamrani’s behavior nor did they try to stop” it, the lawsuit says. “Because they supported it.”

You can read the whole article here.

Jim W. Dean

Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus.  He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022.  He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews.  He now writes and posts periodically for VT.

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