BREAKING DONALD'S nATIONALIST AXIS:

The crown prince has become the fount of regime criminality. The royal family dictatorship was generally moderate in its repression and collegial in its corruption until King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud took over in January 2015. He put his favorite son, MbS, in charge. The latter loosened cultural strictures while tightening political control.

According to the slightly sanitized State Department human rights report, Riyadh is responsible for:

unlawful killings; executions for nonviolent offenses; forced disappearances; torture of prisoners and detainees by government agents; arbitrary arrest and detention; political prisoners; arbitrary interference with privacy; criminalization of libel, censorship, and site blocking; restrictions on freedoms of peaceful assembly, association, and movement; severe restrictions of religious freedom; citizens' lack of ability and legal means to choose their government through free and fair elections; trafficking in persons; violence and official discrimination against women, although new women's rights initiatives were implemented; criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual activity; and prohibition of trade unions. In several cases the government did not punish officials accused of committing human rights abuses, contributing to an environment of impunity.

Saudis affirm that the situation is worse than ever. MbS has an almost pathological determination to punish any Saudi who criticizes his rule. According to the Financial Times: "Waves of crackdowns have continued. Hundreds of activists remain in prison, according to human rights groups. One veteran activist died in custody this year and another writer died shortly after he was released."

Torture is routine. Bloggers and writers even have been arrested for what they did not say--failing to sing the regime's praises after it unveiled its blockade against Qatar, for example. The red lines were erased as the Kingdom moved into a 1984 kind of world. Said one Saudi, "retroactive arrests are made for things now deemed unacceptable." Even senior members of the royal family, once immune from harm, are treated like any other Saudi--detained, imprisoned, kidnapped, disappeared, fleeced, and even killed. The regime is far worse than its great regional rival Iran.

Riyadh targets foreigners as well. MbS's greatest single crime was the invasion, in partnership with the United Arab Emirates, of Yemen in March 2015. He expected a few weeks of combat to restore the previous puppet regime, but more than five years later the conflict still rages. The Saudis and Emiratis are responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths. Yet Riyadh continues to employ U.S.-supplied and -serviced planes dropping U.S.-provided munitions. Other examples of MbS's reckless international behavior include kidnapping the prime minister of Lebanon, supporting combatants in the Libyan civil war, and blockading Qatar. He continued earlier policies of underwriting jihadist insurgents in Syria and tyrannical regimes in Bahrain and Egypt. The most infamous Saudi crime occurred two years ago when a special death squad turned the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, into an abattoir, where Khashoggi was murdered and dismembered.

Through it all Trump and the congressional GOP shielded the Kingdom from accountability.

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