It seems to me like a really complex matter to both investigate and communicate.

Where does the line between the sprawling royal family and the state sit, for example? How do you redress issues with the family of a monarch where does it become a national sovereignty issue?

The line plainly ends after every family members stop meddling in official business. In other words, and royalty meddling in state affairs should be liable as an agent of the state. Can't have their cake and eat it too you know?

I'd say we take the path that Americans always take. Hellfire missles, humvees, boots, cheap beer, Marlboros, and McDonald's.

The families refusal to cooperate is their national sovereignty hard at work covering up 3k+ murders and counting.

The United states government has failed to appropriately retaliate against the perpetrators. They can't even prove who paid for the attacks, or that evidence is a state secret. Either way it's a colossal injustice to the aggrieved, and a huge stain on the investigative capabilities of every us agency.

What's the worst that can happen if our government starts standing up to regressive and petty regimes like those of Arabia or China?

I think American people should turn public opinion against having such an “ally”, maybe then the politicians will take a notice

This has proven difficult due to the Saudi’s strong ties to the US financial system. They buy tons of military equipment, and on the commercial side their sovereign fund bankrolls tech giants like Uber.

And until very recently the US imported more than half its daily oil usage. Now it is a net exporter. The Saudis controlled the oil market. American oil from fracking has recently changed that, however, and gives the US a better chance of cutting ties without existential threat to its economy.

Could state laws be used to break up these unholy unions or is that federal?

A list of saudi investment funds and tech investments

https://qz.com/1426370/silicon-valley-is-awash-with-saudi-ar...

anyone have a non paywall link?

I looked at the article byline and found the propublica link https://www.propublica.org/article/9-11-investigation-saudi-...

Or, archive link..

http://archive.is/effA9

Private Window, disable javascript, reload.

Or using Firefox, just click on reader view.

wow awesome trick, thanks.

Doesn't always work, but when it does, it is great. On some sites you have to click the icon quickly enough if they were dumb enough to load all the content just before removing it.

Or the Bypass Paywall extension for Chrome: https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome