Here: A Khashoggi / Saudi Arabia thread !

[Spellbound]

Hello Avalon,

I've just returned from my 2 week vacation at my cottage in the mountains for Canadian Thanksgiving and only recently heard about Khashoggi being murdered and dismembered at the Saudi consulate in Turkey. I've searched Avalon and couldn't find a thread that was devoted to this subject, which I find rather strange, so I figured I'd ask

Personally, I find this absolutely appalling if in fact things went down as I've been lead to believe that 15 Saudi hit men flew to Turkey and arrived at the consulate before Khashoggi...waited for him to show up and then dismembered him while he was still alive thus killing him within 7 minutes.

Admittedly, I've never liked nor trusted Saudi Arabia and I've long questioned the US' alliance to Saudi. I think there are other places to get oil and I don't think there should be such a need to rely on them. This is absolutely barbaric and they should be held accountable (and ties should be cut).

That being said, there are some questions about this entire thing that give me pause. First of all, if Saudi wanted him dead, why not do it on the down low with much less suspicion and scrutiny?? They way it was done was public where they could just as easily had him mugged and killed on the street with far less suspicion. There's also some things that I've been told by a friend about the Khashoggi such that his grandfather was the personal doctor of King Al Saud (founder of Saudi Arabia)...and he (Khashoggi) once had connections to Bin Laden and the Taliban. There are even some who question the entire situation calling it a 'white' false flag.

If there is a single thread devoted to this topic, then please merge this post with that thread accordingly. I'd like to be able to find conversation on this topic as I think it's very important and should be discussed.

Thx...& Happy Thanksgiving.

Dave - Toronto

[Baby Steps]

check these out:

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?100318-The-Qanon-posts-and-a-Very-Bad-Day-Scenario-for-some-elite-swamp-critters&p=1255104&viewfull=1#post1255104

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-explanation-khashoggi-murder-dismissed-absurd-872402616

https://charlesfrith.blogspot.com/2018/10/did-donald-trump-just-cut-off-finger.html

Charles Frith:

"It's a gruesome story but let's never forget that all sides in the power game are quite capable of genocide, arms deals and burning the skin off infants to hold onto power.

Seven minutes of torture followed by death, is a small price to pay for warning off another gang. A small price not for normal people like us, who eschew the corruption and depravity that goes with power but small in international geopolitical history.

We need to acknowledge that a Saudi Arabian coup took place when Trump took office and that his faction represented by MBS (now sometimes known as Muhammed Bone Saw) subsequently assumed full power in the KSA from his father King Salman, who is suffering from dementia. MBS then allegedly hung his cousin Prince Alwaleed upside down and had him beaten, before releasing him three months later.

Now we cut to Donald Trump who is being taunted and daily abused by the the fake news corporate media. The most intense hatred is from the Deep State Washington Post, owned by the worlds richest man in modern history, Jeff Bezos, who also has a secretive juicy contract for cloud services from the CIA.



Cue the arrival on scene of Jamal Kashoggi. A Saudi Dissident, Deep State Operative and Washington Post apologist for Saudi Arabia while also criticising the new heir to the throne, MBS. In many ways a decent sort of man and the perfect patsy to send a signal (or a severed finger) to the deep state, fake news media and last but not least Jeff Bezos.

However, when I say decent, I don't mean decent like you or I. JK lived off the cream of dirty money, war and oppression like they all do at the top. He may have been mild mannered and earnest in some respects but his life was gilded by the very worst of connections.

Jamal was the cousin of Princess Diana's murdered boyfriend Dodi Fayed. The nephew of Mossad handler and Billionaire Iran-Contra arms and drug dealer Adnan Kashoggi.

The same Adnan Kashoggi who also sold his 280ft yacht to none other than Donald Trump.

We know from QAnon that Trump was behind the ascendance of MBS and so it follows that if he takes the rap for taking out one of Trump's Muslim Brotherhood/Globalist enemies while sending a signal to Jeff Bezos, it would be a small price for luring Jamal Kashoggi to the Saudi Consul in Ankara for divorce paper procedures, restraining him on a table and dissecting his fingers off before beheading him while still alive, so Turkey's Intelligence services could record it all (normal spying procedure in Consuls and Embassies) and send a loud message around the world that you don't mess with the Donald or his puppets in Saudi.

This is a more solid explanation than the whining from the fake news presstitutes, who prefer to finger-point than ask the important question why?

They say the pen is mightier than the sword, but it needs fingers to hold it."

Gut feeling: odious that western commentators are jumping on this killing when thousands of Yemeni kids do not seem to matter.

39336

[Bob]

Possibly start here - http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?104297-Hal-Turner-s-claimed-inside-info-re-civil-war-in-Europe-and-now-a-strike-on-Syria&p=1254692&viewfull=1#post1254692 and then earlier in that thread.. The vid that I posted says it pretty well about Kashoggi being on the "inside" with laundry that may not have wanted to see fresh air..

[Spellbound]

Thx Baby Steps. See, this is the stuff I've been looking for (which I knew I would find at Avalon).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7GL7Sa0jSI

Dave - Toronto

[Bubu]

Thanks Babysteps I fully agree that your forum name be change to "making leaps" :highfive:

[shaberon]

Yeah it seemed a little strange not posted on its own, but came up other places.

Also a bit strange that for all the blood on its hands that the "House" gets stopped over a single person. Except that perhaps Turkey is now comfortable throwing spanner wrenches into the jets so to speak.

Since early in the Syrian conflict, some of us have maintained the result would not be an externally forced balkanization of Syria, but the internal collapse of Saud. This single incident may not bring complete disintegration, but at this time I think we could say that Syria is pretty much intact and the finger has now pointed in a new direction.

You may not have a machine gun, but for instance at a local hotel, I have found that when a Saudi comes in, they...rent the whole floor and it's bristling with machine guns. So this would be for shooting lesser-armed people in U. S. territory.

As of today I have the impression that the U. S. is more likely to "overlook and forgive" than the rest of the world. We'll see.

[Innocent Warrior]

From the Middle East Eye article, "Footage of Saudi wearing Khashoggi's clothes released by Turkish investigators" (22 Oct.) -


Burning documents

Meanwhile, Turkish television channel A Haber released on Monday evening a video - seemingly filmed by a small drone - which it said showed Saudi consulate employees tossing documents into a fire outside of the consulate building on 3 October, the day after Khashoggi was murdered.

Turkish authorities have yet to officially comment on the latest video, which was shared by a number of Turkish news outlets. The identity of the individuals in the video, as well as the content of the documents they burned, remained unknown as of publication time.

See HERE (https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/footage-saudi-suspect-wearing-khashoggis-clothes-released-turkish-investigators-1829999652) for full article, including footage of consulate employees burning documents.

[Did You See Them]

I've just seen "purported" pics of Khashoggi's flayed face, skull,eyes and testicles !
Will not post as so graphic.
Trying to verify if genuine.
Disgusting !!

Edit - I hope the pics I've seen aren't real !!

Edit 2 - They are reporting body parts found and that face has been disfigured - It sure sounds like the pics I've have seen are the real deal !!

I'm disgusted that one human being can do that to another !

I would like to post the pic to show the depths of depravity these people have sunk to but i'm afraid that the flayed face and skull pic is just to gruesome !!!

[Eric J (Viking)]

Body parts belonging to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi have been found, according to Sky News sources, who added that he had been “cut up” and his face “disfigured.”
The sources’ claim echoes a statement by Doğu Perinçek, leader of the left-wing Vatan party on Monday night. Perinçek told Turkish television that Khashoggi’s “body parts” had been recovered from a well in the Saudi consul’s garden, and added that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would explain the findings later on Tuesday.


https://www.rt.com/news/442023-khashoggis-body-parts-found/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notifications&utm_campaign=push_notifications

Viking

[Hervé]

Khashoggi, the Saouds: the background stories:





The Quincy Pact only protects the King of Arabia, not his heir (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html)





by Thierry Meyssan



The Panamanians who remember Washington’s arrest of its employee, General Noriega, will not be surprised by the fate reserved for the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The Jamal Khashoggi affair is one of MBS’s most insignificant crimes, but will probably be his last. The Saoud family is not protected by the Quincy Pact, which only applies to the King. The United States should recuperate several billion dollars.


Voltaire Network | Beirut (Lebanon) | 23 October 2018
http://www.voltairenet.org/squelettes/elements/images/ligne-rouge.gif


عربي (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203595.html) Español (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203591.html) français (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203577.html) italiano (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203593.html) Português (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203592.html) русский (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203588.html) Türkçe (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203594.html)





http://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH300/203577-3-282eb.jpg
When he received the Saudi Crown Prince, «MBS », President Trump recapitulated the incredibly expensive orders from Riyadh to his country, and concluded with a smile :
« You can afford this, right ? ».

The Khashoggi affair is one of the multiple examples of Western variable-geometry ethics.

The Arabia of the Saoud family
For seventy years, we have been ignoring the facts, shouting : « Saudi Arabia is not a State like the others. It’s the private property of the King, and all the people that live there are no more than serfs. That is why it is described as the residence of it’s owners, the Saoud family, in other words, « Saudi » Arabia ».

In the 18th century, a tribe of Bedouins, the Saouds, allied themselves with a Wahhabite sect and rebelled against the Ottoman Empire. They managed to create a kingdom in Hedjaz, the region of the Arabian peninsula which includes the holy cities of Islam, Medina and Mecca. They were quickly put down by the Ottomans.

At the beginning of the 19th century, a survivor of the Saoud tribe raised a new rebellion. However, his family began fighting amongst themselves and lost again.

Finally, in the 20th century, the British allied with the Saoud family in order to overthrow the Ottoman Empire and exploit the hydrocarbon resources in the Arabian peninsula. With the help of Lawrence of Arabia, they founded the present kingdom, the tribe’s third.

The Foreign Office’s idea was that the Saouds and the Wahhabites should be hated by their serfs and incapable of maintaining good relations with their neighbours.

Because of the disproportion of the military forces – between the Saoud’s sabres and the modern weaponry of the British – this family would never be able to turn on their Western masters. However, at the end of the Second World War, the United States seized the opportunity presented by the weakened British forces, and took their place. President Franklin Roosevelt concluded the Quincy Pact with the founder of kingdom. The United States pledged to protect the Saoud family in exchange for their hydrocarbons. Apart from that, the Saoud family would not oppose the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. This document was renewed by President George W. Bush.

The founder of Wahhabism, Mohammed ben Abdelwahhab, considered that all those who did not join his sect should be exterminated. Many authors have pointed out the proximity of the Wahhabite way of life and that of certain Orthodox Jewish sects, as well as the resemblances between the reasoning of the Wahhabite theologians and that of certain Puritan Christian pastors. However, in order to maintain their influence over the Middle East, the British decided to fight the Arab nationalists and to support the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nashqbandis. That is why, in 1962, they asked the Saouds to create the Muslim World League, and in 1969, what we now call the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Wahhabism admitted Sunni Islam, which, until then, it had always contested. The Wahhabites then presented themselves as the protectors of Sunnism, but continued to oppose all other forms of Islam.

Anxious to avoid the fratricides which had marked the history of his family in the 19th century, Ibn Saoud instituted a system of succession between brothers. The founder of the kingdom had 32 wives who gave him 53 sons and 36 daughters. The oldest of the survivors, King Salman, is now 82. In order to save his kingdom, the Family Council decided in 2015 to put an end to this adelphic rule and designate the children of Prince Nayef and the new King Salman as future heirs to the throne. Finally, Mohammed Ben Salman ousted Nayef’s son and became the only Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

The morals of the Saoud family
In Antiquity, the word « Arab » defined the Aramean people who lived on the Syrian side of the Euphrates. In this sense, the Saouds are not Arabs. However, since the Coran was collated by the Caliph in Damascus, the word « Arab » today describes the people who speak the language of the Coran, in other words, the people of Hejaz. This generic term masks the very different civilisations of the desert Bedouins and the people of towns in a geographical area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf.

Having evolved abruptly from the use of camels to the private jet, the Saoud family of the 21st century has conserved the archaic culture of the desert. For example, its hatred of History. It destroys any historical vestige in its country. It is with this mentality that we saw it working with the jihadists in Iraq and Syria. There is no other reason for the destruction of the house of Mahomet by the Saouds, or that of the Sumerian administrative tablets by Daesh.

Just as the Western powers used the Saouds to force the Ottomans to retreat – which no-one contests today – they used the jihadists, financed by the Saouds and supervised by the Wahhabites, to destroy Iraq and Syria.

This has been forgotten, but at the beginning of the aggression against Syria, when the Western Press was inventing the « Arab Spring », Saudi Arabia asked only for the departure of President Bachar el-Assad. Riyadh accepted that Syria keep its counsellors, its government, its army and its secret services, with which it had no quarrel at all. It only wanted Assad’s head because he is not a Sunni.

When Prince Mohamed Ben Salmane (alias d« MBS ») became the youngest Minister of Defence in the world, he demanded to exploit the oil fields of the « Empty Quarter », a zone which straddles his country and Yemen. Faced with Yemen’s refusal, he launched a war to cover himself in glory, like his grand-father. In reality, no-one has ever been able to successfully occupy Yemen, no more than Afghanistan. But whatever... the Crown Prince displayed his power by depriving 7 million people of food. And although all the members of the Security Council expressed their concern about the humanitarian crisis, none of them dared say anything about the valourous Prince MBS.

Advising his father, King Salman, MBS proposed to eliminate the head of the interior opposition, Cheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr [1 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb1)]. The man was a peace-lover, it’s true, but from the Wahhabite point of view, he was an infidel, a Chiite. He was decapitated without causing an uproar in the West. Then MBS ordered the destruction of Moussawara and Chouweikat in the Qatif region. All Chiites ! Here too, the West failed to see the cities destroyed by tanks and the massacred serfs.

Since he stands for no contradiction, in June 2017, MBS pushed his father to break with Qatar, which had dared to take the side of Iran against Saudi Arabia. He called for all the Arab states to follow his lead and managed to force the Emirate to back off - temporarily.

When he entered the White House, President Trump made some allowances. He would leave the Yemenites to their agony on the condition that Riyadh stop supporting the jihadists.

That’s when President Trump’s advisor, Jared Kushner, had the idea of recuperating the oil money to replenish the US economy. The immense fortune of the Saoud family is nothing other than the money that the Western powers, in particular the United States, had automatically been paying them for their hydrocarbons. It is not the fruit of their work, but only a rent on their property. The young man therefore organised the Palace coup of November 2017 [2 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb2)]. 1,300 members of the royal family were placed under house arrest, including the bastard son of the Fadh clan, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. Some of them were hung by their feet and tortured. All of them were obliged to « offer » the Crown Prince half of their fortune. So « MBS », in his own name, raked in at least 800 billion in dollars and actions [3 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb3)]. A fatal error !

The fortune of the Saouds, which until then had been shared between them all, was now concentrated in the hands of a man who was not the King, and therefore was not representative of the state. All that needed to be done was to twist the Prince’s arm in order to grab the loot.

MBS also threatened Kuwait with the same destiny as that of Yemen if it refused to offer him its frontier oil reserves. But time flies...

Operation Khashoggi
We only had to wait. On 2 October 2018, in violation of article 55 of the Vienna Convention concerning consular relations, MBS ordered the assassination of one of Prince al-Waleed Ben Talal’s henchmen at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the journalist Jamal Khashoggi [4 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb4)].

Jamal Khashoggi was the grandson of the personal doctor of King Abdul Aziz. He was nephew of the arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who equipped the Saudi Air Force, and then, on behalf of the Pentagon, supplied Chiite Iran against Sunni Iraq. His aunt Samira Khashoggi is the mother of arms dealer Dodi Al-Fayed (eliminated with his companion, British Princess Lady Diana [5 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb5)]).

Jamal had been associated with the Palace coup that old Prince al-Waleed was preparing against MBS. Mercenaries cut off his fingers and dismembered him before presenting his head to MBS, their master. The operation was carefully recorded by the Turkish and US secret services.

In Washington, the US Press and parliamentarians demanded that President Trump raise sanctions against Riyadh [6 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb6)].

One of MBS’s advisors, Turki Al-Dakhil, replied that if the US were to sanction the kingdom, Saudi Arabia would be ready to destabilise the world order [7 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb7)]. In the tradition of the desert Bedouins, all insults must be avenged whatever the cost.

According to Al-Dakhil, the kingdom was preparing some thirty measures, the most significant being to :
http://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif Reduce the production of oil to 7.5 million barrels per day, provoking a raise in prices of about 200 dollars per barrel. The kingdom would demand to be paid in other currencies than the dollar, which would bring about the end of US hegemony ;

http://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif Move away from Washington and move closer to Teheran ;

http://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif Buy arms from Russia and China. The kingdom would offer Russia a military base in Tabuk, in the North-East of the country, in other words, close to Syria, Israël, Lebanon and Iraq ;

http://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L9xH11/puce-cebf5.gif Immediately begin supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.
Aware of the damage that this wild cannon could cause, the White House sounded the attack. Remembering a little late their uplifting speech about « Human Rights », the Western powers declared en chœur that they would no longer stand for this medieval tyrant [8 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb8)]. One by one, all of their economic leaders obeyed the instructions from Washington and cancelled their participation in the Riyadh Forum. In order to calm their anger, and remembering that Khashoggi was a « US resident », President Trump and his advisor, Kushner, mentioned the confiscation of his properties for the benefit of the United States.

In Tel-Aviv, panic reigned. MBS was Benjamin Netanyahu’s best partner [9 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb9)], and had asked him to create a joint staff in Somaliland in order to crush the Yemenites. He also made a secret visit to Israël at the end of 2017. The US ex-ambassador in Tel-Aviv, Daniel B. Shapiro, warned his Israëli coreligionists that with an ally like that, Netanyahu is putting the country in danger [10 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nb10)].

The Quincy Pact only protects the King, not the pretenders to his throne.


Thierry Meyssan

(http://www.voltairenet.org/auteur29.html?lang=en)
Translation Pete Kimberley (http://www.voltairenet.org/auteur125569.html?lang=en)


References:
[1 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh1)] « La mort du cheikh El-Nimr fait vaciller le régime des Saoud (http://www.voltairenet.org/article189808.html) », par André Chamy, Réseau Voltaire, 3 janvier 2016.

[2 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh2)] “Palace Coup in Riyadh (http://www.voltairenet.org/article198647.html)”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 7 November 2017.

[3 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh3)] “Saudis Target Up to $800 Billion in Assets (https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-arabia-expands-crackdown-on-elite-1510062385)”, Margherita Stancati & Summer Said, Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2017.

[4 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh4)] « Convention de Vienne sur les relations consulaires (http://www.voltairenet.org/article183874.html) », Réseau Voltaire, 24 avril 1963.

[5 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh5)] Lady died, par Francis Gillery, Fayard éd., 2006. « Francis Gillery : "J’ai étudié le mécanisme du mensonge d’État dans l’affaire Diana" (http://www.voltairenet.org/article150989.html) », par Thierry Meyssan, Réseau Voltaire, 23 août 2007.

[6 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh6)] “The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203440.html)”, by Manal al-Sharif, Washington Post (United States) , 9 October 2018. “Letter by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203441.html)”, 10 October 2018.

[7 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh7)] “US sanctions on Riyadh would mean Washington is stabbing itself (https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2018/10/14/US-sanctions-on-Riyadh-would-mean-Washington-is-stabbing-itself.html)”, Turki Al-Dakhil, Al-Arabiya, October 14, 2018.

[8 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh8)] « Déclaration conjointe des ministres des affaires étrangères d’Allemagne, de France et du Royaume-Uni sur la disparition de Jamal Khashoggi (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203531.html) », « Déclaration de la France, de l’Allemagne et du Royaume-Uni sur la mort de Jamal Khashoggi (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203586.html) », Réseau Voltaire, 14 et 21 octobre 2018.

[9 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh9)] “The secret projects of Israël and Saudi Arabia (http://www.voltairenet.org/article187975.html)”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 27 June 2015.

[10 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article203589.html#nh10)] “Why the Khashoggi Murder Is a Disaster for Israel (https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-why-the-khashoggi-murder-is-a-disaster-for-israel-1.6569996)”, Daniel Shapiro, Haaretz, October17, 2018.

[Carmody]

This goes back further than most think, or, more properly, it is more widespread and universal in US politics than is presented here.

Somone gave the House of Saud tactical nukes. And one of those tactical nukes was used in Yemen. The signature of a tactical nuke is one of 'scintillation', where the CCD's in digital cameras (the imaging device) will respond to various forms of radiation. This is so well known, that there are apps for turning your cell phone into a rudimentary Geiger counter (radiation counter)

CCD scintillation video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQi-gpoK0ps)


Nuclear weapon used in Yemen (video) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FimlTyYnA)

This is apparently a neutron bomb, some say. To clarify, you don't see this in older footage as older footage was all recorded with actual film, which does not respond the same way to radiation exposure. The CCD in your cell phone camera is unique in how it responds, with the white flashing bits of the given pixels, being the 'trademark' show and tell of radiation exposure of the CCD..

The point of mentioning this, again is not just a Trumpain attack vector as issues go.... but one of wide ranging long standing involvement and complicity across the board, for many many decades. For this tactical (apparently neutron) nuke happened on Obama's watch.

Which means, in my opinion... that Trump and Obama are not really in charge of much of anything, and it is the people who faces and names you don't know and have probably not ever seen...who are really in charge.

Also, it is known these types of devices have short lifespans and require quite regular maintenance, and often. They must be periodically refreshed. They can't just sit dormant for a decade and be used. Even a year or so, is a problem, from some reports. They basically break themselves down from their own radiation bombardment, in some designs. Basically, they required and do require a continual level of expert monitoring and maintenance. So whomever had the bomb or bombs, also has and has continual and highly advanced/ongoing support, during any given possession of said hardware. No one is going to show someone how to build them, is my guess, so the support personnel had to have boots on the ground before and during such use of said device - and come from a very high and deep level.

There are other potential scenarios, like having possession of said device and knowing it is going to go bad over time, so use it, someone might have said. Regardless, using tactical nuclear devices in the middle east was very unwise. Unbelievably unwise. Cellphones are ubiquitous, so explosions will be rerecorded... and the scintillation will be witnessed and shared. Just as we have seen here.

[avid]

Have sent all this to my Syrian friends’ family, who are suffering greatly. So disgusting, and Trump family ‘in-law’ stirring the vile pot of corruption. Sickening. Reminds me of the demise of Libya, and the gloating laughter of the unspeakably evil paedophile murdering criminal ‘Killary’, when the president was murdered publicly. He was no saint, but had the interests of his countrymen foremost, free healthcare, education, no mortgages, aquifers for food production etc etc, and wanted to change trading to gold from the dollar, now look what the ‘West’ has done... utterly devoid of guilt, and still shoving its fake rhetoric daily via ‘useful idiots’ paid by the main stream media. Excuse me - feeling the need to puke to absolve any national ‘allegiances’. :facepalm:

[Spellbound]

This is some fascinating stuff (one stop shopping here at Avalon). I just hope that this issue doesn't get swept under the rug over time and forgotten about. There needs to be repercussions.

Thx for the info, folks. Keep it coming....

Dave - Toronto

[Bob]

With respect to post 10 above, NOTE the date of the article - Turki Al-Dakhil, head of state-owned Arabiya news, October 14, 2018.. Oil and Gas Journal reports from a TASS interview (http://tass.com/economy/1026924) 22 October, 2018


One of MBS’s advisors, Turki Al-Dakhil, replied that if the US were to sanction the kingdom, Saudi Arabia would be ready to destabilise the world order [7]. In the tradition of the desert Bedouins, all insults must be avenged whatever the cost.

According to Al-Dakhil, the kingdom was preparing some thirty measures, the most significant being to :

Reduce the production of oil to 7.5 million barrels per day, provoking a raise in prices of about 200 dollars per barrel. The kingdom would demand to be paid in other currencies than the dollar, which would bring about the end of US hegemony ;

Move away from Washington and move closer to Teheran ;

Buy arms from Russia and China. The kingdom would offer Russia a military base in Tabuk, in the North-East of the country, in other words, close to Syria, Israël, Lebanon and Iraq ;

Immediately begin supporting Hamas and Hezbollah.

From industry trade journal, Oil and Gas News, reporting on a Russian TASS interview with Saudi Oil Minister, there is a contradiction possibly.. Or Oil minister says one thing, another Saud official says otherwise.. the oil market is stable, so if one were to look at economic views, (oil drives world economies, and Saudi specifically commands OPEC to do as they are told)...


Brent crude oil futures as well as light, sweet crude for November and December delivery were up slightly Oct. 22 as the market turned its eyes to Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom plans to increase its crude oil output and does not intend to use its reserves as a political tool in the controversy over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Bloomberg reported Oct. 22, citing Russia’s TASS news agency’s interview with Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih.

“For decades we used our oil policy as a responsible economic tool and isolated it from politics,” Al-Falih said in the interview. “So let’s hope that the world would deal with the political crisis, including the one with a Saudi citizen in Turkey, with wisdom,” he said.

Saudi Arabia has said it could raise output to 11 million b/d but concerns of oil price hikes linger as the kingdom vowed to strike back against any punitive measures linked to Khashoggi’s killing.

It seems that maybe we can trust the oil futures market predictors.

If there was something up, oil would spike or go crazy.

Nothing like that is happening.

The market would react to a move of "arms sales", or oil production levels.


Move away from Washington and move closer to Teheran ;

I find that quote highly suspect considering the Saudi ties to Netanyahu and Israel. Saudi moving closer to Teheran would mean Israel can firmly have them in their sights for a very clean first strike. Lack of common sense it seems appears to surround MBS - seems quite possibly he'd be removed ungracefully before threatening the rest of the world's stability.

(sorta what the insiders are saying within themselves, they won't let this go on much further.. Saudi's current level of arrogance reminds one of Saddam Hussein. )


Buy arms from Russia and China. The kingdom would offer Russia a military base in Tabuk, in the North-East of the country, in other words, close to Syria, Israël, Lebanon and Iraq ;

This is highly suspect, considering the immense infrastructure which would have to be changed, to junk the US military weapons and those from the other nations in the West, that Saudi has bought in the past. Switching over to China and Russia is going to be a fiasco.. And to then threaten Israel most certainly shows Saudi's day's are being marked by their own hand. Possibly it's time for the "empire" to fall, as it has outlived it's usefulness and alliance as was done in Iraq.

Possibly..

Saudi doesn't just buy from the US for it's military arms. Slamming the West saying it will turn-coat to the antagonists to the west (China and Russia), is showing their ignorance on who will maintain their "military" during any conflagrations:


The kingdom of Saudi Arabia - The Spending on Defense and Security has increased significantly since the mid-1990s and was about US$67 billion in 2013.

Saudi Arabia ranks among the top five nations in the world in government spending for its military, representing about 9% of GDP in 2013.

Its modern, high-technology arsenal makes Saudi Arabia among the world's most densely armed nations, with its military equipment being supplied primarily by the United States, France, and Britain.

According to SIPRI, in 2010–14 Saudi Arabia became the world's second largest arms importer, receiving four times more major arms than in 2005–2009.

Major imports in 2010–14 included 45 combat aircraft from the United Kingdom, 38 combat helicopters from the U.S., 4 tanker aircraft from Spain and over 600 armored vehicles from Canada.

Saudi Arabia has a long list of outstanding orders for arms, including 27 more combat aircraft from the United Kingdom, 154 combat aircraft from the U.S. and a large number of armoured vehicles from Canada.

The United States sold more than $80 billion in military hardware between 1951 and 2006 to the Saudi military.

In comparison, the Israel Defense Forces received $53.6 billion in U.S. military grants between 1949 and 2007.

On 20 October 2010, U.S. State Department notified Congress of its intention to make the biggest arms sale in American history—an estimated $60.5 billion purchase by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The package represented a considerable improvement in the offensive capability of the Saudi armed forces.

The United States emphasized that the arms transfer would increase "interoperability" with U.S. forces. In the Persian Gulf War, having U.S.-trained Saudi Arabian forces, along with military installations built to U.S. specifications, allowed the U.S. military to deploy in a comfortable and familiar battle environment.

This new deal would increase these capabilities, as an advanced American military infrastructure is about to be built.

The U.S. government was also in talks with Saudi Arabia about the potential sale of advanced naval and missile-defense upgrades.

The United Kingdom has also been a major supplier of military equipment to Saudi Arabia since 1965.

Since 1985, the United Kingdom has supplied military aircraft—notably the Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft—and other equipment as part of the long-term Al-Yamamah arms deal estimated to have been worth £43 billion by 2006 and thought to be worth a further £40 billion.

Canada recently won a contract worth at least US$10 billion to supply the Saudi Arabian army with armored military vehicles.

In other words listening to the insanity within the statements by Al-Dakhil - a very poignant lack of judgement and common sense appears to be the theme being presented to the World..

REFERENCE: Background on the Saudi Oil Minister


Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Khalid Al-Falih is considered to be one of the most influential individuals on the global oil market.

Traders, investors and officials keep close tabs on his comments, which can spark serious price changes to the world’s ‘black gold’.

Al-Falih, who has worked his entire life in the oil sector, has gone through all corporate hierarchy levels of the Saudi Aramco oil giant and naturally, after having served as the company’s chief executive, he took over the leadership of the country’s oil sector.

Under Al-Falih, relations between Russia and OPEC started developing by leaps and bounds and resulted in a deal being reached between OPEC member-states and oil producing countries, which are not part of the cartel (OPEC+), and this made the situation on the oil market more predictable.

It is also mainly thanks to Al-Falih’s efforts that Saudi Arabia has been actively working with the Russian Direct Investment Fund and its head Kirill Dmitriev. Al-Falih said RDIF is “an important bridge” between the two countries.

In his interview with TASS, the Kingdom’s Minister of Energy Khalid Al-Falih spoke about what the future holds for the OPEC+ deal in 2019, whether oil prices in 2019 will surpass $100 per barrel, and whether Saudi Arabia will use oil as political leverage in the case of Saudi journalist Khashoggi, who went missing in Istanbul.

In addition, he will also talk about working with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and Saudi plans for investing into Russian companies, and a joint venture with Rosneft and meetings with Igor Sechin.​

Kashoggi issue: "I think that rational people in the world know that oil is a very important commodity for the rest of the world.

If oil prices will go too high, it will slow down the world economy and would trigger a global recession.

And Saudi Arabia has been consistent in its policy. We work to stabilize global markets and facilitate global economic growth. That policy has been consistent for many years.

We suffered in the past from political crises, this is not the first time.

This incident will pass. Of course, this is not my mandate to speak about it."



Reference: At close of the markets today, oil closed 4% LOWER, not higher as threatened by Turki Al-Dakhil - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/oil-lower-as-traders-focus-on-saudi-pledge-to-play-responsible-role-in-market-2018-10-23


benchmark prices at their lowest finish in about two months.

Traders focused on Saudi Arabia’s pledge to play a “responsible role” in energy markets, despite international criticism over the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A China-led global equity rout was also seen weighing on sentiment, putting pressure on assets perceived as risky, including most commodities. U.S. stock indexes also fell Tuesday, but traded off session lows as oil futures settled.

[Tintin]

"Khashoggi should not himself be whitewashed. He had a long term professional association with the Saudi security services which put him on the side of prolific torturers and killers for decades. That does not in any sense justify his killing."

"With every sympathy for his horrible murder, Khashoggi and his history as a functionary of the brutal Saudi regime should not be whitewashed. Mohammed Bin Salman is directly responsible for his murder, and if there is finally international understanding that he is a dangerous psychopath, that is a good thing."

Craig Murray, October 24th 2018

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Khashoggi, Erdogan and the Truth

24 Oct, 2018 in Uncategorized by craig

The Turkish account of the murder of Khashoggi given by President Erdogan is true, in every detail. Audio and video evidence exists and has been widely shared with world intelligence agencies, including the US, UK, Russia and Germany, and others which have a relationship with Turkey or are seen as influential. That is why, despite their desperate desire to do so, no Western country has been able to maintain support for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

I have not seen the video from inside the consulate, but have been shown stills which may be from a video. The most important thing to say is that they are not from a fixed position camera and appear at first sight consistent with the idea they are taken by the victim’s Apple watch. I was only shown them briefly. I have not heard the audio recording.

There are many things to learn from the gruesome murder other than the justified outrage at the event itself. It opens a window on the truly horrible world of the extremely powerful and wealthy.

The first thing to say is that the current Saudi explanation, that this was an intended interrogation and abduction gone wrong, though untrue, does have one thing going for it. It is their regular practice. The Saudis have for years been abducting dissidents abroad and returning them to the Kingdom to be secretly killed.

The BBC World Service often contains little pockets of decent journalism not reflected in its main news outlets, and here from August 2017 is a little noticed (https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/magazine-40926963) piece on the abduction and “disappearance” of three other senior Saudis between 2015-17. Interestingly, while the piece was updated this month, it was not to include the obvious link to the Khashoggi case.

The key point is that European authorities turned a completely blind eye to the abductions in that BBC report, even when performed on European soil and involving physical force. The Saudi regime was really doing very little different in the Khashoggi case. In fact, inside Saudi Arabia, Khashoggi was a less senior and important figure than those other three abducted then killed, about whom nobody kicked up any fuss, even though the truth was readily available.

Mohammed Bin Salman appears to have made two important miscalculations: he misread Erdogan and he underestimated the difference which Khashoggi’s position as a Washington Post journalist made to political pressure on Western governments.

Khashoggi should not himself be whitewashed. He had a long term professional association with the Saudi security services which put him on the side of prolific torturers and killers for decades. That does not in any sense justify his killing. But it is right to be deeply sceptical of the democratic credentials of Saudis who were in with the regime and have become vocal for freedom and democracy only after being marginalised by Mohammed Bin Salman’s ruthless consolidation of power (which built on a pre-existing trend).

The same scepticism is true many times over when related to CIA Director Gina Haspel, who personally supervised torture in the CIA torture and extraordinary rendition programme. Haspel was sent urgently to Ankara by Donald Trump to attempt to deflect Erdogan from any direct accusation of Mohammed Bin Salman in his speech yesterday. MBS’ embrace of de facto alliance with Israel, in pursuit of his fanatic hatred of Shia Muslims, is the cornerstone of Trump’s Middle East policy.

Haspel’s brief was very simple. She took with her intercept intelligence that purportedly shows massive senior level corruption in the Istanbul Kanal project, and suggested that Erdogan may not find it a good idea if intelligence agencies started to make public all the information they hold.

Whether Erdogan held back in his speech yesterday as a result of Haspel’s intervention I do not know. Erdogan may be keeping cards up his sleeve for his own purpose, particularly relating to intercepts of phone and Skype calls from the killers direct to MBS’ office.

I have an account of Haspel’s brief from a reliable source, but have not been updated on who she then met, or what the Turks said to her. It does seem very probable, from Trump’s shift in position this morning to indicate MBS may be involved, that Haspel was convinced the Turks have further strong evidence and may well use it.

Meantime, the British government maintains throughout that, whatever else happens, British factories will continue to supply bombs to Yemen to massacre children (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/16/yemen-school-bus-bombing-one-of-50-strikes-on-civilian-vehicles-this-year) on school buses and untold numbers of other civilians. Many Tory politicians remain personally in Saudi pockets, with former Defence Minister Michael Fallon revealed today (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6306983/Ex-Defence-Secretary-Sir-Michael-Fallon-takes-75-000-year-job-advising-major-Saudi-investor.html) as being amongst them.

It is of course extraordinary that Saudi war crimes in Yemen, its military suppression of democracy in Bahrain, its frequent executions of dissidents, human rights defenders, and Shia religious figures, even its arrests of feminists, have had little impact in the West. But the horrible murder of Khashoggi has caught the public imagination and forced western politicians to at least pretend to want to do something about the Saudis whose wealth they crave. I expect any sanctions will be smoke and mirrors.

Mohammed Bin Salman is no fool, and he realises that to punish members of his personal security detail who were just following his orders, would put him in the position of Caligula and the Praetorian Guard, and not tend to his long term safety.

Possibly people will be reassigned, or there will be brief imprisonments till nobody is looking. If I were a dissident or Shia in Saudi Arabia who bore any kind of physical resemblance to any of the party of murderers, I would get out very quick.

With every sympathy for his horrible murder, Khashoggi and his history as a functionary of the brutal Saudi regime should not be whitewashed. Mohammed Bin Salman is directly responsible for his murder, and if there is finally international understanding that he is a dangerous psychopath, that is a good thing.

You will forgive me for saying that I explained this back in March (https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/saudi-evil/) whilst the entire mainstream media, awash with Saudi PR cash, was praising him as a great reformer. For the Americans to deploy Gina Haspel gives us a welcome reminder that they are in absolutely no position to moralise. Whatever comes of this will not be “justice”.

The truth the leads can reveal is much wider than the narrow question of the murder incident, as I hope this article sketches out. That the fallout derails to some extent the murder machine in Yemen is profoundly to be hoped.

[Hervé]

[...]
Possibly people will be reassigned, or there will be brief imprisonments till nobody is looking. If I were a dissident or Shia in Saudi Arabia who bore any kind of physical resemblance to any of the party of murderers, I would get out very quick.
[...]
It might have occurred to others, as it did to me, that the "double, fake Khashoggi" who walked out of the consulate might have been the original Khashoggi in disguise of himself... now, that's another rabbit-hole roller-coaster ride :)


On another hand, that MBS guy strangely echoes rumblings from the Vegas massacre.

[Tintin]

[...]
Possibly people will be reassigned, or there will be brief imprisonments till nobody is looking. If I were a dissident or Shia in Saudi Arabia who bore any kind of physical resemblance to any of the party of murderers, I would get out very quick.
[...]


On another hand, that MBS guy strangely echoes rumblings from the Vegas massacre.

Yes, doesn't it - the same thought occurred too :handshake:

[Tintin]

................and here's Craig Murray's very well presented blog post from March (cited here (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?104733-Here-A-Khashoggi-Saudi-Arabia-thread--&p=1255690&viewfull=1#post1255690)) this year which begins to take on an immediate relevance to current events.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Saudi Arabia has blockaded the small Emirate of Qatar for six months now. The excuse given to the West – that Qatar funds jihadist terrorism – is perhaps the worst example of the pot calling the kettle black in History. But the Saudi demands, including the permanent closure of Al Jazeera, expulsion of Arab dissidents and removal of a Turkish military base, reveal an altogether different agenda."

Mohammed Bin Salman: The Truth Behind The Reformist Facade

8 Mar, 2018 in Uncategorized by craig

There was a revealing coincidence of timing yesterday. Philip Hammond made a speech in which he pleaded with the EU to allow the UK continued free access to their financial services markets, on the basis of mutually recognised standards. At the same time, Theresa May met the Saudi Crown Prince in Downing Street and discussed specific legal reductions (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/aug/02/london-reputation-city-rules-saudi-aramco-ipo) of those standards in the City of London, to allow for the stock exchange flotation of part of Saudi state oil giant Aramco.

It is symbolic because the toxic addiction of the ruling classes to Saudi cash has been lowering British standards of basic decency for generations. The most blatant example was when Tony Blair as Prime Minister intervened directly (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/21/bae.tonyblair) in the justice system to prevent the pursuit of corruption charges against the stench-ridden arms dealers of BAE, on grounds of “national security”. The myths about the impartiality of British justice have seldom been so comprehensively exposed. Where there is really dirty money, Blair is seldom far away.

The use of British supplied weapons by the Saudis to maim and kill children in Yemen on an industrial scale has penetrated public consciousness despite the best efforts of mainstream media to sideline it, and Jeremy Corbyn was absolutely right to highlight the involvement not just of arms manufacturers but of the British military. The government and royal fawning has been accompanied by an extraordinary deluge of pro-Saudi propaganda from the mainstream media this last two days for Saudi Arabia and its “reforming” Crown Prince.

There is no doubt that Mohammed Bin Salman has shown a ruthless genius in internal power consolidation in Saudi Arabia, with rivals arrested, shaken down or dying by accident. That he is seeking to end corruption appears less probable than that he is seeking to monopolise its proceeds and thus concentrate power, but time will give a clearer picture. There is no evidence whatsoever that Saudi Arabia is stopping its funding of Wahabbist jihadism across the Middle East and South Asia; indeed it has been stepped up by him, as has the bombing of Yemen.

Bin Salman may have a slightly different take on religion to those previously controlling Saudi Arabia, but in fact he is a much more dangerous fanatic. He is an extreme Sunni sectarian, driven by a visceral hatred of Shia Muslims. This is expressed in an aggressive foreign policy, causing a further destabilisation of the Middle East which threatens to tip over into catastrophe, as Bin Salman seeks to turn up the heat against Iran in proxy conflict in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere. That he is doing so in active and functional alliance with Israel (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/covert-israeli-saudi-arabia-relations-171120142229835.html) is the world’s worst kept (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/mideast/open-secret-saudi-arabia-israel-get-cozy-n821136) diplomatic secret. Saudi/Israeli cooperation in Lebanon and Syria is to my mind the most dangerous global flashpoint at present.

But despite his fawning reception in London, Bin Salman is not having it all his own way. I returned from Doha two weeks ago and in Qatar, Bin Salman has seriously overreached. Angry at Doha’s lack of hostility to Iran, including revenue sharing agreement on cross-border fields, Saudi Arabia has blockaded the small Emirate of Qatar for six months now. The excuse given to the West – that Qatar funds jihadist terrorism – is perhaps the worst example of the pot calling the kettle black in History. But the Saudi demands, including the permanent closure of Al Jazeera, expulsion of Arab dissidents and removal of a Turkish military base, reveal an altogether different agenda.

Qatar has proved much more resilient than anybody expected. The blockade has caused some economic damage but it has been survivable, and the effect has been entirely counter-productive for Bin Salman. Qatar has become closer economically to Iran and has developed new port facilities which reduce import reliance on Saudi Arabia and its satraps. The Saudis had massed troops on the border and threatened invasion, but the Qataris vowed to fight.

Then something remarkable happened which the world mainstream media has almost entirely ignored. Despite Saudi sponsored adverts all over US media portraying named senior Qataris as terrorist sponsors, and despite strong Israeli pro-Saudi lobbying, Donald Trump suddenly called Bin Salman to heel. With Saudi troops massed on the Qatari border, on 30 January the United States signed an agreement (https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2018/01/277776.htm) with Qatar “to deter and confront any threat to Qatar’s territorial integrity”. This was a massive slap in the face to Bin Salman from Donald Trump, and a result of Tillerson recognising the real threat to the world from Bin Salman’s extreme ambition.

39352

I can only conjecture this received none of the publicity it deserved from the corporate media because it went against the prevailing narrative that Trump can never, in any circumstance, do anything strikingly good, and because it was a blow to Israel. The uber-hawk Clinton would certainly not have crossed Saudi Arabia and Israel in this way. It is an important sign that there is more to Tillerson’s Middle Eastern diplomacy than the stupid decision, motivated by US domestic politics, to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

The elite loves Saudi money all around the world. But the UK is unique in allowing that to blind them absolutely to human rights abuses, the appalling bombing of Yemen, and the extreme dangers posed by Bin Salman’s hyperactive regional aggression towards Shia Muslims. We should be used to seeing Tories kowtowing to money by now. But this week makes me still more sick than usual.

[Ba-ba-Ra]

This is a very complicated story and it would be impossible (imo) to analyze it by looking at one piece of the puzzle, or several pieces of the puzzle.

US has been in bed w/House of Saud since the advent of the petro dollar . . .and has chosen to overlook their many moral indiscretions through the years. The Saudis behead people daily or cut off their appendages. No one has ever complained about that.

So why is this one being chosen to be 'the terrible one'. They're all terrible and have been for years. But no spotlight on them.

You say because he was a journalist residing in US. If he lived here for 15yrs, why didn't he become a US citizen?

Recently a young journalist, Jen Moore was murdered. She was a US citizen. By coincidence she was investigating a story of a young man who claimed when he was 9yrs old he was taken out on a yacht and was raped. He identified B.Clinton as being on the yacht. Jen was a US citizen, why are we not all upset about her death?
Could it be that Khashoggi was more than a journalist as several have claimed. That he was a spy or perhaps even a double agent. It seems he most certainly was an arms dealer and a staunch supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Currently MSM is harping on Trump's 'close' relationship with the Saudis. Have we already forgotten the Bush's close Saudi friend, Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud who spent so much time with the Bush family he was commonly called Bandar Bush. And then their was Obama bowing to the Saudi King.

Remember the recent coup in SA, where the current guy arrested a large number of royals and took their money, or some of it.

Khashoggi was not happy with this new guy as he (Khashoggi) was aligned with the old regime. Lots of under the table arms deals were happening with the old regime - and members of US Congress were benefiting financially from these sales. Trump made a deal w/new regime to bring all of these sales above the table. Next thing we know Khashoggi is dead. Brennan & Graham screamed, we must get rid of new regime. Could it be because their $$ have now been cut off.

Why would the new Saudi King kill Khashoggi so obviously. They could easily have had a hit man take him out anywhere in the world and they wouldn't have been connected. Let's think about this and not react emotionally.,

[Spellbound]

There's much more to this than meets the eye...and I think this is part of a much larger picture.

Dave - Toronto

[Bob]

How far back was the plot being hatched?

In August this year, Saudi ordered its ambassador to leave Canada.


Saudi Arabia has ordered its ambassador to Canada to come home and has expelled the Canadian ambassador, stopped Saudia flights to Canada, stated that all new commerce with Canada will now be reviewed, and told Saudi students there—there are 12,000—to study elsewhere.

These are significant actions, not least for those 12,000 young Saudis who were just weeks away from the start of the new school year. How will they find new places to study in such a short time?

The Kingdom will put on hold all new business and investment transactions with Canada while retaining its right to take further action.

Apparently the house of Saud (can we say MbS?) isn't happy with Canada - Canada had said:

“Canada is gravely concerned about additional arrests of civil society and women’s rights activists in #SaudiArabia, including Samar Badawi. We urge the Saudi authorities to immediately release them and all other peaceful #humanrights activists.”

Who is backing MBS?

Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have commended (http://www.arabnews.com/node/1390871/saudi-arabia) the royal decrees issued by Saudi Arabia's King Mohammad bin Salman.


For decades, Mr Khashoggi had been close to the Saudi royal family but last year he went into self-imposed exile in the US after an apparent crackdown on dissents in the country.

Since then, he had been writing a column for the Washington Post's Global Opinions section.

Fifteen days after he went missing, the newspaper published Khashoggi's last article - a call for press freedom across the Arab world.

And what statements may have lead to his execution?

Here are some of his last articles:


'We Saudis deserve better' - 18 September 2017
"When I speak of the fear, intimidation, arrests and public shaming of intellectuals and religious leaders who dare to speak their minds, and then I tell you that I'm from Saudi Arabia, are you surprised?

"Under pressure from my government, the publisher of one of the most widely read Arabic dailies, Al-Hayat, cancelled my column. The government banned me from Twitter when I cautioned against an overly enthusiastic embrace of then-President-elect Donald Trump.

"I have left my home, my family and my job, and I am raising my voice. To do otherwise would betray those who languish in prison. I can speak when so many cannot. I want you to know that Saudi Arabia has not always been as it is now. We Saudis deserve better."

'Acting like Putin' - 5 November 2017
"Mohammed bin Salman is acting like Putin. He is imposing very selective justice. The crackdown on even the most constructive criticism — the demand for complete loyalty with a significant 'or else' — remains a serious challenge to the crown prince's desire to be seen as a modern, enlightened leader.

"We Saudis deserve more than the spectacle of royals and officials interred at the Ritz Carlton. We also should have the right to speak about these important and impactful changes — and the many more needed to achieve the crown prince's vision for our country.

"We are a kingdom of silence no longer."

'Terrible choice' - 21 May 2018
"We are being asked to abandon any hope of political freedom, and to keep quiet about arrests and travel bans that impact not only the critics but also their families.

We are expected to vigorously applaud social reforms and heap praise on the crown prince while avoiding any reference to the pioneering Saudis who dared to address these issues decades ago.

"Is there no other way for us? Must we choose between movie theatres and our rights as citizens to speak out, whether in support of or critical of our government's actions?

Do we only voice glowing references to our leader's decisions, his vision of our future, in exchange for the right to live and travel freely — for ourselves and our wives, husbands and children too?

"This is the choice I've woken up to each morning ever since last June, when I left Saudi Arabia for the last time after being silenced by the government for six months."

'Free expression' - 17 October 2018
"A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative. Sadly, this situation is unlikely to change.

"Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate... These governments, whose very existence relies on the control of information, have aggressively blocked the Internet. They have also arrested local reporters and pressured advertisers to harm the revenue of specific publications.

"The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power.

"Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face."

---What do you think, anything in there trigger MbS into ordering "off with his head?" (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/khashoggi-killing-saudi-arabia-739249/)

reference: From the Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/jamal-khashoggi-what-the-arab-world-needs-most-is-free-expression/2018/10/17/adfc8c44-d21d-11e8-8c22-fa2ef74bd6d6_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.77d1c1ae18b1) -


I was recently online looking at the 2018 “Freedom in the World” report (https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2018) published by Freedom House and came to a grave realization. There is only one country in the Arab world that has been classified as “free.” That nation is Tunisia. Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait come second, with a classification of “partly free.” The rest of the countries in the Arab world are classified as “not free.”

As a result, Arabs living in these countries are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives. A state-run narrative dominates the public psyche, and while many do not believe it, a large majority of the population falls victim to this false narrative. Sadly, this situation is unlikely to change.

The Arab world was ripe with hope during the spring of 2011. Journalists, academics and the general population were brimming with expectations of a bright and free Arab society within their respective countries. They expected to be emancipated from the hegemony of their governments and the consistent interventions and censorship of information. These expectations were quickly shattered; these societies either fell back to the old status quo or faced even harsher conditions (https://www.economist.com/leaders/2016/08/06/the-ruining-of-egypt) than before.

My dear friend, the prominent Saudi writer Saleh al-Shehi, wrote one of the most famous columns (https://nypost.com/2018/02/08/saudi-writer-gets-prison-for-criticizing-royal-court/) ever published in the Saudi press. He unfortunately is now serving an unwarranted five-year prison sentence for supposed comments contrary to the Saudi establishment. The Egyptian government’s seizure of the entire print run of a newspaper, al-Masry al Youm, did not enrage or provoke a reaction from colleagues. These actions no longer carry the consequence of a backlash from the international community. Instead, these actions may trigger condemnation quickly followed by silence.

As a result, Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media at an increasing rate. There was a time when journalists believed the Internet would liberate information from the censorship and control associated with print media. But these governments, whose very existence relies on the control of information, have aggressively blocked the Internet. They have also arrested local reporters and pressured advertisers to harm the revenue of specific publications.

[Read Khashoggi’s last column for The Post before his disappearance in Arabic (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/10/17/jamal-khashoggi-what-the-arab-world-needs-most-is-free-expression-arabic/)]

There are a few oases that continue to embody the spirit of the Arab Spring. Qatar’s government continues to support international news coverage, in contrast to its neighbors’ efforts to uphold the control of information to support the “old Arab order.” Even in Tunisia and Kuwait, where the press is considered at least “partly free,” the media focuses on domestic issues but not issues faced by the greater Arab world. They are hesitant to provide a platform for journalists from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yemen. Even Lebanon, the Arab world’s crown jewel when it comes to press freedom, has fallen victim to the polarization and influence of pro-Iran Hezbollah.

The Arab world is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power. During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe, which grew over the years into a critical institution, played an important role in fostering and sustaining the hope of freedom. Arabs need something similar. In 1967, the New York Times and The Post took joint ownership of the International Herald Tribune newspaper, which went on to become a platform for voices from around the world.

My publication, The Post, has taken the initiative to translate many of my pieces and publish them in Arabic. For that, I am grateful. Arabs need to read in their own language so they can understand and discuss the various aspects and complications of democracy in the United States and the West. If an Egyptian reads an article exposing the actual cost of a construction project in Washington, then he or she would be able to better understand the implications of similar projects in his or her community.

The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.