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Saudi King Arrests Opponents; Provincial DC Press Blames Trump
In a story as old as monarchy itself, Saudi King Salman is clearing the way for his chosen successor. The king’s favorite son and closest advisor, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been given more and more royal duties through which he has advanced many economic and policy reforms. He’s trying to modernize the nation’s nearly medieval mindset, opening it to freer markets, religious tolerance, and even to the state of Israel.
On Saturday, the king sacked the powerful head of the Saudi national guard, who had opposed Crown Prince Mohammed. Salman then created a powerful new anticorruption committee and placed the crown prince in charge. Within hours, the committee arrested a slew of his opponents, some of the wealthiest men in Saudi Arabia.
Eleven princes, four sitting ministers, and “tens” of former ministers were taken into custody, the most prominent of which is billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal. Anyone with an even cursory understanding of history has seen this happen almost every time an aging monarch prepares to hand the crown to a successor.
But, the DC/NY press corps has identified the real story: it’s all about Trump.
Big…One of the world's richest men, a vocal Trump critic, and member of the Saudi Royal family has been arrested https://t.co/91kGtssIkJ
— Yashar Ali đ (@yashar) November 4, 2017
Since Trump took office, consolidation of power by leaders in China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
— Kate Brannen (@K8brannen) November 5, 2017
Just to throw an extra frisson of speculation about Saudi Arabia, Jared Kushner did go there late last month. https://t.co/HRWgUpv5iS
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) November 4, 2017
The conspiracies are taking over Twitter, labeling it the “Saudi coup”:
https://twitter.com/Corpusmentis0/status/926948603658211328
timing is ominous. kushner is in Saudi, one of Trumpâs tweets is about Saudi, then a possible coup involving well-known billionaiređ„
— maria garcia (@tulipsmg) November 4, 2017
Hmmmmmm ……#SaudiCoup https://t.co/QEGMCqvzuk
— buki. (@BukiWilliams) November 5, 2017
First off, it’s not a coup when a king eliminates his enemies. That’s how the treacherous world of court politics has always worked. Second, major Saudi political developments are usually about … Saudi politics.
American journalists love to tie events halfway around the world to whatever debates are happening locally. This provincial mentality is a big reason why the US news media is so awful at covering international news.
Published in Foreign Policy
– Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding
– Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, minister of the National Guard
– Prince Turki bin Abdullah, former governor of Riyadh province
– Khalid al-Tuwaijri, former chief of the Royal Court
– Adel Fakeih, Minister of Economy and Planning
– Ibrahim al-Assaf, former finance minister
– Abdullah al-Sultan, commander of the Saudi navy
– Bakr bin Laden, chairman of Saudi Binladin Group
– Mohammad al-Tobaishi, former head of protocol at the Royal Court
– Amr al-Dabbagh, former governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority
– Alwaleed al-Ibrahim, owner of television network MBC
– Khalid al-Mulheim, former director-general at Saudi Arabian Airlines
– Saoud al-Daweesh , former chief executive of Saudi Telecom
– Prince Turki bin Nasser, former head of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment
– Prince Fahad bin Abdullah bin Mohammad al-Saud, former deputy defence minister
– Saleh Kamel, businessman
– Mohammad al-Amoudi, businessman
Interestingly a number of them have been involved in lawsuits regarding 9/11.
Heh heh. “But Sire, what about your Nephew Turki? He has been complaining that you are ignoring him.”
“Ah geez, that guy. Give him the Weatherman job.”
“As you wish, Sire.”
“Among 31 other sons”??? Now that’s what I call gettin’ BUSY! When did he have time to actually rule?
The Clinton foundation should be worried; For every hooker there is a john. Awful lot of their johns are being dragged into the slammer.
This could be about both US AND Saudi internal politics
Having multiple wives and concubines helps.
Perhaps Trump is responsible – indirectly.
Since Trump took office, he  has initiated a more responsible policy towards Iran and the Middle East, one in which the Saudi’s had less to fear from and Trump also has taken the fight to ISIS -decimating them.  With the winds of change a shifting to a more logical mid-east policy and with those more closely aligned with ISIS now a liability,  perhaps King Salman thought it was time to clean house a bit.
Remember, Buraq Hussein had put the Saudi’s in a very bad place with on the one hand his open aiding of Iran and their nuclear aspirations, and on the other his open encouragement of  Islamic radicals like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and others who  were a direct threat to the Saudi regime.  Now all that has changed.
-Mohammad al-Amoudi, businessman – In December 2010 Al Amoudi initiated a claim in the English High Court against Elias Kifle of the Washington, D.C.-based Ethiopian Review claiming damages for libel. In July 2011 Kifle was ordered to pay ÂŁ175,000 in damages for publishing false information. The Ethiopian Review had also repeated unwarranted material relating to his family and to matters previously dealt with in the Al Amoudi v. Brisard case of 2005. M. Brisard had made serious and unwarranted allegations concerning engagement in the funding of terrorism in the wake of 9/11 but had subsequently apologised for the accusation. The judge found the statements to be untrue and stated that Al Amoudi “is implacably opposed to terrorism in all its formsâ.
-Saleh Kamel, businessman – New York judge last Thursday dismissed a lawsuit against Saleh Kamel and Albaraka Investment Bank. The accusations alleged they had been involved in support of the Al-Qaeda group suspected of backing the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 9/11 victimsâ relatives add nearly 50 defendants to their $1 trillion lawsuit against mostly Saudi citizens and organizations. Saleh Kamel and the Dallah al-Baraka Group. [Third Amended Complaint. Thomas E. Burnett, Sr., et al. v. Al Baraka Investment and Development Corporation, et al., 11/22/2002Â
]
-Prince al-Waleed bin Talal – Feb. 3, New York Times: Zacarias Moussaoui, a convicted 9/11 co-conspirator, said in the prison deposition that he was directed in 1998 or 1999 by Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan to create a digital database of donors to the group. Among those he said he recalled listing in the database were Prince Turki al-Faisal, then the Saudi intelligence chief; Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States; Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a prominent billionaire investor.
-Bakr Mohammed bin Laden – 9/11 victimsâ relatives add nearly 50 defendants to their $1 trillion lawsuit against mostly Saudi citizens and organizations (see August 15, 2002). The suit alleges the defendants knowingly provided money and other aid to terrorists, which enabled the 9/11 attacks and other attacks to occur. Individual members of the bin Laden family, including Bakr bin Laden, Tarek bin Laden, Omar bin Laden, Abdullah Awad bin Laden, and Yeslam Binladin. The suit claims that in the early 1990s, Tarek bin Laden was the general supervisor of the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), a Saudi charity suspected of terrorist ties. [Third Amended Complaint. Thomas E. Burnett, Sr., et al. v. Al Baraka Investment and Development Corporation, et al., 11/22/2002
And we say Trump is narcissist…
Many years ago Abdulaziz ibn Saud made a deal with the devil when, in the interest of conquering the many tribes on the Arabia Peninsula, he (and previous ancestors) aligned with the fierce warrior Wahhabis. When Abdulaziz founded Saudia Arabia in 1932, he made them the heads of the much-feared National Guard who practice a medieval form of Islam, offshoots of which are ISIS and others. Replacing the current Wahhabi head of the National Guard, Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, is the key to reform in the Kingdom. This restructuring of power is a major, major event toward the potential for peace in the Middle East.
I believe he had some 20 or so wives. Imagine the turmoil in that household!!!!
The thing about a harem is that when done properly it is a self managing organization.
Yeah, over on Kent’s vegetarian thread, we have been discussing pecking order.
A helicopter transporting 8 high-ranking Saudi officials (including prince Mansour bin-Muqrin, see Saudi family tree above) has crashed in the south of the Kingdom, near the border with Yemen. Headlines report that the high-ranking officials aboard included Crown Prince Mansour bin-Muqrin, deputy Emir of Asir province. He was a son of Muqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the ex-intelligence chief who briefly was Saudi Arabia’s crown prince from January to April 2015.
Take the missile launcher. Leave the hummus.
Mr. President, you know those guys the CIA claims are involved with funding terrorism. The ones we keep insisting are not involved in funding terrorism.
You won’t be hearing about them no more.
AFAIK, those lawsuits have all been thrown out on grounds of foreign sovereign immunity, largely improperly in my humble opinion. Foreign sovereign immunity is supposed to apply only to foreign government agents acting in their official capacities. The courts appear to have effectively interpreted that to mean any member of the Saudi royal family acting in any capacity.
The Crown Prince would give me warm fuzz feelings if the sent AG Sessions a letter at least waiving foreign sovereign immunity as to the individual defendants.
The Saudi Royal Court has confirmed, November 6, the death of Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd – killed during a firefight as authorities attempted to arrest him. The prince died when his security contingent got into a firefight with regime gunmen attempting to make an arrest. Prince Aziz (44) who was the youngest son of King Fahad. Prince Abdul Aziz was deeply involved in Saudi Oger Ltd, a company which until it ceased operations in the summer of this year, was owned by the Hariri family. Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was punitively in charge of the company until it ceased operations. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri unexpectedly resigned Saturday during a trip to Saudi Arabia
This is the month where we take care of all the family business.
âPutatively,â not âpunitively.â
Unless the gig really sucks.
Does anyone remember the recent trip Trump and Tillerson made to Saudi Arabia when Trump gave them a carefully worded speech about cleaning up their own house?
and, The Orb!
The Donald touched the Orb. This is all happening because The Donald touched the Orb.
Saudi Arabia Is About To Confiscate $33 Billion From Four Of Its Richest People. Prince Salman and/or his his father – whether in conjunction with Jared Kushner or independently – certainly knows how to kill two birds with one stone: not only has Mohammad Bin Salman eliminated the bulk of his potential political opponents in one day, he also boosted the Saudi reserves by 7% in one day. Is this over? Or does Yogi Berra have something to say?
As this isn’t a movie, I fear it is not.
Definitely. I believe I made a Post about it here. It was, by far, the strongest Presidential speech since George W. Bush’s 9/11 Speech.
He flat-out told them they were screwing up and they’d better get the corruption and hatred cleaned up or we would stop being their friend, and Saudi Arabia knows very well that they need us as a friend, not a foe. Even someone in the Leftist MSM said, this was the day President Trump became Presidential.