Saudi Arabia

[MajGenl.Meade]

I have not heard a liberal criticize the communist

[ex-khobar Andy]

Well we've finally made a public determination that MBS was behind the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

It was obvious from maybe three or four days after the killing once we had pictures of the hit squad arriving. I predicted months ago (maybe here) that he would not survive long as crown prince, which just shows how much I know. But I do think that a formal announcement of his guilt may accelerate his retirement to a nice villa in Jeddah somewhere. But Biden has to do something: I know he has been president for only a month and it's still honeymoon time - or it would be under normal circumstances. But we have to get past the 'at least he's not Trump' thing.

There is something else going on in Saudi Arabia. I've spent about five or six years there in two stints: 1981 to 1984 and 2001 to 2003. Both times as an environmental adviser for marine quality and oil cleanup. Last go around was for the oil spill which followed the Iraq expulsion from Kuwait. The Chairman of the MInistry of Environment was Prince Turki bin Nasr bin Abduaziz (bin = son of) so a grandson of the first king and a cousin of MBS. When you have multiple wives and a hereditary kingship, there is obvious intra-family strife. I wouldn't call Prince Turki a buddy, but we met many times and we were a similar age.

He was an ex-fighter pilot and probably guilty of scamming the British arms industry out of $100 million or so in bribes through the Al Yamamah arms deal. So far so normal for a senior Saudi prince.

About three years ago MBS gathered some of his rich relatives and locked them up in a luxury hotel in Riyadh - in effect a shakedown. I heard that Prince Turki was one of them but there was never any official confirmation that I saw. If he was one of them I'm sure he managed to cough up a few mill which might have been enough to gain his freedom. Today I saw this piece on a Middle East news site, and apparently he died a couple of weeks ago 'in mysterious circumstances'. To quote from the source:

Saudi Prince Turki bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud has died in mysterious circumstances on Saturday evening.

Princes from the ruling family mourned the prince, who they said had died at the age of 73, had been suffering from a medical condition and was hospitalised last week, Saudi state media reported.

However, other Saudi sources suggested that Prince Turki may have been eliminated in the context of the conflict within the Saudi ruling family.

Well. If this is accurate - and I have no separate indication either way - there is something going on which might erupt.

[liberty]

So you want Iran to defeat Saudi Arabia and dominate the Muslim world. And that would be so much better, how?

[Scooter]

So you believe that Saudi Arabia should be able to assassinate American residents with impunity? And that would be so much better, how?

[rubato]

The US should shun MBS, have him indicted so he cannot travel without risk of arrest, and impose sanctions so that the SA people and foverenment are motivated to remove him from office.

It will cost us and motivate MBS to try to seduce Communist China and Russia. Or threaten to do so.

We need to create a picture which shows the SA government, business interests, and people that a future without MBS is more desireable. It is a hard thing to do and even a brilliant leader might fail at it.

yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

If you think Saudi Arabia's conduct is so bad considered our ally in WWII. The Soviet communist killed tens of millions of their people and I have not heard a liberal criticize the communist.

Then you should get out more.

No shit. Get out of your cave echo-chamber.

yrs,
rubato

[Jarlaxle]

So you want Iran to defeat Saudi Arabia and dominate the Muslim world. And that would be so much better, how?

Walk away and let them kill each other.