Saudi Arabia was the source of the world’s extremism. That’s an understatement. In fact, the oil-rich kingdom was the biggest sponsor and supplier of terrorists. Its extremism policy gave birth to terror groups such as al-Qaeda and Daesh (ISIS, ISIL, IS), among others, as Muslims were being radicalized as Islamic terrorists or jihadists at an alarming rate.

 

Saudi’s greatest export – Wahhabism and Salafism – has successfully transformed many Muslim-majority countries from moderate to extreme nations. The kingdom has done such an excellent job at producing extremists and terrorists that it also gave birth to the mantra – “not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.”

 

After more than 30 years, it would take none other than Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to admit the kingdom’s subscription to extremism, and pledged that his country will return to “moderate Islam”. In his interview with the Guardian last year, he admitted the ultra-conservative state had been “not normal”, and didn’t know how to deal with the 1979 “Iranian Revolution.”

The long and short of the Saudi crown prince admission was – the House of Saud was clueless how to deal with the Iranian revolution so they took the easy way out by becoming more extreme than the extreme Iran. And they created a product called Wahhabism and sold the model around the world and voila, billions of Sunni-Muslims were charmed and brainwashed.

 

But it appears too early to celebrate the crown prince’s promise to return to the so-called “moderate Islam”. Turkish authorities now think they may have the answer to the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the reporter who interviewed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden several times in Afghanistan and Sudan, and served twice as editor of Al Watan newspaper.

 

Turkey suspects the Saudi journalist Khashoggi, a prominent critic of the Saudi government, was “brutally tortured, killed and cut into pieces” inside the consulate after visiting the building on October 2. According to Turkish sources who told Middle East Eye and news agencies, the journalist disappeared after entering Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul.

An unnamed Turkish official told the Reuters news agency that Turkish police believed Khashoggi had been killed and his body then removed from the building. The source claimed – “Everything was videotaped to prove the mission had been accomplished and the tape was taken out of the country. We believe that the murder was premeditated and the body was subsequently moved out of the consulate.”

 

Khashoggi reportedly had been advising Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief, and has also been close to billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. A Washington Post contributor, the journalist left Saudi Arabia after he revealed that the authorities had instructed him to stop tweeting about a year ago.

 

Turkish police said about 15 Saudi nationals, including officials, came to Istanbul on two private flights on Tuesday and were at the consulate at the same time as the journalist. They left again the same day. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed rubbished the accusation, of course, and said they had “nothing to hide” and that Khashoggi had left the building not long after he entered.

However, Turkish authorities said – “Our security officials are investigating the issue in every detail. We have some concrete information, it won’t be an unresolved crime. We could determine his entrance but not any exit. That’s confirmed. We asked them (the Saudis), they say ‘he left,’ but there is no such thing on the camera footage. That’s underestimating Turkey.”

 

The Washington Post, which on Friday ran a blank space on its opinion page to draw attention to Khashoggi’s disappearance, said on Saturday the killing, if confirmed, “would mark a stunning escalation of Saudi Arabia’s effort to silence dissent”. Fred Hiatt, director of the Post’s editorial page, said – “If the reports of Jamal’s murder are true, it is a monstrous and unfathomable act.”

 

Bruce Reidel, a former CIA analyst and director of the Brookings Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institute, said – “I’m not surprised. The crown prince does not tolerate criticism. And he knows (US President Donald) Trump won’t care. Perhaps some of MBS’s naive boosters in the West will finally see he is no revolutionary or reformer, but the president has his back.”

In his columns in the Washington Post, Khashoggi had been escalating his criticism of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – accusing him of repressing the Saudi people, creating a mess in Lebanon and prosecuting a cruel war in Yemen. The journalist had also accused the crown prince of extravagances, and was acting like Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 

Britain said on Sunday it was “working urgently” to verify the “extremely serious” allegations surrounding Khashoggi brutal murder, while Washington and Paris said they were closely following the situation. However, President Trump is known to have little interest on human rights matter and is not expected to confront the kingdom even if it’s proven the journalist had been butchered.

 

As the favourite son and top adviser of King Salman, the crown prince has garnered international attention with his rapid rise to power as well as social and economic reforms. While he has been lauded by some for pursuing changes such as lifting a decades-long ban on women driving, others have criticised his recent crackdown on political dissent.

Commonly known as MBS, the crown prince was the subject of criticism in November 2017 when he was accused of placing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri under house arrest in Riyadh. The same month saw dozens of Saudi officials being arrested in what the authorities claimed was an anti-corruption crackdown – an excuse to replenish the kingdom’s coffers to the tune of US$800 billion.

 

Interestingly, Turkey and Saudi Arabia stand on opposite sides of the dispute between Qatar and its neighbours. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar in June 2017 over allegations it supports extremists and is cosying up to arch-rival Iran and Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood. When Saudi tried to invade Qatar, Turkey sent its troops for reinforcement.

 

Some analysts think there’s no way the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could be so dumb in instructing such a brutal murder. However, analysts were also of the view that Saudi Arabia under MBS as prone to seemingly reckless gambits with little apparent thought for the consequences – the blockade of Qatar, the detention of Saad Hariri, the rupture with Canada and the war in Yemen.

If Turkey authorities are able to prove that Khashoggi was killed in the consulate or by Saudi agents, that’s going to have far-reaching consequences. It would almost certain “trigger a diplomatic crisis” between Ankara and Riyadh. Turkish police has already said – “The consulate is surrounded by cameras, no evidence of Khashoggi leaving was recorded on them.”

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Arab VS Arab – Can’t Beat Them, So Saudi Plans To Turn Qatar Into An Island By Digging A 2.8 Billion Riyals Canal
• Mohammed The Monster? Crown Prince Calls Iran “Hitler” But Exposed Locking Up His Own Mother
• Exposed!! – Saudi Crown Prince The Owner Of $300 Million World’s Most Expensive House
• Replenish Coffers – The $800 Billion Hidden Reason Behind Saudi Corruption Crackdown
• Saudi Prince Finally Admits Extremism, Promises A U-Turn Back To “Moderate” Islam
• Arab VS Arab – The Hidden Reasons Why Saudi & Its Gang “Unfriend” Qatar
• Sponsor & Supplier – Majority Of ISIS Militants Are Citizens Of Saudi
• Exposing 9/11 Secrets – How Saudi Terrorism Began In 1979’s “The Siege Of Mecca”

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October 8th, 2018 by financetwitter

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