Revealed Through Gross Ineptitude

"We assess that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi."

"We base this assessment on the Crown Prince's control of decision-making in the Kingdom, the direct involvement of a key adviser and members of Muhammad bin Salman's protective detail in the operation and the Crown Prince's support for using violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi."

U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence report 

Khashoggi said MBS should get rid of his complex against the Muslim Brotherhood [Handout]

 

Henry II was said to have planned the death of his adversary, the Archbishop of Canterbury by simply mouthing the words: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?". And that would be all that was needed for a plot to be cooked up to motivate assailants in service to the king to perform the deed. Similarly Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince may have used a sentiment to the very same effect: "Would someone kindly rid me of this troubling pest?" and the deed would be assured to be carried out. Despite the distance of a thousand years between those events, they otherwise have much in common.

Supreme rulers have a penchant for things going their way. The means used to achieve the required result are of little moment to them; what is important is that their wishes be carried out. They have no need to know the petty details; only the conclusion that the deed transpired successfully. In this particular instance of incredibly awkward decision-making and planning carried out with an utter lack of finesse by crude assailants it was inevitable there would be a lashback.

The murderous crew was careless and uncaring of consequences. The simple expedient of hauling the man back to Saudi Arabia for permanent imprisonment for irritating the royal power behind the throne would have been simple enough to carry to conclusion; the decision to murder the man, dismember the body and secrete it away somewhere represented a bleak, black slapstick farce of intelligence planning gone amok, which had its inevitable consequences.

Turkey's Erdogan, eager to ingratiate himself with the United States' investigation as a demonstration of just how powerfully cognizant he is about civilized behaviour -- despite that he sees nothing whatever unsettling to human rights by marginalizing, persecuting, and bombing minority indigenous Kurds who prefer that their status reflect that of resident/citizens of their ancient homeland, Kurdistan, not Turkey -- professed to be shocked and indignant over the bloody scene. And in matters of injuring and killing innocent civilians as a byproduct of conflict, the U.S. has no clean slate authorizing its investigation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Byzantine affairs.

 

Jamal Khashoggi. Mohammed Al-Shaikh/AFP/Getty

 

 

Jamal Khashoggi had a chequered past, consorting with terrorists, agitating against Jews and Israel, the perennial scapegoats of the Middle East, himself an enthusiastic member of the Muslim Brotherhood acknowledged as a terrorist organization by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His slurs against the House of Saud's irritation factor cannot have been carried out without the knowledge that he was making himself a marked man. He lived in the U.S. in self-exile. To name him as a highly respected journalist is to elevate a sow's ear to a silk purse. His death is no great loss to a troubled world.

 

President Joe Biden wanted to break the revelatory news gently to his great good friend, 85-year-old King Salman, who knows realpolitik inside and out. The point of the release of the investigation pointing a finger of responsibility at this favoured son-and-heir-to-the-Saudi-throne simultaneously with a personal video conference was a patronizing exercise in a more powerful country gently handling a collegial country a political grenade; to be carefully handled lest an explosion result harming relations between the two countries. 

But like Turkey's Erdogan, America's Biden was intent on demonstrating how civilized the United States is, and how affronted civil society was in the wake of the details revealed in the ghastly 2018

assassination of the "Washington Post journalist". An odious act of state malfeasance, somewhat similar to Iran's hit squads hunting down enemies of the Grand Ayatollah, or Russian hitmen poisoning unsuspecting Russian dissidents abroad, occasionally succeeding in dispatching victims to lethal poisoning -- sometimes failing.

Palace Intrigues and Royal Vengeance

"[Saad Aljabri masterminded an] international scheme [involving 21 conspirators across 13 countries to defraud the plaintiff companies of billions of dollars, fled to Canada, and] launched a public relations campaign, including litigation against his former government, to deflect attention from his theft."

"While [Aljabri's]  hands were hidden, his fingerprints are everywhere."

Ontario Lawsuit: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia state companies

Saad Aljabri. Photo by Aljabri family

 

"The [Aljabri] family welcomes the opportunity to face off against [Mohammed bin Salman] in neutral judicial forums in Canada and the United States."

"[The lawsuits brought against the family represents a] campaign of harassment and misinformation."

"The family will fight the recycled corruption allegations vigorously and are confident they will succeed in dismissing them as they did in 2018 with the Interpol."

Aljabri family statement

 

"Having failed to finish the job in Canada, [bin Salman] continues in his attempted extrajudicial killing to this day. "

"In recent months, Defendant bin Salman obtained a fatwa directed at Dr. Saad — in this case, a ruling by religious authorities endorsing the killing of Dr. Saad."

"Accordingly, to Defendant bin Salman, the threat posed by Dr. Saad to Defendant bin Salman’s standing in the United States is an urgent and ongoing one."

"While the U.S. government has thus far aided in the efforts to protect Dr. Saad’s life, it has been unable to prevent a credible attempt on Dr. Saad’s life by Defendant bin Salman’s agents, an attempt which remains ongoing to this day."

"[The attempts on his life have caused Aljabri] indescribable pain."

"He lives in a state of extreme fear and anxiety, with insomnia and other physical effects, all because of the past credible attempts on his life and the knowledge that Defendant bin Salman wants him dead and is continuing to work, with seeming impunity, toward that ultimate objective."

Court documents, U.S. lawsuit filed by Aljabri family against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Mohammed bin Nayef (R) and Mohammed bin Salman (L) in 2015    Getty Images

Up to 2015 Saad Aljabri was a well-known and collaborative intelligence figure in the West, representing Saudi Arabia as its ranking intelligence official under Mohammed bin Nayef, the nephew and presumptive heir to the throne of the Kingdom of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. And then his world turned upside down, when King Salman's youngest son persuaded his father to appoint him instead as heir to the Saudi throne. It took little time before Crown Prince bin Salman placed family members, advisers and others he considered disloyal under arrest, confining them to their homes. 

Some high-ranking members of the Kingdom's inner circle chose to flee the long arm of MbS, among whom was journalist Jamal Khashoggi who domiciled himself in exile in Turkey, refusing blandishments by MbS to return to Saudi Arabia. His incendiary criticism of his country and its ruling royalty signed his death warrant, executed by a death squad clumsily and with blatant disregard for consequences which diminished the Crown Prince's stature and reputation in the west.

After Saad Aljabri left Saudi Arabia accurately reading the clear and concise writing on the wall, he was petitioned time and again to return, becoming in the process an irritating critic of the Saud family. As the right-hand deputy of MbS's predecessor he was destined to be disappeared or 'neutralized' and preferred to remain free and at large as far as possible from Saudi Arabia, with his family. Two of his adult children, however, had remained behind in their native country. They were 'disappeared' a year ago and no one has any idea where they are now. The strategy being to apply hostage pressure on Aljabri.

  Jamal Khashoggi  Photo by YASIN AKGUL/AFP

A team of mercenaries identified as the "Tiger Squad" assumed to be the same crew that murdered Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey had tried to enter Canada, ostensibly to carry out orders by Mohammed bin Salman. They failed to impress the Canadian Border Services Agency officers who uncovered false statements revealing a questionable mission and they were turned away, rendered incapable of fulfilling their assignment, but reminding Mr. Aljabri of the danger he faced.

He had launched his lawsuit against Crown Prince Salman in the United States. Lawyers for ostensibly defrauded state companies in Saudi Arabia launched their lawsuit against Mr. Aljabri in Ontario, where he has lived since 2017 in exile. Mr. Aljabri is accused of having embezzled close to $4.5 billion from the treasury of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the new lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court contends.

The lawsuit, filed by Tahakom Investment Company owned by the sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia chaired by Mohammed bin Salmon, claims that between 2008 and 2017, Saad Aljabri cooked up an "international scheme" with 21 conspirators, that when companies Aljabri established into the Tahakom Investment Company, there were irregularities earmarked through an audit by Ernst & Young and Deloitte International.

According to the lawsuit, Aljabri is charged with setting up companies meant to focus on anti-terrorism platforms; his high-ranking position within the Saudi government lending him the authority to do so. He was said to have appropriated funds allocated by the Saudi government, placing them in a variety of exterior jurisdictions like the British Virgin Islands and Turkey. He is charged also with buying up luxury homes in a number of countries and disbursing funds to friends and family.

The lawsuit identifies properties in Toronto and Montreal, luxury condominiums in Boston, a penthouse in Washington, D.C., and numerous properties in Saudi Arabia owned by Aljabri or his family or purchased through corporate entities loyal to him. In 2017, Saudi Arabia alerted INTERPOL, requesting they have Aljabri arrested for return to the Kingdom on charges of corruption. INTERPOL however, made their own determination that the request was politically motivated.

Mohammed bin Salman has centralised power and targeted any and all perceived foes since he outmanoeuvred more senior rivals in 2017 to become crown prince (AFP)