Something’s rotten in the House of Saud

Actually, there are many things that are rotten in the Saudi Kingdom and have been for quite some time. The latest drama surrounding the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is only further proof of that and, no matter how you look at it, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the darling of the Western press, is involved in this very disturbing affair. Beyond the human interest in the fate of a man who might or might not have been killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, the story is well worth watching as it could be a sign of the power struggle inside the Saudi royal family.

One strange coincidence

Jamal Khashoggi vanished on the 2nd of October when he went to the Saudi consulate for paperwork regarding his divorce. Roughly at the same time, US president Donald Trump posted a tweet about the Saudi king Salman, apparently with regard to oil prices, that said:

'King we're protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us.’

A very clear warning. As far as we know, the Saudi leadership is not facing any direct and credible external threats at this time. The challenges are internal, the king needs protection against his enemies within the kingdom or to be specific with the royal family itself.
The political situation in Saudi Arabia can be quite confusing for Westerners, we are used to royal families having a clear line of succession and the era of fratricide wars is long gone. That is not the case in Saudi Arabia, where the royal family is an extended clan with dozens of princes and the line of succession is far from straight. Even the much-praised reformist Crown Prince got to be next in line only last year, bumping a cousin of his. There is no doubt MBS has a lot of enemies. Enough to mention last year’s ‘anti-corruption drive’ which saw dozens of members of the royal family imprisoned at MBS’ direct orders. Humiliation aside, some were tortured while in captivity and all had to pay substantial amounts of money to save their lives. Whether these people were guilty of corruption is irrelevant to us, but the affair must have earned MBS a few more sworn enemies.

Even MSM says Mohammed bin Salman might have gone too far this time

Back to the Khashoggi affair. Let’s not forget that the man was/is close to the royal family for decades. He was an adviser to the former Saudi ambassador to the US, Turki bin Faisal, himself a Saudi prince and representing a faction with different views about Iran and other conflicts in the Middle East than the current leadership.
Over the past 24 hours, there were news reports that suggested MBS was involved in a plan to have Khashoggi brought back to the kingdom to face trial. We are told that the man might still be alive - he was not murdered and butchered inside the consulate, merely kidnapped by the government of his country. (And this point do remember that Saudi Arabia sits on the UN Human Rights Commission!)
If MBS did order the kidnap, that’s very bad for his image as a reformer. But then, what if the affair was staged to destroy his credibility? Could very well be, considering the fact he has powerful enemies. One of the most interesting aspects of this story is Turkey’s claim that there is audio and video proof that the journalist was murdered inside the consulate. The press tells us local Turkish personnel were given the rest of the day off just before Khashoggi was scheduled to come for his appointment. The only people at the consulate at that time were Saudis, some of them having flown in that morning - another coincidence, no doubt. If damning evidence was indeed leaked it was done by Saudi nationals, in which case MBS has a big problem.

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Images: 1, 2.