Saudi Savages

Listening to music while chopping up Khashoggi — alive!

By Yusuf Dhia-Allah

The Saudi consulate in Istanbul doubled as slaughterhouse, at least on October 2. The butchers from Riyadh had come with a bone-cutting saw. They had an important mission to accomplish: grab Jamal Khashoggi and cut him into pieces. Audio recordings of the macabre ritual on the study table of the Saudi Consul General leaked to the Turkish media reveal that Khashoggi was chopped up while he was still alive.

The lead chopper — Salah Muhammad al-Tubayqi — was part of the 15-member squad (their names and photos were published in the Turkish daily, Sabah) that had arrived earlier in the day at the consulate. Identified as a 20-year veteran and head of forensic evidence in the Saudi general security department, al-Tubayqi put on earphones and listened to music as he dismembered Khashoggi with a bone saw. He advised other members of the squad to do the same in order to drown out Khashoggi’s screams. Was he listening to Beethoven as he went about his macabre ritual?

“When I do this job, I listen to music. You should do [that] too,” al-Tubayqi was recorded as saying, according to the Middle East Eye quoting a Turkish source (October 17). First, Khashoggi’s fingers were chopped. Obviously they had to go first because he used them to type “nasty” reports published in the Washington Post. Next, his arms were sawed off. Turkish media reports say that people downstairs in the consulate could hear Khashoggi’s screams. The consul general Muhammad al-‘Utaybi, perhaps a little faint-hearted, was also told to leave his office!

Barbarism is in Najdi Bedouins’ DNA. It has also been reported that after completing the chopping task that took 11 minutes from which Khashoggi took seven minutes to die, all 15 members went to the consul general’s house for dinner. That they could enjoy dinner after indulging in such a gruesome act speaks volumes about their demonic nature. Perhaps, people would now get a better sense of the Saudi mentality.

Let us get some basic facts straight: Khashoggi was no revolutionary or champion of freedom of speech or even basic freedoms. For decades he served the Saudi royals faithfully acting as advisor to Turki bin Faysal, the Kingdom’s long-time intelligence chief. He also headed many media outlets, acting as apologist for the regime. Khashoggi had also denounced Shaykh Nimr al-Nimr as an “outlaw” and applauded his beheading in January 2016.

Such sycophancy, however, did not guarantee his safety. With thousands of academics and religious scholars imprisoned by the impetuous crown prince Muhammad bin Salman (MbS), Khashoggi fled the country settling in the US.

The Washington Post, which is basically a deep-state/CIA front organization, provided him space for a regular column. He started to express mild criticism of Bin Salman’s policies but this was quite tepid and not meant to rock the Saudi boat. Even this, however, was not acceptable to the crown prince.

There were probably other reasons as well but first let us be clear that Bani Saud deserve no sympathy. Those responsible for the ghastly murder should be held accountable. The Saudi admission on October 19 that Khashoggi was murdered in the consulate after a fistfight broke out is a crude attempt to deflect responsibility from Bin Salman. It was Donald Trump who first floated the theory of “rogue killers” being responsible. Soon thereafter, he dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Riyadh and Turkey (October 16-17) for private consultations and issue instructions on how to sweep the matter under the rug (damage control).

An artist’s rendering of what a Saudi apology — not to Khashoggi’s family, the field of journalism, or the world, but to the US and Israel — means in real-world terms. The White House’s tepid response to the whole incident suggests that it was a setup for a trillion dollar shakedown in order to bolster the US economy and thereby improve President Trump’s chances for re-election in 2020. Should the clown prince accept culpability, hush money will have to be paid (mostly to Washington); should he deny responsibility and refuse to pay up, then the message has been sent: you are on a fault line that we control, and we will replace you with a more pliable prince who accedes to our security guarantees and any strings that come attached. This scenario seems to concur with the news leaked by the Turkish ambassador to Lebanon about the CIA setting up the assassination and dismemberment of Khashoggi.

The Saudis announced that 18 people had been arrested and were being investigated. Ahmad ‘Asiri, deputy head of intelligence, and Sa‘ud al Qahtani, a senior guard in Bin Salman’s security detail, were dismissed from their posts. Saudi media also reported on October 20 that an investigation had been launched.

Appearing on Fox News (October 21) Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Khashoggi’s killing was a “terrible mistake” and the people arrested had been involved in a “cover-up,” hence the earlier Saudi denials about the journalist’s death. Much of the world (except the White House) as well as human rights organizations dismissed Saudi explanations as an attempted “whitewash.”

Both Turkey and the US — the latter eagerly protecting the Najdi Bedouins — are exploiting this to further their own interests. This is shocking even by their own low standards. Trump does not want to jeopardize the $110 billion Saudi arms deal; he wants — and will get — billions more from the Saudis for giving MbS, now dubbed “Mr. Bone Saw,” a clean bill of health.

Turkey is demanding billions in Saudi investment and recognition as leader of the Muslim world. Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan’s pledge on October 20 to reveal the “naked truth” about the murder on October 22 turned out to be a rehash of stuff already known. Did he back down from revealing more details under pressure from the US?

There is also speculation that the Saudis may have increased the bribe amount; nonetheless he appears dissatisfied with the reported $5 billion offered so far. He wants many more billions before he would destroy the audio and videotapes to exonerate Bin Salman of Khashoggi’s murder.

On October 21, the Turkish daily Yeni Safak reported that Bin Salman had spoken to Khashoggi minutes before the latter was killed at the consulate. Mahir ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Mutrib’s cell phone was used. Mutrib is a member of Saudi intelligence and is close to Bin Salman. There was also a Skype conversation between Sa‘ud al-Qahtani (another Bin Salman guard) and Khashoggi at which the former told the journalist to return to the Kingdom. When Khashoggi refused, al-Qahtani ordered the team to bring the “head of this dog to Riyadh.” This seems to have been obeyed and Mutrib is believed to have taken Khashoggi’s body parts in his luggage back to Riyadh (he did not go through security screening because he carries a diplomatic passport).

There has, however, been major fallout from the ghastly murder. Saudi stocks plunged 7% losing some $50 billion on October 14. Leading Western investors and executives pulled out of the “Davos in the Desert” conference (October 23–25) in Riyadh. It would have been too much even for the Western bloodsuckers to be shaking hands with MbS while Khashoggi’s blood was still dripping from his hands.

Any speculation that this would lead to Bin Salman’s removal from power is premature. He is too closely tied to Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The hope is that the hoopla over the Khashoggi murder would soon subside. It should have by now, but for the relentless campaign by the Washington Post and the CIA that want to squeeze a lot more money from the Saudis.

What the Khashoggi saga has resulted in is that Bin Salman has been greatly weakened although it would be unrealistic to expect that he would be forced to resign or that there will be major changes in Saudi policy. No more should be expected than for Bin Salman to maintain a low profile for a while until the issue blows away. Such are the ways of modern diplomacy and politics.

Khashoggi killing: We can’t worship God and money

 

The United States and Britain killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and faced no punishment. China has sent one million of its Uyghur population to forced ‘brainwashing’ camps and dismisses with contempt worldwide criticism.  Saudi Arabia massacres children and starves millions of famine-stricken people in Yemen and yet stands tall in world fora. In this horror of rich and arrogant nation’s crimes, the killing of one journalist may look like no major matter.

The October 2 gruesome killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi Arabia’s Istanbul consulate underscores the despicable reality behind rules in world politics: The rich and powerful can commit war crimes, kill thousands of people and still strut around as civilised nations commanding respect. International law, rules, United Nations resolutions and sanctions are largely for third world countries like Sri Lanka, Rwanda and Iran.

But mark our words; Saudi Arabia will wriggle out of the crisis, as it has done in the past whenever it had been pushed into a corner.  The monarchy loathes democracy and is no respecter of human rights.  Even an innocuous tweet can land a Saudi national in jail. Yet every western nation courts its friendship, with an eye on the kingdom’s US$ 750 billion reserves.  

Since Khashoggi disappeared on Oct 2, no Saudi citizen has opened her or his mouth to condemn the killing though the Saudi journalist was speaking up on their behalf to bring about an element of democracy into the one-family-led feudal form of governance. The Saudis simply say they believe that Khashoggi is still alive somewhere although in their hearts-of-hearts they know the ‘messenger’ was tortured and killed. They also fear the fate that befell Khashoggi, who was once a close advisor to the royal family, could befall them if they utter a word that does not go with the official statement.

A critic of Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen and Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s reform process, Khashoggi was named the 2018 Muslim Democrat of the Year by the US-based Centre for Islamic Studies and Democracy. In his acceptance speech in April, he said Saudi Arabia’s rejection of democracy stemmed from a deep belief that absolute monarchy was the best way of governance. 

Khashoggi said democracy in the region was under attack from salafists, extremists, and terror groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda and stressed that the only way out in the Middle East was choosing the path of democracy and getting over sectarianism. Khashoggi said the Gulf nations would keep opposing any democratic movements as the rulers believed that they were “hired by God” to save these countries. 

These views also appeared in his regular column in the Washington Post. 

Saudi Arabia does care about its world image. But instead of correcting its ways, it often resorts to hubris, threats and oppression.  

In 2006, Saudi Arabia gave the Tony Blair government just ten days to stop a corruption probe launched by Britain’s Serious Fraud Office. The probe began after evidence emerged that British Aerospace had paid 6 billion pounds to Saudi Royal family members as commissions, to secure a multibillion pound arms deal.

Fearingthe cancellation of the contract described as “the biggest [UK] sale ever of anything to anyone”, Blair invoked national interest provisions and stopped the probe.That was not the only occasion that Saudi Arabia had flexed his money muscle and political clout.  In November last year, Saudi Arabia abducted the prime minister of another country. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was summoned to Riyadh and kept incommunicado in an undisclosed location until France intervened and secured his release.  

In 2016, Saudi Arabia warned the UN that Saudi aid to UN programmes would be stopped if it did not remove Saudi Arabia from a list of nations that had committed war crimes against children.  Saudi Arabia has come under severe criticism in human rights circles for its war on Yemen, the poorest Arab nation, where children are caught up in a war that had, in addition to horror and destruction, brought about a famine described as the worst in one hundred years.

Saudi Arabia’s latest warning is aimed at US President Donald Trump, who is coming under Congressional pressure to take tough action against Saudi Arabia over the murder of Khashoggi.  In a puerile bid to show that he was committed to value-based international relations, Trump initially said if the allegations were true, Saudi Arabia would be punished. When Saudi Arabia warned whatever measures the US would take would be met by more severe measures – meaning Saudis by curtailing oil production can let world oil prices shoot up to as much as US$ 400 a barrel – the US President yielded to pressure. He seemed to endorse now the Saudi Arabia’s narration that Khashoggi could have been killed by rogue killers during the interrogation that went wrong. He dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Riyadh for talks with King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad, may be to work out a way out of the crisis, and to ensure that the Saudi contracts, especially the arms deals, are safe.  When urged to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Trump rejected the call, saying the Saudis would then go to Russia or China. 

In a strange coincidence, the day Khashoggi walked into the consulate and into the trap set up by his killers, President Trump in an insulting tone told a campaign rally in Mississippi that Saudi Arabia and its King would not last “two weeks” in power without American military support and urged the kingdom to pay more for its own defence.

Trump meant business and wanted Saudi money, more of it.  Trump’s first visit overseas as US president was to Saudi Arabia where he signed US$ 400 billion worth of deals, of which arms purchases accounted for US$ 110 billion.  In all probability, the rich nations which salivate over Saudi billions will make sure that Saudi Arabia is left off the hook, may be with mild censure, though this does not augur well for a rule-based international order.

Though the Saudi king carries the title of the servant of Islam’s holiest places to give some legitimacy to the royal family’s claims for the divine right to rule, the rulers have long deviated from the Islamic principles of peace, justice, human rights and good governance.  Can they justify the killing of children in Yemen as Islamic? Saudi clerics who are quick to condemn other forms of Islam as bid’a or latter day innovations, conveniently forget that monarchical rule does not conform to the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings and the practice of his immediate successors, who upheld meritocracy and the spirit of democracy.