On Tuesday, October 9, 2018, the Turkish government announced they will be conducting an investigation into the disappearance of US columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who worked for the Washington Post, from Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi has been critical of Riyadh and might have had some very important and damaging information on Saudi Arabia’s monarchy and their government.
There is video footage that shows Khashoggi entering the consulate on October 2, 2018 in Istanbul but no footage of him leaving. The Turkish government says Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate by a team sent “specifically for the murder,” and his body dismembered and taken out of the consulate in boxes. Inspectors were not let into the consulate to conduct an investigation.
President Trump said this is a very serious situation and they will be looking into this matter along with the Turkish government. A reporter asked if this would end the US sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the President said no. The President has been trying to align a cohesive Middle Eastern front against Iran’s nuclear threat to the surrounding regions and the United States. This is most likely the reason to sell arms to Saudi Arabia military.
It’s not a surprise but certainly questionable why the US government continues to be involved with the Saudi Arabia monarchy; especially after 9/11. The United States paid the heaviest price in American history between the relationship with the US and Saudi Arabia on 9/11. The extreme emotional damage to the victims who survived this massive terrorist attack and the families of 3,000 innocent Americans who died on 9/11.
Under the George W Bush Presidency, he had an unusual and extremely closer relationship to King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz than previous Presidents. Of course all this was arranged and supported by Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador Prince Bandar Bin Sultan also known as Bandar-Bush.
The one important name of the Saudi monarchy is Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal who was arrested by Saudi authorities in the beginning of November, 2017. This was part of an anti-corruption crackdown by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. NBC said, “Saudi Arabia’s arrest of Prince Alwaleed ‘would be like arresting Warren Buffett or Bill Gates’ in the US.”
At the height of the crackdown, more than 300 people were believed to have been held inside the luxury Ritz hotel in Riyadh, including some princes. The government says all of them were guilty of plundering state funds, which have now been returned to state coffers. But there were no trials and the details remain a mystery.
The arrests happened hours after King of Saudi Arabia created an anti-corruption committee chaired by his 32-year-old, Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman at the time. Mohammad Bin Salman, as the Crown Prince is known and will become king when his 81-year-old father abdicates the throne.
Crown Prince Salman is trying to diversify the Saudi economy, traditionally tied closely to oil revenues, through a plan called “Vision 2030.”
Robert Jordan, was former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a top US diplomat to Saudi Arabia during the Presidency of George W. Bush. Jordan said, “the kingdom has long had a problem with corruption and the move could be the King consolidating his power.” Jordan continued to say, “They promised transparency, but they did not deliver it. Without any kind of transparency or rule of law, it makes investors nervous that their investments might be taken and that their Saudi partners might be detained without any rational to the charges. The Saudis are going to have to be transparent about what happens.”
Spearheaded by Crown Prince Salman, the kingdom detained dozens of senior business people and government officials in October, 2017, accusing them of crimes including money laundering although not of terror financing which is conspicuous considering the devastation on 9/11 where 15 out of the 19 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia. Political analysts say the future King has also tried to tighten his grip on power through the purge.
The crackdown also involved the freezing of more than 2,000 bank accounts and liaising with Central banks in among others in Switzerland, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates stress-tested the Saudi anti-money laundering system and found it largely effective. The system will undergo further tests in the coming months as Saudi Arabia targets around $100 billion of settlements with some of those detained.
But the biggest problem for the Saudi royal family in the wake of this crackdown, especially as it seeks deeper US investment ties, may be the complete secrecy surrounding how it was carried out. Almost no information has been released as to how the sums reclaimed from the prisoners were determined, and many of those formerly wealthy and powerful Saudis remain unclear as to what assets they’ve lost.
Before Alwaleed Bin Talal was arrested he spoke to CNBC in an extensive interview from his apartment in Riyadh. He talked about the massive upcoming Saudi Aramco IPO, his vast investments in shares of US corporations, including social media giant Twitter.
Twitter, the social media giant, has been shadow banning and even worse censoring user’s tweets and taking away their followers. Users are complaining up and down but Twitter remains steadfast to discourage political opinions contrary to their political beliefs. It seems that perhaps Alwaleed’s investment in Twitter and his political opinions has extended to the upper management on Twitter following @Alwaleed_Talal tweet stating, “@realDonaldTrump You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America. Withdraw from the US Presidential race as you will never win.” posted on 12/11/15 12:02 PM
.@realDonaldTrump
You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America.Withdraw from the U.S presidential race as you will never win.
— الوليد بن طلال (@Alwaleed_Talal) December 11, 2015
Alwaleed had previously owned up to 6% of Fox and was one of the top owners of Fox’s Class B shares, which came with voting rights. However, according to Bloomberg data it showed that he sold his stake by the end of the last financial quarter in 2017. This came after Alwaleed reduced his stake to 4.98% in December, 2015. Alwaleed owned the shares through his investment firm Kingdom Holdings.
Of course many thought it was ironic that FOX News Sean Hannity had been covering the news in 2010 regarding Feisal Abdul Rauf wanting “Sharia law” to replace US laws. In one word; ridiculous. This is the very same FOX News whose parent company News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdock, had as its second largest shareholder Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
Holly Williams, a CBS News correspondent reported in December 2017, freedom of speech doesn’t exist in Saudi Arabia and criticizing Crown Prince Mohammed or any other senior royal figure would be dangerous. It’s only in London, England, that Saudi dissident Ghanem al-Dosari dares to make videos satirizing the Saudi government. He told CBS News that corruption in Saudi Arabia is much bigger than the clampdown the crown prince addressed. al Dosari said, “Speaking up your mind, this is a crime in Saudi Arabia. People has disappeared and been charged for tweets.”
In a thetrumptimes.com article, dated November 7, 2017, the title read, “Saudi Prince Alwaleed al Talal: Las Vegas Conspiracy Grows”
They immediately declared Alwaleed was arrested in King Salman’s anti-corruption crackdown. The startling news is that Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal who, together with Bill Gates, owns the Four Seasons Hotel that is located within the 5 top floors of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.
Yes, the same Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas that was the site of the deadliest mass shooting in our nation’s history next to the Saudi Arabia terrorists who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11.
The Four Seasons Hotel-within-a-hotel boasts its own private elevators and separate entrance.
After the Las Vegas shooting it was shown and reported by the news that Stephen Paddock, the shooter involved in the Las Vegas shooting was using the private elevators with large long bags perhaps containing the weapons he used in this mass shooting. Yes, the news asked, “Did he or his cohorts have access to the 32nd floor?”
The allegations against Alwaleed include money laundering, bribery and extorting officials.
And again, this article stressed the the fact that Alwaleed is Twitter’s second largest shareholder. It stated that Twitter allows ISIS, Antifa and anyone who threatens to assassinate our President free reign on their platform but blocks conservative American patriots’ accounts.
The Prince’s investment company, Kingdom Holding, is a major shareholder in Time Warner Cable that owns CNN. They also own a major chunk of AOL that owns the liberals multi-authored blogging platform, posing as a news source HuffPost.
Jim Murren, CEO of MGM dumped millions of dollars worth of his stocks in the weeks leading up to the massacre of the Las Vegas shooting. This would probably constitute as inside trading. The same MGM that owns the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Murren circulated an internal memo that stated that he would match donations to CAIR, Council on American Islamic Relations. CAIR is a terrorist front group with extensive links to foreign and domestic Islamists and the ADL, a very anti-Trump, pro-Islamic organization. CAIR was founded in 1994 by three Middle Eastern extremists (Omar Ahmad, Nihad Awad and Rafeeq Jaber) who ran the American propaganda wing of Hamas, known then as the Islamic Association for Palestine.
Back in 2007 Dubai World became partners with MGM. So Las Vegas has ties to Saudi money. Dubai World, an investment holding firm of the Dubai government, will acquire a 9.5 percent stake in MGM Mirage and 50 percent of the casino operator’s CityCenter development project for $5 billion. The article said, “follow the money trail”.
So for now the questions remain, where is US Columnist Jamal Khashoggi and what exactly did he know and what went down as a result of his investigation and knowledge. What is the connection between Khashoggi’s disappearance and the Las Vegas’s massacre? Will Twitter continue to be manipulated by it’s largest Saudi Arabian share holder? Who has the answers?
