The way the disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi has been covered by the American media (for whom Khashoggi worked–WAPO) should tell you all you need to know about the players.
The Saudi Royal family has been split down the middle by a Reform wing and a conservative Wahabbi-Islamist wing since at least the Gulf War, the Saudi king since the Gulf War having been of the reformist wing, including King Salmaan and his 38-year old son and named successor, Mohammed bin Salman, who many say is going too far with his reforms, especially about liberating women rights.
Prince Salman is not a friend of the American press for the simple reason that Donald Trump seems to like him, but ironically is also the champion of many what once were sacred liberal Democratic positions on women’s rights
Jamal Khashoggi is/was on the other side of this equation, though not of the Wahabbi Islamic-tradition which co-founded Saudi Arabia in the 19th Century, and full-tithe recipient of Saudi oil revenues since oil was first pumped there in the 1930s. They are probably the richest “church” in the world, and had been spending that money by sowing sharia law in the West for at least 30 years.
Khashoggi leaned more toward the Muslim Brotherhood’s three-piece suit vision of totalitarian government, who had its origins in World War II as “Hitler’s Arabs”; a different view of absolute rule than the Wahhabbi’s. The Brotherhood had a lot of sway in Obama’s White House, and were central to his and Mrs Clinton’s catastrophic Arab Spring, which had caused a military junta to end up in charge in Egypt after an aborted attempt by the Brotherhood to turn that nation into a fascist theocracy, and has turned Syria into a bloodbath. Remember when the late-John McCain called the Muslim Brotherhood there “moderate rebels”? The MB even had a role in the Benghazi murders of September, 2012, due in part to the Obama team’s (in)action to protect the MB’s interests there.
Last, but not least, Turkey is now under near dictatorial control by Recep Erdogan, who the American media has conveniently failed to acknowledge has very strong Muslim Brotherhood ties and has very nearly turned into a fascist despotic regime itself, adding to the confusion of who the good guys and bad guys are in the region since 2009.
It’s complicated.
There are some things that don’t seem to fit with a murder carried out in the manner described. This is much too ham-fisted for the reform-wing of the Saudi Royal family, as a way to kill an enemy. (The media has conveniently failed to mention the conservative – reform wing royalty rivalry inside the Saudi Royal family for several years, or the layered points of commonality and points of antagonism, between the Brotherhood and Wahabbi view of despotic government.)
In my view Khashoggi was a perfect patsy, as he was expendable to both Muslim Brotherhood and Wahabbi elements, who shared one mutual hatred, that of the reform position of Crown Prince Salman.
When it comes to killing these are all medieval people, so I believe (but cannot prove, any more than CNN can prove, any more than Turkish police can prove) Jamal Khashoggi is dead. It’s just not in the cultural profile of any of the parties to spirit him away to some hideout in the Andes. The rest is speculation, wishful thinking, or in the case of Turkish officials, a covering of tracks.
Since no one in the American or European media will even look into these closets for clues, Khashoggi’s manner of death and final disposition will likely remain a mystery for years to come, buried right next to Jimmy Hoffa, in the concrete foundations of a new hotel in Dubai.
But if I were to speculate, and considering the amateurishness of the killing, I’d say that Khashoggi was expendable as a means to make his death appear to be at the hands of the Royal Family (reform wing), and would not be surprised to find Erdogan’s fingerprints since he was so adept at convincing the world that there was really was a coup attempt in July 2016 that allowed him to arrest and hang many of the dissenters in the military who favored a less Muslim Brotherhood tilt in the way the Turkish government was leaning.
Seriously, is their no criminal gang, or Mob, whether Hitlerian, Stalinist, or ISIS, the American media and Democrat Party won’t sleep with in order to remove this man from power?
Just a thought.
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