With the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi still hovering over his head , Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, also known as MBS, has again caused outrage with allegations that he had tried to hack the phone of Mr Bezos.

Ironically, Mr Jeff Bezos is the owner of the Washington Post with which Khashoggi worked as a columnist until he was killed inside the Saudi Embassy in Turkey. According to the Guardian which first reported on the incident, the billionaire’s phone was hacked around May 2018, after the Crown Prince sent him a WhatsApp message. The encrypted message contained an infected video which exfiltrated large amounts of data within hours.

MBS has always been known for cracking down and silencing those he perceives as critics and business rivals. By 2017 the number of Saudi citizens fleeing to other countries because of his crackdown had increased from 575 to 1200. According to US intelligence sources, it was in the same year that he oversaw a clandestine operation that spied on, kidnapped, detained and tortured business rivals and Saudi citizens who held dissenting views. The intelligence further revealed how a number of women were detained and tortured for being vocal about women’s rights. They were detained in small dark rooms in an unused palace where they were tortured by beatings and electric shocks, and threatened with rape and murder.

The torture was so severe that one of the women tried to commit suicide. The Saudi Government claimed they were detained, “in connection with activities that threatened the kingdom’s national security.”

Confirming that MBS was behind this clandestine operation was a phone call which was intercepted by US intelligence. In November 2018 one Turkish online newspaper reported that the CIA had a phone recording in which the Crown Prince gave firm instructions for Khashoggi to be silenced.

“It is said that the Crown Prince gave an instruction to silence Jamal Khashoggi as soon as possible and this instruction was captured during the CIA wiretapping,” wrote Abdulkadir Selvi in the paper. According to Selvi, during the phone call with his brother Khalid, who is the Saudi ambassador to the US, MBS was heard expressing his discomfort with the way Khashoggi was portraying the Saudi administration in his writings for the Washington Post.

This history of silencing those perceived as critics of Saudi administration, therefore, leaves no doubt why Bezos’s phone was targeted.

In a statement released after the hacking allegations were made public, the United Nations Office for Human Rights expressed its concern for what it believed was the “contravention of fundamental international human rights standards.”

“The information we have received suggests the possible involvement of the Crown Prince in the surveillance of Mr Bezos’s phone in an effort to influence, if not silence, the Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia ,” said UN experts Agnes Callamard and David Kaye.

They added: “The allegations reinforce other reporting pointing to a pattern of targeted surveillance of perceived opponents and those of broader strategic importance to the Saudi authorities, including nationals and non-nationals.”

Just after his phone was hacked, Bezos was widely targeted by Saudi social media accounts as an alleged adversary of the kingdom. This was part of a clandestine online smear campaign orchestrated by those connected to the Crown Prince. According to UN experts, among those who were involved in carrying out the smear campaign was Mr Saud al-Qahtani who was greatly mentioned in the killing of Khashoggi.

The fact that the hacking of Bezos’ phone took place just five months before the murder of Khashoggi is enough to bring into focus the involvement of MBS in the killing of the Washington Post columnist.

“The circumstances and timing of the hacking and surveillance of Bezos also strengthen support for further investigations by the US and other relevant authorities of the allegations that the Crown Prince failed to stop the mission that fatally targeted Khashoggi,” noted Callamard and her colleague.

But will the US and her allies act this time round?

They’ll have to because the mere fact that the head of a top US company can be placed under Saudi surveillance should be enough to raise alarm. But in his characteristic style, President Trump will most likely choose to bury his head in the sand as he waits for things to cool down. Members of his government have been giving lacklustre responses to avoid antagonising Saudi Arabia which is a key market for US weapons.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said that the government was obviously taking the situation seriously but quickly added that: “Saudi Arabia is obviously an important ally.” Treasury Secretary Mr Steven Mnuchin refused to discuss the matter during an interview with CNBC and urged American companies to continue doing business with Saudi Arabia.

The downside of this is that the more countries like Britain and the US display their reluctance to call out MBS over his clandestine and brutal activities, the more he will be emboldened in his operations. At the moment the extent of his surveillance on world leaders and top businessmen is yet to be known. But it is suspected that more phones belonging to top government officials and leaders could have been compromised.

Among them is British Prime Minister Boris Johnson who communicated with MBS on WhatsApp around the time, and White House senior advisor Jared Kushner. The latest revelations should be a wake up call to world leaders to put business interests aside and speak against human rights violations being perpetrated by MBS.

As Andrew Miller, a Middle East expert who served on the National Security Council under Obama said: “It is clear that the Saudis have no real boundaries or limits in terms of what they are prepared to do in order to protect and advance MBS.”

L'articolo The Saudi Crown Prince has gone rogue and must be stopped proviene da InsideOver.

The recent announcement by the Saudi Government about the sentencing of eight  men on allegations of murdering journalist Jamal Khashoggi has caused global outrage among legal experts and human rights activists who have come out to criticize the Saudi judicial system. Five of the men were sentenced to death while three were jailed for a combined 24 years. Three other men were let off the hook.

Why Is The Saudi Verdict Causing Outrage?

The anger among many who viewed the ruling as a mockery of justice was because the main culprits alleged to  have organized and ordered the killing were not convicted. These included Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman, Major General Ahmad Asiri, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Intelligence Chief and Saud Al Qahtani, the advisor to the Crown Prince.

“Under international human rights law, the killing of Khashoggi was an extrajudicial execution for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible. Bottom line: the hit men are guilty sentenced to death. The masterminds not only walk free, they have been barely been touched by the investigations and the trial,” explained Agnes Callamard the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killing.

‘This Is The Antithesis Of Justice’

Callamard went on to express the view that Saudi Arabia’s legal system is a sick joke.

“The Saudi Judicial system and judicial culture does not allow them to ensure accountability. Even with all pressure from around the world , the system is unable to deliver anything else than full protection of the powerful at the expense of the small and powerless. This is the antithesis of justice. It is a mockery.”

Both  Qahtani and Asiri were close confidantes of the Crown Prince  at the time of the killing. The two men were mentioned by various sources as the key planners of the execution of Khashoggi, including in the report compiled by Callamard. According to a secret source Qahtani was never even tried, after the prosecutor decided that there was not enough evidence to charge him,  while Asiri was acquitted due to a supposed lack of evidence.

Verdict Ignored Western Intel Agencies

The verdict contradicted Western intelligences services including the CIA which concluded that the two men organized the execution of Khashoggi on the orders of the Crown prince. In reaching their conclusion, the CIA examined various sources of intelligence including a phone call the Crown Prince’s brother Khalid bin Salman—who is the current Saudi ambassador to the US—made to Khashoggi, the Washington Post reported.

In addition to calls and audio recordings, CIA analysts also linked some members of the Saudi hit team directly to the Crown Prince himself. According to WaPo, “some of the 15 members had served on his security team and traveled in the United States during visits by senior Saudi Officials, including the crown prince, according to passport records reviewed by the Post.”

The CIA’s assessment of the involvement of the Crown Prince and his confidantes Asiri and Qahtani in the assassination of Khashoggi concurred with the findings of other foreign intelligence services, especially in Europe.

Also lending credence to the findings of the intelligence services was a  report issued by the Saudi prosecutor in November 2018, one month after the murder of Khashoggi. According to the prosecutor, Asiri directed that Khashoggi should be brought back to Saudi Arabia by means of persuasion and in case this failed then force was to be used. Asiri further requested al-Qahtani to allocate one of his subordinates to a team that was to head to Turkey for the mission. Following the request Al-Qahtani assigned Mutreb to the team as its leader.

According to the prosecutor, before members of the hit squad left for Turkey, Qahtani held a meeting with them informing that that Khassoghi was a threat to national security and therefore should be returned to Saudi Arabia. As soon as the team arrived in Turkey, Mutreb held a meeting with Saudi Consulate staff to discuss Khashoggi’s visit. A call examined by the CIA just after the killing of Khashoggi inside the consulate indicated that Mutreb called his boss al-Qahtani back in Saudi Arabia and informed him that the operation had been completed.

Al-Qahtani: ‘Bring Me The Head Of The Dog’

A Turkish intelligence source would later tell Reuters that al-Qahtani upon receiving the information that the mission was complete told the hit squad to dispose of the body of Khashoggi and remarked, “Bring me the head of the dog.”

In December 2018, a Turkish prosecutor working with the collected intelligence issued arrest warrants against Asiri and al-Qahtani for planning the murder of Khashoggi. The prosecutor took the action due to the view that the Saudi authorities wouldn’t take formal action against the two individuals owing to their powerful positions and the Crown Prince’s involvement.

One private source familiar with the operations of the Saudi royal family said al-Qahtani’s role as a confidante of the Crown Prince was to silence the dissidents through brutal means. He masterminded the arrest of the Crown’s Prince’s business rivals, critics and journalists. He was also reportedly instrumental in the detention of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri. An  American official also confirmed to the New York Times that al-Qahtani was behind a rapid intervention force that worked to forcibly repatriate Saudi dissidents hiding in other countries.

US Sanctions On Al-Qahtani

Following his implication in the murder, the US government imposed sanctions on al-Qahtani, stating that “Saud Al Qahtani is a senior official of the government of Saudi Arabia who was part of the planning and execution of the operation that led to the killing of Mr. Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul Turkey on October 2, 2018. This operation was coordinated and executed by his surbordinate Maher Mutreb and involved the participation of at least 14 other Saudi government officials.”

What About Asiri?

Asiri on the hand was a high-ranking advisor to the royal court who often sat in closed door meetings between the Crown prince and foreign dignitaries. Before his promotion as the deputy intelligence chief, he served as the spokesman for the Saudi-led military alliance in Yemen battling the Houthi rebels, which has led to thousands of Saudi-caused civilian deaths. However, despite the overwhelming evidence putting the two at the center of Khashoggi’s murder none of them was found guilty by the Saudi courts.

The Truth About Saudi Arabia’s Khashoggi Verdict

The truth is that those sentenced were just executing the orders from the masterminds who were never tried   because of their powerful positions. It was a cynical show trial whose aim was to please the West but not to expose the truth surrounding the murder of Khashoggi. Despite many condemning the Saudi judicial system for exonerating powerful individuals, the US State Department expressed its satisfaction with the verdict saying, “today’s verdicts were an important step in holding those responsible for this crime accountable.”

This proves once again that for Trump business interests come first over human rights. Saudi Arabia provides the biggest foreign market for America’s weapons and military equipment. That’s why Trump has continued to embrace the Crown Prince despite America’s own CIA implicating bin Salman in the murder. The downside of this is that the Crown Prince will even  be more emboldened in cracking down on dissidents and abusing human rights, since he knows he has the full support of Big Brother America.

L'articolo The Masterminds of Khashoggi’s Murder Are Still Free proviene da InsideOver.

In the murder case of the government-critical journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi judge has sentenced five individuals to death.

For months, Saudi Arabia had faced scrutiny over the murder until, on Monday, the public prosecutor’s office in Riyadh announced the verdicts. Besides the five individuals sentenced to death, three other defendants were sentenced to a total of 24 years in prison for “concealing the crime.”

However, the trial’s results contradict conclusions conducted by the CIA and other western intelligence agencies that Prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) ordered the murder of Khashoggi directly, an allegation that the kingdom has vigorously contested. Nonetheless, the crown prince’s confidante and senior government official Saoud Al Qahtani, a close consultant to MBS along with 16 other Saudis, was sanctioned by the United States last year for his alleged role in the murder.

Khashoggi had been brutally killed by a Riyadh special command at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, when he attempted to obtain documents for his planned wedding. A tweet from the Saudi foreign ministry now said that Khashoggi should “rest in peace.”

“The investigation showed that there were initially no intentions to murder,” said a prosecutor’s spokesman at a press conference. It was only when the head of the “mediation team” in the consulate realized that he could not continue the “negotiations” with Khashoggi in a “safe place” that the murder had taken place. The decision to kill Khashoggi had thus only been made inside the consulate and was not premeditated, according to the ruling.

Aforementioned Saoud Al Qahtani had previously been accused of helping to organize the crime. According to the prosecutor, Saoud Al Qahtani was questioned but was then not charged for lack of evidence of his possible involvement. Mohamed al-Otaibi, Saudi Consul General in Istanbul at the time of the murder, was also not charged. Eyewitnesses would have confirmed that he was free on that day. Moreover, the court fully exonerated al Qahtani.

The lawsuit against a total of eleven Saudi men had been running in Riyadh since January and ended after ten hearings. Khashoggi’s two sons and their lawyers, as well as representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Turkey, attended the hearings. Appeals can be raised against all judgments. The names of the convicted are only made public when the case has been finally heard, and the verdict is final.

The UN special rapporteur on the case, Agnès Callamard, criticized the verdict as a “farce” and compared the saga to the murder of journalist Caruana Galizia in Malta in October 2017. The mere fact that a forensic doctor had been part of the killing team at least 24 hours before the crime suggested premeditation.

Despite total exoneration, the case has cast a shadow onto MBS’ well-crafted attempt to portrait himself as a liberal reformer. Throughout the case, the idea that the killing could have been conducted without his consent or knowledge remained incredulous.

While MBS remains widely popular in Saudi Arabia for implementing far-reaching social – and for the Kingdom progressive – reforms, he has also made life hard for his opponents since his quasi-reign started in 2017. Hundreds of people who threatened his financial or political supremacy have been arrested and brought to justice for national security reasons, including high-ranking women rights activists and international business people.

Furthermore, while MBS has—to no surprise—has not been found guilty of any involvement, the case will likely continue to company him in the foreseeable future. Though, it will not hinder states from conducting business with the Saudis.

L'articolo Saudi Arabia Sentences Khashoggi Killers to Death proviene da InsideOver.