Saudi Arabia sentences a university professor to 30 years in prison for tweets about the kingdom, its propaganda policies, and the security situation.
Muhammad Bin Muhsin Basurrah
Saudi journalist Turki Al-Shalhoub, who previously triggered a public outcry for exposing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s contentious plans against highly revered sites in Saudi Arabia, tweeted on Tuesday that the State Security Court had passed the ruling regarding the professor at the media faculty of Umm al-Qura University in Mecca, Muhammad bin Mohsin Basurrah.
Al-Shalhoub cited several connected Tweets by Basurrah and said he had commented on the disinformation campaign of the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV, Saudi Arabia’s 3-year diplomatic dispute with Qatar and other Arab countries, in addition to the security situation in the country.
بسبب هذه التغريدات، حكمت محاكم التفتيش #السعودية على المحاضر في قسم الإعلام في جامعة أم القرى الاستاذ محمد بن محسن باصرة بالسجن 30 سنة!!! pic.twitter.com/J3ubVCkQF0
“Saudi security forces only intervene when the sovereignty of the House of Saud is threatened; otherwise they would not take any serious actions,” the journalist commented.
Last month, the independent non-governmental organization advocating human rights in Saudi Arabia, Prisoners of Conscience, reported that state officials had jailed pro-democracy campaigner Fadi Ibrahim Nasser over tweets that denounced the government and the policies of the Saudi regime.
A Saudi opposition activist, Abdul Hakim bin Abdul Aziz, revealed that the Saudi authorities had arrested his son, Yasser, from his university, as part of the Kingdom’s aggressive crackdown against activists that criticize the performance of the ruling regime on social media.
Bin Abdul Aziz considered that the arrest of his son exposes “the oppression and tyranny of the ruling regime in Saudi Arabia and is a desperate attempt to force me to remain silent about the violations that the country is witnessing.”
It is noteworthy that bin Abdul Aziz is one of the founders of the “Zawina” organization, which is concerned with supporting the families of prisoners of conscience and exposing human rights violations against detainees and their families.
Saudi authorities sentenced 15 prisoners of conscience to death in November
At the beginning of last month, the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights revealed that the Saudi authorities had sentenced 15 prisoners of conscience to death, bringing the number of people at risk of death to 53, including at least eight minors.
In the same context, the Saudi Court of Appeal extended in October the sentence of Tunisian national Mahdia Al-Marzouki, from two years and eight months to 15 years, on charges of interacting with a tweet.
Hundreds of bloggers, activists, intellectuals, and others have been arrested in Saudi Arabia ever since bin Salman became crown prince in 2017, an obvious sign of zero tolerance for dissent even against the international condemnation of repressive measures.
Over the past years, the country also redefined its anti-terrorism laws to persecute peaceful activists, repressing freedom of expression.
No one wanted to play football with Muhammad bin Salman. Sure, the boy was a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal family, but so were 15,000 other people. His classmates preferred the company of his cousins, who were higher up the assumed order of succession, a childhood acquaintance recalls. As for the isolated child who would one day become crown prince, a family friend recounts hearing him called “little Saddam”.
Home life was tricky for bin Salman, too (he is now more commonly known by his initials, [MBS]. His father, Salman, already had five sons with his first wife, an educated woman from an elite urban family. MBS’s mother, Salman’s third wife, was a tribeswoman. When MBS visited the palace where his father lived with his first wife, his older half-brothers mocked him as the “son of a Bedouin”. Later, his elder brothers and cousins were sent to universities in America and Britain. The Bedouin offspring of Prince Salman stayed in Riyadh to attend King Saud University.
As young adults, the royals sometimes cruised on superyachts together; MBS was reportedly treated like an errand boy, sent onshore to buy cigarettes. A photo from one of these holidays shows a group of 16 royals posing on a yacht-deck in shorts and sunglasses, the hills of the French Riviera behind them. In the middle is MBS’s cousin, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a billionaire investor dubbed “the Arabian Warren Buffett”. MBS, tall and broad-shouldered in a white t-shirt, is pushed to the farthest edge.
Fast forward to today, and MB has moved to the center of the frame, the most important decision-maker in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter. Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy but MBS’s 86-year-old father, though nominally head of state, is rarely seen in public anymore. It has been clear for several years that MBS is in charge. “In effect,” a former Saudi intelligence agent told me, “King Salman is no longer king.”
At first glance the 36-year-old prince looks like the ruler many young Saudis had been waiting for, closer in age to his people than any previous king – 70% of the Saudi population is under 30. The millennial autocrat is said to be fanatical about the video game “Call of Duty”: he blasts through the inertia and privileges of the mosque and royal court as though he were fighting virtual opponents on screen.
His restless impatience and disdain for convention have helped him push through reforms that many thoughts wouldn’t happen for generations. The most visible transformation of Saudi Arabia is the presence of women in public where once they were either absent or closely guarded by their husband or father. There are other changes, too. Previously, the kingdom offered few diversions besides praying at the mosque; today you can watch Justin Bieber in concert, sing karaoke or go to a Formula 1 race. A few months ago, I even went to a rave in a hotel….
But embracing Western consumer culture doesn’t mean embracing Western democratic values: it can as easily support a distinctively modern, surveillance state. On my recent trips to Saudi Arabia, people from all levels of society seemed terrified about being overheard voicing disrespect or criticism, something I’d never seen there before. “I’ve survived four kings,” said a veteran analyst who refused to speculate about why much of Jeddah, the country’s second-largest city, is being bulldozed: “Let me survive a fifth.”
The West, beguiled by promises of change and dependent on Saudi oil, at first seemed prepared to ignore MBS’s excesses. Then, in late 2018, Saudi officials in Istanbul murdered a Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi, and dismembered his body with a bone saw. Even the most pro-Saudi leaders turned away.
…. After Putin invaded Ukraine in February, the price of crude shot up. Boris Johnson was on a plane within weeks. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, previously a sworn enemy of the crown prince, embraced MBS in Riyadh in April. War even forced America’s president into a humiliating climbdown. On the campaign trail in 2020 Joe Biden had vowed to turn Saudi Arabia into a “pariah”. But on July 15th he went to make his peace with MBS– trying to avoid shaking MBS’s hand, he instead opted for a fist bump that left the two looking all the chummier. Even critics at home acknowledged MBs’s victory. “He made Biden look weak,” said a Saudi columnist in Jeddah. “He stood up to a superpower and won before the world.”
For MBS, this is a moment of triumph. His journey from the fringe of a photograph to the heart of power is almost complete. He will probably be king for decades. During that time, his country’s oil will be needed to sate the world’s enduring demand for energy.
A kingdom where the word of one man counts for so much depends utterly on his character. The hope is that, with his position secure, MBS will forswear the vengefulness and intolerance that produced Khashoggi’s murder. But some, among them his childhood classmates, fear something darker. They are reminded of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, a one-time modernizer who became so addicted to accumulating power that he turned reckless and dangerous. “At first power bestows grandeur,” a former Western intelligence officer told me, of MBS. “But then comes the loneliness, suspicion and fear that others will try to grab what you grabbed.”
During the early years of MBS’s ascent, I was vaguely aware of him as one prince among many. I probably wouldn’t have paid him much attention if an old contact of mine hadn’t joined his staff. His new boss, my contact said, was serious about shaking things up. He arranged the meeting at a faux-ancient mud-brick village on the outskirts of Riyadh in 2016. As my Economist colleagues and I approached, the gates of MBS’s compound suddenly slid open, like a Bond-villain’s lair. In the inner chamber sat MBS.
Reform has often been promised in Saudi Arabia – usually in response to American hectoring – but successive kings lacked the mettle to push change through. When the Al-Saud conquered Arabia in the 1920s, they made an alliance with an ultra-conservative religious group called the Wahhabis. In 1979, after a group of religious extremists staged a brief armed takeover of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Al-Saud decided to make the kingdom more devout to fend off a possible Islamic revolution, as had just happened in Iran. Wahhabi clerics were empowered to run society as they saw fit.
The Wahhabis exercised control through the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, otherwise known as the religious police. They whacked the ankles of women whose hair poked through their veil and lashed the legs of men who wore shorts. The arrangement suited the House of Saud. Wahhabism provided social control and gave legitimacy to the Saudi state, leaving the royals free to enjoy their oil wealth in the more permissive environments of London and Paris, or behind the gates of their palaces.
I’m loth to admit it now, but as the prince talked in Riyadh about his plans to modernize society and the economy, I was impressed by his enthusiasm, vision and command of the details. He gave what turned out to be accurate answers about how and when his reforms would happen. Though he was not yet crown prince, he frequently referred to Saudi Arabia as “my” country. We arrived at around 9pm. At 2am, MBS was still in full flow.
MBS was affable, self-assured, smiling. His advisers were more subdued. If they spoke at all, it was to robotically repeat their master’s lines. Yet when MBS left the room to take a call, they started chatting animatedly. As the prince re-entered, silence fell.
Like many in those early years, I was excited about what MBS might do for the kingdom. When I returned to the capital a few months later I saw a number of men wearing shorts. I kept looking over my shoulder for the religious police, but none came – they had been stripped of their powers of arrest.
As crown prince, MBS introduced a code of law so that judicial sentencing accords with state guidelines, not a judge’s own interpretation of the Koran. He criminalized stoning to death and forced marriage. The most overt change involved the role of women. MBS attacked guardianship laws that prevented women from working, travelling, owning a passport, opening a business, having hospital treatment or divorcing without approval from a male relative. In practice, many Saudi women have found these new rights hard to claim in a patriarchal society, and men can still file claims of disobedience against female relatives. But MBS’s reforms were more than cosmetic. Some clerics were jailed; the rest soon fell into line.
For foreigners, Riyadh is less forbidding these days. “I’m afraid I’ll be caught for not drinking,” a teetotal businessman told me. “There’s cocaine, alcohol and hookers like I haven’t seen in southern California,” says another party-goer. “It’s really heavy-duty stuff”.
When MBS first entered public life, he had a reputation for being as strait-laced as his father, rare among royals. That quickly changed. Many of the people interviewed for this article said that they believe MBS frequently uses drugs, which he denies. A court insider says that in 2015 his friends decided that he needed some r&r on an island in the Maldives. According to investigative journalists Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck in their book “Blood and Oil”, 150 models were recruited to join the gathering and were then shuttled “by golf cart to a medical center to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases”. Several international music stars were flown in, including Afrojack, a Dutch dj. Then the press blew MBS cover.
Thereafter, the prince preferred to unwind off the Red Sea coast. At weekends his entourage formed a flotilla by mooring their yachts around his, Serene, which has a driving range and a cinema. According to a former official, “dj MBS”, as his friends called him, would spin the discs wearing his trademark cowboy hat. The yacht is only one of the luxuries MBS has splurged on. He also bought a £230m ersatz French chateau near Versailles, built in 2008 (the meditation room doubles as an aquarium). He is said to have boasted that he wanted to be the first trillionaire.
We put these and other allegations in this article to MBS’s representatives. Through the Saudi embassy in London, they issued a broad denial, saying “the allegations are denied and are without foundation.”
MBS’s loosening of social mores reflects the values of many of his youthful peers, in Saudi and beyond – as does his taste for the flashier side of life. Yet despite the social revolution, the prince is no keener than Wahhabi clerics on letting people think for themselves. Shortly before lifting a ban on women driving in 2018, MBS’s officials imprisoned Loujain al-Hathloul, one of the leaders of the campaign for women’s rights. Her family say jailers waterboarded and electrocuted her, and that Saud al-Qahtani, one of MBS’s closest advisers, was present during her torment and threatened to rape her. [A un investigation found reasonable grounds to believe that Qahtani was involved in the torture of female activists. Qahtani allegedly told one of these women: “I’ll do whatever I like to you, and then I’ll dissolve you and flush you down the toilet.”] Hathloul was charged with inciting change to the ruling system. The message was clear: only one person was allowed to do that.
MBS is ruthlessly ambitious – he reportedly loved reading about Alexander the Great as a teenager – but he also owes his rise to some extraordinary twists of fortune. Succession can be an unpredictable affair in Saudi Arabia. The monarchy is only two generations old, founded in 1932, and the crown has so far moved from brother to brother among the founding ruler’s sons. That has become harder as the prospective heirs age. MBS’s father wasn’t tipped to be king, but after his two older brothers died unexpectedly in 2011 and 2012, he was catapulted up the line of succession.
When Salman became the heir-designate aged 76, he needed a chief of staff. Most courtiers expected him to choose one of the suave, English-speaking children of his first wife. Instead he appointed a son who spoke Arabic with a guttural Bedouin accent. [MBS has learned English fast since then: when we met in 2016 he sometimes corrected his translator.]
The choice to elevate MBS was less surprising to those who knew his father well. Salman had dedicated himself to his job as governor of Riyadh rather than chasing more lucrative commissions, and was a stickler for 8am starts, even in his 70s. He was known as the family disciplinarian, not averse to giving wayward royals a thwack with his walking stick or even a spell in his private prison. He clearly saw something of himself in his sixth son. MBS might love video games, but he was also a hard worker and keen to advance.
MBS put few limits on what he was prepared to do to achieve control. He earned the nickname Abu Rasasa – father of the bullet – after widespread rumors that he sent a bullet in the post to an official who ruled against him in a land dispute [Saudi officials have previously denied this rumor]. He was fearsome in private, too. “There are these terrible tempers, smashing up offices, trashing the palace,” says a source with palace connections. “He’s extremely violent.” Several associates describe him as having wild mood swings. Two former palace insiders say that, during an argument with his mother, he once sprayed her ceiling with bullets. According to multiple sources and news reports, he has locked his mother away.
It’s hard to say how many wives he has; officially, there’s just one, a glamorous princess called Sara bint Mashour, but courtiers say he has at least one more. MBS presents his family life as normal and happy: earlier this year he told the Atlantic magazine that he eats breakfast with his children each morning [he has three boys and two girls, according to Gulf News – the eldest is said to be 11]. One diplomat spoke of MBS’s kindness to his wife. But other sources inside the royal circle say that, on at least one occasion, Princess Sara was so badly beaten by her husband that she had to seek medical treatment.
We put this and other allegations in this piece to MBS’s representatives, who described them as “plain fabrication”, adding that “the kingdom is unfortunately used to false allegations made against its leadership, usually based on politically [or other] motivated malicious sources, particularly discredited individuals who have a long record of fabrications and baseless claims.”
MBS finally got a taste of political power in 2015 when Salman became king. Salman appointed his son deputy crown prince and minister of defense. One of MBS’s first moves was to launch a war in neighboring Yemen. Even America, the kingdom’s closest military ally, was told only at the last minute.
There was an obvious obstacle in MBS’s path to the throne: his cousin, the 57-year-old heir-designate, Muhammad bin Nayef. Bin Nayef was the intelligence chief and the kingdom’s main interlocutor with the CIA. He was widely credited with stamping out al-Qaeda in Saudi after 9/11. In June 2017 bin Nayef was summoned to meet the elderly king at his palace in Mecca.
The story of what happened next has emerged from press reports and my interviews. It seems that bin Nayef arrived by helicopter and took the lift to the fourth floor. Instead of the monarch, MBS’sagents were waiting. Bin Nayef was stripped of his weapons and phone, and told that a royal council had dismissed him. He was left alone to consider his options. Seven hours later, a court videographer filmed the charade of MBS kissing his cousin, then accepting his abdication as crown prince. King Salman kept a back seat throughout. Bin Nayef is now in detention [his uncle, who also had a claim to the throne, apparently intervened to try and protect bin Nayef, but was himself later detained]. The staged resignation – an old trick of Saddam Hussein’s – would become MBS’s signature move.
That was just the warm-up act. In October 2017 MBS hosted an international investment conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. At “Davos in the desert”, the likes of Christine Lagarde, Son Masayoshi and other business glitterati listened to MBS’s pitch for Saudi Arabia’s post-oil future, including the construction of Neom, a new $500bn “smart city”. The event was a hit. Diplomatic grumblings about the war in Yemen or the fate of America’s security partner, Muhammad bin Nayef, faded.
The gathering was also an opportunity to invite back royals who were often abroad. Once the foreigners had left, MBS pounced. Hundreds of princes and businessmen were swept up. According to a biography of MBS by Ben Hubbard, a New York Times journalist, one of them realized something was amiss only when they got to their hotel room: there were no pens, razors or glasses – nothing that could be used as a weapon.
MBS held the detainees in the Ritz-Carlton for several weeks [the Marriott and other hotels were also commandeered to house the overflow]. Prisoners’ phones were confiscated. Some were said to have been hooded, deprived of sleep and beaten until they agreed to transfer money and hand over an inventory of their assets. All told, MBS’s guests at the Ritz-Carlton coughed up about $100bn.
Even royals previously thought untouchable, such as the powerful prince who ran the national guard, got similar treatment. Princess Basma, the youngest child of the second king of Saudi Arabia, was jailed for three years without charge or access to a lawyer; after being released she still had to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, according to a close associate of hers.
The crushing of the royals and business elite was billed as a crackdown on corruption – and undoubtedly it netted many corruptly acquired assets, which MBS said would be returned to the Saudi treasury. The methods, however, looked more like something from a gangster film than a judicial procedure.
Interrogations were overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, who reported directly to MBS whenever a detainee broke and gave out their bank details. [All the allegations in this piece concerning Qahtani were put to him via his lawyer. No response was given.] Qahtani had installed himself as one of MBS’s favored henchmen, though earlier in his career, he’d plotted against Salman and his son, trying to sideline them with rumors that Salman had dementia. Qahtani was so loyal to the former faction that he’d named his son after his then boss. According to a former courtier, on the day of the old king’s funeral the two men had it out: MBS slapped Qahtani in the face. Later, MBS let Qahtani prove his worth and brought him on to his staff. Qahtani duly named his younger son Muhammad.
On paper, Qahtani was a communications adviser, a former journalist who understood Twitter and used an army of bots and loyal followers to intimidate critics on social media [his office included giant screens and holograms that staff used for target-practice with laser guns]. In practice he was entrusted with MBS’s most important and violent missions – the ones that established his grip on power.
His remit extended far beyond Saudi’s borders. In 2016 he kidnapped Prince Sultan, a minor royal who had been bad-mouthing MBS. MBS offered his jet to fly Sultan from Paris to Cairo – instead, the plane was diverted to Saudi Arabia. According to Hope’s and Scheck’s book, Qahtani posed as Captain Saud, an airline pilot, though surprisingly one who had an expensive Hublot watch.
Even people who have nothing to do with politics have become afraid to speak near a functioning mobile phone
With rendition strategies like this, and the cash tap shut off, even royals who weren’t inside the Ritz-Carlton felt the pressure to divest themselves of ostentatious assets. The father of the Saudi ambassador to Britain put Glympton Park, his beloved 2,000-acre estate in the Cotswolds, up for sale. Riyadh’s jewellers did a roaring trade pawning the diamonds of lesser royals. “It’s like the Romanovs selling their Fabergé eggs,” said an adviser to an auction house.
Many commoners rejoiced at the downfall of their entitled elite. Princes and princesses who once lived off huge handouts began looking for jobs. Their titles became irrelevant. Unable to afford the cost of irrigation, their green ranches became desert again. Banks turned them away. One financial adviser recalled his response to princes trying to get credit on the strength of their royal status: “You call yourselves princes, but they say there’s only one prince now.”
The Ritz-Carlton episode was just one element of an extraordinary project of centralization. MBS yanked control of various security services back from the princes. He took charge of Aramco, the semi-autonomous state oil company. He installed himself as boss of the sovereign-wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. “He destroyed all the powerful families,” says a retired diplomat. By late 2017, law, money and security in Saudi all flowed directly from him.
Among those who lost out were the fellow princes who had pushed a young MBS to the edge of the family photo on the yacht all those years ago. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, in the center of that shot, surrendered part of his $17bn wealth. As the shakedown widened, MBS’s elder half-siblings put up their yacht for sale. Many of his cousins were locked up. “Payback time,” one victim said.
While MBS was squeezing the elite at home, he was forging some important friendships abroad.
MBS and Donald Trump, who was elected president in 2016, had a lot in common. Both had the hunger of the underdog and loathed the snooty policymaking establishments in their countries; they reveled in provocation. The historic compact, by which Saudi Arabia provided oil to American consumers and America guaranteed the country’s security, had frayed in recent years. Barack Obama’s hurried exit from Iraq in 2011 and his nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 had left Saudi Arabia worried that it could no longer rely on American protection. America’s development of its own shale-oil reserves had also reduced its dependence on Saudi oil. Then Trump and MBS got cozy.
With the Trump administration’s tacit [and sometimes explicit] support, MBS set about treating the entire Middle East much as he did Saudi Arabia, trying to push aside rulers whom he found to be inconvenient. He announced a blockade of Qatar, a tiny gas-rich state to the east of Saudi Arabia. In 2017, angered by Lebanon’s dealings with Iran, MBS invited the prime minister, Saad Hariri, a long-time beneficiary of Saudi patronage, on a starlit camping trip. Hariri turned up, had his phone confiscated and soon found himself reading out a resignation speech on tv.
Both moves ultimately backfired. But Trump’s Middle East adviser, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, did little to discourage such antics. Together, he and MBS dreamt up a new regional order over WhatsApp, calling each other “Jared” and “Muhammad”. Their rapport was so great that, at Kushner’s prompting, MBS started the process of recognizing “Israel”. His father, still officially king, put a stop to that.
MBS visited America in March 2018, hanging out in Silicon Valley with Peter Thiel and Tim Cook, and meeting celebrities, including Rupert Murdoch, James Cameron and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. Many people were keen to meet the man who controlled a $230bn sovereign-wealth fund. To his frustration, they were less willing to reciprocate by investing in the kingdom.
That October the intercontinental bonhomie came to an abrupt halt. I was due to go to a conference in Turkey that month. A Saudi journalist I knew, Jamal Khashoggi, got in touch to suggest meeting up: he was also going to be in Istanbul, for an appointment at the consulate. Khashoggi was a court insider whose criticisms of MBS in the Washington Post and elsewhere had attracted much attention. He seemed to be making more effort than usual to stay in touch. While I was at the conference a friend of his phoned me: Jamal still hadn’t emerged from the consulate, he said. By the time I got there, Turkish police were cordoning off the building.
The full story soon came out in leaked intelligence reports and, later, a un inquiry. A Saudi hit squad, which reportedly coordinated with Saud al-Qahtani, had flown to Istanbul. As they waited for Khashoggi to enter the consulate, they discussed plans for dismembering his body. According to tapes recorded inside the consulate by Turkish intelligence, Khashoggi was told, “We’re coming to get you.” There was a struggle, followed by the sound of plastic sheets being wrapped. A CIA report said that MBS approved the operation.
MBS has said he takes responsibility for the murder, but denies ordering it. He sacked Qahtani and another official implicated in the intelligence reports. The fallout was immediate. Companies and speakers pulled out of that year’s Davos in the desert; the Gates Foundation ended its partnership with Misk, an artistic and educational charity set up by the prince. Ari Emanuel, a Hollywood agent, cancelled a $400m deal with the kingdom.
The crown prince seems to have been genuinely surprised at the animus – “disappointed”, says an associate. Hadn’t he committed to all the reforms the West had been asking for? Perhaps he had underestimated the outcry provoked by going after a well-connected international figure, as opposed to a royal unknown outside Saudi Arabia. Or perhaps he understood Western governments’ priorities better than they did themselves. They had done little when Muhammad bin Nayef, their partner in battling terrorism, had disappeared; they had shrugged at reports of torture in the Ritz-Carlton, and at MBS’s reckless bombardment of Yemen. Why did they have so much to say about the killing of a single journalist?
Three years after the Khashoggi killing, Davos in the desert opened with the singer Gloria Gaynor. As images of smiling children flashed up on a giant screen behind her, she broke into her disco anthem, “I Will Survive”, asking the audience: “Did you think I’d crumble? Did you think I’d lay down and die?”
The chief executives of private-equity giants BlackRock and Blackstone were back, as were the heads of Goldman Sachs, SocGen and Standard Chartered. Even Amazon sent a representative despite the fact that its boss, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post, the paper that employed Khashoggi. Meanwhile, Qahtani was creeping back into favor at the royal court – although he had been implicated by the un for Khashoggi’s murder, a Saudi court took the decision not to charge him.
MBS revitalized the near-dormant sovereign-wealth fund, pumping tens of billions of dollars into tech, entertainment and sports, to create a softer, more appealing image of Saudi and co-opt new partners. In April 2020, the fund led a consortium to buy Newcastle United, a premier-league football team [the deal took 18 months]. The following year it launched an audacious bid to create Saudi’s own golf tour, the LIV series, hoping to lure players with a prize pot of $255m, far larger than that of American tournaments. At the first LIV tour this year, some top players boycotted the event, others went for the cash.
Joe Biden has proved tougher to woo. Soon after becoming president, Biden withdrew American military support for the war in Yemen. He wouldn’t talk to MBS, insisting that communications go through King Salman instead. He didn’t even nominate an ambassador to Riyadh for 15 months. The chat everywhere was that Saudi-American relations were in a deep freeze. Then, in February 2022, MBS had a stroke of luck: Russia invaded Ukraine.
In the days after war broke out, Biden himself tried to call MBS. The crown prince declined to speak to the president. He did take Putin’s call, however. The two men were already close. MBS had personally brought Russia into an expanded version of the OPEC cartel in order for Saudi Arabia to keep control of global oil production. Putin cemented the friendship in 2018 at the g20 summit in Buenos Aires, which took place weeks after the Khashoggi killing. While Western leaders shunned MBS, Putin gave the Saudi ruler a high-five before sitting down next to him.
MBS’s defiance of America seems to have paid off. After months of evasion, Biden reluctantly agreed to meet MBS in Jeddah in July, on the prince’s own turf and his own terms. The visit gave MBS recognition but did little to rebuild relations. There wasn’t even a concrete assurance of increasing oil production.
Some in the American foreign-policy establishment remain hopeful that MBS could become a helpful partner in the region, pointing to his recent retreat from confrontation with Qatar and his eagerness to find a diplomatic exit from Yemen. Perhaps, they say, he is maturing as a leader.
This seems optimistic. MBS’s disastrous campaign in Yemen was ostensibly in support of the country’s president but in April, hours after being summoned to a meeting and offered Arabic coffee and dates, Yemen’s president was reading out a resignation speech on tv. MBS took it upon himself to get rid of him personally – suggesting that his mode of international diplomacy remains as high-handed as ever. “What they’ve learned”, says one foreign analyst, “is don’t murder journalists who dine regularly with congressmen in the United States.”
The West has taught MBS something else, too – something that autocrats the world over may draw comfort from. No matter the sin, they would argue, if you sit tight through the odium and fury, eventually the financiers, the celebrities, even the Western leaders, will come running back. At 36, MBS has time on his side. Some observers fear that he may become only more dangerous as oil reserves start to decline and the treasure trove shrinks. “What happens when he’s a middle-aged man ruling a middle-income country and starts to get bored?” asks a diplomat who knows MBS personally. “Will he go on more adventures?”
Earlier this year, I visited an old friend in his office in Saudi Arabia. Before we started talking, he put his phone in a pouch that blocks the signal, to prevent government spies from listening in. Dissidents do that kind of thing in police states like China, but I’d never seen it before in Saudi Arabia. It isn’t just people involved with politics who are taking such precautions: most Saudis have become afraid to speak near a functioning mobile phone. People used to talk fairly openly in their offices, homes and cafés. Now, they are picked up for almost nothing.
As we chatted over the whir of his office air conditioning, my friend reeled off a list of people he knew who had been detained in the past month: a retired air-force chief who died in prison, a hospital administrator hauled away from his desk, a mother taken in front of her seven children, a lawyer who died seven days after his release from prison. “These people aren’t rabble rousers,” my friend said. “No one understands why.”
Officially, the government says it has no political prisoners. Rights groups reckon that thousands have been swept up in MBS’s dragnet. I’ve covered the Middle East since the 1990s and can’t think of anywhere where so many of my own contacts are behind bars.
Few ordinary Saudis predicted that when MBS was done trampling on the elites and the clerics, he would come for them next. Bringing Saudis into the modern, networked, online world has made it easier for the state to monitor what they are saying. A Red Crescent employee called Abdulrahman al-Sadhan used to run a satirical Twitter account under a pseudonym. In 2018 MBS’s agents arrested him and held him incommunicado for two years. American prosecutors later charged two former Twitter employees with allegedly handing over the real names behind various accounts to a Saudi official – al-Sadhan’s family believes that his name was among them. [The trial of one employee is ongoing; he denies passing on information to Saudi officials.]
On the face of it, MBS has nothing to worry about. Public opinion polls – if they can be trusted – suggest he is popular, particularly with younger Saudis. But there is a growing sense that discontent is brewing beneath the surface. MBS has broken crucial social contracts with the Saudi populace, by reducing handouts while, at the same time, dispensing with the tradition of hearing the feedback of ordinary people after Friday prayers.
It isn’t hard to imagine some of the issues they’d raise if they had the chance. Many people are struggling as the cost of living rises. When other governments were cushioning their citizens during the pandemic, MBS slashed fuel subsidies and tripled vat. Unable to afford the cost of pumping water, some farmers left crops to wither in the field. Fees for permits and fines have spiraled, too. Though MBS speaks eloquently about the country’s youth, he is struggling to find them jobs. Unemployment remains stubbornly stuck in double digits. Half of the jobless have a university degree, but most white-collar workers I met on MBS’s mega-projects were foreign.
Saudi Arabia’s attempts to diversify its economy – and so compensate for the long-term decline of oil reserves – isn’t going well either. The pandemic delayed plans for a rapid increase in international tourism. Extorting billions of dollars from your relatives may not be the best way to convince investors that the kingdom is a liberal haven.
The young prince has reversed even the baby steps towards democracy taken by previous kings. Municipal elections have been suspended – as a cost-cutting exercise, explains the supine press. The Shura Council, a consultative body of 150 people, has only met online since the pandemic [other institutions have gathered in person for months]. “I wish I had more of a voice,” said one member. Whenever I mentioned the prince, his leg twitched.
A frequent visitor to the royal court says MBS now gives the impression of someone who’s always thinking that people are plotting against him. He seems to be preoccupied with loyalty. He fills key posts either with young royals, foreigners with no local base to threaten him or people he has already broken. A government minister, Ibrahim Assaf, was one of those locked up in the Ritz-Carlton – two months later MBS sent him to the World Economic Forum as his representative. A senior executive on one of his construction projects is someone who says he was tortured in one of his prisons. “He went from being strung naked from his ankles, beaten and stripped of all his assets to a high-level project manager,” says a close acquaintance of the man.
All remain vulnerable to MBS’s tantrums. Saudi sources say he once locked a minister in a toilet for ten hours. [The minister later appeared on tv blabbering platitudes about the prince’s wisdom.] A senior official I’ve spoken to says he wants out. “Everyone in his circle is terrified of him,” says an insider. And that could make it hard for him to govern a country of 35m people effectively. Former courtiers say no one close to MBS is prepared to offer a truthful assessment of whether his increasingly grandiose schemes are viable. “Saying no”, says one, “is not something they will ever do.”
If MBS has a mission beyond extending his power, you might expect to find it in Neom, the city he promised to build in the desert. Neom would be nothing less than “a civilizational leap for humanity”, he said in 2017. Head-spinning details followed. The city’s food would be grown on hydroponic walls on a floating structure. It would be powered by the world’s largest green-hydrogen plant. Thousands of snow-blowers would create a ski resort on a nearby mountain. One day it would have driverless cars and passenger drones.
According to the official timetable, the main city would be completed by 2020. Further districts would be added by 2025. The prince’s tourism minister, Ahmed al-Khateeb, dismissed rumors that the timetable was proving over-ambitious. “Come see with your eyes and not with your ears,” he urged. So, I went.
Finding Neom was the first problem. There were no road signs to it. After three hours’ drive we came to the spot indicated by the map. It was bare, but for the odd fig tree. Camels strolled across the empty highway. Piles of rubble lined the road, remnants of the town bulldozed to make way for the mighty metropolis.
The designated area is nearly the size of Belgium. As far as I could tell, only two projects had been completed, MBS’s palace, and something Google Earth calls “The Neom Experience Centre” [when I drove to see it, it was obscured by a prefabricated hut]. The only other solid building I could see was a hotel constructed before Neom was conceived: The Royal Tulip. A poster in the lobby urged me to “Discover Neom”. But when I asked for a guide the hotel manager cursed my sister with Arabic vulgarities and tried to shoo me away. There was no sign of the media hub with “frictionless facilitation”, “advanced infrastructure” and “collaborative ecosystems” promised by the Neom website. Neom’s head of communications and media, Wayne Borg, said he was “out of Kingdom at present”.
The hotel restaurant was teeming with consultants – all the ones I met were foreign. I later found a Saudi project manager. “We think we’re about to start working, but every two months the consultants coin a new plan,” he told me. “They’re still doing plans of plans.” There was a kind of manic short-termism among these foreigners. Many were paid $40,000 a month, plus handsome bonuses. “It’s like riding a bull,” one of the Neom consultants told me. “You know you’re gonna fall, that no one can last on a bull longer than a minute and a half, two minutes, so you make the most of it.”
Despite the high salaries, there are reports that foreigners are leaving the Neom project because they find the gap between expectations and reality so stressful. The head of Neom is said by his friends to be “terrified” at the lack of progress.
Eventually, I found a retired Saudi air-force technician who offered to drive me around the city for $600. He took me to a sculpture standing in the desert with the words, “I love Neom”. A short way farther on we found a new stretch of tarmac, said to mark the edge of the dream city. Beyond it, the lone and level sands stretched far away.
A study, carried out by Grant Liberty, a human rights charity Prisoners revealed that prisoners held for opposing the government in Saudi Arabia are being murdered, “sexually” assaulted and inflicted with “sheer” brutality.
The study identified 311 known prisoners of conscience in the era of Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud [MBS]–the kingdom’s leader who is the current crown prince, deputy prime minister, and minister of defense.
Researchers, who shared the report exclusively with The Independent, claimed that 53 prisoners have been tortured, while six were sexually assaulted, and 14 were pushed into undergoing hunger strikes.
The report looked at the plight of 23 women’s rights activists, 11 of whom were still behind bars, as well as also identifying 54 journalists.
Some 22 of the prisoners were arrested for crimes that they carried out when they were still children – five of them were put to death. An additional 13 were facing the death penalty, while four had died in custody.
Lucy Rae, of Grant Liberty, told The Independent: “Sadly the abuse of the prisoners of conscience continues as the world watches on, women are subjected to sustained and brutal violations with no basic human rights.
“We call upon the kingdom to back up its statement of being a ‘modern and progressive country’ with actions and release innocent individuals who were disappeared, were arrested and subjected to sham trials.
“Imprisoning, torturing and abusing an elderly mother such as Aida Al Ghamdi because her son has sought asylum surely is abhorrent and wrong in any nation.”
Abdullah al-Ghamdi, a political and human rights activist who is the son of Al-Ghamdi, said he escaped Saudi Arabia after being threatened for campaigning against authoritarian policies in the middle eastern country.
His mother, Aida, and two of his brothers were arrested after he left, he added.
“They were arrested not because they had committed a crime, but because of my activism,” Al-Ghamdi, whose situation is explored in the report, said.
Al-Ghamdi, who lives in the UK, added: “For over three years, my dear ageing 65-year-old mother and my younger brother have been held by the Saudi royal family. They have been held in solitary confinement and subjected to physical torture by cigarette burning, beating and lashing.
“It’s very hard to contact my family as this will put them in danger as the Saudi government told them not to contact me and give me any updates on my mother and brother’s case, so as of yet I am unsure of my mother’s charges.”
He said his mother was held for over a year in Dhahban Central Prison in Jeddha before being moved to Dammam Mabahith Prison. He wishes she was “safe, free and be able to rejoice with her loved ones”.
“There is not a time where she is not on my mind and it pains me that all my hard work hasn’t led to a definite answer for her freedom,” he added.
Al-Ghamdi said he had been “fighting to bring justice and freedom to the Saudi nation” since 2004 and secure a “democracy where there is an independent justice system”.
He said his mother had been tortured in front of her son Adil, who was also beaten and tortured.
“Due to her old age she has diabetes, high blood pressure and she suffers from regular abdomen pains; due to the unjust treatment and torture within prison her mental health has worsened,” he said of his mother.
“MBS and the Saudi royal family are holding her hostage demanding that I return to Saudi Arabia to face torture and imminent death so that people like me who stand for justice, equality and a fair society are silenced like those before me.”
He urged the “world, the UN and every single person with a voice” to speak out against “this outrageous behavior”.
Rae also cited the case of Loujain Al Hathloul, who was subjected to a travel ban and jailed for campaigning for women’s rights.
Human rights organizations say Al Hathloul has been forced to endure abuse including electric shocks, flogging and sexual harassment while in jail. Loujain, who successfully campaigned to win Saudi women the right to drive, was arrested alongside 10 other women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia in May 2018 – weeks before the country reversed the driving ban.
Rae warned it was imperative to “make people aware of the sheer brutality, murders and sexual assault happening to prisoners of conscience” in the country, adding it is “our duty as a human race” to protect the innocent.
“And we can start by demanding the release of these prisoners. Grant Liberty will not stop until every prisoner of conscience is freed and that Saudi Arabia is recognized for what it really is – a pariah to democracy and human rights,” she said.
The camera frame and social platforms have become the most important political tools in our modern age. How did the international community keep Yemen out of the camera focus?
Selective humanity; who stood with Yemen?
Seven years ago…
At 1 am, the first Saudi airstrike shook Yemen and plunged the country into what has been designated as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Seven years of aggression led to 46,262 casualties, martyrs and wounded.
Seven years later…
The world continues to maintain silence on Yemen, Western powers didn’t halt any arms sales to the bloody coalition, and millions of Yemenis are still at the brink of starvation. Today, the people of Yemen learned the truth in the hardest way: Humanity is selective and the war on Yemen is not a choice.
After Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, which just turned one month old, the international community was quick to launch funding campaigns, Western powers imposed all-out draconian sanctions and banned Russia from all international events, all with the aim of completely isolating the country. Doing so, the international community aimed to halt the military operation.
Now ask yourself, why didn’t the international community put the same effort into Yemen? Instead of sanctioning Saudi Arabia, the international community heavily armed it. Instead of securing humanitarian corridors and humanitarian aid, the international community preached empty statements in false solidarity with the children of Yemen.
Despite all the atrocities in Yemen, Western media remained silent on the aggression. Reports indicate that mainstream US media have aired an approximate cumulative of 92 minutes of coverage since the beginning of the war; that is, a war of seven years so far. If this major humanitarian crisis fails to make the news, what do US news outlets deem newsworthy and headline material?
How does media shape the war?
The modern age relies desperately on the media and social platforms to keep up with global events. As a weapon, the camera can be used in favor of or against the oppressed and oppressor. Media bias is inevitable in a world of so many opinions, but the question here is – is humanity a matter of opinion?
The power of the media relies on what content is broadcasted and what is not.
The extremely limited international attention directed toward Yemen can mean two things; the war on Yemen is not important or the international audience is not be informed of what is happening in the other part of the world. That said, the narrative on Yemen cannot be easily criticized by Americans without implicating themselves. Considering that the United States backs the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, how would it justify its intervention there, noting that Saudi Arabia is responsible for high civilian death tolls and a list of war crimes?
Political US coverage
Structurally, the media carefully broadcast content to avoid touching on the United States’ longstanding relationship with a country like Saudi Arabia, which would expose the US’ bloody intervention. That is why it would rather ignore the Yemen situation altogether.
Did you know that since Saudi Arabia declared war on Yemen in 2015, it was listed as the World’s largest arms importer from 2015 through 2019? According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, its imports of arms increased by 130% compared to the previous five-year period. In numbers, the US exported a total of 73% and the UK a total of 13% of these arms to Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, US arms sales amounted to $3 billion in five years from 2015 till 2020, also agreeing to sell over $64.1 billion worth of weapons to Riyadh, which is around $10.7 billion annually.
On the other hand, during Trump’s administration, the collaboration between Fox News and the Republican Party could explain a thread of the network’s negligence to highlight the current administration’s foreign policy failings, however, other opposing networks were equally silent because of Obama’s involvement in the war.
Media outlets can’t use the US support of Saudi’s atrocities in Yemen because of the consequences that would be bestowed upon the administration.
Yemen
Seven years of raging war on Yemen exhausted the population’s capacity to cope, and the global attention shifted toward Ukraine following Russia’s military operation. The darkest forms of irony have been heard by officials concerning Ukraine with complete disregard for Yemen. Simply, the core players fuelling the Saudi war on Yemen have taken a stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
In numbers, so far, there are 17,734 martyrs, including 4,017 children, 2,434 women, and 11,283 men, while the number of the wounded reached 28,528, including 4,586 children, 2,911 women, and 10,032 men.
In the latest international campaign, #EndTheSiegeOnYemen was trending in solidarity with Yemen. Activists, human rights advocates, and media professionals around the world launched a wide international campaign on social media demanding ending the siege on Yemen which caused the country to plunge into the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
The campaign was launched under the title “End the Siege on Yemen” to shed light on the forgotten suffering of the Yemeni people as a result of the blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition on the country and to mobilize efforts to end it right now.
Many activists interacted with the campaign on Twitter under the hashtag #EndTheSiegeOnYemen. Some highlighted the world’s selective humanity when it came to the hype for Ukraine and negligence for Yemen.
Media’s “less global” shift
It is as simple as that, the United States and its Western allies have rediscovered the importance of international law when it comes to Ukraine but continue to turn a blind eye to Yemen.
Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, unlike similar incidents in times past, has taken the social media platforms by storm, with memes, misinformation campaigns, and scams all adding to the growing maelstrom of information, which can confuse and cloud what’s actually happening.
Meta’s Facebook is censoring all state news, accusing any Russian outlet of spreading misinformation. In return, the social platform is actively working in solidarity with Ukraine. But one can’t help but ask, did platforms like Facebook ever closely monitor misinformation or any information about war-torn states in the world?
Palestinian Ahed Tamimi is depicted as a Ukrainian girl.
Moreover, social media platforms chose to selectively censor fake news, keeping misinformation that hail Ukraine on the internet. Ahed Tamimi was a Palestinian girl, depicted as a Ukrainian girl, for global sympathy.
Double standards in censorship were highlighted when the all-Yemeni Ansar Allah resistance movement in Yemen was censored, but all mercenaries in Ukraine were being promoted. That made the reach on Yemen minimal, while news on Ukraine witnessed overwhelming worldwide traffic.
Moreover, the internet was widely active in promoting an anti-Russian campaign, which triggered Russophobia, to feed the Western agenda in Eastern Europe.
Ukraine is a “top priority”, but what about Yemen?
Social platforms have become powerful tools to recruit international “volunteers” to fight in Ukraine in the face of Russia. In a first of its kind, the White House held a special briefing on the Ukraine war with TikTok stars such as 18-year-old Ellie Zeiler, who has more than 10 million followers. The US has adopted a new approach to grab the younger generation and recruit them against Russia.
Earlier this month, up to 20,000 “international volunteers” have traveled to fight Russia in Ukraine, mostly coming from European countries, according to a Ukrainian top official on Sunday.
“This number is around 20,000 now. They come from many European countries mostly,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CNN. “Many people in the world hated Russia and what it was doing in recent years, but no one dared to openly oppose and fight them.”
This comes alongside the 16,000 foreign mercenaries whom Zelensky announced will be fighting in Ukraine.
The conflict in Ukraine shed major light on social media’s political role as a tool. Its part in broadcasting the conflict highlighted the importance of media in shaping the internet forever.
It is worth noting that Russia had launched a special military operation for several reasons, such as NATO’s eastward expansion, the Ukrainian shelling of Donbass, and the aggression of Ukrainian forces against the Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic, which has been ongoing since 2014, as well as de-nazifying and demilitarizing Ukraine.
United Nations
The UNSC is expected to prevent war, but it has instead backed the US-Saudi-led military coalition against the country.
At the end of last year, the UN Special Envoy Hans Grundberg filed an empty and useless report that read “frustration” regarding the war on Yemen.
However, his statement isn’t the first or last of empty promises to fight for Yemen and against the humanitarian crisis. Nevertheless, Washington’s disguised backing of the coalition remains behind the curtains.
The UNSC remains in favor of the government under “conflict resolution”, but what the UNSC is doing is betray the Yemenis day by day. It is no longer a “conflict” with the government, it is a full-scale war by the Saudi-led coalition against the people of Yemen.
Yemen in the shadows
Recently, the UN said the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen risks being forgotten as the world focuses on the war in Ukraine. And according to experts, that conflict is also likely to directly impact Yemen’s already stricken food supply.
Apart from drawing attention away from the war on Yemen, the war in Ukraine threatens to worsen the humanitarian situation in the Arab nation, with 22% of the country’s wheat coming from Ukraine and Russia.
In 2020, the UN Security-General released his annual “list of shame,” which included several violations against children committed in 2018, in which at least 729 children were killed or maimed.
However, the Security-General chose to list the Saudi-led coalition as a party that is improving the situation in Yemen, despite the overwhelming evidence that proves otherwise.
In addition, Security Council members call for a ceasefire in Yemen and go ahead with providing arms to prolong the war, instead of suspending all arms sales. In other words, the Council has offered nothing but empty statements regarding the war.
Who is looking behind the curtains?
Media outlets are dedicated to broadcasting global events and issues around the world. US media coverage is also dedicated to covering global issues, especially ones that help spread its agenda across the map. However, the tragedy of the people of Yemen, in the meantime, is completely shadowed, as the international community continues to turn a blind eye to the ongoing atrocities.
The lack of mainstream coverage for Yemen raises many questions on where the media’s priorities stand: Is the US hiding the atrocious crimes in Yemen to protect its relations with the Kingdom? Are the billions in arms sales fuelling the US economy more important than thousands of human lives? Keeping Yemen in the shadows will spare the US the need to justify its interference and its intimate relations with the Gulf.
With all eyes focused on Ukraine, who is willing to take one look farther to behold the sufferings the Yemeni people have been undergoing for full seven years?
في عدّاد القتل الجماعي في عهد سلمان وحده، نفّذت السلطات السعودية ثلاث مجازر وحشية، الأولى في الثاني من كانون الثاني 2016، قطعت فيها رؤوس 47 شاباً بينهم 4 قاصرين على الأقلّ، وكان من بينهم الشيخ المجاهد نمر باقر النمر، بينما ليس فيهم من أدين بتهمة قتل واحدة، وأكثرهم من شباب الحراك السلمي لعام 2011.
والمجزرة الثانية نُفّذت في 23 نيسان 2019، وقُطعت فيها رؤوس 37 شاباً من بينهم 6 قاصرين على الأقلّ، ووصفتها “المفوضية العليا لحقوق الإنسان” بـ”الصادمة”، معتبرة إعدام قاصرين “مشيناً جداً”، فيما عدّه الاتحاد الأوروبي “خرقاً خطيراً” لحقوق الإنسان. وكانت التهمة الرئيسة ضدّ مَن أعدمتهم السلطات السعودية، وأغلبهم من الطائفة الشيعية: “تبنّيهم الفكر الإرهابي المتطرف وتشكيل خلايا إرهابية للإفساد والإخلال بالأمن وإشاعة الفوضى”.
وهذه من الاتهامات المعلّبة التي يجري استخدامها بصورة دائمة في محاضر الاتهام. وأحدث المجازر، وليس آخرها، كانت “مجزرة السبت”، وهي الأعلى عددياً، حيث قُطعت رؤوس 81 شخصاً، جمع فيها ابن سلمان بين متّهمين في قضايا تتعلّق بالحراك الشعبي في القطيف في عام 2011، وآخرين على علاقة بتنظيمَي “القاعدة” و”داعش” ، والهدف واضح. وفي التفاصيل، أدين سبعة يمنيون واردة أسماؤهم في القائمة في قضايا الانتماء إلى “داعش” (شخص واحد)، والانتماء إلى حركة “أنصار الله” (3 أشخاص)، وتهريب أسلحة (3 أشخاص). واتُّهم سوري واحد بالانتماء إلى “داعش”، وهي التهمة ذاتها التي طاولت 28 سعودياً، إضافة إلى سعودي بتهمة الانتماء إلى “القاعدة”، وآخر بتهمة “تشكيل خلية إرهابية”، وقسم ثالث بتهمة “اعتناق منهج التكفير”.
تبقى الوجبة الأكبر من قطع الرؤوس من نصيب الشيعة في الأحساء والقطيف، حيث فصل سيّاف سلمان وابنه، وبدم بارد، رؤوس واحد وأربعين شاباً عن أجسادهم في “حفلة جنون” غير مسبوقة، وكانت بلدة العوامية وحدها على موعد مع استقبال خبر فاجعة إعدام 27 شاباً من أبنائها، لا ذنب لهم سوى أنهم خرجوا في تظاهرات سلمية ورفعوا شعارات مطلبية مشروعة موثّقة بالصوت والصورة. لم يتبدّل الحال إذاً. هي المحاكمات الصورة ذاتها الفاقدة إلى أدنى شروط المحاكمة العادلة، والآلية نفسها المعمول بها في إصدار الأحكام، بما يجعل أيّ حديث عن قضاء بلا طائل، فأحكام الإعدام تَصدر من الديوان الملكي. ما يلفت في الأحكام أنها لم تخرق مبادئ حقوق الإنسان فحسب، بل هي انتهكت على نحو صريح القانون الجنائي السعودي نفسه، إذ إن التهمة الموجّهة إلى 37 شاباً هي “نيّة شروع بالقتل”، أو “التخابر مع جهات أجنبية” وخلافه، فيما لم يَرِد في صكّ الاتهام أيّ تهمة صريحة بالقتل سوى ضدّ ثلاثة من المتّهمين، في بيئة تفتقر إلى كلّ مقوّمات المحاكمة العادلة. أمّا تهمة الشروع في الجريمة، أو ما يسمّى بالجريمة غير المكتملة، فقد حُدّدت بـ “الحبس لمدّة لا تزيد على عشر سنوات”، بحسب نص القانون الجنائي السعودي.
على أيّ حال، فإن الاحتجاج القانوني لا مكان له هنا، لأن “المنطق” و”المعقول” غائبان في مكوّنات تفكير ابن سلمان. وبالتالي، فأيّ حسابات سياسية ومنطقية لتفسير ما تسالم الناشطون على مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي على تسميته بـ “مجزرة السبت”، سوف تنتهي إلى لا نتيجة. فنحن أمام شخص – لا نهج سياسي – يمارس هوايته المفضلة في مصادمة الجمهور، بينما “اللامتوقع” و”اللامنطقي” و”اللامعقول” سمات جوهرية في لعبة السياسة التي يزاولها على طريقة المغامرة، ولكن في شكلها الطفولي. لماذا تكون مجزرة السبت خارج الحسابات السياسية؟ تعالوا نقرأها وفق منطق التحليل السياسي: أولاً، إن العزلة المفروضة على ابن سلمان منذ سنوات على خلفية جريمة قتل جمال خاشقجي، تتطلّب عملاً استثنائياً وخارقاً لكسرها والعودة الطبيعية للاندماج في دورة المحافل والعلاقات الدولية. ثانياً، إن هوس ابن سلمان بالعرش وهاجسه الأكبر بصنع رمزيته السياسية يفرضان تهدئة مع الداخل واسترضاء لكلّ المكوّنات. ثالثاً، السعودية وإيران كانتا على موعد قريب (الأربعاء المقبل) مع جولة حوارية في بغداد (أعلنت طهران تجميدها أمس)، ومن الطبيعي أن يحافظ الطرفان على أجواء وديّة وهادئة لإنجاح الحوار. وحين نتأمّل في هذه العوامل، نجدها منطقية لأيّ سياسي حصيف، ولكن هذا التحليل يصلح في حال واحدة، أي حين يجري التعامل مع شخصية تعمل، في الأصل، وفق منطق السياسة وقوانينها.
ما تَحرّر منه ابن سلمان هو القسمة والغُنم المشترك مع سلالة محمد بن عبد الوهاب وأتباعه، فيما ألقى عليهم تبعات الحرائق التي أشعلها آل سعود في الداخل والخارج
يكون السؤال عن شخصية ابن سلمان لغواً حين يتعلّق بـ”ثبات الصورة” وثوابت السياسة، فهو اليوم غير الغد، وهو في الغد غير ما يأتي من أيام لاحقة، لا على سبيل التغيّر الخلّاق، بل هي مفاعيل الشخصية المأزومة، والمسكونة بغرام “اللافت” و”العظيم” “والكبير” و”الجديد” و”الأول عالمياً” كما يحلو له ترديد هذه المفردة، فيما يأتي أحد أقلام البلاط ليبشّر بعودة شخصية “القائد الملهم” بعد أفوله في أدبيات التطبيل الغابرة، وهي نعوت يطرب لها ابن سلمان. خيّب ابن سلمان توقّعات شركات العلاقات العامة الأجنبية، الأميركية والأوروبية، والتي أغرقها بملايين الدولارات من المال العام لترميم صورته المهشّمة منذ اغتيال خاشقجي وتقطيع أوصاله في قنصلية السعودية في إسطنبول في تشرين الثاني 2018، فقرّرت أكثر من واحدة من كبريات شركات العلاقات العامة، وفي لحظة إنقاذية لسمعتها، الانسحاب من صفقة تجني منها المال وتخسر فيها مستقبلها. بين رسوخ صورة القاتل والمتغطرس والمتعطّش للدم، ومحاولات دؤوبة من فريق ابن سلمان لمحوها، كان الأمل معقوداً على إحداث تغيير جوهري في “الذاكرة القريبة” للرأي العام المحلي والعالمي. فكانت مقابلته الاستعراضية مع مجلة “ذي أتلانتيك” الأميركية بمنزلة رهان أخير لمحو شخصية القاتل السادي والمحشوّ رعونة وبلاهة، وإحلال شخصية المصلح، والمنقذ، والمنطقي، والمنفتح. جعل ابن سلمان من المجلة الأميركية منصّة لإطلاق “مانيفستو” الدولة الأفلاطونية بنسخة سعودية معدّلة جينياً، وهي التي سوف يعتلي عرشها ذات يوم، أو هكذا يحلم. وابتهج المراهنون، حقاً أم نفاقاً، على وعدَين فارقَين:
وقف عقوبة الإعدام إلى الأبد.
ـ الاعتراف بالتنوع المذهبي ومستوجباته في التمثيل البيروقراطي، في شقّه الديني على الأقل. في الأول، وفي المعلومات، زار مسؤول في مفوضية الأمم المتحدة السامية لحقوق الإنسان، الرياض أخيراً، ونقل عن بندر بن محمد العيبان، رئيس “هيئة حقوق الإنسان” في السعودية، أن بلاده أوقفت العمل بصورة نهائية بعقوبة الإعدام. وقرأنا ذلك التأكيد في مقابلة ابن سلمان مع المجلة الأميركية بما نصّه: “في ما يتعلق بعقوبة الإعدام، لقد تخلّصنا منها جميعاً، ما عدا فئة واحدة…”، قاصداً بذلك الحق الخاص، أي من ارتكب جريمة قتل ضدّ شخص آخر، تُطبّق عليه عقوبة الإعدام في حال رفض أهله التنازل أو قبول الدية. أطنب فريق من الكتّاب ورجال الدين والثقافة والشعراء في التطبيل لـ”خطة الإنقاذ” التي بشّر بها ابن سلمان عبر المجلة المذكورة، وأوهموا أنفسهم ومَن حولهم والأبعدين بأن زمن “الواحدية” كما سمّاه ذات يوم، أحدُ سدنة البلاط الحاليين، قد أدبر، وكان هذا ناقداً للنظام قبل أن ينضمّ إلى حلقة البروباغندا لوليّ العهد، وبات هذه الأيام مهووساً بالخصومة مع الآخر. الرواية الجديدة التي أراد ابن سلمان إيصالها عبر المجلة الأميركية، والقائمة على فكرة طلاق، بائن أو رجعي، بين السعودية والوهابية، والتبشير بسعودية جديدة خالية من الوهابية، في لعبة إيحاء ماكرة، تفتقر إلى الأدنى من الذكاء المطلوب لتمريرها في عالم يكتظّ بمصادر المعرفة بالتاريخ وبالحاضر أيضاً. وكما هي العادة في مجمل صور الأداء السياسي لابن سلمان، فقد أراح ناقديه من عناء البحث عن “النقيض” في مواقفه، إذ تكفّل شخصياً بتقديم كلّ ما هو “عكس الصورة” التي يريد الترويج لها، وهذه سمة راسخة في شخصية ابن سلمان المضطربة وغير المتوازنة. كانت “مجزرة السبت” صدمة وحجراً في أفواه الذين دخلوا للتوّ في “هلوسة” تطبيل غير مكتملة. هي صدمة لأولئك الذين اعتقدوا بأن ثمّة “قبل وبعد” في عهد ابن سلمان، واكتشفوا، أو هكذا يُفترض أن يكون الحال، أن الأمر ليس كذلك إطلاقاً، وبالخصوص على مستوى العواقب، وإن اختلفت المقدّمات.
ما هو جديد في “مجزرة السبت”، أن ابن سلمان ينفرد هذه المرّة بالمسؤولية القانونية والجنائية وحتى الأيديولوجية. في كلّ السنوات السابقة، كان يتمّ التلطّي وراء الوهابية الحنبلية بصفتها مرجع “القضاء الشرعي” وما يصدر عنه من أحكام جزائية، ضمن التنظيم التشريعي الصادر في المملكة منذ قرار عبد العزيز بعد احتلاله الحجاز سنة 1926، والقاضي بإلغاء كلّ الأحكام الصادرة عن المذاهب الإسلامية الأخرى وإقرار الفقه الحنبلي كمرجعية وحيدة في التقاضي وإصدار الأحكام. وبناءً على التحوّل الخطابي لدى ابن سلمان بتخفيض الوهابية إلى سويّة دنيا، وإدماج بقيّة المذاهب كجزء من التنوّع المذهبي الذي يعيد رسم المشهد الديني في المملكة السعودية، ملحقاً بالسردية الجديدة حول “يوم التأسيس” بمضمونها التاريخي والعقدي والسياسي، وتمهيداً لتدابر قريب ونهائي بين الشريكَين التاريخيَّين: آل سعود وآل الشيخ، يكون الحاصل النهائي أن التشدّد والعنف بأشكاله السادية وقطع الرؤوس كلّ ذلك ليس امتيازاً وهابياً حصرياً ولا حتى “داعشياً” بالاقتداء، وأن الراعي الرسمي لكلّ ذلك هو آل سعود، وأن الوهابية ما هي إلا الأداة المشرعنة للعنف، بدليل بسيط أن فصل الوهابية عن آل سعود لم يخفّف من مستوى التوحش المتأصّل في العائلة المالكة. ما يجدر إلفات الانتباه إليه أن مضمون بيان وزارة الداخلية يشي بحقيقة أن ابن سلمان تخلّى عن محمد بن عبد الوهاب وتمسّك بالوهابية.
في الشكل، نعم هناك عملية تصفية حساب طويل ومؤلم مع الوهابية، ولكن في المضمون، لا تزال “الذخيرة” الأيديولوجية والتشريعية للوهابية صالحة للاستعمال، كلّما دعت المصلحة السياسية إلى ذلك. في مقارنة بيان وزارة الداخلية السعودية حول الإعدامات الأخيرة مع بياناتها في عهود سابقة منذ فيصل (1964 ــ 1975)، ومروراً بعهود كلّ من خالد (1975 ــ 1982)، فهد (1982 ــ 2005) وعبدالله (2005 ـ2015)، يظهر أن مفردات الخطاب الديني هي ذاتها لم تتبدّل، وتقع ضمن ثنائية تنزيه الذات (الوهابية) ووصم الآخر (كلّ ما عداها) بأفعال من قبيل مخالفة “طريق الحق”، واتباع “الأهواء” “وخطوات الشيطان”، وانتهاج “الفكر الضال” و”المناهج والمعتقدات المنحرفة”. ويتأكد ثبات سلمان على النهج التنزيهي والإقصائي في آن في ختام بيان الداخلية، بالتأكيد “أن هذه البلاد… اتخذت من كتاب الله تعالى، وسنة رسوله – صلى الله عليه وسلم – منذ قيامها دستوراً ومنهاجاً…”. وهنا لفتة ذات دلالة إلى أن لا تغيير بتاتاً في النظام التشريعي، وأن تحقيق العدالة وفق المفهوم السعودي يكمن، في نهاية المطاف، في “تنفيذ أحكام الشرع المطهّر”، ومن يُجرَّم بأعمال إرهابية فإن “العقاب الشرعي سيكون مصيره”، مشفوعاً بآية قرآنية لزوم المشروعية الدينية للعقوبة.
في التحليل، فإن ما تَحرّر منه ابن سلمان هو القسمة والغُنم المشترك مع سلالة محمد بن عبد الوهاب وأتباعه، فيما ألقى عليهم تبعات الحرائق التي أشعلها آل سعود في الداخل والخارج، تلك الحرائق المتّصلة بالإرهاب والتطرف – والوهابية هي، من دون ريب، شريك كامل في تلك الحرائق -، وفي الوقت نفسه احتفظ لنفسه بحق الاستعمال الحصري للإرث الوهابي، خطاباً وفقهاً جنائياً. في النتائج، تعيد “مجزرة السبت” ابن سلمان إلى مربعه الذي وضع نفسه فيه، بفعل حماقاته، فيما “تثبيت” صورته قاتلاً مهووساً بالمختلف، والاستثنائي، والصادم، هو فعل كارثي، ويُلحق ضرراً معنوياً وأخلاقياً بالمراهنين عليه، لأنه يُظهرهم في هيئة بلهاء وحقراء لاستنزاف أذهانهم في جولات تمجيد فارغة وخاوية.
Social media users circulated videos showing a massive funeral ceremony held for a number of scores of Saudi dissidents, who were recently executed by the Al Saud clan.
Thousands of people were seen massing for the event in the Shia-populated Qatif region of the kingdom’s Eastern Province on Sunday.
The regime executed as many as 81 prisoners in a single day on Saturday over what it called “terror-related offenses,” in the largest mass execution carried out in the kingdom in recent memory. As many as 41 of the victims hailed from Qatif.
The executions have been followed by waves of popular protests, especially in the kingdom’s east. Domestic and regional groupings have been issuing condemnatory statements against the country.
Social media users reported that the kingdom has started summoning some of the families of the victims and threatened them to declare that they were content with the executions or face consequences.
This has, however, not prevented the Eastern Province’s people from seeking to commemorate the victims. Owners of religious centers are reportedly planning various events to mark the memory of those executed.
Local activists have also been publicizing the names and features of the victims amid the kingdom’s reported refusal to hand over the bodies of some of the victims.
Leading Saudi analyst Ali Abbas al-Ahmed has shared a list of protesters and activists executed by the Saudi regime on his twitter page, with the post going viral.
During the last 48 hours, Saudi security forces in plain clothes have reportedly been deployed across Qatif, preventing the formation of more than two people.
However, the people of Qatif have vowed to take to the streets as soon as they can to protest the brutal execution of innocent people.
In a statement, the Arabian Peninsula Opposition bloc, which is an umbrella for Saudi dissidents, said the 41 executed prisoners, belonged to the peaceful al-Hirak al-Janoubi movement. The bloc of Saudi dissidents called the kingdom’s de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman “nothing more than a murderer, who enjoys shedding the blood of the innocent,” saying the mass execution was carried out against young people, who had exercised their right to express their opinion and had been imprisoned as a result.
Rights groups condemned the executions, saying “they flew in the face of” claims by bin Salman “that the country was overhauling its justice system and limiting its use of the death penalty.”
“These executions are the opposite of justice,” said Ali Adubusi, the director of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, a watchdog group. He said that in many of the cases, the charges against the accused involved “not a drop of blood.”
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement denounced the execution of over 80 prisoners in a single day in Saudi Arabia, saying it brings to the fore the true face of the Saudi regime.
“This regime wears the dress of Islam, but is actually at the service of the Zionist project. All the treason which was committed by the Persian Gulf Arab states would not have been possible without the endorsement of Saudi Arabia,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Sunday, a day after the Saudi regime executed as many as 81 prisoners over “terror-related offenses.”
The largest mass execution carried out by the highly-conservative Arab kingdom in recent memory unleashed a strong wave of condemnation from an array of Islamic and Saudi opposition groups, which said most of those executed had been jailed only for exercising their right to free expression of opinion.
Hezbollah said the ruling Al Saud regime has committed a heinous crime against the oppressed people of the Arab Peninsula.
“This is an additional crime in the criminal record of the Saudi regime, which has always committed killings and bloodshed.” This criminal record extends from Yemen to Iraq, to Syria, to Lebanon, and all Arab and Muslim countries, Hezbollah said.
The resistance movement called on all religious figures, clerics and international organizations to denounce the “terrorist regime.”
The 2022 executions exceeded the total number of Saudi Arabia’s punishments by death throughout last year.
The kingdom’s last mass execution occurred in early January 2016, when Saudi authorities executed 47 people, including prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr Baqir al-Nimr, who had vociferously called for democracy in the kingdom and advocated anti-regime protests. Nimr had been arrested in Qatif, Eastern Province, in 2012.
Since 2015, Saudi Arabia has reportedly executed more than 900 prisoners in an increasing rate. In 2019 alone, Saudi Arabia set a record number of executions after authorities executed 184 people, despite a general decrease in the number of executions around the world.
In April 2020, Reprieve, a UK-based non-profit organization, said Saudi Arabia had carried out its 800th execution. The report added that executions had almost doubled in only five years in comparison with the 423 executions conducted in Saudi Arabia from 2009 through 2014.
Eastern Province, which is largely populated by the Shiite minority, has been the scene of peaceful demonstrations since February 2011. Protesters have been demanding reforms, freedom of expression, release of political prisoners, and an end to economic and religious discrimination against the oil-rich region. The protests have met with a heavy-handed crackdown by the regime.
Over the past years, Riyadh has also redefined its anti-terrorism laws to target activism.
For almost three months, the Western mainstream media, in a move not dissimilar to its previous assertions that Saddam Hussein had the capability to launch WMDs within 45 minutes, or that Iran was building a nuclear bomb, has repeatedly claimed that Russia is planning an ‘imminent’ invasion of its Western neighbour Ukraine – under the rule of the successive US-EU friendly governments of Petro Poroshenko and Volodymyr Zelensky since the 2014 Euromaidan, a CIA and MI6-orchestrated regime change operation launched in response to then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s November 2013 decision to suspend an EU trade deal in favour of pursuing closer ties with the Russian Federation.
With the ongoing collapse of the global COVID-19 media narrative following the highly coincidental timing of last month’s World Economic Forum Davos Agenda virtual event, a hypothetical Russian invasion of Ukraine has now taken centre stage amongst corporate media outlets with a track record of promoting war and regime change in countries refusing to kowtow to the demands of the US-NATO hegemony, a media narrative which has seen thousands of US and British troops being deployed to Eastern Europe as a result – a highly provocative action and one, that should even a minor miscalculation occur amidst the current tensions, could easily escalate into a full-blown military conflict between East and West.
Recent comments by current Ukrainian President Zelensky however, in which he poured cold water over the idea of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the recent supply of over 90 tonnes of weaponry to Kiev by the United States amidst the current tensions, and US President Joe Biden stating himself that Washington would not engage militarily with Russia, would suggest that although the possibility of the current crisis inadvertently spiralling into a global conflict between Russia and NATO remains, that that is not the current intention of the West – rather a plan seemingly exists to provoke Russia into intervening in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine to protect the predominantly ethnic Russian inhabitants of the breakaway Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, before drawing Moscow into a wider guerrilla conflict in the rest of Ukraine, the second largest country in Europe, with the intentions of tying Russia down for the foreseeable future in an Iraq-style military quagmire, a tactic with previous historical usage against the Kremlin.
In 1978, at the height of the Cold War, both East and West were locked in a battle to prevent their opposing ideologies of Socialism and Free Market Capitalism taking hold in their respective spheres of influence – with previously Western-friendly Afghanistan having come under control of the pro-Soviet PDPA (People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan) following that year’s Saur Revolution, a plan was quickly hatched by the White House and Downing Street to destabilise the newly-established Left-wing state.
From 1979 until 1989, the CIA’s Operation Cyclone would see the arming, funding and training of Islamist militants known as the Mujahideen, including none other than Osama Bin Laden and others adhering to the ultraconservative Saudi Arabia-backed Wahhabi ideology, in neighbouring Pakistan, before sending them on to wage war on the ‘atheist Communists’ of Afghanistan and their Soviet allies – with Moscow having intervened at the outset of the conflict following an official request for assistance from Kabul.
This decade long intervention by Moscow however, would ultimately fail to shore up their client state, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, with Kabul’s Socialist government lasting a mere three years following the Soviet withdrawal before a civil war would see it replaced by the religious fundamentalist Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1992 – a government which would itself be overthrown by the Taliban four years later.
The ten-year long Soviet effort is also widely seen as a contributing factor to the Bloc’s subsequent breakup in 1991 – indeed, Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Adviser to then-US President Jimmy Carter when Operation Cyclone was launched in 1979 and instrumental in its implementation, would later recount in a 1998 interview about how drawing the USSR into a Vietnam-style quagmire in order to drain its resources was a motivating factor – and with Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu recently outlining a plot to stage a Syria-style false flag chemical attack in eastern Ukraine, as well as media reports of the CIA training Ukrainian guerrilla fighters, drawing Russia into a costly military conflict is seemingly a motivating factor of the regime change lobby yet again.
لم يكن نشوء الكيان السّعودي أقلّ دمويّةً وإرهابيّةً من قيام أميركا التي قامت على أنقاض الهنود الحمر ولا أقلّ إجراماً من نشوء الكيان الصّهيوني الذي قام على أجساد الفلسطينيين، بل كان أكثر إرهاباً وإجراماً وقتلاً وتمثيلاً وتنكيلاً بالبشر. وما يميّزه عن الكيانين الأميركي «والإسرائيلي» يجعله أكثر خطورةً على الأمّة حيث أنّ آل سعود المنحدرين من أصلٍ يهوديٍّ يعود لجدّهم مردخاي بن ابراهام بن موشي الدونمي من يهود الدونمة وفق ما أثبته الكاتب الشّهيد ناصر السعيد في كتابه «تاريخ آل سعود». وعليه فإنّ هؤلاء اليهود الذين أسّسوا الكيان السّعودي بدعمٍ بريطاني تكمن خطورته في الحقائق التّاريخية الآتية:
أولا ـ تبنّيهم للهوية العربيّة وهم يهود في الأصل واتخاذ الإسلام ستاراً للحكم وقيام كيانهم الوظيفي والحليف للكيان الصّهيوني.
ُثانياـ اغتصابهم لشبه الجزيرة العربيّة بدعم بريطانيا التي دعمت قيام الكيان الصّهيوني الذي اغتصب فلسطين.
ثالثا ـ قيام الكيان السّعودي على الغزوات وارتكاب المذابح والمجازر بحقّ القبائل العربيّة كما حصل في فلسطين من غزواتٍ ومذابحَ على يد عصابات الهاغاناه وشتيرن وغيرها.
رابعا ـ ضرب واستهداف كلّ عناصر القوّة في الأمّة لا سيما تيّارات المقاومة وتشتيتها وتحويل مسار الصّراع مع الكيان الصّهيوني إلى صراعاتٍ وحروبٍ داخل الأمة.
عبر التاريخ أثبت الكيان السعودي بكلّ ملوكه وحكّامه الذين توالوا على الحكم هذه الحقائق. فالسعوديّة التي استدرجت الرئيس جمال عبد النّاصر للحرب في اليمن لم تكن مهمّتها سوى إشغال الرئيس المصري عن استكمال المواجهة مع العدو الصّهيوني
فقد كشفت وثائق للمخابرات الأميركيّة والبريطانيّة و»الإسرائيليّة» نشرت مؤخّراً عن حقائق هامّة تتعلّق بدورٍ خطيرٍ قام به الملك فيصل بالتنسيق مع أميركا قبل حرب 1967 للتآمر على عبد النّاصر وهزيمته، وكشفت عن اتصالاتٍ سرّيةٍ أجراها السعوديون بالإسرائيليين بهدف دعمهم مباشرة أو من خلال واشنطن لضرب عبد الناصر وتحجيم دوره القومي، وفرض الهزيمة المعنويّة عليه بعد الهزيمة العسكريّة عام 1967 وهو ما جرى فعلياً…
كذلك الأمر اليوم أعادت السّعودية نفس السيناريو من خلال ما يسمّى بالرّبيع العربي لاستنزاف سورية قلعة المقاومة وحصنها وإشغال المقاومة بعد انتصاري 2000 و2006 ومحاولة تفتيت قدراتها لكنّها فشلت وأسقط مشروعها، ومحاولة استعادة العراق من محور المقاومة، والسّيطرة على اليمن الذي أذلّ طواغيت آل سعود وحلفائهم. لم تتغيّر مسلكية آل سعود منذ نشوء كيانهم الوظيفي حتى اليوم وهذا ليس تحليلاً ولا توقعاً بل وقائع تاريخيّة موثّقة عبّر عنها الزّعيم الراحل :جمال عبد النّاصر في محطاتٍ كثيرةٍ. فمن خطاب له في الثالث والعشرين من كانون الأول/ ديسمبر عام 1962 قال
وفي الثّاني والعشرين من تموز/ يوليو من العام نفسه كشف عبد الناصر عن التّعاون بين الاستعمار والنظام السّعودي قائلاً «لاحظنا في السنة الأخيرة تعاوناً مطلقاً بين الرجعية العربيّة وقوى الاستعمار ويوجد تعاونٌ وتضامنٌ بينهم في العمل ضدّ القومية العربيّة وقوى الثّورة والتّحرر العربي. صفقات السّلاح التي تستهدف العرب ولا تستهدف عدو العرب».
أمّا عن قضية فلسطين وآل سعود فكان للزعيم عبد الناصر رأي يقول
«أنا لا أتصوّر بأيّ حال من الأحوال أن المملكة السعودية تستطيع أن تحارب في فلسطين وفيها قاعدة أميركية وفيها قاعدة بريطانيّة.
لم تكن مواقف الرئيس جمال عبد الناصر حينها طائفيّةً ولا مذهبيةً ولا عشائريةً أو عنصريّةً وهو العربي الذي عمّد عروبته بالدّم، وهو المسلم الذي تقدّم لمقاومة المحتلّ الصهيوني لأرض فلسطين، وهو السني الذي ثار في وجه الظالمين والمستبدّين وفي مقدمتهم آل سعود.
تلك المواقف لم تكن إلا تعبيراً عن واقعٍ وحقيقة دامغة كشفت دور آل سعود ومؤامراتهم على الأمّة. وما قاله الأمين العام لحزب الله السيّد حسن نصر الله في خطابه الأخير في ذكرى الشّهيدين قاسم سليماني وأبي مهدي المهندس هو نفس الحقيقة التي عبّر عنها الرئيس عبد الناصر منذ أكثر من خمسين عاماً، ولا يزال نفس الكيان يتآمر على الأمة ولكي لا يعطي البعض صبغةً طائفيةً أو مذهبيّة لكلام السّيد نصر الله نقول لهم راجعوا مواقف الرّئيس عبد الناصر التي ردّ عليها آل سعود بتكفيره في الثالث والعشرين من كانون الأول/ ديسمبر من عام 1962 حيث نشرت صحيفة «عكاظ» السّعودية على صفحتها الأولى وبالخط العريض فتوى لفقهاء البلاط الملكي تقول (جمال عبد الناصر كافر بالإجماع) عنوان يختصر عقليّة الكيان السّعودي وحكّامه المستعربين الذين لم ولن يتغيّروا. اليوم يكفّرون الشّرفاء ويتهمونهم بالإرهاب وكلّ ذلك لن يغيّر من حقيقة تقول بأنّ الكيان السعودي الذي قام على المذابح والقتل هو أصل الإرهاب وليس أقلّ خطورة من إرهاب العدو الصّهيوني، وأنّ الوهابيّة التي غزت بدواعشها دمشق وبغداد لا تقلّ عدوانية عن عصابات الهاغاناه وشتيرن، وان شيوخ الوهابيّة هم كفقهاء التلمود، وأنّ كيانكم السرطاني سيزول كما سيزول الكيان الصّهيوني والآتي من الأيام سيُنبّئ بذلك.
خمسون عامًا مضت على زيارة مالكوم إكس، ولا يمكن لأحد يزور مكة الآن أن يصفها بالجمال، أو أن يربط ما يرى بأقدس مدن الإسلام، سوف يؤدي المسلمون الحج هذا الأسبوع وسوف يحاولون عبثًا أن يروا في مكة تاريخ الإسلام.
عندما زار مالكوم إكس مكة المكرمة عام 1964، كان مسحورًا بما رأى!. لقد وجد المدينة “قديمة قدم الزمان”، وكتب أن التوسعة التي كانت قد بدأت بشكل جزئي في ذلك الوقت، ستجعل جمال المسجد الحرام يتجاوز الجمال المعماري لتاج محل في الهند.
خمسون عامًا مضت، ولا يمكن لأحد يزور مكة الآن أن يصفها بالجمال، أو أن يربط ما يرى بأقدس مدن الإسلام، سوف يؤدي المسلمون الحج هذا الأسبوع وسوف يحاولون عبثًا أن يروا في مكة تاريخ الإسلام.
الموقع المعماري المهيمن على المدينة ليس المسجد الحرام حيث الكعبة المشرفة، محط أنظار وصلوات المسلمين في كل مكان، لكن ما يهيمن على المشهد هو فندق مكة الملكي وبرج ساعته البغيض الذي يرتفع لـ 1972 قدمًا فوق الأرض، هو واحد من أطول المباني في العالم، بل هو تطور ضخم لناطحات السحاب حيث يضم مراكز تسوق فاخرة وفنادق ومطاعم لفاحشي الثراء، لم تعد القمم الوعرة تهيمن على الرائي، لقد دُكت الجبال القديمة دكًا، ويحيط بالكعبة الآن التي تبدو كقزم هياكل الصلب والخرسانة، فيما يبدو مزيجًا قميئًا من ديزني لاند ولاس فيغاس.
“حراس” المدينة المقدسة والأوصياء عليها، حكام المملكة العربية السعودية، ورجال الدين الوهابيون الذين يمنحونهم الشرعية يملكون كراهية عميقة لتاريخ المسلمين، إنهم يريدون أن يبدو كل شيء جديدًا، وبينما يفعلون ذلك، يوسعون المواقع المقدسة لتستوعب الأعداد المتزايدة من الحجاج، عندما زار مالكوم إكس مكة كان عدد الحجاج لا يتجاوز 200 ألفًا، لكن العدد الآن يقارب 3 ملايين.
بدأت المرحلة الأولى من تدمير مكة المكرمة في منتصف التسعينات، وقد كنت هناك لأشهد ذلك.
المباني القديمة التي لا تُحصى، بما في ذلك مسجد بلال، والتي يعود تاريخها إلى عهد النبي محمد – صلى الله عليه وسلم -، تم تجريفها من أساسها، البيوت العثمانية القديمة مع مشربياتها الجميلة وأبوابها المنحوتة ببراعة، تم استبدالها بأخرى حديثة بشعة، وفي غضون بضع سنوات، تحولت مكة المكرمة إلى مدينة حديثة مع طرق متعددة الحارات تظهر للرائي كتقاطعات السباغيتي! ولا يمكن لعينك أن تخطئ الفنادق المبهرجة ومراكز التسوق.
أما القلة الباقية من المباني والمواقع ذات الأهمية الدينية والثقافية فقد تم تدميرها في الآونة الأخيرة، تم بناء برج الساعة في 2012 على أنقاض نحو 400 موقع تاريخي وثقافي، بما في ذلك المباني القليلة المتبقية والتي يعود عمرها لأكثر من ألف سنة، وصلت الجرافات في منتصف الليل، وشُردت الأسر التي عاشت هناك منذ قرون.
المجمع يقف على قمة قلعة أجياد، التي بُنيت حوالي 1780م لحماية مكة المكرمة من اللصوص والغزاة، بيت السيدة خديجة، الزوجة الأولى للنبي محمد تحول إلى كتلة من المراحيض، أما مكة هيلتون فقد بُني على بيت أبي بكر الصديق، أقرب رفيق لرسول الله وخليفته الأول.
بصرف النظر عن الكعبة نفسها، يحتفظ أصل المسجد الحرام بجزء ضخم من التاريخ، أعمدته الرخامية المنحوتة بشكل معقد تزينت بأسماء الصحابة، بنى تلك الأعمدة السلاطين العثمانيون، تعود تلك الأعمدة لأوائل القرن 16، وحتى الآن، هناك خطط تجري على قدم وساق لهدمها، وكذلك كل المناطق الداخلية من المسجد، ليتم استبدالها بمبنى على شكل كعكة الدونت!
المبنى الوحيد المتبقي ذو الأهمية الدينية هو البيت الذي نشأ فيه النبي محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم، فعلى مدار معظم التاريخ السعودي، كان يُستخدم كسوق للماشية، قبل أن يتحول إلى مكتبة، ولم تكن مفتوحة للناس بالمناسبة.
لكن حتى على الرغم من ذلك، كان ذلك كثيرًا بالنسبة للوهابيين وآل سعود! فدعا شيوخ الوهابية مرارًا وتكرارًا لهدم البيت وتدميره، يخشى الشيوخ أن يسجد المسلمون لرسول الله دونًا عن الله!! ويبدو أن الأمر لم يعد سوى مسألة وقت فقط قبل أن يُهدم البيت النبوي ليُقام مكانه – على الأرجح – موقف للسيارات.
التخريب المتعمد لمكة المكرمة حول شكل المدينة تمامًا! فعلى العكس من بغداد ودمشق والقاهرة، لم تكن مكة مركزًا للفكر الإسلامي، إلا أنها كانت كعبة التجانس والتعددية حيث يتصاعد النقاش بين المذاهب والمدارس الفكرية الإسلامية المختلفة. الآن، تم تقليص التعددية إلى مذهب واحد يرفض التراث والتاريخ ويفسر الإسلام تفسيرًا حرفيًا ويُخطّئ – أو يكفر – كل من يخرج على المدرسة السلفية السعودية، في الواقع، كثيرًا ما يهدد المتطرفون الحجاج من المذاهب الأخرى، في العام الماضي، هوجم مجموعة من الحجاج الشيعة القادمين من الولايات المتحدة بالسكاكين، وفي أغسطس، كتبت مجموعات من المسلمين الأمريكيين للسلطات الأمريكية تطلب منهم الحماية وقت الحج هذا العام.
كان لمحو التاريخ المكي أثر هائل على الحج نفسه، كلمة الحج، تعني “الجهد”، هذا الجهد يعني عناء الذهاب إلى مكة، والمشي من موقع إلى آخر، وإيجاد المسلمين من أصحاب الثقافات الأخرى والتواصل معهم، والتمرغ في تاريخ الإسلام، وبهذا يعود الحجاج بفائدة دنيوية ضخمة كما الإشباع الروحي، لكن الآن، الحج هو رحلة سياحية متكاملة! عندما تتحرك، تتحرك ضمن مجموعة، من فندق إلى آخر، ونادرًا ما تصادف أشخاصًا من ثقافات وأعراق مختلفة، استُنزف التاريخ والثقافة والتعدد، ولم يعد الحج تجربة روحية لا تتكرر، بل أصبح ممارسة اعتيادية – سنوية للكثيرين – يختلط فيها التسوق بممارسة الطقوس. مكة هي صورة مصغرة من العالم الإسلامي، ما يحدث فيها له تأثير عميق على المسلمين في كل مكان، إنها القلب الروحي للإسلام، وهي الآن تغرق في الحداثة، لا يتم التسامح فيها مع الاختلاف، وأُفرغت من تاريخها، وأصبح الاستهلاك هو الهدف الأسمى من زيارتها.
لم يعد من المستغرب إذن أن النصوصية الحرفية، والتأويلات القاتلة التي يتم استقاءها من الإسلام أصبحت هي الأعلى صوتًا في بلاد المسلمين.
The Saudi regime committed yet another crime against opinion prisoners from Qatif eastern province as Adnan Mostafa al-Sharfa was pronounced executed upon a decree by the kingdom’s bloodthirsty rulers.
In allegations to justify the crime, the Saudi interior ministry claimed that al-Sharfa was smuggling weapons and attacking the security forces.
The ministry’s statement mentioned that the execution was carried out upon a royal decree.
The Saudi regime authorities seldom carries out the executions in an attempt to disguise its criminality, especially in the eyes of the western public opinion. saudi arabia executionsSaudiArabiaHumanRights
A former Hamas representative in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Saudi criminal court on Sunday.
Mohammed Al-Khudari was charged with “supporting Hamas”, his brother Abdel-Majed al-Khudari told Anadolu Agency, adding that the sentence included “clemency for half the term (seven-and-a-half years)”.
His son Hani Al-Khudari was also sentenced to three years in prison, he added.
— Ehab Judeh (Crescent Heart) (@ehab_judeh) August 8, 2021
It follows a mass trial against 69 Palestinian and Jordanian detainees accused of providing financial support to Gaza’s rulers.
Al-Khudari is an 83-year-old veteran Hamas leader who was responsible for managing the movement’s relationship with Saudi Arabia for two decades.
In February, Amnesty International said Al-Khudari had undergone surgery and was being treated for prostate cancer when the Saudi authorities arrested him and his son on April 4, 2019.
The rights group called on the Saudi king to ensure that “unfounded charges” against Al-Khudari and his son are dropped and that they are released.
There was no comment from Hamas on Sunday’s verdict.
The court on Sunday also issued various sentences against 67 other Palestinians and Jordanian prisoners, with some handed jail terms of up to 22 years, over alleged support for Hamas.
Dozens of Palestinians have been detained by Saudi authorities since February 2019, including businesspeople, academics, and students.
Today I am opening yet one more open thread and I am offering this suggestion for a topic (not excluding other *related* topics from the discussion): what should the scope of the Russian reaction to a Ukronazi attack be?
Here, I will offer my own opinion in a short bulletpoint format:
Russia should intervene within hours of any Ukrainian attack because leaving the LDNR forces alone will result in needlessly high LDNR casualties. Yes, they can probably resist very effectively, but the cost might be very high. Russia can help without any such massive loss of life.
Early in the operation Russia needs to “lock” the airspace above the theater of operations (at least in the Ukrainian operational depth) and officially declare a no-fly zone.
Russia should strike throughout the operational and even strategic depth of the Ukraine because the Ukronazi armed forces must be disorganized and decapitated. Key Ukronazi officials must be eliminated just like the Wahabis in Chechnia and Syria have been.
Russian forces should stop at or near the current line of contact for a number of reasons including i) the fact that Russia has no moral obligation before the Ukrainian people who have to liberate themselves and not wait for Russia to do so ii) Russia has no need for a long counterinsurgency operation iii) Russia did not break the Ukraine and should not be asked to pay for its reconstruction iv) if Russia inflicts a severe enough defeat on the Ukronazi forces the country will implode anyway.
LDNR forces, however, need to move as far as they see needed to establish a permanent international border (recognized or not, makes no difference) between the LDNR and the rump Banderastan. Russia should support LDNR forces by “maneuvers by fire”, EW, intelligence, control of the airspace and special operations.
The entire Ukrainian Navy and Air Force (both admittedly rather symbolic and amusingly tiny) must be destroyed (including their support infrastructure). The Nazis must be disarmed, like Saakashvili has been in 08.
Though it is unlikely that the Urkonazis would attack Crimea or attempt to breach the rest of the Russo-Ukrainian border, Russia should be ready to fully repeal even a major attack on these directions.
Should any insurrections take place in cities like Mariupol, Nikolaev, Odessa and other, Russia should not openly intervene, but could use her considerable EW and cyberwarfare capabilities to disrupt the functioning of the local Ukronazi authorities.
The radars of Russian coastal defenses and Black Sea Fleet vessels should all switched to a targeting mode to make it clear to any ship sailing in the Black Sea that it’s lifespan is measured in minutes and totally depends on the goodwill of Russia. The same goes for the control of the airspace along/near the Russian airspace.
Last, but not least, Russia should announce the total termination of any and all good exports from Russia to the Ukraine (including energy). Let them choke without the “aggressor’s” goods.
These are just some of my thoughts today, suggestions if you want. Now I would like to turn this over to you and see what you have to say.
As the first Americans demanded their right to independence from British colonialism and the expulsion of the occupiers from America in the nineteenth century, and the French demanded the liberation of their country from Nazism in World War II, and Britain and the United States fulfilled their desire for that. We are in Palestine and Yemen, we call on the friendly Iranian state to seriously intervene to help us achieve our right to expel the Jewish Zionist, Wahhabi occupations, and to achieve the independence of our country …
This is the mouthpiece of the Palestinians and Yemenis who are suffering under the Western Zionism and Wahhabi Zionism.
International law grants this right to all peoples of the world to determine their own destiny and establish their independent sovereign state, governed by justice, law, and peaceful transfer of power, and people managing the affairs of the country.
In other words, we are not asking for more than what was demanded by the first president of the United States of America, when he was leading the American War of Independence (from the British colonialist), which lasted from 1775 to 1783, and ended with the independence of the United States from Britain.
This means that the Palestinian people, as well as the Yemeni people, have the full right to use all means, including military means, to liberate their homeland from the occupation and establish their independent Palestinian state, as well as Yemen, with democracy that guarantees equal rights and duties for all citizens, of different currents, affiliations, and sects.
These same rights were also used by General Charles de Gaulle, during the French War of Liberation, led by General de Gaulle, from May 1940 until the liberation of Paris from German occupation, on 25 August 1944, at the end of the Battle of Paris, which lasted from 19-25 August 1944.
It is the battle that was paved and supported by the United States and Britain, through the implementation of the massive sea and air landing operation, on the coast of Normandy (northwest of Paris) on 6 June 1944, where tens of thousands of soldiers and military vehicles were disembarked, who began their march towards Paris.
The Palestinian people and the Yemeni people have the right to use these means and the whole world, not just the Arab and Islamic nations, must provide the necessary support to the Palestinian and Yemeni peoples to achieve their legitimate goals.
Why all this blame and accusation to the vulnerable peoples today in seeking such deserved assistance and support guaranteed by international law..!?
Why make all these flimsy accusations against Iran or non-Iran for helping vulnerable people under the pretext of what they call interference in the affairs of other countries.!?
Why America and Britain have the right to intervene to save Paris, from the Nazi occupation, and the friends of Palestine and Yemen do not have that, why..!?
Why is the fear, hesitation and reluctance, whether from some of the right-holders themselves, or our resistance and friend’s media in presenting such facts to the world …!
Why some friends conceal the truth of their position or the help that they do or want to do?
So is what they do or intend to do a shame, sin, or crime … !?
Or is it a duty and a pride that they should raise their charges because of him and speak out loud about it and advocate for it in international forums … !?
For all this, an open, clear and firm intervention is required in order to end the continuing crimes of the Zionist and Wahhabi occupations of God-blessed Palestine, and Yemen.
من الآخر وبلا مواربة ولف ودوران، كما طالب الأميركيون الأوائل بحقهم في الاستقلال عن الاستعمار البريطانيّ وطرد المحتلين من أميركا في القرن التاسع عشر، وطالب الفرنسيون بتحرير بلادهم من النازية في الحرب العالمية الثانية ونفذت كلّ من بريطانيا والولايات المتحدة لهم رغبتهم في ذلك، نحن في فلسطين واليمن نطالب الدولة الإيرانية الصديقة بتدخل جدّي لمساعدتنا في تحقيق حقنا في طرد الاحتلالين الصهيوني اليهودي والصهيوني الوهابي وتحقيق استقلال بلادنا… وقضي الأمر الذي فيه تستفتيان…!
هذا هو لسان حال الفلسطينيين واليمنيين الذين يرزحون تحت نير الصهيونية الغربية والصهيونية الوهابية.
والقانون الدولي يمنح هذا الحق، لكافة شعوب العالم، في تقرير مصيرها وإقامة دولتها المستقلة ذات السيادة، والتي يحكمها العدل والقانون والتداول السلمي للسلطة وضمان مشاركة الشعب بأكمله في إدارة شؤون البلاد.
اي أننا لا نطالب بأكثر مما كان يطالب به الرئيس الأول للولايات المتحدة الأميركية، عندما كان يقود حرب الاستقلال الأميركية (عن المستعمر البريطاني)، والتي استمرت من سنة ١٧٧٥ وحتى سنة ١٧٨٣، وانتهت باستقلال الولايات المتحدة عن بريطانيا.
وهذا يعني انّ للشعب الفلسطيني كما للشعب اليمني الحق الكامل في استخدام الوسائل كافة، بما في ذلك الوسائل العسكرية، لتحرير وطنه من الاحتلال الصهيوني وإقامة دولته الفلسطينية المستقلة وكذلك هو الحال في اليمن العربي الأصيل، ومعها الديمقراطية التي تضمن الحقوق والواجبات المتساوية لكلّ المواطنين، من مختلف التيارات والانتماءات والمذاهب والطوائف.
هذه الحقوق نفسها سبق أن استخدمها أيضاً الجنرال شارل ديغول، ابان حرب التحرير الفرنسية، التي قادها الجنرال ديغول، من شهر أيار 1940 وحتى تحرير باريس، من الاحتلال الألماني، بتاريخ 25/8/1944، عند انتهاء معركة باريس التي استمرت من 19-25/8/1944.
وهي المعركه التي مهّدت لها ودعمتها الولايات المتحدة الاميركية وبريطانيا، من خلال تنفيذ عملية الإنزال البحري والجوي الضخم، على سواحل النورماندي (شمال غرب باريس) بتاريخ 6/6/1944، حيث تمّ إنزال عشرات آلاف الجنود والآليات العسكرية، الذين بدأوا زحفهم باتجاه باريس.
للشعب الفلسطيني وكذلك للشعب اليمني الحق في استخدام تلك الوسائل وعلى العالم اجمع، وليس فقط الأمتين العربية والاسلامية، تقديم الدعم اللازم للشعبين الفلسطيني واليمني لتحقيق أهدافهما المشروعة.
لماذا كلّ هذا اللوم والاتهام للشعوب المستضعفة اليوم في طلب مثل هذه المساعدة والإسناد المستحقين واللذين يكفلهما القانون الدولي..!؟
ولماذا توجيه كلّ تلك الاتهامات الواهية لإيران او لغير إيران بسبب مساعدتهما للشعوب المستضعفة بحجة أو ذريعة ما يسمّونه بالتدخل في شؤون الدول الأخرى..!؟
يعني أميركا وبريطانيا يحق لهما التدخل لإنقاذ باريس، من الاحتلال النازي، وأصدقاء فلسطين واليمن لا يحق لهم ذلك، لماذا..!؟
ولماذا التهيّب والتردّد والتلكّؤ سواء من بعض أصحاب الحق أنفسهم أو إعلامنا المقاوم والصديق في طرح مثل هذه الحقائق على العالم…!؟
بل وحتى تخفّي بعض الأصدقاء او إخفاء حقيقة موقفهم او حقيقة مساعدتهم التي يقومون بها او يريدون القيام بها للمستضعفين…!؟
فهل ما يقومون به او ينوون القيام به عيب او ذنب او جريمة…!؟
ام هو واجب وفخر يجب أن يرفعوا هاماتهم بسببه ويجاهرون به ويرافعون من أجله في المحافل الدولية…!؟
لهذا كله مطلوب تدخل صريح وواضح وحازم من أجل إنهاء الجريمة المستمرة والموصوفة للاحتلالين الصهيوني والوهابي لكلّ من فلسطين الأرض والسماء واليمن المنصور بالله.
Stephen Lendman is an American award-winning author, syndicated columnist, and Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Like the U.S., Israel, and other rogue states, the Saudis operate by their own rules in flagrant violation of international laws, norms, and standards. It’s the world’s head-chopping/public whippings capital. Anyone can be targeted for exercising free expression, human rights activism, or other forms of dissent against despotic rule.
They’re also vulnerable for not praying at designated times, improper dress code, non-observance of gender segregation, and other nonconformity with Wahhabi extremism.
Its documented high crimes include state-sponsored murder, torture, arbitrary arrests, and detentions, supporting ISIS and other terrorist groups, partnering in U.S. regional wars, banning free elections, denying due process and judicial fairness, prohibiting religious freedom, human trafficking, kidnappings, committing crimes of war and against humanity, along with virtually every other rule of law breach imaginable.
In mid-November, the London Daily Mail reported the following: “Saudi interrogators forced jailed women’s rights activists to perform sex acts, hung them from ceilings and ‘tortured’ them with electric shocks,” citing a report, titled: “A Stain on World Leaders and the G20 Summit in Saudi Arabia: The shameful detention and torture of Saudi women.”
The report explained that in May 2018, “10 human rights defenders who had successfully campaigned” to end the prohibition against women driving were arrested and detained.
Weeks later, nine more arrests and detentions followed. Targeted individuals were activists for women’s rights in the kingdom. A few are males who support gender equality were also arrested. Most individuals targeted remain detained. It was learned that they were “subjected to torture, inhuman and degrading conditions of detention, solitary confinement, and unfair trial processes.”
In the report, human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy called on G20 nations to boycott the virtual November 21-22 Riyadh summit until wrongfully detained women are free. Other charges included forcing them to watch pornography, along with performing other sexual acts on interrogators.
One detained woman was reportedly told: “I’ll do whatever I like to you, and then I’ll dissolve you and flush you down the toilet.” Another woman said Saudi King Salman’s younger brother, Prince Khalid bin Salman, oversaw what went on, at one point saying: “I can do anything I like to you.”
Commenting on her report, Baroness Kennedy said horrendous abuses endured by detained women in the kingdom wouldn’t be tolerated in “decent nation(s),” adding: “Being expected to deliver for interrogators, what that has done to the soul of a woman is so terrible.”
Saudi abuses against nonviolent activist women are typical of how their ruling authorities always operate — showing contempt for the rights of ordinary people, tolerating no dissent.
Crown prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) is the kingdom’s torturer assassin-in-chief. He personally signed off on the October 2018 brutal murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate. In 2017, he arrested and detained hundreds of royal family members and Saudi businessmen. Held under house arrest at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, they were forced to pay tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and assets to the regime for release — MBS grand theft on the phony pretext of rooting out corruption.
He consolidated power by eliminating rivals and terrorizing potential ones. Royal family members, Saudi businessmen, and others in the kingdom not willing to affirm loyalty to his rule risk arrest, detention, torture, and elimination.
Since appointed crown prince in June 2017 — gaining power because his of father’s mental and physical deterioration — he’s ruthlessly gone all-out to solidify it unchallenged. He likely OK’s sexual and other torture of detained women activists.
UN secretary-general Guterres is largely silent about Western, Israeli and Saudi high crimes, serving their interests instead of condemning them. As long as Saudi Arabia is oil-rich, its wealth used to invest in Western countries and buy their weapons, as well as partnering in their regional wars, their ruling authorities will turn a blind eye to the worst of kingdom high crimes.
Out of the blue, without any reason, the Saudi regime security personnel detained religious scholars Sheikh Abbas al-Said and Sayyed Khodo al-Awami after raiding their homes in the town of Awamiah, in Saudi Arabia’s Qatif eastern province.
According to the Deputy Chief of the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Adel al-Said, who is the brother of Sheikh Abbas, the two detainees have been repeatedly investigated over the past ten years. However, their arrest was probably aimed at causing fear and terror among everybody.
In parallel, the Saudi regime authorities reported that Ashura mourning reciter Mohammad Bou Jbarah was transferred to the Dammam General Prison where he is set to be tried along with eight other youths who were arrested on October 4th for filming an artwork commemorating Imam Hussein’s [AS] Arbaeen anniversary.
According to Mirat al-Jazeera website, the nine men spent three weeks inside the Dammam Investigations Prison without being allowed any visit, and families and lawyers contacts.
The website also uncovered that the Saudi regime authorities are practicing a new arbitrary policy that violates the privacy of the released detainees, in which the prison’s administration chase them with electronic bracelets they have to wear so it can spy on them. This comes as a revenge for their endurance in front of the jailer, in which the regime insists to keep them under surveillance despite achieving their freedom.
Relatively, the Saudi regime sticks to violating the human rights of the people in Qatif and al-Ahsaa without any deterrence. It is also clinging to its dark record of torturing detainees behind bars and after their release to lay more sufferings upon them and increase their psychological stress via different invented and individual methods of taking revenge and practicing oppression.
Anti-Islamic Muslim Brotherhood terrorists loyal to the Turkish madman Erdogan and Kurdish separatist militiamen of the SDF carried coordinated attacks against the Syrian locals in the northern and eastern countryside of Raqqa province, north of Syria.
Both NATO-affiliated militias operate in regions they took control over with the help of US and Turkish armies after flag-exchange ceremonial stunts with ISIS terrorists. The only fights took place there were against the locals while the Pentagon media was hyping Kurdish separatists non-existing fights against ISIS, the offshoot of Al Qaeda, another NATO-US affiliate.
Turkish forces and their anti-Islamic Muslim Brotherhood terrorist affiliates shelled with artillery the towns of Khalidiya and Hoshan in the Ain Issa region, in the furthest northern Raqqa countryside bordering NATO member state Turkey.
The Turkish forces and their affiliated terrorists used its artillery and missiles in its indiscriminate shelling of the houses and farmlands of the locals in the above-mentioned two towns causing severe material damages in a number of properties, this is a continuation of the bombing of the Ain Issa region on the 16th of this month which resulted in killing a child and causing material damage.
Erdogan, the Neo-Ottoman sultan wannabe, wants to Israelize most of the northern parts of Syria which are rich in oil, water, wheat, and cotton farms, in part to have more land control and in another part to deprive Syria of its main food and energy sources. Erdogan wants to replace the people of these regions with members of the Muslim Brotherhood groups and their families he’s displacing from other areas in northeast Syria.
The current leader of Al Qaeda Ayman Zawahri is also a member of the Muslim Brotherhood ideology, an ideology created by the Brits over a century ago along with Wahhabism in Arabia and Zionism in Europe to manipulate crowds through their religions by misquoting and misinterpreting the divine teachings in the holy books.
At the same time, Kurdish separatist militiamen of the SDF raided a number of villages in the eastern countryside of Raqqa, it kidnapped a large number of civilians and took them to its quarters in Gestapo-style raids.
Among the kidnapped were around 50 young men who were taken to special concentration camps for brainwashing and training to fight their own countrymen in the Syrian Arab Army and the Syrian police.
Earlier on Tuesday, last week, the Kurdish SDF separatists raided the city of Tabqa and the towns of Sakkir in Raqqa eastern countryside, and the town of Baghuz in Deir Ezzor eastern countryside. The Kurdish separatists imposed a full siege over the raided towns and carried out door to door raids.
This comes as attacks by unknown armed men against the Kurdish SDF separatists have been escalating especially after the Kurdish militia assassinated prominent elders of the local tribes in the region with the help and under the protection of Trump forces operating illegally in Syria.
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لم يمض عشرة أيام على خطاب الرئيس الفرنسي الذي شنّ فيه حملة غير مسبوقة على ما أسماه الإسلام السياسي الانعزالي (انظر مقالة البناء يوم 6 الشهر الحالي بعنوان: ماكرون يحارب الإسلام انتخابياً) حتى وقع ما حذّر ما منه وكنا نخشاه، وحصلت جريمة ذبح أستاذ الجغرافيا والتاريخ في مدرسة في إحدى ضواحي باريس على يد مهاجر شيشاني بسبب اتهام بعض أهالي الطلاب للمعلم بالإساءة للنبي محمد عبر تخصيص حصة حول الرسوم الكاريكاتوريّة التي نشرتها صحيفة شارلي أبدو قبل أعوام.
هذه الجريمة البشعة والتي لا يمكن سوى إدانتها وشجبها، لم تأت من فراغ ولم تحصل صدفة أو لأن هناك أشخاصاً أو شخصاً قرّر ارتكابها، كما أنها ليست حالة منفردة ونخشى أنها لن تكون الأخيرة في مسلسل الصدام الذي بدأ بين فرنسا وسلفيّيها الذين طالما احتضنتهم وربّتهم وسهّلت لهم كل سبل القوة طمعاً بالأموال القطرية والسعودية التي لا تتوقف عن إمداد هؤلاء السلفيين تحت أعين الأجهزة الفرنسية ومعرفة الساسة في فرنسا، فضلاً عن سعي فرنسا للعب دور سياسي وعسكري في العالم العربي عبر استخدام مجاميعها من السلفيين في ليبيا ومن ثم على نطاق أوسع في سورية.
الآن وبعد حصول هذه الجريمة التي نكرّر إدانتنا لها، وبدلاً من أن تعمل الحكومة الفرنسية والرئيس الفرنسي على إعادة النظر في الحملة التي بدأها ماكرون على الإسلام كدين وعلى مسلمي فرنسا بحجج واهية محملاً إياهم مسؤولية وجود مجموعات سلفية في أوساطهم متناسياً أن هؤلاء السلفيين كانوا الجهة المدللة للحكومات الفرنسية المتعاقبة منذ عهد شيراك حتى اليوم. هذه الحكومة وهذا الرئيس صعّدوا من هجومهم على الإسلام وعقد الرئيس الفرنسي إيمانويل ماكرون اجتماعاً شبه عسكري وامني طارئ يوم أول أمس الأحد حضره كل من وزير الداخلية ووزير الدفاع والخارجية والتربية وقائد أركان الجيش ومدعي عام الجمهورية الخاص بقضايا الإرهاب نتج عنه قرار من الرئيس بتسريع الإجراءات والقرارات التي اتخذها قبل عشرة أيام؛ وهي في خلاصتها تضع الإسلام كدين في خانة التجريم والمسلمين كبشر في خانة الاتهام المستمر ووضعهم تحت نظام حالة طوارئ، في مسعى انتخابي واضح وفرت له جريمة الجمعة الماضية أسباب الاستغلال الرخيص والخطر.
أخشى ما أخشاه أن تكون جريمة الجمعة الماضية ليست سوى بداية الصدام بين متطرفي الحكم في فرنسا ومتطرفين سلفيين طالما عملوا سوياً وكانوا حلفاء في سورية وليبيا، والآن انقلبوا على علاقتهم القديمة لأسباب انتخابية وأمنية وسياسية سوف نشرحها في مقالات مقبلة..
Food shortages will rise sharply in parts of war-torn Yemen in the next six months mainly because of the overall economic decline and the coronavirus pandemic that has ripped through the Arab world’s poorest country, United Nations agencies warned.
A report by the World Food Program [WFP], the UN Children’s Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organization said the number of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity is expected to increase from two million to 3.2 million in the country’s south.
Yemen has been the site of the largest food crisis in the world since the beginning of the Saudi war against the country in 2015.
Coronavirus restrictions, economic shocks, conflict, reduced remittances, desert locusts, floods and significant underfunding of this year’s aid response have compounded an already dire hunger situation after five years of war.
Famine, nevertheless, has never been officially declared in Yemen.
“Yemen is facing a crisis on multiple fronts,” said Laurent Bukera, the WFP director for Yemen. “We must act now.”
Yemen’s conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and created the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, with more than three million people internally displaced and two-thirds of the population reliant on food assistance for survival.
“Yemen is again on the brink of a major food security crisis,” said Lise Grande, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.
Some 24 million Yemeni people – 80 percent of the country’s population – require some form of assistance or protection, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
And 75 percent of UN programs for the country, covering essentially every sector, from food to healthcare and nutrition, have already shut their doors or reduced operations.
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 