Friday, August 28, 2009

Prince Muhammad Bin Nayif Survives an assassination attempt

Something fishy about the announced assassination attempt on Prince Muhammad Bin Nayif's life. First, he is now running the Ministry of Interior on behalf of his father. He was brought in because the Americans could not deal with Prince Nayif especially after Sep. 11. Prince Nayif after all was suspicious of the American account of Sep. 11, and was quite uncooperative with US intelligence and security agencies. Prince Muhammad studied in the US and was also trained in "counter-terrorism" in the US. So after Sep. 11, he was the trusted ally of the US in the Saudi interior ministry. But the account of the assassination attempt is not very clear or convincing. Al-Watan newspaper (the mouthpiece of Prince Khalid Al-Faysal) said that he the bomber detonated himself while being searched. Yet, there is a different account that the Prince himself recounted in meeting with the Saudi King and this aired on Saudi TV channels. In that account (available in video on Saudi sites), Prince Muhammad tells the King that he had only minor injuries when no injuries were visible. But the Saudi King (who has the intelligence level of a roasted potato) asked the obvious question: he asked him why the man was not searched. The Prince said that it was his mistake. More surprisingly, he added that this bombing occurred not in the Ministry but in the private home of Prince Muhammad. So Prince Muhammad allowed this wanted man to enter his home and meet with him without being searched. There is more to the story, I am sure. Also, the Saudi media which usually spend 20 or more minutes to cover the smallest development in Syria or Iran, has been restricting coverage of the story to a few seconds only, before moving to cover what they now call "the velvet revolution" in reference to Iranian developments. But look at this pathetically fawning column by an ostensible Saudi liberal (Jamal Khashuqji, who was a fighter with Bin Laden before he became a Wahhabi liberal and a spokesperson to Prince Turki.) This Sauid Wahhabi liberal said: "We are all Muhammad Bin Nayif...Muhammad bin Nayif is Islam. We are the sanctuary and we are the Shari`ah. We are the Islamic state while they are the Kharijites...Let us to do them what Ali Bin Abi Talib [did]." Also, for amusement, read the comments under the column. (thanks F.)