A new report reveals that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman kept his anti-dissident death squad so busy in 2018 that its members requested bonuses.
This is one of many revelations about the extent of Prince Mohammed’s use of the hit squad reported Monday by the New York Times. According to the article, Mohammed’s alleged ordering of the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October was only one part of a larger campaign to silence dissidents. Dubbed the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group by American officials, the group is believed to have been involved in at least a dozen violent campaigns starting in 2017. Their actions ranged from forcibly repatriating Saudi Arabians who had fled to other countries to torturing prisoners in palaces owned by Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman. On one occasion, a university professor who had written about the status of women in Saudi Arabia attempted suicide due to the extreme psychological torture she had experienced.
Although in theory Saudi Arabian law prohibits torture, that apparently hasn’t dissuaded the prince known around the world as MBS from allegedly ordering and endorsing the practice. Yet the prince’s power may now be diminishing, according to a recent report by the Guardian. MBS has not been involved in recent important ministerial and diplomatic meetings over the past two weeks, that article reports, and has also lost some of his authority over financial and economic matters. While this diminution of his power may only be temporary, it is nevertheless significant given that he had been seen as the dominant figure in the Saudi monarchy.
View the March 18 article by Matthew Rozsa with Salon on the AlterNet website here.