The CIA concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered journalist Jamal Khashoggi killed, but the young ruler is there to stay, and so is the cosy US-Saudi relationship, a prominent CIA whistleblower told RT.
With enough information leaked from the CIA, the NSA, the FBI and the Turkish national intelligence organization, Kiriakou says there is little doubt among the analysts that it was Mohammed bin Salman (MBS for short) who had ordered the killing.
The CIA, for its part, concluded with “medium to high confidence” that Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October, and was never seen again, was tortured and murdered on orders coming from MBS.
But despite media outrage and pressure from some US lawmakers to cut off weapons sales to Riyadh, President Donald Trump is sticking by the embattled Saudi prince, and has cast doubt on the CIA’s conclusions. Former CIA agent and whistleblower Kiriakou believes that US-Saudi relations are unlikely to change any time soon.
“We’ve got this long so-called ‘special relationship’ with the Saudis,” Kiriakou told RT. “It really isn’t a ‘special relationship.’ It’s a very simple relationship where we buy Saudi oil and the Saudis buy American weaponry….and the president doesn’t want to upset the boat.”
Within the desert Kingdom, change is also a mere fantasy. MBS has been touted as a reformer, but has done little in practice to change the country’s medieval legal system.
“I think the so-called reforms are all fake,” Kiriakou said. “This is a country that still crucifies people. I have a personal friend who was recently sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for participating in a peaceful pro-democracy demonstration.”