Posted on 06/07/2017 4:07:12 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi middleman-for-hire who amassed huge wealth and influence peddling everything from American weapons to favors for Riyadh’s rulers and CIA spymasters, only to see his fortunes collapse amid the Iran-contra affair and other scandals, died June 6 at a hospital in London. He was 81, by most accounts.
The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, the family said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.
Mr. Khashoggi’s name may have lost its luster since his peak in the 1970s and 1980s, but not so the list of misdeeds and abuses that remain defining events of the time. Though never convicted, the U.S.-educated Mr. Khashoggi was linked, as a money-mover and five-star fixer, with some of the era’s most infamous figures and schemes.
At the same time, he moved seamlessly between covert shadows and dazzling opulence — a lifestyle estimated by the Economist in 1987 to cost $250,000 a day. He partied with the Hollywood elite such as Cary Grant and Elizabeth Taylor; traveled in a blinged-out DC-8 jet; kept an Indian swami as an on-call adviser; and boasted about his bevy of young mistresses.
This was grade-A fodder for tabloids and gossip magazines years before Mr. Khashoggi’s nephew Dodi al-Fayed riveted the world’s attention with his brief and tragic romance with Princess Diana.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Did he die of natural causes?
Sorry should have read more carefully. My question was dumb.
“Parkinson’s disease”
brutal natural cause.
Just a note on that song by Queen where the band speaks of their good and luxurious life, boasting of the holiday taken on Khashoggi’s ship....
One finds it very interesting how even the rich and famous rock and roll elite can sing about their upper 1% lifestyle, and then deign to lecture the masses on how consumerism is destroying the future.
I like Queen, never wanted to deny them their success, but neither should they (or U2 or Katy Perry or Bruce Springsteen) pretend to know more than us about what is best for society....especially when THEY have more than 99% of their fans.
Oh yeah, THAT guy!
It would have been fruitful to haul his butt to Gitmo and wring every last tidbit out of his brain before his dirt nap.
“nephew Dodi al-Fayed”
Wow didn’t know they were related. So would be Diana had she married Dodi.
Yeah, not a good way to go.
Dude was bad azz...
A friend was installing windmill water pumps on Khashojgi’s 50,000 acre ranch in Kenya. We stopped in there back in 1980 to check on the progress.
They were doing the finishing work on the ranch house. Whoooeee! He had a 3000 foot grass runway and petitioned the Kenya government to allow him to lengthen & pave it so he could land his 727. Kenya said “No Way!”
Khashoggi wanted to build his “next house” over in a group of huge boulders. The architect was taking notes, then said, “But Mr. K, you don’t own this land.”
“Then I’ll buy it.”
“But it’s 30,000 acres!”
“Not a problem.”
His ranch manager tried to recruit me to fly a helo for them. Naaa, not my cup of tea!
Big figure in the ‘80s. RIP.
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