Free Republic

Hillary Clinton’s attorney Michael Sussmann walked free from court this week after lying under oath to the FBI in their sham Trump-Russia investigation. Joe and Hunter Biden walk free after crackhead Hunter documented their unethical and presumed criminal deals with officials from China to Moscow to Ukraine. The Biden family made hundreds of millions in their illicit international deals. But that is ignored by the Democrats, the DOJ, and their compliant media. Instead, Democrats are investigating Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. ......snip...... A $2 billion investment by a Saudi Arabian wealth fund in Jared Kushner’s private equity firm is the subject...

The arrests have raised questions about whether the crown prince was on the verge of taking full power from his father, King Salman. The scope of a new roundup of Saudi royals widened on Saturday with word that a fourth senior prince has been detained under orders from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to two Saudis close to the royal family, in a sign that he is determined to crack down on even whispers of dissent. The wave of arrests has ensnared a former head of army intelligence, Prince Nayef bin Ahmed, as well as at least three other...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Saudi Arabia appointed its first female ambassador early Sunday to serve as its top diplomat in the United States, pulling a son of King Salman back to the kingdom to serve as deputy defense minister amid deteriorating ties with America after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, a daughter of the kingdom's longtime ambassador to Washington Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, faces a stark challenge in improving ties between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Was the assassination of JFK by Lee Harvey Oswald still getting as much media coverage three weeks after his death as it did that first week after Nov. 22, 1963? Not as I recall. Yet, three weeks after his murder, Jamal Khashoggi, who was not a U.S. citizen, was not killed by an American, and died not on U.S. soil but in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, consumes our elite press. The top two stories in Monday's Washington Post were about the Khashoggi affair. A third, inside, carried the headline, "Trump, who prizes strength, may look weak in hesitance to...

ISTANBUL — The rulers of Saudi Arabia are considering blaming a top intelligence official close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, three people with knowledge of the Saudi plans said Thursday. The plan to assign blame to Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, would be an extraordinary recognition of the magnitude of international backlash to hit the kingdom since the death of Mr. Khashoggi, a prominent Saudi dissident. A resident of Virginia and contributor to The Washington Post, Mr. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul 16...

Over the weekend Donald Trump warned of "severe punishment" if an investigation concludes that a Saudi hit team murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh then counter-threatened, reminding us that, as the world's largest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia "plays an impactful and active role in the global economy." Message: Sanction us, and we may just sanction you. Some of us yet recall how President Nixon's rescue of Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War triggered a Saudi oil embargo that led to months of long gas lines in the United States, and contributed to...

UNCONFIRMED: COUP ATTEMPT AT THE ROYAL PALACE IN RIYADH SAUDI ARABIA IS UNDERWAY KING SALMAN EVACUATED TO AN AIR FORCE BASE

US President Donald Trump briefly joined Saudi King Salman in a traditional male-only sword dance.....

The Saudi crown prince is making his first visit to Washington to shore up investments and political support from Riyadh's closest Western ally. Ten months after the last face-to-face meeting between Trump and Prince Mohammed bin Salman as deputy Crown Prince in Riyadh, the 71-year-old president and the 32-year-old strongman prince are expected to deepen an already warm and congenial relationship. Several dozen Saudi chief executives have joined to tout investment opportunities in the kingdom, particularly in the areas of technology, entertainment and tourism, a Washington source said. Talks will also include a U.S. bid to build two nuclear reactors...

Saudi Prince Bandar bin Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud passed away on Monday, March 12, the Royal Court announced in a statement. His funeral prayers will be performed at the Grand Mosque in Makkah following Asr (afternoon) regular prayer on Tuesday, March 13, the official Saudi News Agency (SPA) reported.UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has sent a cable of condolences to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Prince Bandar bin Khalid’s death, official news agency WAM reported. Similar cables were also dispatched by the UAE’s Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed...

“Dopey” Prince Alaweed Was Warned — Now He Sits In Prison In December 2015 Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal slammed Donald Trump for proposing a ban on Muslim immigrants in the US after the San Bernardino attacks. Donald Trump hit the “dopey prince” back twice as hard. "Detained members of Saudi elite have been hung by their feet and beaten by interrogates, source says. Among those hung upside down are Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an investor worth at least $7 billion who is being held at Riyadh’s Ritz Carlton. Saudi princes and billionaire businessmen arrested in a power grab earlier...

Saudi princes and billionaire businessmen arrested in a power grab earlier this month are being strung up by their feet and beaten by American private security contractors, a source in the country tells DailyMail.com. The group of the country's most powerful figures were arrested in a crackdown ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman three weeks ago as he ordered the detention of at least 11 fellow princes and hundreds of businessmen and government officials over claims of corruption. DailyMail.com can disclose that the arrests have been followed by 'interrogations' which a source said were being carried out by 'American...

The next Saudi King Crown Prince Muhammad and Israel agree that Iran is the biggest threat to the region, but Israel’s top soldier rules out initiating an attack on Hizballah. Two London publications on the same day shed unusual light on the next chapter in Saud royal history, as well as on the hitherto semi-clandestine ties between Riyadh and Jerusalem. Daily Mail, quoting “a source close to the Saudi royal family” reported that King Salman, 91, intends to give up the throne next week and name his son, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, 32 as his successor. The king will...

The dramatic events in Saudi Arabia of the past few days portend a game change in the Middle East not seen in decades. Predictably, the mainstream media, desperate as they are to find something, anything to blame on President Trump, have completely missed it. Instead, they have babbled about the market implications of the arrests of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Co., Saudi Arabia ‘emerging’ as an arms manufacturer, conflict with Hezbollah, palace intrigue, etc. etc. Few have put their finger on the actual events – a palace revolution in Riyadh that could change the Middle East in profound and...

The King of Saudi Arabia plans to step down and announce his son as his successor next week, a source close to the country's royal family has exclusively told DailyMail.com. The move is seen as the final step in 32-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman's power grab, which began earlier this month with the arrests of more than 40 princes and government ministers in a corruption probe. The source said King Salman will continue only as a ceremonial figurehead, handing over official leadership of the country to his son - often referred to as MBS.

As much as we try to paint things black and white in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), nothing is ever that simple. Over the past week, the Anti-Corruption Committee in KSA, driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), effected a number of detentions of high-profile and wealthy Saudis on suspicion of various forms of corruption. Experts have argued whether the anti-corruption arrests are meant to be taken at face value or instead interpreted as a move towards political power consolidation. While it seems unlikely to be a power play since, to be frank, MBS already held it, a...

Some senior figures detained in last Saturday's purge in Saudi Arabia were beaten and tortured so badly during their arrest or subsequent interrogations that they required hospital treatment, Middle East Eye can reveal. People inside the royal court also told MEE that the scale of the crackdown, which has brought new arrests each day, is much bigger than Saudi authorities have admitted, with more than 500 people detained and double that number questioned. Members of the royal family, government ministers and business tycoons were caught up in the sudden wave of arrests orchestrated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known...

It’s hard to tell what exactly is happening in Saudi Arabia. The New York Times presents it as a genuine relaxation of Islamic strictures, which, as is clear from the Times article itself, is not the same thing as reform of Islam: Muslim clerics who know full well what the contents of Islamic law are regard the crackdown with extreme concern, precisely because they’re afraid that Muhammad bin Salman will transgress the bounds of Islam.The arrest of Prince Alwaleed, in any case, is good news, but not for any reason that the establishment media will present. (The corruption charge in...

A coup is taking place within the House of Saud, in which a modernizing monarch is grabbing power and taking out rivals. Forces now under command of the ruler just arrested 11 princes among dozens of others and is launching financial investigations that could lead to serious punishment. In Saudi Arabia, they behead people (at least 157 times in 2015) and amputate a limb off of thieves. It is widely believed that baksheesh is not unknown in Saudi Arabian business circles, and an “anti-corruption committee” was recently formed. In other words, the tools are in place to take out any...

A Saudi prince has been killed in a helicopter crash near Yemen, according to a report. Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, the son of the former Crown Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz and deputy governor of Saudi Arabia’s Asir Province, perished in the accident, reports the Agence France-Presse. The chopper was carrying other government officials, though their fate remains unclear.