Free Republic

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Hariri's resignation, the Saudi purge, and the Houthi missile fired at Riyadh are interconnected.Saturday night was a busy one for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The kingdom’s 32-year old heir to the throne excelled himself. He surpassed the high levels of chaos and human misery he had already achieved as the defence minister who launched the air campaign on Yemen. First up was the sudden resignation of the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri after just one year in office. Hariri made his announcement from Riyadh, which is a curious place...

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a bitter and vocal rival of U.S. President Donald J. Trump, has been arrested in the royal family’s sweeping anti-corruption crackdown. Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz has arrested and removed a slew of corrupt and prominent officials, including dozens of princes and former ministers. Al Arabiya, a Saudi state-run news outlet, reported bin Talal was among those arrested. People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) confirmed he was one of at least 11 princes arrested. The billionaire chairman of Kingdom Holding Co. was once a business associate of President Trump. But his “America First” platform was a direct threat...

Saudi Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, son of the late King Abdullah and the highest-ranking royal to be imprisoned during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s corruption crackdown, was released on Tuesday after three weeks of detention.Prince Miteb paid a huge financial settlement, reportedly in excess of one billion dollars, to resolve the corruption charges against him. The charges are said to have included “embezzlement, hiring ghost employees and awarding contracts to his own firms, including a deal for walkie talkies and bulletproof military gear.” CNN notes that Miteb was “seen as a hurdle in the meteoric rise of Saudi Crown Prince...

Caroline Glick provides essential background and context (read here or here) for understanding the purge underway in Saudi Arabia and its impact on us. Along the way, she considers our very own D.C. lobbyists and reveals information that is on the record yet, as James Lewis pointed out to me, is almost never mentioned in the media: Saudi government spending on lobbyists in Washington far outstrips that of any other nation. According to Justice Department disclosures from earlier this year, since 2015, Saudi Arabia vastly increased its spending on influence peddling. According to a report by The Intercept, "Since 2015,...