International Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Ambitious Quest to Modernize Saudi Arabia

Rematch said:
1. All the opposing SA royals in one place that is now with minimal human collateral.
2. A war with Yemen in which recently a Yemenese missile soared over SA
3. ????
4. FALSE FLAG
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5. Prophet!!!
 
mr.bigglesworth said:
The Saud family is just buttering the world up before that shithole monarchy is exposed for the many crimes they've committed which kept the middle east in a perpetual state of war for the past century.
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that won't happen because it make the other big world powers who helped them complicit.
 
Rod1 said:
Well, the clerics seem to be supporting his purge for the moment.
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Yeah, seems like the Prince is using them as a mouthpiece to help control the population until he can get some of his reforms implemented.
 
A panelist on CNBC last night suggested it was a power preservation thing disguised as anti-corruption.
 
‘Game of Thrones’ Comes to Saudi Arabia
By ELLIOTT ABRAMS | NOV. 6, 2017

06abrams-nyt-master768.jpg

King Salman of Saudi Arabia, left, speaks with his son the crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, in Riyadh, in May 2012. Prince Mohammed, who has spoken of modernizing Saudi Arabia, announced the arrests of 11 of his princely cousins over the weekend.​


Over the weekend, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia announced the arrests of 11 of his princely cousins, among them some of the kingdom’s most prominent businessmen; he also announced several dramatic changes to top government ministries, including the creation of a powerful new anticorruption committee. Why? Was it a coup? The response to a failed coup? Some kind of purge?

The background to these events is the continuing centralization of power in the hands of the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who is one of King Salman’s sons. Over the past two years he has taken over most of the key economic and security posts and has clearly emerged as the most important operator in the government. The crown prince is also deputy prime minister (under the king, who is also prime minister) and minister of defense. All this at the age of 32.

This steady seizure of power has given rise to resistance within and outside the royal family, and Mohammed bin Salman’s elevation to crown prince was not unanimously supported when the top royal princes met to approve it. In the Saudi system, power has been passed among the sons of the founder of the modern Saudi kingdom, known as Ibn Saud, since his death in 1953. That made the king more primus inter pares than absolute monarch. One king was removed by his brothers (Saud, in 1964), and the system has permitted fiefs: The late King Abdullah was head of the National Guard for decades, and his son Miteb bin Abdullah took it over after his death; the late Prince Nayef served as minister of interior for 37 years and his son came after him; the late Prince Sultan was minister of defense for nearly a half century, and his son Khalid was his deputy.

Crown Prince Mohammed is putting an end to all that, taking some of those posts himself and removing others from the seemingly permanent control of any one branch of the family. All power is going to his branch — to his father, himself and his own allies; one brother is now the new Saudi ambassador to the United States.

Among the most notable moves was the removal of Prince Miteb — son and close adviser of Salman’s predecessor, the late King Abdullah — as head of the National Guard. You don’t need to be addicted to “Game of Thrones” to see the logic in that move: don’t allow a potential rival to keep his hands on a major locus of military power in the kingdom. Similarly, the arrest of perhaps the kingdom’s richest man, the billionaire international investor Alwaleed bin Talal, will both clip his wings and send a message that no one is beyond reach.

It was possible to pass the post of king from brother to brother in order of age when there were only 36 brothers who lived to adulthood, and that is what the Saudis have been doing since 1953 until King Salman’s accession to the throne in 2015. It will not be possible to govern that way in Crown Prince Mohammed’s generation, where there are literally hundreds of eligible princes. He may wish to establish a single line of succession, including only the descendants of his father, King Salman. To do that will require raw power.

Recently I asked a Saudi friend why Salman chose Crown Prince Mohammed as his successor, given that he is not his oldest son. The answer: “The King thinks Mohammed is the toughest. He’ll pull the trigger when he needs to.” This weekend, he did just that.

But why take such rapid action rather than a slow and steady series of changes? The answer is not yet clear. Some Saudi watchers believe that a coup attempt was uncovered or had begun, and that Crown Prince Mohammed crushed it. All those suspected of being involved are now being purged. A helicopter crash on Sunday near the border with Yemen killed one Saudi prince and several other officials, leading some to speculate if this was truly an accident. Meanwhile those arrested are being detained at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh. Only in Saudi Arabia could a Ritz-Carlton pass for a jail.

Another theory suggests that King Salman, who is 81 and reportedly not in the best of health, may soon abdicate, and Crown Prince Mohammed is acting now while his father is king by removing rivals and critics.

Is this centralization of power a good thing for the United States, or even for Saudi Arabia? That question will best be answered retrospectively, in about a decade. What’s clear now, though, is that Crown Prince Mohammed has announced ambitious economic and social changes, from allowing women to drive and mix with men in sports stadiums, to selling off a part of the kingdom’s key asset, the Aramco oil company, to challenging the ideology of the Wahhabi clerics. He appears to believe that such moves require sheer power, both to overcome resistance and to move the kingdom’s poorly educated and youthful population (roughly half are under the age of 25) of 33 million into the 21st century.

Crown Prince Mohammed has spoken of a more modern Saudi Arabia, at least when it comes to the role of religion and the rights of women. Last month he called for “a moderate Islam open to the world and all religions.” But political liberalization is not in the cards. Indeed, a serious crackdown has been underway for the last two years, including lengthy prison terms for tweets that criticized the Saudi authorities. The message from the palace is clear: get on board or pay the price. That message applies not only to commoners, but to the entire royal family.

Few were in doubt about Crown Prince Mohammed’s ambition. Now there will be equal certainty about his determination. Those who think he’s going to fail, or hope he does, are on notice. This modernizer thinks the path forward is an absolute monarchy. Get out of his way.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/opinion/crown-prince-saudi-arabia.html
 
Alwaleed's investment portfolio is taking a beating:

Shares of Prince Alwaleed’s company, Kingdom Holding Co., however, fell as much as 10% on trading. The company ended Sunday down 7.6%. Investors were clearly reacting to the news of Alwaleed’s detention in the anti-corruption sweep, because independent of recent events, the company announced third quarter profits of $66 million and a 76% increase in revenue. In Monday trading, Kingdom Holding Company dropped another 5%. Prince Alwaleed’s company also holds significant shares of Citigroup, Twitter, Apple and Lyft, among other investments. According to reports, the assets of all of the men currently detained have been not been seized, although Saudi banks have begun to freeze the bank accounts of those under investigation. Surely, the companies in which Prince Alwaleed is a major stakeholder will be watching to see how Saudi authorities proceed .
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenr...cting-to-events-in-saudi-arabia/#2303e4071299
 
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Fluffernutter said:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-06/second-saudi-prince-confirmed-killed-during-crackdown

A prince died in a fire fight as they tried to arrest him
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That article says the prince was deeply involved in the massive Saudi construction company Saudi Oger, which was created by the Harriri family of Lebanon. Now Saad Hariri just resigned as PM of Lebanon while visiting Saudi Arabia. Everyone took the resignation as action orderd by Salman and MBS.

Hariri claims his life is under threat from Iran and Hezbollah. But then all major Lebanese politicians' lives are always under some threat. And why would Iran and Hezbollah move against Saad when he has gone along with Hezbollah being in the Leb government, because he really couldn't do anything about Hezbollah .

Saudi Oger ceased operations this year after incurring massive debts. And they didn't pay their laborers, not an uncommon practice amongst the Gulf Arabs.

Sounds like Saudi is setting up Saad Hariri to be killed and laying the blame on Hezbollah. You hear it here first folks!
 
MicroBrew said:
This purging makes me happy, anytime those bastards are at each other's throats it is good.Trump should pour fuel on the fire and egg MBS , getting him to make unwise decisions.
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Yep, anytime those fuck off each other in great numbers is a good thing.

Maybe this guy is young enough to see islam for the horse shit bs it really is, and this is the only way to gain some control over it. It's been proven all over time and time again only a iron handed tyrant can control that idiotic ideology in any meaningful way. Once he secures enough power, i could see him turning on some clerics while propping up others.
 
Skulli said:
Yep, anytime those fuck off each other in great numbers is a good thing.

Maybe this guy is young enough to see islam for the horse shit bs it really is, and this is the only way to gain some control over it. It's been proven all over time and time again only a iron handed tyrant can control that idiotic ideology in any meaningful way. Once he secures enough power, i could see him turning on some clerics while propping up others.
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Lol, is turning on his clerics, code words for funding ISIS?
 
VivaRevolution said:
Lol, is turning on his clerics, code words for funding ISIS?
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He has all the making of a tyrant, one thing tyrants don't do is share power with religious retards.

He'll use then to consolidate power until they outlive their usefulness or worse become threats.
 
Many of the Saudi royal family went to western universities. The former crown Prince even went to Lewis & Clark College.

However, MbS (the current Crown Prince and the guy making these decisions) has only done his schooling in Saudi Arabia.

Should that be a concern?
 
MicroBrew said:
That article says the prince was deeply involved in the massive Saudi construction company Saudi Oger, which was created by the Harriri family of Lebanon. Now Saad Hariri just resigned as PM of Lebanon while visiting Saudi Arabia. Everyone took the resignation as action orderd by Salman and MBS.

Hariri claims his life is under threat from Iran and Hezbollah. But then all major Lebanese politicians' lives are always under some threat. And why would Iran and Hezbollah move against Saad when he has gone along with Hezbollah being in the Leb government, because he really couldn't do anything about Hezbollah .

Saudi Oger ceased operations this year after incurring massive debts. And they didn't pay their laborers, not an uncommon practice amongst the Gulf Arabs.

Sounds like Saudi is setting up Saad Hariri to be killed and laying the blame on Hezbollah. You hear it here first folks!
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I never really looked into why he resigned but when I read the headline I immediately rolled my eyes, knowing that no one on the Middle East is giving up power based on principles. Made more sense when he said Hezbollah or Iran was going to kill him but still, I don't get why now and not before.
 
Fluffernutter said:
Many of the Saudi royal family went to western universities. The former crown Prince even went to Lewis & Clark College.

However, MbS (the current Crown Prince and the guy making these decisions) has only done his schooling in Saudi Arabia.

Should that be a concern?
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In my country, a kid taking a few classes in a liberal arts college prior to dropping out is still just that: a college drop-out, no matter if he's a local or international student, an average joe or a foreign royalty.

The previous Saudi Crown Prince is a college drop-out, plain and simple:

http://time.com/3690911/mohammed-bin-nayef-lewis-clark/

On the other hand, King Saud University is no joke, it's Academic Boards are formed through agreements with U.S/U.K/Canadian Universities, and the courses that the current Crown Prince took (and got a law degree from) are taught in English by Western professors. MbS went as fas as saying that without American cultural influence, his country would have already ended up like North Korea.

So what is your concern between those two individuals, especially in terms of higher education or the lack there-of?
 
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Who else thinks a Yemen ballistic missile attack hitting the Ritz in the near future is likely? GoT - Saudi edition is super interesting.
 
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