On October 2, 2018, Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, who was resident in the US, disappeared at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Widespread fears regarding Mr. Khashoggi's safety - indeed, regarding whether he is even still living - have prompted large scale diplomatic protests and international corporate rescheduling of meetings with the Saudi government.
President Donald Trump, following confidential consultations with the King of Saudi Arabia, has announced a theory that possible 'rogue' elements among Saudi officials were responsible for the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi. This theory, if accepted widely, might offer the makings of a solution to the current diplomatic standoff.
This is almost a carbon copy of a past strategy arising from a plan between the CIA and Saudi security forces, who have a long history of close cooperation, to kill Sheikh Fadlallah.
(Please note that this quote is entirely unedited) :
........
'The Saudis came up with an Englishman who had served in the British Special Air Services, the elite commando special operations forces. This man traveled extensively around the Middle East, and went in and out of Lebanon from another Arab state. He would be an ideal leader of a sophisticated operation. The CIA, of course, could have nothing to do with "elimination." The Saudis, if asked would back a CIA denial concerning involvement or knowledge. Liaison with foreign intelligence services was one CIA activity out of the reach of congressional oversight; Casey had flatly refused to tell the committees about this sensitive work. And in this case, the CIA as an institution did not know. Nothing was written down, there were no records. The Saudi $3 million deposited in the Geneva account was "laundered" through transfers among other bank accounts, making sure it could not be traced.
The Englishman established operational compartments to carry out separate parts of the assassination plan; none had any communication with any other except through him. Several men were hired to procure a large quantity of explosives; another man was hired to find a car; money was paid to informants to make sure they knew where Fadlallah would be at a certain time; another group was hired to design an after-action deception so that the Saudis and the CIA would not be connected; the Lebanese intelligence service hired the men to carry out the operation.
On March 8, 1985, a car packed with explosives was driven into a Beirut suburb about fifty yards from Fadlallah's high-rise residence. The car exploded, killing eighty and wounding two hundred, leaving devastation, fires and collapsed buildings. Anyone who had happened to be in the immediate neighborhood was killed, hurt or terrorized, but Fadlallah escaped without injury. His followers strung a huge "MADE IN USA" banner in front of a building that had been blown out.'
.......
The author of this quote is not some marginal, grudge-driven, blogging radical that is venting his imagination.
It's Bob Woodward.
Bob Woodward, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo: Simon and Schuster, p. 397.
(The Hollywood movie Spy Game (2001), with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, is partly based on the US attempt to kill Sheikh Fadlallah.)
The sequel to these events discussed by veteran - and usually highly reliable - reporter Bob Woodward is that the Saudis' media strategy following the botched Fadlallah assassination attempt was that 'rogue' elements were responsible; and the driver of the car bomb vehicle - acting under Saudi orders on the CIA's instigation, was 'duly' dispensed with.
A Canadian angle on this is that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) - Canada's Federal police force - has been studying the file of another Saudi dissident resident in Canada, who was until recently in frequent contact with the now disappeared Jamil Khashoggi. It is doubtful whether the CIA had anything whatsoever to do with Mr.Khashoggi's disappearance. But, given the long history of the CIA working together with the Saudi security forces, it is unlikely that either the dissident or the RCMP will privately give much credence to the 'rogue' elements strategy theory aired by President Trump, whatever the RCMP might say - or not say - in public.
It remained to be seen whether the Parliament of Canada would subject this angle to significant debate.
President Donald Trump, following confidential consultations with the King of Saudi Arabia, has announced a theory that possible 'rogue' elements among Saudi officials were responsible for the disappearance of Mr. Khashoggi. This theory, if accepted widely, might offer the makings of a solution to the current diplomatic standoff.
This is almost a carbon copy of a past strategy arising from a plan between the CIA and Saudi security forces, who have a long history of close cooperation, to kill Sheikh Fadlallah.
(Please note that this quote is entirely unedited) :
........
'The Saudis came up with an Englishman who had served in the British Special Air Services, the elite commando special operations forces. This man traveled extensively around the Middle East, and went in and out of Lebanon from another Arab state. He would be an ideal leader of a sophisticated operation. The CIA, of course, could have nothing to do with "elimination." The Saudis, if asked would back a CIA denial concerning involvement or knowledge. Liaison with foreign intelligence services was one CIA activity out of the reach of congressional oversight; Casey had flatly refused to tell the committees about this sensitive work. And in this case, the CIA as an institution did not know. Nothing was written down, there were no records. The Saudi $3 million deposited in the Geneva account was "laundered" through transfers among other bank accounts, making sure it could not be traced.
The Englishman established operational compartments to carry out separate parts of the assassination plan; none had any communication with any other except through him. Several men were hired to procure a large quantity of explosives; another man was hired to find a car; money was paid to informants to make sure they knew where Fadlallah would be at a certain time; another group was hired to design an after-action deception so that the Saudis and the CIA would not be connected; the Lebanese intelligence service hired the men to carry out the operation.
On March 8, 1985, a car packed with explosives was driven into a Beirut suburb about fifty yards from Fadlallah's high-rise residence. The car exploded, killing eighty and wounding two hundred, leaving devastation, fires and collapsed buildings. Anyone who had happened to be in the immediate neighborhood was killed, hurt or terrorized, but Fadlallah escaped without injury. His followers strung a huge "MADE IN USA" banner in front of a building that had been blown out.'
.......
The author of this quote is not some marginal, grudge-driven, blogging radical that is venting his imagination.
It's Bob Woodward.
Bob Woodward, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, New York, London, Toronto, Sydney, Tokyo: Simon and Schuster, p. 397.
(The Hollywood movie Spy Game (2001), with Robert Redford and Brad Pitt, is partly based on the US attempt to kill Sheikh Fadlallah.)
The sequel to these events discussed by veteran - and usually highly reliable - reporter Bob Woodward is that the Saudis' media strategy following the botched Fadlallah assassination attempt was that 'rogue' elements were responsible; and the driver of the car bomb vehicle - acting under Saudi orders on the CIA's instigation, was 'duly' dispensed with.
A Canadian angle on this is that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) - Canada's Federal police force - has been studying the file of another Saudi dissident resident in Canada, who was until recently in frequent contact with the now disappeared Jamil Khashoggi. It is doubtful whether the CIA had anything whatsoever to do with Mr.Khashoggi's disappearance. But, given the long history of the CIA working together with the Saudi security forces, it is unlikely that either the dissident or the RCMP will privately give much credence to the 'rogue' elements strategy theory aired by President Trump, whatever the RCMP might say - or not say - in public.
It remained to be seen whether the Parliament of Canada would subject this angle to significant debate.
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