SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NASTY HABIT OF LURING DISSIDENTS INTO ITS CLUTCHES - Hallo friendsGOOD OF CONEX NEWS, In the article you read this time with the title SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NASTY HABIT OF LURING DISSIDENTS INTO ITS CLUTCHES, We have prepared this article for you to read and retrieve information therein. Hopefully the contents of postings Article health, Article news, Article sport, Article tips, Article treatment, We write this you can understand. Alright, good read.

Title : SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NASTY HABIT OF LURING DISSIDENTS INTO ITS CLUTCHES
link : SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NASTY HABIT OF LURING DISSIDENTS INTO ITS CLUTCHES

SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NASTY HABIT OF LURING DISSIDENTS INTO ITS CLUTCHES

THE FATE OF JAMAL KHASHOGGI MIGHT BE UNIQUE, BUT NOT THE ARMS OF THE SAUDI KINGDOM ON ITS OVERSEAS CRITICS

A Washington Post piece this morning, describes the harassment of Omar Abdulaziz, a Saudi National who has asylum status in Canada, and the Saudi Government's efforts to lure him back to Saudi Arabia because he is a dissident.  When we think of a government going after its citizens who reside or have fled overseas to escape prison or worse in their native countries, we typically think of Putin's Russia.  But although Russia has received the bulk of the media attention about this issue - poisoning Russian activists living overseas, reporters shot in Moscow, mysterious deaths of Putin's critics - Saudi Arabia engages in much the same tactics to silence critics.  We don't hear much about domestic dissidents who get jailed or worse in Saudi Arabia nor about how the Kingdom's long reach of the state security apparatus also shadows - and threatens - Saudi national living overseas who dare criticize the Royal Family or Royal rule.

Here's part of Omar's story:

ISTANBUL — Omar Abdulaziz hit record on his phone and slipped it into the breast pocket of his jacket, he recalled, taking a seat in a Montreal cafe to wait for two men who said they were carrying a personal message from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

When they arrived, Abdulaziz, a 27-year-old Saudi opposition activist, asked why they had come all the way to Canada to see him.

“There are two scenarios,” one of the emissaries said, speaking of Abdulaziz in the third person. In the first, he can go back home to Saudi Arabia, to his friends and family. In the second: “Omar goes to prison.”

Which will Omar choose? they asked.

To drive home what was at stake, the visitors brought one of Abdulaziz’s younger brothers from Saudi Arabia to the meeting. Abdulaziz appealed to his brother to keep calm. 

The clandestine recordings — more than 10 hours of conversation — were provided to The Washington Post by Abdulaziz, a close associate of the missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. They offer a chilling depiction of how Saudi Arabia tries to lure opposition figures back to the kingdom with promises of money and safety. These efforts have sharply escalated since Mohammed became crown prince last year, rights groups say.

Several of Khashoggi’s friends said that senior Saudi officials close to the crown prince had contacted him in recent months, even offering him a high-level job working for the government if he returned to the kingdom. He said he didn’t trust the offer, fearing it was a ruse. According to U.S. intelligence intercepts of Saudi officials, Mohammed had ordered an operation to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him.

Abdulaziz, who has asylum in Canada, said he had been working on several projects with Khashoggi that may have given the Saudi leadership more reason to want him out of the way. Khashoggi had sent him $5,000 for a project they called “the bees” — an initiative to build an online “army” inside Saudi Arabia to challenge pro-government trolls on the Internet. The pair were also working on a short film, a website tracking human rights and a pro-democracy project, Abdulaziz said.

This work was supposed to be secret. But Abdulaziz said he was targeted by Saudi spyware this summer. “They had everything,” he said. “They saw the messages between us. They listened to the calls.”

In the recording made by Abdulaziz, the two visitors say repeatedly that they come personally from the crown prince. They also mention that they were working on orders from Saud al-Qahtani, a top strategist and enforcer for Mohammed.

It was Qahtani who Khashoggi told friends called him in the months before his disappearance, urging him to end his self-imposed exile and return to Saudi Arabia.

Abdulaziz originally left Saudi Arabia in 2009 to study in Canada, he recalled. He built a Twitter following during the Arab Spring and then, while at McGill University, he started a popular YouTube show known for criticizing and satirizing the Saudi leadership. He gained permanent residency in Canada in 2014.

Abdulaziz and Khashoggi struck up a friendship after the Saudi journalist moved to Washington in the summer of 2017. “He was lonely when he left,” Abdulaziz said. “We started to talk about living abroad away from our families, how is life and the projects we are going to do. . . . Jamal was a father, a friend.”

The Citizen Lab, a University of Toronto project that investigates digital espionage against civil society, warned him in August that his phone may have been hacked. Two weeks ago, the group concluded with a “high degree of confidence” that his cellphone had been targeted. The group said it believed the operator is linked to “Saudi Arabia’s government and security services.”

Abdulaziz said one of the men had been making overtures to get him back to Saudi Arabia for several months. If the man had a message, he could bring it to Canada, Abdulaziz recalled telling him.

At the time, the assertive 32-year-old crown prince was riding high on a wave of positive publicity. He had just wrapped up a high-profile visit to the United States, where he met such celebrities as Bill Gates, Post owner Jeffrey P. Bezos and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. 

Khashoggi had counseled Abdulaziz to be sure to meet the men in public places and by no means return to the kingdom with them. “He said, ‘If you want to take money, it’s your decision,’ ” Abdulaziz recalled. “ ‘But do not go back; do not trust them.’ ”

As the two Saudi visitors began their pitch to Omar at the May 15 meeting in Montreal’s Juliette et Chocolat cafe, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” was playing in the background.

Khashoggi is a “headache,” one of the men said, but he’s thinking of coming back to Saudi Arabia. Abdulaziz should, too.

“Omar, to deal with you, we didn’t want to come from a minister or an ambassador. We wanted to come from the top of the pyramid, the prince,” one of the men said. “No one can better deal with this subject than the prince himself.”

At the cafe, the two men elaborate on the options.

In one scenario, where Abdulaziz goes back to Saudi Arabia, it’s a win-win situation, one man says. 

“Omar is a beneficiary or a winner, because he is going back home,” he says. “The second side, the state, is a winner and is happy as well.”

His return could help polish the kingdom’s image, they said. The government had already spent millions of dollars on the crown prince’s Washington visit to enhance it. “This shows the kingdom is ready to take such a step,” he says.

But in the second scenario, everyone loses, the man continued.

“Omar is a loser because he is going to jail,” he said, adding that he would be “caught at the airport.” The government would also lose. Since Abdulaziz is not a significant opposition figure, any “information” obtained from him if he was detained “would not be much use for the state.” But the government would be harmed by the “propaganda” from human rights groups and media covering his detention, they said. 

At points, the conversation turns to how much money Abdulaziz could be paid if he accepted their offer. He says Saudi Arabia owes him 412,000 Canadian dollars for cutting off the government tuition payments for his scholarship.

These excerpts from the Washington Post piece describe one dissidents efforts to fend off Saudi agents with their lures of money and fame.  (Others are mentioned in the article.)  Omar knows very well that if he returns to Saudi Arabia, he will not fare well.   He could, in fact, lose his life.  This is how the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia operates.  They simply do not tolerate voices that criticize the regime no matter who or where they occur.

Now think about our less than two years of Trump.  We've seen his autocratic tendencies.  We know his admiration for Saudi Arabia and other autocratic regimes around the world.  We've witnessed his disdain for the rule of law.  Now think about the next six years should he be re-elected in 2020.

Scary, right?

So no matter what you schedule looks like on November 6th, be sure to make room for voting.

Here's the Post article:  SAUDI ARABIA AND THE SILENCING OF CRITICS .  It's well worth a read.

Take Care! 

Thus Article SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NASTY HABIT OF LURING DISSIDENTS INTO ITS CLUTCHES

That's an article SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NASTY HABIT OF LURING DISSIDENTS INTO ITS CLUTCHES This time, hopefully can give benefits to all of you. well, see you in posting other articles.

You are now reading the article SAUDI ARABIA HAS A NASTY HABIT OF LURING DISSIDENTS INTO ITS CLUTCHES with the link address https://coneknews.blogspot.com/2018/10/saudi-arabia-has-nasty-habit-of-luring.html

Tweet

Subscribe to receive free email updates: