Saudi Crown Prince Boasted He Could Kill Late King: Ex Intel Officer
Image Credit Times of Israel |
Saad Aljabri made the claim in comments to CBS's "60
Minutes," saying that the crown prince, who became heir to the throne and
de-facto ruler four years ago, bragged at the time that he had "a poison
ring from Russia" that could kill Abdullah by shaking his hand.
A former Saudi intelligence official who says Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman is out to kill him alleged in a U.S. television interview
that he knows of a video in which the prince boasted he could kill then King
Abdullah in 2014.
Saad Aljabri made the claim in comments to CBS's "60
Minutes," saying that the crown prince, who became heir to the throne and
de-facto ruler four years ago, bragged at the time that he had "a poison
ring from Russia" that could kill Abdullah by shaking his hand.
CBS said the Saudi government told the broadcaster in a
statement that Aljabri "is a discredited former government official with a
long history of fabricating and creating distractions" to hide financial
crimes he allegedly committed. The Saudi government's Center for International
Communications didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment
after regular business hours.
MBS's father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, assumed the throne
after King Abdullah died in 2015 and remains the official ruler.
Aljabri was the right-hand man of Saudi Arabia's former
crown prince and interior minister, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, an elder cousin
and former rival of the current crown prince, who's also known as MBS. After
Prince Mohammed gained power, Aljabri settled in Canada, where he lives in
exile.
He filed a federal lawsuit in Washington in 2020 alleging
the MBS deployed operatives in the U.S. to track him down and then sent a team
to murder him, weeks after the assassination of the Washington Post columnist
Jamal Khashoggi.
Aljabri suggested that MBS wants him dead because the crown
prince "fears my information."
"I expect to be killed one day because this guy will
not rest off until he see me dead," Aljabri told CBS.
Under the former crown prince and interior minister, Aljabri
served as a key link between Saudi and Western intelligence services,
particularly after the September 2001 terror attacks on the U.S.
Michael Morell, a former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told CBS that Aljabri saved "many" Saudi and American lives in his former intelligence role.
This story has not been edited by Blueplanet staff
No comments