DEAD? Has Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman been offed?

Concerns continue to rise over Saudi Arabia, MBS, the crown prince who has apparently vanished

By Joaquin Flores On Jun 2, 2018

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has been missing for about 40 days now. No credible personality has seen the Crown Prince, Regent of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; neither photos, nor significant videos, nor public appearance since April 12th of this year. His supposed May 19th meeting with the president of Ethiopia lacks photographic evidence, strange given that Ethiopian press services would have covered such an event with such detail. Ethiopia values such high level meetings, and it has been revealed to FRN and confirmed by our editors that there is yet there is no photographic evidence of such a meeting either in Ethiopian press.

MBS’s apparent public disappearance for well over a month now, since the alleged coup attempt of April 21st, has stirred controversy with some international media outlets speculating that the Saudi royal might have been killed. FRN has practiced journalistic due diligence in refraining from adding to such speculation.

However, it is now June 2nd, and the most interesting thing to have happened in the interim was a very strange and ‘incredible’ attempt by the Saudi’s to show ‘proof of life’ for MBS. They showed a photo of him chairing a committee on or about May 22nd, though there are no elements of this photo which could give us any indication of when it took place. It is also a low resolution photo, not suited for ‘evidence’ in this digital age. This makes such ‘evidence’ somewhat problematic.

This means that if MBS is alive, there are three likely possibilities.

MBS is participating or even creating this ruse in order to see how certain other players respond, either domestically or internationally
MBS is refusing to give ‘proof of life’, because such an ‘order to appear’ denotes a master/servant relationship, with those claiming he is dead or disappeared in the position of authority. One cannot make ‘demands’ of the crown prince.
MBS is being held captive, and another individual inside the palace makes decisions under his name

The photo above is the last verifiable evidence of MBS being alive. It was a meeting in Spain with members of the Spanish royal family, dated April 12th of this year.

The Iranian paper Kayhan was the first major regional press to entertain reports that bin Salman was allegedly hit by two bullets during the April 21 attack on the royal palace in Riyadh, and that he indeed may actually be dead. However, Saudi royal family sources denied all such reports to Pakistan’s online daily ‘Daily Pakistan‘ as Iranian propaganda.

On April 21st heavy gunfire was heard near the royal palace. Although KSA official news agencies claimed it was security shooting down a drone too close to the royal property, many began to wonder if the gunfire was in fact a coup, led by Saudi’s trying to topple King Salman, MBS’s father.

There certainly would be multiple motives, given the moves that MBS made to consolidate power. A year ago, MBS seems to have effected the multiple and simultaneous murders and arrests of numerous Saudi royals and related officials who held important positions, whether formally or informally, and posed, in his mind, a threat to his attempt to consolidate power. The purpose of such consolidation is explained in several theories, which we will not elaborate on here. In July of 2017, western press released photos of dozens of Saudi princes living in house arrest, sleeping on mattresses together in a single room.

The Saudi sources claimed that the 32-year-old crown prince of Saudi Arabia was safe and spending the holidays in Egypt with his family, where he had been personally invited by Egyptian President Fattah el-Sisi. They added that leaders of Abu Dhabi and Bahrain are also present with MBS in Egypt, but again, these reports cannot be independently verified.

No one denies that he has not been in public since April 12th in terms of official public appearances, and this contradicts the report that he met in the third week of May with his Ethiopian counterpart.

As a result of his public disappearance, Iranian and Russian media had started reporting that the crown prince died during the April attack on the royal palace. Is this a ‘call to appear’ or an ‘order to appear’? This is a known propaganda move, which was used previously against Russia’s president Putin in the first week of March in 2015. But Putin’s ‘absence’ lasted only 11 days. MBS has been ‘missing’ for 40.

The Iranian newspaper Kayhan reported that Mohammed bin Salman allegedly received bullet injuries during the attack and may actually be dead. To repeat, the Saudi’s officially claimed that the verified report of tremendous shooting at the palace, was to take down a drone which was operating illegally too close to the palace, as we explained above.

The leading Iranian daily cited “a secret service report sent to the senior officials of an unnamed Arab state” to bolster its claims about the status of MBS.

But what gives some credence the Iranian source’s disclosure, is that MBS was not even seen on camera when new US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo paid his first visit to Riyadh in late April. While Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir were photographed, MBS was not.

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Besides the Tehran-based papers, some Russian media outlets also alluded to the possible ‘killing’ of Mohammed bin Salman, however, the reports in turn relied on the original Iranian source. What makes the developments different now, again, is the length of time since his last appearance, and the problem with the evidence which the Saudi’s released internationally to rebuff claims of his disappearance.

Tremendous buzz has invaded Iranian, Saudi and Arab social network and media. At this point, there is more calm as people wait for the final verdict – is MBS dead? Injured? Victim of a family coup, which is classic in the Arabian peninsula?

This all takes place during the lively second part of Ramadan, now in its last 12 days, where the masses – with faith in mind – easily switch from mystical feelings to impulsive or fanatical rioting – the barrier is fragile. Hence, the rumor goes in Riyadh, a headless government is simply going through the motions, for want of anything better.

If this question over MBS’s disappearance now agitates the world, why the strange absence of mainstream media of this serious case?

Are they so unaccustomed to doing the work of journalism? Are governmental and corporate officials so enslaved by the trappings of their duties that when they miss important information, their zealous journalists also ignore it?

The elimination of MBS would either compound this present crisis tremendously, or make possible an entirely different outcome.

The secrecy surrounding the disappearance of MBS is far from being a sudden surprise, this secrecy has been going on since early 2018, and many disturbing facts can be looked at. These are the facts as they are:

The Haram, this sacred territory (forbidden to non-Muslims) in Makkah, became the focal point of the first strange rumor. The Haram rumors were popular: MBS made a big arrangement with the Israelis in which he entrusted the security management of the Haj to Israeli security companies. His bodyguards are now “Jews”. Is this true or false?

Such would make sense, given that MBS doesn’t have the unwavering loyalty of the royal guard. In history, it was normal for rulers to have a close bodyguard from a foreign land. They are less likely to rebel, being so far from home. They are far less likely to have any connections to pretenders or claimants to the throne. Finally, they are less likely to act more robustly against the population, not feeling any sense of ethnic or national connection or duty to the masses.

Like lightning, the rumor has spread through the three million visitors of the Haram site. Indignation, rage, hatred – for the hard-hearted at Haram, the “traitor must die“.

It is of course possible that MBS is alive, and entertains this rumor to see where it leads. Often people’s real feelings and attitudes about a person are revealed once they believe they are dead. It is also possible that this is an Iranian power-play on MBS, establishing a precedent where they hold some ability to question the crown prince’s existence, and can ‘order’ him to prove he is alive. Finally, it is also possible that MBS was killed or critically injured during the ‘drone’ incident of April. Such a critical injury would be one which disfigured his face, if MBS holds no other reasons to entertain the theory that he is dead or disappeared.