MAJOR ARRESTS in Saudi Arabia – rumors of a COUP…

by SooperMexican

Something odd is happening in Saudi Arabia and I’m going to be honest enough to admit that I don’t have a clue what it is. There have been major arrests for corruption, and some are saying that it looks like there was an attempt at a coup.

Watch below:

From the BBC:

A new Saudi anti-corruption body has detained 11 princes, four sitting ministers and dozens of former ministers, media reports say.

The detentions came hours after the new committee, headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was formed by royal decree.

Those detained were not named.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Prince Mohammed is moving to consolidate his growing power while spearheading a reform programme.

It is not clear what those detained are suspected of. However, Saudi broadcaster Al-Arabiya said fresh investigations had been launched into the 2009 Jeddah floods and the outbreak of the Mers virus which emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012.

The new anti-corruption committee has the power to issue arrest warrants and travel bans, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Here’s what one contributor at Huffpo says:

The news out of Saudi Arabia is stunning. Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, the famous Saudi billionaire, who owns stakes in twitter, Citibank, Fox News, a critic of Donald Trump but also a proponent of liberalization in Saudi Arabia has been arrested for corruption. The whole system in Saudi Arabia is corrupt, arresting anyone for corruption is meaningless. What it means is that he is being detained not for his economic activities but perhaps for his political activities. Several ministers have been fired and many business and opinion leaders have been detained.

Heads of news channels also arrested.

On this same day there is a missile attack on Riyadh and Saad Hariri travels to Saudi Arabia to resign as PM of Lebanon. Coincidence. All of this after Jared Kushner makes a sort of secret, below the radar visit to Saudi Arabia.

Either Prince Muhammad bin Salman is consolidating power before ascending to the throne by eliminating dissenters, or there has been an attempted coup of sorts.

Of course there are a lot of hot takes on Twitter, but I’m not sure what they’re worth. We’ll have to see what develops as the mainstream media tries to sort out the details…

Enjoy yourselves an open thread, party people.


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