Sunday, March 3, 2019

Report That Saudis Tortured U.S. Citizen



The corrupt regime of Saudi Arabia can't seem to stop its habit of torturing people, but this case, as reported in the New York Times, involves a doctor with joint U.S. - Saudi citizenship. Dr. Walid Fitaihi was detained at Riyadh's Ritz Carlton hotel in November 2017 as part of brutal Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's (a.k.a. Bone Saw) alleged "crackdown" on the country's corruption involving  roughly 200 prominent Saudis, including numerous royal family members. In what is now widely seen as a simple power grab and extortion, rather than fighting corruption, dozens of the detained and tortured remain in custody, including Dr. Fitaihi.

Much like the story of the killing and dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, some of the details of the Ritz Carlton outrage are horrific:
"A military officer who had been detained died with a twisted neck and other signs of abuse on his body, according to a person who saw it. Women’s rights advocates jailed in Saudi Arabia have said they were also tortured, including by electrical shocks, according to their relatives and rights groups."
Since Fitaihi is actually a U.S. citizen, unlike Khashoggi, his continued imprisonment and torture will cause problems for the Trump regime, which has embraced Bone Saw despite his clear involvement in the Khashoggi murder. Bone Saw's friend and defender, Jared "Mr. Ivanka Trump" Kushner, who Bone Saw claimed in 2017 was "in his pocket," is likely cutting financial deals under the cover of a diplomatic mission, and will do his best to shield the Saudis. After the Trump regime's refusal to identify the Saudi regime as involved in Khashoggi's murder in February, it's not likely that they will treat this case differently.

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