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Speaker 1: Also Media.

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Speaker 2: Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, the podcast where we're

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Speaker 2: continue to talk about Mohammed Ben Salmon and the Saudi

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Speaker 2: royal family with our guest David Bell. Welcome back to

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Speaker 2: the show. Dave. It's been a little while between our

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Speaker 2: first and last recordings. Yeah, been the first recording in

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Speaker 2: this one, have you been?

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Speaker 3: I got COVID not currently, but I got ice. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I also Robert.

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Speaker 4: Last night, I had a dream about you, a dream

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Speaker 4: about me. Okay, So my dream was that we were

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Speaker 4: taking a shower together in b the suits and then.

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Speaker 2: I had to that makes the TV appropriate.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Then I had to poop in the dream and

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Speaker 3: left the shower. Day, where are we building to here?

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Speaker 3: This is the dream. This is the dream. And I

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Speaker 3: went to the bathroom in dream?

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Speaker 1: Is it?

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Speaker 3: Yes?

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Speaker 4: Because when I woke up, I didn't have to poop

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Speaker 4: in real life, so I was like, oh, thank god,

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Speaker 4: that was just a dream. Yeah, I had to poop

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Speaker 4: in the dream. So I left the shower and Alex

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Speaker 4: Schmidty was in.

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Speaker 2: The bathroom, our other old roommate.

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Speaker 3: Making coffee in the bathroom and in the dream classic coffee.

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Speaker 4: I should have started with the fact that I have

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Speaker 4: terrible dreams, and that that was the dream.

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Speaker 2: That doesn't sound like a good one.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't bad, it was fine.

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Speaker 2: I don't know that i'd call that fine. Well, Dave,

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Speaker 2: thank you for telling the audience about your upsetting dream.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure no one's going to be weird about it.

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Speaker 2: Among our listener base. We were going to react normally

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Speaker 2: to your shower story. Ah. You know who else reacts

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Speaker 2: normally to things?

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Speaker 3: Who me?

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Speaker 2: The Saudi royal family, you know, because they're all they're

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Speaker 2: basically aside from the billions and billions of dollars in

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Speaker 2: oil money and the fact that they don't have to work,

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Speaker 2: and the fact that an entire country are basically slaves them,

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Speaker 2: you know, they're just down to earth, regular guys like

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Speaker 2: Tim the Toolman Taylor from the show that maybe twenty

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Speaker 2: percent of our audience remembers.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, the guy that the guy, the criminal guy.

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Speaker 2: To me, Tim Allen, a simple everyman with who runs

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Speaker 2: a television show out of his house. Anyway, So one

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Speaker 2: of the few. As we've stated, most of like the

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Speaker 2: young princes, are not super productive individuals, right, They're mostly

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Speaker 2: spending their time kissing asked try and get like a

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Speaker 2: better cut of the family fortune, doing as little as possible,

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Speaker 2: and grafting off of like the money that should be

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Speaker 2: going to support the Saudi state. There's a few exceptions

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Speaker 2: to this rule, right, Mohammed bin Salmon, the subject of

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Speaker 2: our episodes, is one. His father, the soon to be

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Speaker 2: King Solomon, is another. And another one of the exceptions

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Speaker 2: to this rule was Mohammed bin Nayef, born in Jedda

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Speaker 2: at the end of August nineteen fifty nine. He had

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Speaker 2: more more than a quarter century on his younger cousin.

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Speaker 2: His father was Prince Niaf bin Abdulaziz, full son of

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Speaker 2: the Great King Abdulaziz, and a full brother of two

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Speaker 2: other kings, Fad and the new King Solomon. He was

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Speaker 2: thus a lot closer to the throne from the jump

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Speaker 2: than anyone ever thought that mohammadan Salmon was going to

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Speaker 2: be right like, he just kind of seems like a

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Speaker 2: much better bet as which one of these guys is

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Speaker 2: going to actually like make it to the high seat.

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Speaker 2: His father, Naif Been Abdulahziz, had been nicknamed the Black Prince,

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Speaker 2: and he'd risen to power first when his older brother,

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Speaker 2: the Minister of the Interior was assassinated by that other

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Speaker 2: prince who was angry about TV being legal. I know,

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Speaker 2: there's a lot of princes in this story.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Nief succeeded his brother, which meant that he was now

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Speaker 2: working directly with the Wahabists, who traditionally had allied with

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Speaker 2: the House of Saud in order to push their hardline

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Speaker 2: fundamentalist policies. Prince Niaf became what the Brookings Institute described

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Speaker 2: as an arch reactionary, and he was the orchestrator behind

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Speaker 2: many of the kingdom's most puritanical new laws, cracking down

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Speaker 2: on freedom and anything that even hinted of social liberalism.

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Speaker 2: That's the Black Prince right. He violently suppressed the movement

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Speaker 2: to make Saudi Arabia's monarchy more of a constitutional monarchy

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Speaker 2: like in the UK, telling one interviewer, I don't want

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Speaker 2: to be Queen Elizabeth, which who does.

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Speaker 3: Who does you know what I might take it?

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Speaker 5: Uh?

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Speaker 3: She had, Yeah, well not now, she said, Corkis.

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Speaker 5: You know this actually came up on Margaret kiljoy show

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Speaker 5: before and we decided I would make a great Queen

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Speaker 5: Elizabeth because I would just fire myself and dismantle the monarchy.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah, that would be very effective.

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Speaker 5: I would be I would be a great queen.

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Speaker 1: I go mad with powers and I love corgies.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So he earned the Black Prince earned his nickname because

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Speaker 2: of how harsh his policies were to the non citizen

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Speaker 2: worker population in the kingdom. So it was noteworthy when

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Speaker 2: his so on NBN, we've got NBS and NBN and

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Speaker 2: they're about to be rivals, made his debut as a

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Speaker 2: public person, spurning his own country in favor of the West.

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Speaker 2: So he doesn't go to school in Saudi Arabia. He's

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Speaker 2: not interested in attending a school in the Arab world. Instead,

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Speaker 2: he goes to like the oppositest part of the world

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Speaker 2: he possibly can, Portland, Oregon. I know, Portland shows up,

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Speaker 2: You're gonna ask what I was gonna guess, Berkeley.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: No, he goes to fucking NBN. Goes to Portland, Oregon

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Speaker 2: for college. He attends both Lewis and Clark College and

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Speaker 2: Portland State University. Incredible, Yeah, really funny. He does not

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Speaker 2: graduate from either. Most articles will say that he's a

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Speaker 2: graduate of Lewis and Clark or of PSU. Neither is true.

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Speaker 2: I can't even I can't even confirm that he got

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Speaker 2: a degree. Everyone says he's got a BA right. The

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Speaker 2: book Regime Stability in Saudi Arabia by Sticks Dinsley claims

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Speaker 2: that he studied for his master's degree in political science

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Speaker 2: and graduated in nineteen eighty one, although again no one

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Speaker 2: says where. Everyone says he went to Lewis and Clark

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Speaker 2: at PSU and he got a degree, but nobody says

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Speaker 2: where the degree is from, and we've confirmed it wasn't

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Speaker 2: either of those colleges.

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Speaker 3: I don't know.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Lewis and Clark College. A guy that Mohammed bin

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Speaker 2: Salmon sparred with came here. Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

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Speaker 2: Maybe not the best ad, so yeah, I don't know

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Speaker 2: that he actually did graduate. Stigwrtes that he took quote

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Speaker 2: courses on security issues with the FBI from nineteen eighty

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Speaker 2: five to nineteen eighty eight and trained with Scotland Yard's

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Speaker 2: Anti terrorist units in London from nineteen ninety two to

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Speaker 2: nineteen ninety four. In nineteen ninety four he began working

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Speaker 2: regularly with his father, Interior Minister nief and Riyad, And

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Speaker 2: I think this is a situation where he's probably not

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Speaker 2: that great a student. I don't think you would have

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Speaker 2: qualified to have special training with the FBI in Scotland

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Speaker 2: yard based on his own merits, but because he's a

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Speaker 2: prince and he's someone who is going to be a

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Speaker 2: big part of the Saudi state. When he when he

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Speaker 2: expresses I'm interested in anti terrorism work, right, I'm interested

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Speaker 2: in like training with Western law enforcement organizations and counter terrorism.

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Speaker 2: They're all like, well, this is our chance to have

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Speaker 2: a man on the inside, right, this is our chance

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Speaker 2: to have like a guy in Saudi Arabia, not like

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Speaker 2: a spy, but a guy who's who we know, is

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Speaker 2: like a friend to us, who we feel like we

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Speaker 2: can trust. As opposed to this this regime is kind

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Speaker 2: of a black box to us otherwise, Right.

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Speaker 4: It helps, it helps with your credit, It just puts

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Speaker 4: it's just a good I get it where it's like,

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Speaker 4: all right, you might you might not be. It's like

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Speaker 4: when The X Files had Stephen King wrote an episode

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Speaker 4: and they're like, well, he probably doesn't know the show,

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Speaker 4: the voice of the show, but he's Stephen King.

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Speaker 3: Let's throw him on.

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Speaker 2: And he didn't you know? That episode was the best.

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Speaker 3: It was really. It was also heavily rewritten.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it would have had to be Yeah. Yeah, they

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Speaker 2: should have let Mohammed ban Naya write an episode of

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Speaker 2: The X Files. Oh yes, he was training with the

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Speaker 2: FBI in the nineties. He could have done it watching

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Speaker 2: the X Files, right. Oh yeah, he mused to have

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Speaker 2: an opinion on Fox Moulder. Oh yeah. So it's unclear

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Speaker 2: to me how much the elder and younger Knif coordinated here,

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Speaker 2: because remember his dad, the Black Prince, is this guy

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Speaker 2: who's very much lockstep with the clerics and is focused

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Speaker 2: on we need to crack down on anything that seems

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Speaker 2: like someone having fun in the Kingdom, right, whereas his

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Speaker 2: son is like, I'm friendly with the West, i went

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Speaker 2: to Portland for fucking college. I'm training with the FBI's

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Speaker 2: he's making he's putting out into the world, at least

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Speaker 2: image of he's much more of a liberal guy. He's

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Speaker 2: much less of a hard liner, right.

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Speaker 3: I bet he knows where to get some great ascid.

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Speaker 2: He probably did at one point.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Like, there's several places in that list where I

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Speaker 4: feel like he.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the FBI academy, I bet they had some great shit.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, So it's hard to say to what extent

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Speaker 2: is this, he and his dad are kind of working together,

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Speaker 2: knowing that the kingdom needs both someone who can reach

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Speaker 2: out to the West and can seem like he's modern

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Speaker 2: and someone who can get arm in arm with the

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Speaker 2: clerics and feel like, no, no, no, we're not trying

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Speaker 2: to draw the country forward into some scary version of modernity.

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Speaker 2: But there do seem to have been some real clashes

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Speaker 2: between them right One of them is over the fact

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Speaker 2: that his dad, the Black Prince, doesn't take seriously the

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Speaker 2: dangers of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, Like he keeps being told, hey,

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Speaker 2: there's something brewing in your country, and he's like, nah,

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Speaker 2: I feel like Saudi Arabia and terrorism are never going

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Speaker 2: to be like two words that show up next to

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Speaker 2: each other in the public imagination. Per that analysis by

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Speaker 2: the Brookings Institute, Naief was conspicuously slow to recognize that

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Speaker 2: al Qaeda posed a threat to the Kingdom. He'd become

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Speaker 2: friendly with bin Laden during the Russian Afghan War, when

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Speaker 2: bin Laden was allied with the Musjahdeen and viewed him

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Speaker 2: as being exclusively focused on defeeding the Soviets. Naieff believed

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Speaker 2: al Qaida's reputation as a terrorist organization a product of

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Speaker 2: American propaganda, and was sure that all Kaita posed no

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Speaker 2: real threat to the Kingdom, a delusion he had in

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Speaker 2: common with much of the royal family. Prince Niaff was

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Speaker 2: not popular with the CIA. He was seen as uncooperative,

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Speaker 2: and for good reason. In nineteen ninety six, when chait

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Speaker 2: terrorists bombed a US Air Force base in Dahran and

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Speaker 2: killed nineteen Americans, the CIA asked Niaf for information on

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Speaker 2: the terrorists and their ties to Iran. Despite the Kingdom

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Speaker 2: and Iran being ostensibly geopolitical and religious rivals, Niaf stonewalled

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Speaker 2: the US. Our understanding is that he was afraid we'd

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Speaker 2: attack Iran and he wanted to avoid war. Bruce Rydell,

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Speaker 2: author of that bookings piece, was an CIA analyst at

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Speaker 2: the time, and he claims the general opinion over here

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Speaker 2: is that Niff was simply an American, right, and that's like,

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Speaker 2: I don't want to give too much credit to the

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Speaker 2: analytics skills of the pre or post nine to eleven

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Speaker 2: CIA right, for.

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Speaker 3: Sure, for sure.

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Speaker 2: So my assumption is that Bruce is like rog about

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Speaker 2: some part of the analysis there. I think maybe it's

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Speaker 2: just that he's not as much anti American as he is,

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Speaker 2: like anti having a problem, and if al Qaeda is

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Speaker 2: a serious threat to the kingdom, then he's got a

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Speaker 2: problem because a lot of people in Saudi Arabia are

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Speaker 2: close to Bin Law and a lot of people in

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Speaker 2: like the ruling class, have been funneling money to him

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Speaker 2: and organizations that are related to al Qaida, And if

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Speaker 2: they're really dangerous, then the there's a big problem. And

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Speaker 2: there's just this. It may just be the deep human

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Speaker 2: need to like not have a problem, right, That's part

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Speaker 2: of what's going on with night.

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Speaker 3: No one likes to start shit.

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Speaker 4: I get that where it's like, yeah, maybe Obama, maybe

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Speaker 4: he'll you know, yeah, call him Obama, Osama bin Lawn.

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Speaker 3: Maybe he'll settle.

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Speaker 2: Down, right, he'll calm down. Yeah, and n.

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Speaker 4: Sorry forgive me. I'm I'm less educated on like what where?

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Speaker 5: What?

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Speaker 4: Like what was osamavid Lan's position before nine eleven? Like,

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Speaker 4: I oh, I mean like a lot of people only

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Speaker 4: heard of him until after.

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Speaker 2: He bombed I mean he and al Kaida bombed the

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Speaker 2: world tradinges that are in ninety three. I think it

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Speaker 2: was right, Okay, oh yeah, Now it's very clear to

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Speaker 2: anyone paying attention that Bin Laden is going to continue

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Speaker 2: to be a problem for like the Kingdom and its

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Speaker 2: relations with the rest of the world. But there's this

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Speaker 2: big doubt with a lot of guys is like, are

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Speaker 2: they really terrorists? Is this the Are the Americans making

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Speaker 2: all this stuff up?

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Speaker 3: Right?

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Speaker 2: And the Black Prince's son, Mohammad bin nief INBN seems

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Speaker 2: to have been one of the rare people high up

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Speaker 2: in the royal family because of his training with these

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Speaker 2: Western agencies. Who actually is like, no, Al Qaeda is

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Speaker 2: probably an issue, and there'll be an issue for us too.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 2: His feelings, his understanding of the matter is much more

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Speaker 2: in line with how the Americans are feeling, right, and

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Speaker 2: so he spends a lot of the nineties burnishing his

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Speaker 2: credentials and relationships with the Americans who staff security agencies,

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Speaker 2: being like, look, I'm the guy in the royal family

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Speaker 2: who sees things clearly that you can work with. There's

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Speaker 2: a big moment of conflict between the Elder Naif and

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Speaker 2: the CIA. In nineteen ninety eight, Vice President Al Gore

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Speaker 2: goes on a trip to Saudi Arabia alongside Bruce Rydell,

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Speaker 2: who's now working for the NSC they met both Naifs

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Speaker 2: and later learned during their visit that the Ministry of

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Speaker 2: the Interior had spotted and defeated a plan to attack

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Speaker 2: the US consulate while they were there. Up to that point,

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Speaker 2: al Qaeda had mostly avoided operations inside the kingdom, right,

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Speaker 2: And so now while al Gore is in country, they

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Speaker 2: bust a plan to attack the consulate while the US

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Speaker 2: Vice President there, and that really rattles people. And suddenly

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Speaker 2: Mohammad bin Naief is the only guy who's been saying like, hey,

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Speaker 2: we should be taking al Kaeda seriously, and suddenly he

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Speaker 2: gets a lot of attention, is like, oh, maybe he

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Speaker 2: was right. Maybe MBN has been correct all of the time,

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Speaker 2: and we should be listening to this guy when it

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Speaker 2: comes to security advice. Right.

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Speaker 4: It's yeah, going back to like people are all like conflict, right,

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Speaker 4: and if someone's just like, hey, that guy's a problem,

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Speaker 4: that guy's a problem. Will go as long as we

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Speaker 4: can up to the point where it's like, oh wait,

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Speaker 4: they're going to hurt me.

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Speaker 3: Oh well, we got to do something about this. Oh lie,

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Speaker 3: oh my good.

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Speaker 2: If al Gore gets killed by al Qaeda while I

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Speaker 2: am in charge of security, that probably is the problem

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Speaker 2: for me. That's bad that like, I probably don't do

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Speaker 2: well afterwards.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I'm finding a new career after that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So in nineteen ninety nine, MBN is appointed to

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Speaker 2: the Ministry of the Interior as a senior minister overseeing security.

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Speaker 2: By the fall of two thousand and one, he was

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Speaker 2: considered by many experts to be the number one guy

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Speaker 2: in the Saudi government to talk to you about counter terrorism.

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Speaker 2: And then comes nine to eleven. Right, you know you're

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Speaker 2: well aware. Yeah, So basically there were some big buildings

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Speaker 2: in New York and then there weren't as a result

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Speaker 2: of these guys who learned how to fly, but not

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Speaker 2: all the way. Right, that's the that's the brief description

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Speaker 2: I would give se yeah, yeah, seventy.

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Speaker 1: But the test.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's basically what happened. Right, there were some other.

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Speaker 1: Thanksging not wrong. That's what's funny.

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Speaker 4: I hate to sound listen, I hate to sound really old,

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Speaker 4: but I'm realizing that there are young people now that

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Speaker 4: do genuinely have to like learn about nine to eleven.

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Speaker 2: Now, yeah, we forgot, well they did. Yeah, so they

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Speaker 2: cause a massive upset inside the Saudi security establishment. Right,

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Speaker 2: this is as big a problem as it could possibly be,

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Speaker 2: because fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi. Yeah, that's

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Speaker 2: a kind of their deal, right, Bush was rattling his

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Speaker 2: saber at Iraq and they'd had fuck all to do

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Speaker 2: with all Kainda. Like right after the attacks, we start

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Speaker 2: making it starts becoming clear we're going to move on

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Speaker 2: a rack. Pretty soon.

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Speaker 3: They had WMD's Roberts.

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Speaker 2: So obviously, if you're thinking about this from the respect

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Speaker 2: of the Saudis, Bush is about to fuck up a

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Speaker 2: rock and they had nothing to do with this. We

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Speaker 2: had a lot to do with this. Not only were

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Speaker 2: fifteen and the nineteen hijackers Saudi, but a lot of

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Speaker 2: guys in the Saudi royal family. We're shuffling money to

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Speaker 2: places that wound up getting to Al Qaida right one

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Speaker 2: where or the other.

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Speaker 4: And they're like, hey, that guy you brought is a

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Speaker 4: big problem. He's a big problem. And then he hit

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Speaker 4: d Trade Center. Yeah yeah, and then you hit like

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Speaker 4: the guy next to him because you wanted to hit

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Speaker 4: that guy instead. That's essentially it, right, It's like, yeah,

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Speaker 4: we already had a problem. We didn't like Saddam for

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Speaker 4: a while, and we were like that says Adam, last straw,

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Speaker 4: you did it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And so there's this worry that like, well, how

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Speaker 2: do we know they're not going to fuck with us next, right,

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Speaker 2: because we kind of we actually have it coming a

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Speaker 2: lot more than erect us. And obviously, you know, it's

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Speaker 2: not just that bin Laden, the guy who plans the

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Speaker 2: attack or does is seen as planning the attack, is

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Speaker 2: the man is a Saudi too. But the Black Prince

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Speaker 2: in most of his peers had scoffed at the idea

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Speaker 2: that al Kaida was dangerous. You know, it doesn't take

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Speaker 2: a bright person to see if the Royal family is

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Speaker 2: in danger. Here Mbn is the new blood. He's not

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Speaker 2: tainted by the mistakes of his father or the older generation.

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Speaker 2: He's got good connections to US government, particularly in the

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Speaker 2: CIA and the FBI, and he starts using them. And

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Speaker 2: then in two thousand and three something happened that would

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Speaker 2: electrify his career. On February fourteenth, on the holy day

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Speaker 2: of ida A Lada Osama, bin Laden issued a communicate

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Speaker 2: through al Qaeda accusing the royal family of betraying the

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Speaker 2: Last Caliphate to the British Empire and their Zionist allies.

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Speaker 2: This mirrored their behavior supporting the US and its wars

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Speaker 2: against Muslims. He predicted that the US would use air

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Speaker 2: bases in Saudi Arabia to support its invasion of Iraq.

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Speaker 2: The announcement was basically a declaration of war against the Kingdom,

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Speaker 2: or at least this has been laden announcing that he

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Speaker 2: was widening the scope of the existing war to include

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Speaker 2: the Kingdom. Right, al Qaeda is now at war with

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Speaker 2: the Kingdom, at least with the Kingdom's royal rulers. In May,

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Speaker 2: al Qaida operatives launched an attack on a Riyad compound

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Speaker 2: where Western military advisers worked with Saudi officers. Eight Americans

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Speaker 2: and two Australians died, among others. CIA director George Tennett

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Speaker 2: flew to the Saudi capital and warned the Crown Prince,

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Speaker 2: al Qaeda is going to target your family next. Just

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Speaker 2: a few months later, Mohammad ban Nayaf has made the

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Speaker 2: number two man in the entire Ministry of the Interior.

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Speaker 2: It was a vote of confidence in his ability to

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Speaker 2: orchestrate the Kingdom's response to al Qaeda and to effectively

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Speaker 2: reform its security and intelligence agencies. TenneT would later write

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Speaker 2: that the Cia considered Mohammad bin Nayef its number one

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Speaker 2: man in Saudi Arabia. Right Dell writes, Mbin led the

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Speaker 2: counter offensive. The Interior Ministry issued lists of the most

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Speaker 2: wanted al Qaeda terrorists and then proceeded to hunt them

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Speaker 2: down ruthlessly. Whenever any of the men on a list

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Speaker 2: were eliminated in firefights or ambushes, the ministry would update

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Speaker 2: the list with the names of the next most wanted

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Speaker 2: al Qaida fighters. It was a tough and dangerous time.

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Speaker 2: Most foreigners who could leave the kingdom did so, or

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Speaker 2: at least sent their families away. Mbin was the face

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Speaker 2: of the Saudi war on al Qaida, appearing on television

380
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Speaker 2: and in the newspapers to explain the threat the kingdom

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Speaker 2: was facing. So he becomes like the figure who is

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Speaker 2: like leading the Saudi war effort against al Qaeda. He's

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Speaker 2: like both in propaganda, his face is everywhere and the

384
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Speaker 2: West season as the guy who's very successfully orchestrating this

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Speaker 2: response to al Qaeda violence in the country and within

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Speaker 2: the royal family. He's seen as the guy who is

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Speaker 2: protecting us from this like surge of violence, from this

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Speaker 2: dangerous and unpredictable network, right, Like he's he's really if

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Speaker 2: you're looking at who's going to follow as like who's

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Speaker 2: going to be of this generation, Like the guy who's

391
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Speaker 2: in line to be king Mohammed and Nif is looking

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Speaker 2: like someone who might be crown prince and then king

393
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Speaker 2: one day. Right, Like he's he's really distinguished himself, far

394
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Speaker 2: more than Ben Salomon has. He's really nothing at this

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Speaker 2: point in time, right.

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Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, Now he's gonna fight. He's gonna fight. Oh

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Speaker 3: some of the they're gonna fist fight.

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Speaker 2: He's gonna fist fight Bin Laden and make himself the king. Yeah,

399
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Speaker 2: as as we know, kings are supposed you're supposed to

400
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Speaker 2: as a king defeat one dragon and Mohamus ban Lad's

401
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Speaker 2: kind of a dragon, right yeah?

402
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Speaker 4: Yeah, said he was the perceived designer of nine to eleven?

403
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Speaker 4: Does that mean like was he like the Jon Favreau

404
00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:08,240
Speaker 4: of it? Like was it like that? Oh, there's other

405
00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:08,800
Speaker 4: people like.

406
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Speaker 2: He's the Matt Groining of nine to eleven. We're like, yeah,

407
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Speaker 2: but he's not. Like Conan O'Brien has a lot more

408
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Speaker 2: to do with planning nine to eleven than than than

409
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Speaker 2: than Matt Graining. Right, If we're if we're Simpson's name.

410
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Speaker 4: Yeah, like they were, Yes, Like he's in charge, but

411
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Speaker 4: there were a lot of talented people under.

412
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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of talented Harvard graduates making making

413
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Speaker 2: the show work underneath him.

414
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Speaker 3: Yes, you got it.

415
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Speaker 2: Who's the David X Cohen of al Qaida? Find out

416
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Speaker 2: would we come back from?

417
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Speaker 3: Uh?

418
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Speaker 2: You know this break.

419
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Speaker 5: That was a really good one.

420
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Speaker 2: We're back. David X Cohen is the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

421
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Speaker 2: of of nine to eleven. Okay, that's right.

422
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Speaker 3: Thank you.

423
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Speaker 2: You can graph all of the great Simpsons writers onto

424
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Speaker 2: figures within al Qaeda, very easy to do. You can

425
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Speaker 2: you can graph all of the all of the South

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Speaker 2: Park guys onto a member of Isis. You know, that's

427
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Speaker 2: just the way, that's just the way things work.

428
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Speaker 5: I'm glad to know, like where they all stand.

429
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I would say like South Park has more

430
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:23,679
Speaker 2: of an Isis vibe, well, where whereas the Simpsons is

431
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:25,200
Speaker 2: more like an al Qaeda kind of deal.

432
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Speaker 4: So Isis is like two guys, like two guys and

433
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Speaker 4: then and then like a small handful, but the two guys.

434
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Speaker 5: Like some kind of org chart family tree type situation.

435
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:42,879
Speaker 5: To get clarification, where where does family guy fall in

436
00:21:43,359 --> 00:21:44,240
Speaker 5: in this matter?

437
00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:46,960
Speaker 2: Robert family guy just is an act of terrorism.

438
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:48,480
Speaker 3: So gonna say it's one to one.

439
00:21:48,720 --> 00:21:52,600
Speaker 2: Just Ye, it's one to one. So we're back and

440
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:56,639
Speaker 2: we're talking about Muhammadan Naief leading the Kingdom's response to

441
00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:01,440
Speaker 2: a surge of terrorism by al Qaeda in side the country. Now,

442
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,199
Speaker 2: a major characteristic of Naief's response was a commitment to

443
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:07,840
Speaker 2: avoiding the kind of collateral damage that would have made

444
00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:10,960
Speaker 2: light it looked like the situation was totally out of control. Right,

445
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:14,120
Speaker 2: You don't want to be blowing up too many things

446
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:16,919
Speaker 2: or killing too many civilians as you search out for

447
00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,199
Speaker 2: these al Qaida operatives, because it makes it seem to

448
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:22,399
Speaker 2: the people like maybe maybe the royal family has no

449
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,080
Speaker 2: idea what's going on. Maybe you guys are completely out

450
00:22:25,119 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 2: of your depth here, right.

451
00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:26,919
Speaker 5: He.

452
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:30,800
Speaker 4: You know, these days you can do all sorts of

453
00:22:30,800 --> 00:22:33,800
Speaker 4: things to civilians, it seems in the name searching things.

454
00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:36,480
Speaker 4: But yes, yes, generally you don't want to do that.

455
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:38,359
Speaker 2: You used to be able to We used to be

456
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:42,840
Speaker 2: a proper country, you know. Yeah, So he distinguished himself

457
00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,280
Speaker 2: from his peers by ordering his forces to focus on

458
00:22:45,359 --> 00:22:48,560
Speaker 2: outreach to the families of dead al Kaida operatives. Parents

459
00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:51,199
Speaker 2: were told their children had been victims and received a

460
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:53,879
Speaker 2: degree of state support in dealing with the social fallout

461
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:57,480
Speaker 2: from their children's actions, rather than being suspected themselves and

462
00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:01,320
Speaker 2: told that like your child is you know, you should

463
00:23:01,359 --> 00:23:03,199
Speaker 2: be ashamed of your kid. They were told like, no,

464
00:23:03,240 --> 00:23:06,560
Speaker 2: you're your kid was a victim of terrorism too, right,

465
00:23:07,040 --> 00:23:10,080
Speaker 2: And the goal of this is to not create more terrorists.

466
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:13,359
Speaker 2: If you make the whole family seem like they're all targets,

467
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,480
Speaker 2: then more of them are going to be sympathetic to

468
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:20,280
Speaker 2: al Qaeda and potentially join and become a problem. U.

469
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:22,960
Speaker 2: So he's trying, Yeah, he doesn't want to do what

470
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:23,600
Speaker 2: the US does.

471
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:27,800
Speaker 3: Also, I've used that excuse in my family before, Yeah,

472
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 3: to get out of all sorts of things.

473
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:33,399
Speaker 2: No, you guys here victims in this too. Yeah. His

474
00:23:33,520 --> 00:23:36,760
Speaker 2: responses were generally seen as effective reducing al Qaeda's influence

475
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:39,159
Speaker 2: in the Kingdom. Perhaps the best evidence of that was

476
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,399
Speaker 2: the fact that ben Lauden and company considered him a

477
00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:45,280
Speaker 2: strategic target worth expending resources to take down. Here's how

478
00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:48,720
Speaker 2: Ben Hubbard described the first attempt on Mohammed Banya's life.

479
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:52,320
Speaker 2: That focus on engagement almost killed him. In two thousand

480
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:54,600
Speaker 2: and nine, the brother of a storied Saudi bomb maker

481
00:23:54,600 --> 00:23:56,680
Speaker 2: who was hiding out with al Qaida and Yeman, announced

482
00:23:56,680 --> 00:23:58,680
Speaker 2: that he wanted to return to the Kingdom and surrender

483
00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 2: to Mbien in person. The Prince received the man in

484
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:04,119
Speaker 2: his palace, ordering that he not be searched to avoid

485
00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:07,480
Speaker 2: humiliating him, and sat next to him. The man detonated

486
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:10,240
Speaker 2: a bomb hidden in his rectum, killing himself and giving

487
00:24:10,359 --> 00:24:14,320
Speaker 2: MBM what we're described at the time as light wounds. Now,

488
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:20,080
Speaker 2: first off, that's rough, but bomb bad. That's a bad

489
00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:21,880
Speaker 2: assassination attempt.

490
00:24:22,359 --> 00:24:24,720
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, if you're asked.

491
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:26,880
Speaker 2: First, next to you, Yeah, you're right next to him.

492
00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 4: And you set off a butt bomb. That to me,

493
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:31,120
Speaker 4: and then it doesn't hurt the person next to him.

494
00:24:31,280 --> 00:24:34,240
Speaker 4: What that sounds like without knowing more information, is that

495
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,280
Speaker 4: your ass exploded and everybody turned and went, oh my god,

496
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:39,000
Speaker 4: what happened?

497
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:41,600
Speaker 3: Are you okay? And you're on the ground like I

498
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,840
Speaker 3: need help, My ass just exploded. Like I might even

499
00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:46,840
Speaker 3: try to pretend like maybe there's no bomb. I was

500
00:24:46,880 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 3: just like, I don't know what happened.

501
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:51,399
Speaker 2: An accident, an accident, No, I think he blows into

502
00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:55,000
Speaker 2: pieces because as a spoiler, the public note is that

503
00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:59,040
Speaker 2: MBN was barely wounded. He's there's a lot of evidence

504
00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 2: that he's pretty bad hurt by this, that maybe he's

505
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:06,960
Speaker 2: actually never the same afterwards. Again, when a man explodes ass, first,

506
00:25:07,040 --> 00:25:10,040
Speaker 2: you're the shrapnel that's hitting you is pieces of a

507
00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 2: man's ass, So among other things, you're gonna get infected, right,

508
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,520
Speaker 2: like his guts and stuff for hitting are getting or

509
00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:17,680
Speaker 2: piercing your body.

510
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:22,320
Speaker 4: Even if I'm physically fine, I'm not the same after that,

511
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:25,159
Speaker 4: a man's ass exploded next to me.

512
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:28,959
Speaker 3: Like, That's all I'm talking about for the rest of

513
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:29,520
Speaker 3: my life.

514
00:25:29,840 --> 00:25:34,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, a really unique form of PTSD. So the next year,

515
00:25:34,720 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 2: mbn's force is exposed and I'll Kita plot to smuggle

516
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:40,479
Speaker 2: bombs into the US via shipping containers. The bombs are

517
00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:43,439
Speaker 2: intercepted and the attack is thwarted, making NBN into a

518
00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:47,200
Speaker 2: hero at home and within US intelligence agencies. He continued

519
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:50,160
Speaker 2: to remain the top man in security throughout the Obama years,

520
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:53,320
Speaker 2: where he developed a close working relationship with CIA Director

521
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:57,520
Speaker 2: David Petraeus. He also got on tight with John Finer,

522
00:25:57,600 --> 00:26:00,800
Speaker 2: chief of staff for Secretary of State John Cai He

523
00:26:00,840 --> 00:26:03,879
Speaker 2: would later tell a reporter that Inmbian's people saved my

524
00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,320
Speaker 2: butt more than once, which given what had just happened

525
00:26:07,359 --> 00:26:12,640
Speaker 2: to NBA John Carreys, where someone's gonna butt bomb him. Yeah,

526
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:15,160
Speaker 2: he literally saved my ass.

527
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 3: I'm glad he has a sense of humor about it.

528
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,800
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know if he meant that as a joke.

529
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 2: I don't know that John carries that funny a man.

530
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:25,960
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then a terra somewhere is like, oh, I

531
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 4: never thought to put the bomb in there, but.

532
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:29,560
Speaker 2: In his butt.

533
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 3: Yeah.

534
00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:34,560
Speaker 2: Salmon comes to power as king in twenty fifteen, as

535
00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:39,520
Speaker 2: we talked about last episode, and he very quickly removes

536
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:41,640
Speaker 2: the guy who had been crown Prince that the old

537
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:44,960
Speaker 2: king had wanted to succeed after King Salomon, and he

538
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:48,240
Speaker 2: makes mohammedd b Nayef the crown prince. And this is why, right,

539
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:52,840
Speaker 2: Mbian is the natural pick to be crown prince, because

540
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:56,720
Speaker 2: he's the guy who has been dealing with the war effort. Right,

541
00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,000
Speaker 2: he's the guy who protected the country, who saved it

542
00:26:59,040 --> 00:26:59,680
Speaker 2: from al Qaide.

543
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 3: He's his asshole pick.

544
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 2: He put his ass on the line. He took someone

545
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:08,439
Speaker 2: else's ass in an explosion right, and a lot of

546
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:10,800
Speaker 2: Americans cheer. This development is the best thing to happen

547
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,480
Speaker 2: to US power in the Middle East for generations. The

548
00:27:13,560 --> 00:27:16,840
Speaker 2: CIA could hardly have hand picked a better successor. Best

549
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 2: of all, as they saw it, Nief was a legitimate

550
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:22,239
Speaker 2: hero in Saudi Arabia. He wasn't someone whose reputation they

551
00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:24,439
Speaker 2: had to prop up. We don't have to make this

552
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 2: guy into a puppet. He's already a hero, right right,

553
00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:32,840
Speaker 2: it's a it's a great bet. So April of twenty fifteen,

554
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,120
Speaker 2: Naieff has made the crown prince and up through twenty sixteen,

555
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:39,560
Speaker 2: it doesn't seem like Mohammed bin Salman, who again is

556
00:27:39,560 --> 00:27:41,919
Speaker 2: the subject of these episodes, and we've had to explain

557
00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,239
Speaker 2: a lot of other guys. He doesn't like he's got

558
00:27:44,280 --> 00:27:47,639
Speaker 2: any chance of taking the crown or power for himself.

559
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:49,880
Speaker 3: He's got real Jeb energy.

560
00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 2: He's got a lot of Jeb energy at this point, right, yeah,

561
00:27:53,480 --> 00:27:59,439
Speaker 2: je yeah, real Please got him managing the family like

562
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 2: office and everything like that, and he's taking on a

563
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,120
Speaker 2: lot of power for himself. But he doesn't seem very special.

564
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,919
Speaker 2: And MBN just seems unassailable, right, Like, how could you

565
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:13,399
Speaker 2: possibly compete with this guy. You're twenty years younger. You've

566
00:28:13,440 --> 00:28:16,960
Speaker 2: never survived an assassination attempt. MBN is on like his

567
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 2: third by this point. You've never fought, prosecuted a war successful.

568
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:23,400
Speaker 2: He's got all these friends in the West. But there

569
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,720
Speaker 2: are already early warning signs for those who truly understood

570
00:28:26,760 --> 00:28:30,360
Speaker 2: inner family power politics within the kingdom. When he appointed

571
00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:35,280
Speaker 2: MBN Crown Prince, King Solomon also collapsed in Mbien's court,

572
00:28:35,320 --> 00:28:37,920
Speaker 2: because every one of these princes at this level has

573
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:41,760
Speaker 2: their own like royal office. Salmon collapses his court into

574
00:28:41,760 --> 00:28:45,720
Speaker 2: the main royal court. And I think this is streamlined

575
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 2: like he frames it, says, we need to be more efficient,

576
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,760
Speaker 2: so we need to like collapse all these courts together

577
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 2: so that they work more effectively. But the crown prince's

578
00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:57,480
Speaker 2: royal court had always been seen as an important perk

579
00:28:57,600 --> 00:28:59,600
Speaker 2: in a good way for an ascendant prince to build

580
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:02,760
Speaker 2: a base power for his own future reign. You're picking

581
00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 2: out people that you want to be loyal to you.

582
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 2: You giving them early jobs ways that they can make

583
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:11,480
Speaker 2: a fortune for themselves. Right, if you don't have control

584
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:15,440
Speaker 2: over your own royal court as crown prince, you're losing

585
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:18,320
Speaker 2: out on a way to like build power for yourself,

586
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,520
Speaker 2: and the fact that Mohammed Man Salmon is in charge

587
00:29:21,520 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 2: of the royal court allows his twenty six year younger

588
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:28,240
Speaker 2: son to start making powerful allies and bribing influential royals

589
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 2: with court positions. So you can see already there's some

590
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:35,480
Speaker 2: signs that maybe King Solomon doesn't intend for Mbian to

591
00:29:35,520 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 2: ever actually take the throne, right, that maybe he's setting

592
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:42,040
Speaker 2: his son up and kind of doing a fuck job

593
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 2: on Mohammed Man Nayef. Behind the scenes, people close to

594
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,120
Speaker 2: the royal family begin to whisper that even as he

595
00:29:48,160 --> 00:29:50,520
Speaker 2: took on the crown, King Solomon was suffering from the

596
00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:54,280
Speaker 2: early stages of Alzheimer's. In this version of events, just

597
00:29:54,320 --> 00:29:57,320
Speaker 2: as the king makes Mbian his official successor, he's starting

598
00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:59,640
Speaker 2: to seed a lot of his power and decision making

599
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,160
Speaker 2: to his younger son Mohammad b and Salomon, who he

600
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:06,600
Speaker 2: appoints as defense minister upon taking office. Right that, maybe

601
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:09,560
Speaker 2: NBS is orchestrating a lot of this from the start,

602
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 2: because King Solomon's never all that competent to run anything,

603
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 2: So maybe from the jump, from the start of his

604
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:18,720
Speaker 2: dad's time as king, NBS is trying to figure out

605
00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,240
Speaker 2: how can I get Mohammad Banayev out from being the

606
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 2: crown prince right, And so he's orchestrating all of this,

607
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 2: and he makes sure he gets the job as the

608
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:29,760
Speaker 2: Minister of Defense because he knows that I want to

609
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:32,800
Speaker 2: kick this guy out of power. This guy has already

610
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 2: developed a reputation as a war leader for our people,

611
00:30:35,960 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 2: so I need to develop a reputation as a war

612
00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 2: leader for our people. And he wastes no time. Yeah,

613
00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:45,320
Speaker 2: but he's got to do a lot worse bombs than that, Dave.

614
00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 2: In March of twenty fifteen, Mohammad and Salomon orders Saudi

615
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:54,520
Speaker 2: forces to intervene directly in Yemen's latest civil war. If

616
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:56,720
Speaker 2: you don't keep track of politics in that region, it's

617
00:30:56,720 --> 00:30:58,680
Speaker 2: important to know that Yemen has been embroiled in a

618
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:02,240
Speaker 2: series of internescing Conft since nineteen sixty two. There have

619
00:31:02,320 --> 00:31:05,960
Speaker 2: been numerous different sides and coalitions, all backed by foreign powers.

620
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:08,480
Speaker 2: Over the course of these conflicts, and throughout the last

621
00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 2: half century or so, there have been Saudi military leaders

622
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 2: and princes who had advocated that the kingdom get more

623
00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 2: directly involved in the fighting. The most recent phase of

624
00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:19,840
Speaker 2: fighting in Yemen was triggered, like so many other things,

625
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:23,520
Speaker 2: by the Arab Spring. In twenty eleven, mass protests forced

626
00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:26,680
Speaker 2: the current president, a guy named Salah, to resign. His

627
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:28,960
Speaker 2: vice president took over for what was meant to be

628
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,560
Speaker 2: two years, during which time the government would be reorganized

629
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:35,600
Speaker 2: into a new federal system and elections would be held.

630
00:31:35,720 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 2: Well attempts at working out a political arrangement failed, this

631
00:31:40,160 --> 00:31:42,640
Speaker 2: guy stays in power, and in a desperate attempt to

632
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:46,280
Speaker 2: deal with the country's crippling economic problems, he cuts fuel subsidies.

633
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 2: This sparks protests and mass dissatisfaction with a no longer

634
00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 2: scene as legitimate regime, A rebel group called the Huthis

635
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:56,640
Speaker 2: was perceptive enough to take advantage of the situation. The

636
00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 2: Huthis are a religious minority. They're from the Zadi sect

637
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:03,400
Speaker 2: of Shia Islam, which is like five percent of the population.

638
00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:07,840
Speaker 2: Schmul and Zohar Letterman describe their motivations and adjourned article

639
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 2: for the Journal of Genocide Research. The Huthis protested against

640
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:14,520
Speaker 2: their political and economic marginalization, as well as the encroachment

641
00:32:14,600 --> 00:32:17,720
Speaker 2: of Saudi Wahabi religious doctrine on the Sada province in

642
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 2: northern Yemen where they were based. So NBS's decision to

643
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:24,080
Speaker 2: intervene doesn't come out of nowhere, but it's a distinct

644
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:26,200
Speaker 2: shock to a lot of his peers and family members.

645
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:30,200
Speaker 2: His cousin, the still crown Prince INBN, wasn't informed ahead

646
00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:33,640
Speaker 2: of time before Saudi forces start going to Yemen, and

647
00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:36,880
Speaker 2: the head of the National Guard, another cousin, also isn't

648
00:32:36,920 --> 00:32:39,040
Speaker 2: told ahead of time, right, none of the people who

649
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:43,160
Speaker 2: should know before Saudi Arabia sticks its dick into this

650
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 2: civil war and Saudi operations are going to rely heavily

651
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:48,680
Speaker 2: on the right. It's like he doesn't tell anybody before

652
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:52,120
Speaker 2: he does this because he wants it to be his baby.

653
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 2: He thinks it's going to be a big success that

654
00:32:54,440 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 2: like immediately we're gonna kick the Huthis out, We're gonna

655
00:32:58,120 --> 00:33:01,240
Speaker 2: stabilize the situation in Yemen. And I want all the credit,

656
00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 2: right right, I don't want any of these guys to

657
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:07,280
Speaker 2: get credit. Obviously, it's gonna work quickly, because it always

658
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 2: works quickly.

659
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:14,040
Speaker 4: It's always fine. Yeah, there's man, it's a sickness like

660
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:16,800
Speaker 4: where you can get resumes all the way. Obviously, today

661
00:33:16,800 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 4: where world leaders are like, we have created a society

662
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:23,320
Speaker 4: where to be like respected, you have to go into

663
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 4: somebody's country and start screwing around and then get all

664
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:27,360
Speaker 4: the credit.

665
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:31,320
Speaker 3: And it never seems to work out like that way,

666
00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:34,920
Speaker 3: but I guess it does because we keep doing it.

667
00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,680
Speaker 3: We're gonna invade Greenland or whatever where. It's just like,

668
00:33:38,720 --> 00:33:41,640
Speaker 3: that's what world leaders do. They start shit in other countries.

669
00:33:41,680 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 3: So I have to do it too if I want

670
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:45,280
Speaker 3: to seem like a world leader.

671
00:33:46,200 --> 00:33:49,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it'll make me seem powerful, It'll make me.

672
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:50,880
Speaker 2: I need to prove that I'm better than the last

673
00:33:50,880 --> 00:33:52,520
Speaker 2: guy who couldn't do it successfully?

674
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 3: Right?

675
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:55,760
Speaker 4: Should it should have just paid people to put bombs

676
00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 4: in their butts.

677
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:02,280
Speaker 2: We're all seeing the wisdom of al Kaieda here, right.

678
00:34:02,400 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 2: You know, simple goals in life. If all you want

679
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:06,920
Speaker 2: is to put a bomb in a man's rectum and

680
00:34:06,960 --> 00:34:09,839
Speaker 2: detonate it next to another man, you can achieve that goal.

681
00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:11,560
Speaker 2: No one can take that from al Qaeda.

682
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:12,040
Speaker 5: You know.

683
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:14,239
Speaker 4: I have a question, Robert, if you had a butt

684
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,839
Speaker 4: bomb and you what would you say before you exploded

685
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:19,280
Speaker 4: it next to the person.

686
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 3: Hmmm, Because I've been.

687
00:34:23,920 --> 00:34:26,319
Speaker 2: That's a good question, Dave, I don't have a good

688
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 2: retort in my head right now, Okay, Sophie.

689
00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:33,600
Speaker 1: Oh crap, Oh that's good, that's good.

690
00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:35,840
Speaker 4: I would, I would, I would casually turn them and

691
00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:37,200
Speaker 4: go you ever eat asked before?

692
00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:38,560
Speaker 3: And then.

693
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:45,640
Speaker 2: That's a really good one day. That's a good one, Dave. So,

694
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 2: the public justification for Saudi Arabia getting involved in the

695
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 2: civil war that does not involve it is that the

696
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:55,279
Speaker 2: ousted president of Yemen had asked for Saudi help, right,

697
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:59,440
Speaker 2: which he kind of he had. But the most obvious

698
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:01,839
Speaker 2: behind the scene Mean's justification was that the Huthis had

699
00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:04,799
Speaker 2: Iranian backing, right, and MBS, along with most of his

700
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 2: inner circle, believe the Houthis were nothing but a proxy

701
00:35:07,719 --> 00:35:09,719
Speaker 2: for Iran, which is a probably a mistake that a

702
00:35:09,760 --> 00:35:12,240
Speaker 2: lot of world leaders make, which is like, these people

703
00:35:12,280 --> 00:35:15,040
Speaker 2: are getting arms or maybe training from this other country

704
00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 2: that's my enemy. They must not be a real group.

705
00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:21,000
Speaker 2: This must all be a fiction created by this other

706
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:24,000
Speaker 2: evil country, as opposed to like, well, the Huthis get

707
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:27,000
Speaker 2: stuff from Iran, but they have their own base of power,

708
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:30,359
Speaker 2: they're their own movement. They're doing a lot right, which

709
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:32,120
Speaker 2: is why they've gotten where they are and they're going

710
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:34,360
Speaker 2: to be a lot harder to destroy than you think

711
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:38,359
Speaker 2: as a result of all of that. Right now, that said,

712
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,400
Speaker 2: none of this alone explains why MBS decides to send

713
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 2: forces into Yemen. Was almost his very first action upon

714
00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:47,879
Speaker 2: getting into a position of power. The Leaderman Brothers write

715
00:35:47,880 --> 00:35:50,440
Speaker 2: that quote, Mohammed ben Salmon seems to have seen what

716
00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:52,680
Speaker 2: he believed would be a short and easily won battle

717
00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:54,759
Speaker 2: against the Huthis as an easy way to bolster his

718
00:35:54,760 --> 00:35:57,760
Speaker 2: images in military and political leader. And I've come across

719
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 2: several other analysts who say the same thing. Nobody ever

720
00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:02,200
Speaker 2: gives more detail than that, And we don't have any

721
00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:04,319
Speaker 2: quotes from behind the scenes or whatever. He does not

722
00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 2: have a very porous office. There's not a detailed here's

723
00:36:07,680 --> 00:36:10,400
Speaker 2: what was happening, you know, behind the people haven't written

724
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:13,719
Speaker 2: a dozen books about being inside his office at this time,

725
00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:16,359
Speaker 2: right because that's just not how Saudi Arabia works. You'll

726
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,520
Speaker 2: get bone sawed if you do that sort of thing,

727
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,359
Speaker 2: you will. So I'm left to assume that even these

728
00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:24,840
Speaker 2: much more knowledgeable analysts don't have a great deal of

729
00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:28,400
Speaker 2: detail from inside NBS's office, so to speak. And this

730
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:30,240
Speaker 2: is one of the most frustrating parts of the story

731
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:32,080
Speaker 2: to me, because there's not really a set. I don't

732
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:33,919
Speaker 2: have a good answer as to why did you think

733
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:37,960
Speaker 2: this would work? Man, he'd grown up and there were

734
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:40,000
Speaker 2: a good reason to think a guy like NBS, who

735
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 2: seems to be relatively smart, should have known this was

736
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:45,839
Speaker 2: a bad idea. He grew up watching the US fail

737
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:49,040
Speaker 2: in Iraq and Afghanistan, right like you saw this fail.

738
00:36:49,920 --> 00:36:53,319
Speaker 4: We in the previous podcast we talked about like you know,

739
00:36:53,960 --> 00:36:57,560
Speaker 4: teachers weren't allowed to like give him back grase, no

740
00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:00,239
Speaker 4: one can say no to him. It's it's and this

741
00:37:00,320 --> 00:37:03,839
Speaker 4: is it's a sickness. It's like if you spend your

742
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:07,960
Speaker 4: life where everybody is not allowed to say no to you,

743
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 4: by the time you get to this point, you're like, yeah,

744
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:14,200
Speaker 4: it'll all work out, won't it. You know what else

745
00:37:14,239 --> 00:37:16,960
Speaker 4: would like everything has told me that.

746
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:20,399
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, humor yeah.

747
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,759
Speaker 2: So he doesn't pay attention to the fact that this

748
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,320
Speaker 2: never hasn't worked in recent memory. He doesn't pay attention

749
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,839
Speaker 2: to the fact that gibbons dysfunction was spurred on by

750
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 2: the Iraq War. The Huthi's attacked former President Salah for

751
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,360
Speaker 2: having supported the US during the early years of the

752
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 2: Global War on Terror. Somehow MBS seems to have convinced

753
00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:38,840
Speaker 2: himself that using a mix of air power and mostly

754
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,080
Speaker 2: foreign troops, he could win a quick and overwhelming victory

755
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:43,920
Speaker 2: against a group he thought was nothing more than an

756
00:37:43,960 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 2: Iranian cutout. This would be proven disastrously wrong, and without

757
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 2: any more detail behind the scenes, I'm left concluding that

758
00:37:50,719 --> 00:37:53,520
Speaker 2: Mohammad and Salmon made a really bad decision because he

759
00:37:53,600 --> 00:37:56,279
Speaker 2: was arrogant and too intellectually lazy to realize he was

760
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:59,200
Speaker 2: making a mistake. Most sources do seem to agree that

761
00:37:59,239 --> 00:38:02,120
Speaker 2: he was the deciple and leading voice in Saudi Arabia

762
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:06,480
Speaker 2: going to war. Many human rights activists Bara Chabon expressed

763
00:38:06,480 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 2: to the Middle East IE his opinion that Saudi Arabia

764
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,719
Speaker 2: would have had some involvement in Yemen's civil war no

765
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:14,680
Speaker 2: matter who was in power, but NBS made it certain

766
00:38:14,719 --> 00:38:17,919
Speaker 2: that that involvement would be direct military. Right, they would

767
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:20,160
Speaker 2: have done something. They would have tried to send some money,

768
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:22,959
Speaker 2: They would have tried to, you know, since some form

769
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 2: of a they would have tried to bribe an official

770
00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:28,439
Speaker 2: or whatever. But because it was MBS, it was made

771
00:38:28,440 --> 00:38:30,840
Speaker 2: a guarantee that they were going to send in soldiers

772
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 2: and planes and try to intervene directly and militarily. Quote,

773
00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:37,239
Speaker 2: if it weren't for Ben Salomon, Saudi Arabia might have

774
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,800
Speaker 2: influenced the war through funding and supporting certain groups. Instead,

775
00:38:40,840 --> 00:38:43,120
Speaker 2: it takes a direct leading role in a campaign of

776
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:46,320
Speaker 2: vicious air strikes. For the first few months, the Saudi

777
00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:49,759
Speaker 2: coalition carried out strikes on mostly military targets. They learned

778
00:38:49,760 --> 00:38:52,320
Speaker 2: a version of the lesson the US is currently failing

779
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 2: to learn over and over again in the Gulf of Aden,

780
00:38:54,520 --> 00:38:56,759
Speaker 2: which is that you can't destroy a group like the

781
00:38:56,840 --> 00:38:59,880
Speaker 2: Huthis just by carrying out air strikes. You can't bomb

782
00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:03,200
Speaker 2: them away. It's really hard to bomb people away when

783
00:39:03,239 --> 00:39:06,320
Speaker 2: they know the terrain and can hide behind rocks and stuff.

784
00:39:06,560 --> 00:39:11,280
Speaker 2: There's caves, there's bunkers, there's just hiding under the fucking sand.

785
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:15,879
Speaker 2: You know, Like, it's hard to kill people that way

786
00:39:15,960 --> 00:39:17,200
Speaker 2: as much as you need to.

787
00:39:17,520 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 4: Yeah, it feels like it's every people as unique, where

788
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:22,960
Speaker 4: if you go into someone's territory, it's like, well, they

789
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:25,520
Speaker 4: know it better than anybody. On top of it's that

790
00:39:25,600 --> 00:39:29,040
Speaker 4: realization that it's like it seems like world leaders have

791
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 4: just as much like knowledge as I do about how

792
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:34,560
Speaker 4: to do a war, where I'm like, yeah, I like

793
00:39:34,640 --> 00:39:35,520
Speaker 4: the movie top Gun.

794
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:36,319
Speaker 3: Let's just do that.

795
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:39,120
Speaker 4: Let's just do like puw pew as opposed to like

796
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:41,759
Speaker 4: the boring thing, you know, don't do the boring thing.

797
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 4: Don't like fund groups that that you want to you know, prevail, No, no,

798
00:39:46,040 --> 00:39:48,880
Speaker 4: you just we got all these cool little machines and stuff.

799
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,799
Speaker 4: Let's send them in. Like it's everybody wants to do

800
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 4: pupu stuff.

801
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:57,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody wants to do pupu stuff. Nobody actually knows

802
00:39:57,160 --> 00:40:00,880
Speaker 2: how to do pupu stuff. Yeah, it's I mean, the

803
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:04,040
Speaker 2: best way to win a war is to avoid getting

804
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:07,440
Speaker 2: involved entirely, and the next best way to win a

805
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:11,760
Speaker 2: war is to sit on your ass while your opponent

806
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:16,200
Speaker 2: bombs the country into ruins and then then come up

807
00:40:16,239 --> 00:40:21,440
Speaker 2: afterwards and be like still live, motherfucker. Those are, broadly speaking,

808
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:22,919
Speaker 2: the two best strategies.

809
00:40:23,400 --> 00:40:28,799
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, don't get into warst Like I've gone yeah.

810
00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,080
Speaker 3: Over forty years now without getting into a war.

811
00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,799
Speaker 2: Yeah not. You invaded any country, and there's been temptations, you.

812
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:36,520
Speaker 3: Know, Oh god, yeah, I've had every reason to, but

813
00:40:36,760 --> 00:40:37,759
Speaker 3: like I did.

814
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:41,719
Speaker 2: I invaded Belgian once kind of accidentally, but but I

815
00:40:41,760 --> 00:40:43,799
Speaker 2: wound up on a train to Germany the next night,

816
00:40:43,840 --> 00:40:47,800
Speaker 2: so it was okay. Speaking of invasions, why don't you

817
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:58,800
Speaker 2: let these ads invade your mental state? And we're back.

818
00:41:00,239 --> 00:41:04,880
Speaker 2: So Saudi Arabia is carrying out horrific air strikes. By

819
00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:07,640
Speaker 2: August of twenty fifteen, it has become clear that things

820
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:10,120
Speaker 2: are not trending towards a quick and easy win for

821
00:41:10,239 --> 00:41:13,759
Speaker 2: Mohammed ben Salmon and his coalition. In fact, several of

822
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,319
Speaker 2: his Wanta Be coalition partners had backed out at the

823
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:18,560
Speaker 2: last minute. These were guys he had relied on to

824
00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:23,000
Speaker 2: provide infantries because the Saudi Arabian army not great and

825
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:26,319
Speaker 2: it's politically testy to send a bunch of your young

826
00:41:26,360 --> 00:41:29,080
Speaker 2: men into a meat grinder. He was really hoping some

827
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:31,800
Speaker 2: other young men would do that job, and he winds

828
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,759
Speaker 2: up being reliant on Sudanese war criminal mercenaries to do

829
00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:36,840
Speaker 2: a lot of the gruntwork for him, which is not

830
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:39,840
Speaker 2: a great call for either a white variety of reasons.

831
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:44,200
Speaker 2: As the summer reaches its apex the Leaderman's right quote,

832
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 2: a shift could be discerned from military and governmental to

833
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:50,959
Speaker 2: civilian and economic targets including water and transport, infrastructure, food

834
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:54,200
Speaker 2: production and distribution, roads and transport, clinics and hospitals, and

835
00:41:54,200 --> 00:41:58,719
Speaker 2: similar crucial civilian institutions. Right, so as soon as it

836
00:41:58,840 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 2: becomes like, oh, they're not just disappeared because we've started

837
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:04,560
Speaker 2: bombing them and we don't actually know where to keep bombing,

838
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:06,680
Speaker 2: Like I struck what we're supposed to be all the

839
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:10,120
Speaker 2: military targets, and it doesn't seem to have harmed their military.

840
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:13,680
Speaker 2: I guess we just start bombing where they keep the food.

841
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:17,320
Speaker 2: I guess we start bombing the water treatment facilities. I

842
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:20,880
Speaker 2: guess we start bombing the hospitals and schools, you know,

843
00:42:21,480 --> 00:42:23,640
Speaker 2: like that's where we go from There is like, well,

844
00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:26,560
Speaker 2: I guess I just have to destroy the whole society now, right, Yeah,

845
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:28,680
Speaker 2: where's less popular?

846
00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 3: Right?

847
00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:32,120
Speaker 2: But who these are more popular now that you're killing society.

848
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's make them victims. Now, let's just make them

849
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:37,800
Speaker 3: like yeah yeah here.

850
00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:40,520
Speaker 2: As opposed to what he should have done is just

851
00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 2: set up an entire fake city, like fifty miles down

852
00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:48,080
Speaker 2: the road from the capitol and be like, hey, free gatorade.

853
00:42:48,400 --> 00:42:51,320
Speaker 2: You know, everybody gets a laptop at the nice city.

854
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:53,480
Speaker 2: Why don't you guys just come to We're not fighting.

855
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:55,880
Speaker 2: We got no desire to fight, you know, but you

856
00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:58,200
Speaker 2: know what, we have hamburgers.

857
00:42:58,560 --> 00:42:59,680
Speaker 3: So like a blazing saddle.

858
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:03,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, exactly like that, you know, I feel like

859
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:06,320
Speaker 2: that would work in a lot of wars. As opposed

860
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:07,839
Speaker 2: to doing the whole invasion thing.

861
00:43:08,280 --> 00:43:10,719
Speaker 4: I think we should at least try to do things

862
00:43:10,760 --> 00:43:14,000
Speaker 4: like paint tunnels on rocks and see if people run

863
00:43:14,040 --> 00:43:15,759
Speaker 4: into the rocks, you know.

864
00:43:16,040 --> 00:43:18,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what if we had just set up a

865
00:43:18,600 --> 00:43:21,839
Speaker 2: second Iraq and told everybody, look, you can stay living

866
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:25,560
Speaker 2: under the old Iraq, but the new Iraq free cable.

867
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:30,680
Speaker 3: Yeah right, Iraq, come on over.

868
00:43:31,040 --> 00:43:34,239
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, suddenly said I doesn't even have a

869
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:39,560
Speaker 2: country anymore. What's he going to do? You know exactly?

870
00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:41,440
Speaker 2: He'd actually have been very happy. It'd have been a

871
00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:43,920
Speaker 2: much happier man. He was tired of being the leader

872
00:43:43,920 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 2: of a rock at that point. So right as this

873
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:51,880
Speaker 2: shift begins, as Saudi Arabia moves its bombing from trying

874
00:43:51,880 --> 00:43:54,319
Speaker 2: to strike in military targets to just trying to kill

875
00:43:54,360 --> 00:43:58,560
Speaker 2: civil society uh in Yemen, Muhammad b and Salma decides, well,

876
00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 2: that's a good days work. I think, guy, I've earned

877
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:04,839
Speaker 2: a vacation. Boy, a lot of work fucking up a war.

878
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:07,680
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go party. You guys keep blowing up some

879
00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:11,280
Speaker 2: hospitals or something while I'm gone. Okay, So he gathers

880
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:13,360
Speaker 2: a tight assortment of all of his best friends and

881
00:44:13,400 --> 00:44:16,360
Speaker 2: they leave the capital of Riod to party in the Maldeeps.

882
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:20,439
Speaker 2: His people rent out the entire Vila resort, which had

883
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,439
Speaker 2: fifty villas and a private coral reef of its own.

884
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 2: The hotel's regular employees were paid five thousand dollars each

885
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:29,160
Speaker 2: for one month of work, on the condition that they

886
00:44:29,200 --> 00:44:32,439
Speaker 2: not bring their smartphones or talk to anyone else about

887
00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:34,880
Speaker 2: what they saw while they were there. Even with this

888
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:37,920
Speaker 2: agreement in place, the prince's household brought its own servants

889
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:40,120
Speaker 2: to manage the hotel instead, So none of these guys.

890
00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:42,240
Speaker 2: Most of these guys don't even get to work while

891
00:44:42,280 --> 00:44:45,280
Speaker 2: the prince is there because, as a spoiler, they're bringing

892
00:44:45,360 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 2: a shitload of drugs and prostitutes right to party in

893
00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:51,120
Speaker 2: them out. They're doing all the stuff you're not supposed

894
00:44:51,160 --> 00:44:52,960
Speaker 2: to do under Wavist Islam.

895
00:44:53,239 --> 00:44:56,480
Speaker 4: It's wild how rich people are a different species yet

896
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:57,799
Speaker 4: the same species too.

897
00:44:57,960 --> 00:44:59,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you can do all that at a motel

898
00:44:59,760 --> 00:45:02,319
Speaker 3: s cheap, you can.

899
00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:05,680
Speaker 2: So he invites this insane guest list.

900
00:45:06,640 --> 00:45:07,440
Speaker 1: We have names.

901
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 2: These are like his friends, these are people he's now

902
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:13,680
Speaker 2: we do have some names. He invites one hundred and

903
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:17,160
Speaker 2: fifty Brazilian in Russian supermodels. Each is scanned for STDs

904
00:45:17,239 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 2: and then taken to private lodgings on the island.

905
00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:24,520
Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, yeah, okay.

906
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:28,560
Speaker 2: Per the Africa Report. To keep these demanding guests entertained,

907
00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:32,239
Speaker 2: there were concerts featuring the rapper Pitbull, Korean pop star PSI,

908
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:34,200
Speaker 2: and Dutch DJ Afrojack.

909
00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:36,480
Speaker 1: Mister Worldwide.

910
00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:43,760
Speaker 3: He's paid, he's getting skimming paid.

911
00:45:43,920 --> 00:45:47,720
Speaker 5: Yeah, buddy, diet I know to be not a good person.

912
00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 5: Don't know anything about dbro Jack, but he's a DJ.

913
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:57,520
Speaker 5: He's stereotyping, stereotyping, So sorry, DJs of the world.

914
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:06,799
Speaker 2: But mister world Wide, mister worldwide, Yeah that's right, baby, yeah,

915
00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:11,279
Speaker 2: mister worldwide. One hundred and fifty quote unquote supermodels and

916
00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:15,440
Speaker 2: Mohammed Ben Solomon and his best friends all partying on

917
00:46:15,480 --> 00:46:16,279
Speaker 2: an eye.

918
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:18,840
Speaker 5: Did they checked the talent for STDs or was that

919
00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:22,120
Speaker 5: just was that just the supermodels.

920
00:46:21,800 --> 00:46:24,600
Speaker 2: They checked Pitbull for STDs, and the test came back.

921
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:29,759
Speaker 5: Yes, I'd like I'd like to think Korean pop star

922
00:46:29,920 --> 00:46:31,040
Speaker 5: side f.

923
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:36,479
Speaker 2: Yeah. It turns out Sigh was just for every cell

924
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:39,240
Speaker 2: of his body was chlamydia. He's not even a person,

925
00:46:39,280 --> 00:46:44,239
Speaker 2: He's a sentient colony of chlamydia, which you know makes

926
00:46:44,280 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 2: sense based on this music. So while thousands die horrific

927
00:46:47,600 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 2: deaths from US bombs dropped by Saudi pilots, NBS and

928
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:54,759
Speaker 2: his inner circle partied. My favorite detail from this blowout

929
00:46:54,800 --> 00:46:57,680
Speaker 2: was that one night NBS got up on stage during

930
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:01,280
Speaker 2: DJ Afrojack set and took aver his turntables.

931
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:04,600
Speaker 3: Jesus, there's no way to do this good.

932
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:06,440
Speaker 2: He can't have been good.

933
00:47:06,760 --> 00:47:12,960
Speaker 5: No, but like, you don't do that.

934
00:47:13,920 --> 00:47:17,720
Speaker 2: What happened? The DJ gets pissed off. I'm gonna guess

935
00:47:17,760 --> 00:47:20,040
Speaker 2: everyone at the party's pissed off, and no one's allowed

936
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:22,920
Speaker 2: to say anything. I'm gonna guess NBS is also coked

937
00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 2: to the gills during this Right, these these guys are

938
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:32,680
Speaker 2: flying in a mountain of Peruvian marching powder, and probably, yeah.

939
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:37,000
Speaker 4: It makes anybody SAYDJ like that's what does.

940
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:42,160
Speaker 2: That's what cocaine's for. Obviously, no amount of threatening hotel

941
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:44,440
Speaker 2: staff is going to keep a party like this quiet

942
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:46,279
Speaker 2: and doing this is not a good look for a

943
00:47:46,320 --> 00:47:48,600
Speaker 2: man who had just started a bloody war. That in

944
00:47:48,640 --> 00:47:50,439
Speaker 2: a man about a year or so, people are gonna

945
00:47:50,440 --> 00:47:52,680
Speaker 2: be talking about what Saudi Ribia is doing in Yemen

946
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:55,839
Speaker 2: as a genocide. Right, So, after less than a week,

947
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:57,080
Speaker 2: if I think what was meant to be like a

948
00:47:57,120 --> 00:48:00,360
Speaker 2: month of partying, NBS was forced to pull up stakes

949
00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:01,960
Speaker 2: and take his friends back home.

950
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,080
Speaker 3: Sorry, guys, we gotta go. I did a genocide.

951
00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:08,200
Speaker 1: Uh, I.

952
00:48:09,920 --> 00:48:11,160
Speaker 3: Know you guys.

953
00:48:11,280 --> 00:48:13,520
Speaker 4: You guys can stay here, but listen, I'm not paying

954
00:48:13,560 --> 00:48:14,400
Speaker 4: anything anymore.

955
00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:16,720
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry.

956
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:24,120
Speaker 5: Yeah, Bingham style, I'm so sorry, mister worldwide.

957
00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:26,120
Speaker 1: We can rage later.

958
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:30,360
Speaker 5: I'm too busy committing mass murdered genoside.

959
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:39,120
Speaker 4: I feel like side they probably have contracts around that

960
00:48:39,239 --> 00:48:42,600
Speaker 4: where they're like, okay, they've done a genocide. You never

961
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:44,200
Speaker 4: hear about, like I wish just once. I want to

962
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:46,279
Speaker 4: hear about like James Taylor being at one of these.

963
00:48:46,560 --> 00:48:47,720
Speaker 4: It's never changed Taylor.

964
00:48:48,239 --> 00:48:54,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, James Taylor, or uh fucking and and yeah,

965
00:48:54,760 --> 00:49:00,680
Speaker 2: sure you're in the Saudi royal family. Why not. Civilian

966
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:03,880
Speaker 2: casualties mount as the war drags on. The coalition was

967
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:06,760
Speaker 2: successful in pushing the Houthies back from their furthest gains

968
00:49:06,760 --> 00:49:09,400
Speaker 2: in southern Yemen, but no matter how much they bombed,

969
00:49:09,400 --> 00:49:11,920
Speaker 2: they couldn't make any headway against the capitol or any

970
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:15,120
Speaker 2: of the other major cities the Houthis controlled. The Saudi

971
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:18,760
Speaker 2: war effort was utterly reliant upon the US. The bombs

972
00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,640
Speaker 2: they dropped on the Houthis were made by Americans, as

973
00:49:21,719 --> 00:49:25,360
Speaker 2: were the planes flown by Saudi pilots. American political support

974
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:29,000
Speaker 2: was also crucial to the Saudi war effort. NBS had

975
00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:32,680
Speaker 2: justified the brutality of this campaign by claiming Huthi resistance

976
00:49:32,719 --> 00:49:34,760
Speaker 2: would be smashed in a matter of weeks or months.

977
00:49:35,040 --> 00:49:38,320
Speaker 2: As it became increasingly clear this was a fantasy, resistance

978
00:49:38,360 --> 00:49:40,840
Speaker 2: began to crop up from within the halls of Saudi power.

979
00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:44,080
Speaker 2: Mohammed ban Naya sent his top aide in Chief of Staff,

980
00:49:44,160 --> 00:49:47,440
Speaker 2: Sad al Jabri, to DC to inform his American friends

981
00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:49,560
Speaker 2: that he knew the King's son was an idiot and

982
00:49:49,560 --> 00:49:52,160
Speaker 2: that the war in Yemen was a mistake. The feeling

983
00:49:52,200 --> 00:49:54,359
Speaker 2: one gets is that he was fishing for approval from

984
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:56,640
Speaker 2: someone in the State Department. If he had an outright

985
00:49:56,680 --> 00:49:58,120
Speaker 2: power struggle with NBS.

986
00:49:58,239 --> 00:49:58,399
Speaker 3: Right.

987
00:49:58,719 --> 00:50:01,479
Speaker 2: Hey, I know this is dumb. This war is dumb.

988
00:50:01,480 --> 00:50:04,760
Speaker 2: You guys hate this too. Right, if there's a power struggle,

989
00:50:04,800 --> 00:50:06,319
Speaker 2: are you going to be on my side or are

990
00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:08,160
Speaker 2: you going to back Mohammed Ben Salmon?

991
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:08,560
Speaker 3: Right?

992
00:50:09,320 --> 00:50:12,360
Speaker 2: And for his part, MBS doesn't sit on his ass

993
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,000
Speaker 2: watching the war turn against him. He gets hard to

994
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:18,080
Speaker 2: work finding foreign allies too, instead of heading straight to

995
00:50:18,120 --> 00:50:20,160
Speaker 2: the White House, though he looks closer to home at

996
00:50:20,200 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 2: the UAE. His most important early ally was Sheik Mohammad

997
00:50:24,040 --> 00:50:27,600
Speaker 2: Benzayad al Nayon generally agreed to be the guy calling

998
00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:29,520
Speaker 2: most of the shots and the Emirates we'll just call

999
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:33,479
Speaker 2: him MBZ because everyone else does two and MBZ does

1000
00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:34,920
Speaker 2: not like MBN.

1001
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:35,480
Speaker 5: Right.

1002
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:38,640
Speaker 2: A common story you'll come across is that, during one meeting,

1003
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:42,560
Speaker 2: MBZ told MBN that his father, the Dark Prince, was

1004
00:50:42,600 --> 00:50:45,440
Speaker 2: so clumsy he proved Darwin was right, which is a

1005
00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:47,319
Speaker 2: kind of blasphemer you can only get away with if

1006
00:50:47,360 --> 00:50:49,280
Speaker 2: you're a shake. We're not even supposed to like Darwin

1007
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:50,239
Speaker 2: all that much.

1008
00:50:50,520 --> 00:50:52,760
Speaker 3: Like, what are you doing? Man?

1009
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:55,880
Speaker 2: But Mbz's in charge of his own country. Basically, he

1010
00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:58,080
Speaker 2: doesn't have to abide by the rules, and so he

1011
00:50:58,160 --> 00:51:01,680
Speaker 2: starts connecting with MBS because they both hate MBN and

1012
00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:04,440
Speaker 2: they both want to take this fucker down their courts

1013
00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:06,919
Speaker 2: organize a camping trip in the desert where they become

1014
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:09,400
Speaker 2: fast friends, and they start to strategize a way to

1015
00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:13,560
Speaker 2: take out Mohammad Ben Salmon's older cousin. Mbz's first act

1016
00:51:13,600 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 2: in this new alliance was to start reaching out to

1017
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:19,399
Speaker 2: his American friends and talking up Mohammed Ben Salmon. This

1018
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:21,440
Speaker 2: is enough of a success that people in the Obama

1019
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:24,400
Speaker 2: White House start discussing the need for an MBS whisperer

1020
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:26,680
Speaker 2: to get close to the King's son in case he

1021
00:51:26,800 --> 00:51:30,160
Speaker 2: winds up accruing more power. Like so many important things

1022
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:32,600
Speaker 2: during the Obama years, this fell through the cracks because

1023
00:51:32,640 --> 00:51:35,080
Speaker 2: no one was interested or had time to do the job.

1024
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:39,120
Speaker 2: Ben Hubbard's book includes these very funny lines. John Kerry

1025
00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:42,400
Speaker 2: was suggested to be MBS's friend, but was too busy.

1026
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:46,239
Speaker 2: Ash Carter, the Secretary of Defense, was MBS's natural counterpart,

1027
00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:49,480
Speaker 2: but wasn't interested. Vice President Joe Biden was discussed but

1028
00:51:49,560 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 2: deemed too old, so instead they picked no one to

1029
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:57,000
Speaker 2: do this important job. And so there's no one in.

1030
00:51:56,920 --> 00:52:01,719
Speaker 1: The Sorry, they were like, let's have jaw Uncarrie.

1031
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:03,920
Speaker 2: John Carrey be this kid's print.

1032
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:09,120
Speaker 3: I would love to watch Jean Carrey party with this guy. Yeah, yeah,

1033
00:52:10,560 --> 00:52:11,200
Speaker 3: video games.

1034
00:52:11,239 --> 00:52:13,800
Speaker 2: Like John Carrey comes in with like a copy of

1035
00:52:13,840 --> 00:52:14,960
Speaker 2: Halo and a six pack.

1036
00:52:15,040 --> 00:52:19,399
Speaker 4: He's like, hey bro, yeah, And again they settled on

1037
00:52:19,800 --> 00:52:22,640
Speaker 4: No One and they're like, that's better than John Carrey

1038
00:52:22,840 --> 00:52:24,799
Speaker 4: or or Joe Bidenery, like.

1039
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,200
Speaker 5: John Kerrey or that that old guy you know.

1040
00:52:30,000 --> 00:52:33,040
Speaker 2: Not likes for a job as important as being this

1041
00:52:33,160 --> 00:52:33,800
Speaker 2: kid's friend.

1042
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:38,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then four seconds later they're like he should

1043
00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:39,000
Speaker 1: be president.

1044
00:52:39,440 --> 00:52:40,640
Speaker 2: He could do that job.

1045
00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:46,080
Speaker 4: I'll say this, I saw John Carrey once at a

1046
00:52:46,080 --> 00:52:50,759
Speaker 4: at a parade of Saint Patrick's Stay parade, and he

1047
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:53,560
Speaker 4: was he was walking in the parade and he wasn't

1048
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:55,480
Speaker 4: like a float or anything. It was just him walking

1049
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:58,919
Speaker 4: surrounded by like dudes protecting him. And I'll say this,

1050
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:02,919
Speaker 4: he was visible, blee drunk, So I think he would

1051
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:03,719
Speaker 4: have parties.

1052
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:08,880
Speaker 1: All right, mister world, Why the.

1053
00:53:08,560 --> 00:53:10,840
Speaker 2: Coolest story about John Carrey I've ever heard?

1054
00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:14,960
Speaker 5: Sorry, John carry, I didn't know. I didn't know your game.

1055
00:53:15,040 --> 00:53:19,400
Speaker 2: Was unfamiliar with your that's good to know. Wow, we

1056
00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:21,799
Speaker 2: could get get him on an island with Pitt Bull

1057
00:53:21,880 --> 00:53:25,080
Speaker 2: in one hundred and fifty supermodels. See what he gets

1058
00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:25,400
Speaker 2: up to.

1059
00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:29,000
Speaker 1: Gonna need your STD checks though, John Kerry.

1060
00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:31,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, you don't want to do that. You don't

1061
00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:35,840
Speaker 2: want to know where he's been. So my favorite aspect

1062
00:53:35,840 --> 00:53:38,239
Speaker 2: of this, just in terms of the overall competency of

1063
00:53:38,280 --> 00:53:42,280
Speaker 2: the Obama administration and foreign policy, was this. They start

1064
00:53:42,320 --> 00:53:44,960
Speaker 2: to get hints that, oh, this kid's going to be important.

1065
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:46,960
Speaker 2: We probably want him on our side. We should have

1066
00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:50,720
Speaker 2: someone like be his friend, and then they have decided, Nah,

1067
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:52,880
Speaker 2: that's too hard, We'll have no one be his friend.

1068
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:56,320
Speaker 2: You know what administration does find someone to be Mohammed

1069
00:53:56,320 --> 00:54:00,440
Speaker 2: Ben Salmon's friend is the Trump administration. They picked Jared Kushner,

1070
00:54:00,600 --> 00:54:03,439
Speaker 2: and Kushner gets very close to NBS because they pay

1071
00:54:03,440 --> 00:54:07,640
Speaker 2: attention to stuff like this. It's just one of these, like, yeah,

1072
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:11,000
Speaker 2: there are actual areas in which the Trump administration was

1073
00:54:11,040 --> 00:54:13,600
Speaker 2: more competent than the Obama administration. One of them was

1074
00:54:13,640 --> 00:54:17,160
Speaker 2: knowing which rich assholes to suck up to, which matters

1075
00:54:17,160 --> 00:54:19,000
Speaker 2: when you're dealing with Saudi Arabia.

1076
00:54:19,120 --> 00:54:21,239
Speaker 4: It's still like, all right, I get it. That are

1077
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:24,839
Speaker 4: similar ages but you can't party with Kushner. That's like

1078
00:54:24,920 --> 00:54:29,080
Speaker 4: partying with a haunted clock. It's just like there's nothing there.

1079
00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:33,400
Speaker 2: I mean, I can't imagine it's great to part with NBS. Yeah,

1080
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:34,440
Speaker 2: Kushner looks.

1081
00:54:34,239 --> 00:54:37,920
Speaker 5: Like the skeleton of a fish. Yeah, And they're like

1082
00:54:38,200 --> 00:54:40,439
Speaker 5: that guy, that's the guy.

1083
00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:40,759
Speaker 4: Guy.

1084
00:54:41,239 --> 00:54:44,920
Speaker 5: I have the thought like once a month where I

1085
00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:47,800
Speaker 5: think back to the time like early twenty sixteen, where

1086
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:52,040
Speaker 5: Trump's just like, yeah, Jared's gonna create peace in the

1087
00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:53,640
Speaker 5: Middle East, that's what he's working on.

1088
00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:58,600
Speaker 1: Like, guy, this guy went to Jared.

1089
00:55:00,640 --> 00:55:01,279
Speaker 3: Oh Man.

1090
00:55:02,440 --> 00:55:05,600
Speaker 2: So, and this is where kind of the fact that

1091
00:55:06,120 --> 00:55:09,680
Speaker 2: Mohammad ban Naief immediately goes to his friends in America

1092
00:55:10,080 --> 00:55:13,840
Speaker 2: and in the Obama administration is like, look, if I

1093
00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:15,640
Speaker 2: have a fight with this guy, do you have my back?

1094
00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:18,719
Speaker 2: And they're kind of going to be like, we're not

1095
00:55:18,760 --> 00:55:23,200
Speaker 2: going to get involved in any fights, right, Whereas Mahmad

1096
00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:25,360
Speaker 2: Man Salmon's strategy is I'm going to start making allies

1097
00:55:25,400 --> 00:55:27,799
Speaker 2: close to home, with people that with like that who

1098
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:31,080
Speaker 2: will actually back me right, who have power, who are

1099
00:55:31,160 --> 00:55:33,560
Speaker 2: near us, and who will support me because they see

1100
00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:35,960
Speaker 2: a benefit in it. I know the US isn't going

1101
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:38,040
Speaker 2: to take a side in this. I know when we

1102
00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:40,360
Speaker 2: have a power struggle, they don't care. So I'm not

1103
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:43,279
Speaker 2: going to waste my time trying to get them on

1104
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:45,520
Speaker 2: my side. I'm going to get allies who will actually

1105
00:55:45,600 --> 00:55:48,960
Speaker 2: support me. And so while MBN is trusting that, like, well,

1106
00:55:49,000 --> 00:55:51,759
Speaker 2: I've spent my whole life building all these connections with

1107
00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:55,719
Speaker 2: the security apparatus in the United States, Surely they'll back

1108
00:55:55,840 --> 00:55:58,000
Speaker 2: me if push comes to shove, because they want me

1109
00:55:58,080 --> 00:56:00,960
Speaker 2: in power. He learns the less, like, you actually can't

1110
00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:04,680
Speaker 2: trust the US for anything, Bro, We're terrible friends. We

1111
00:56:04,719 --> 00:56:08,160
Speaker 2: don't have your back, we don't have our own back, Like,

1112
00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:11,919
Speaker 2: we're not gonna do shit for you, homie. And as

1113
00:56:11,960 --> 00:56:15,040
Speaker 2: soon as this message comes out, because Carrie sends a

1114
00:56:15,040 --> 00:56:17,920
Speaker 2: message to both Mohammed bin Salomon and mohammadan Nif that like,

1115
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:21,319
Speaker 2: we're not going to intervene in any power struggles between

1116
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:24,200
Speaker 2: Saudi princes, Mohammad bin Salomon takes this as a go

1117
00:56:24,239 --> 00:56:26,359
Speaker 2: ahead or at least confirmation that no one's gonna stop

1118
00:56:26,440 --> 00:56:29,320
Speaker 2: him from taking down his older cousin, and he uses

1119
00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:32,040
Speaker 2: the fact that Nief had sent his aid al Jabri

1120
00:56:32,160 --> 00:56:34,520
Speaker 2: to talk to the Americans as an excuse to get

1121
00:56:34,520 --> 00:56:37,600
Speaker 2: al Jabri fired for trying to discredit King Solomon's son,

1122
00:56:37,880 --> 00:56:40,840
Speaker 2: which leaves Nief isolated. He's now kicked out one of

1123
00:56:40,880 --> 00:56:44,600
Speaker 2: Mohammad NIAF's chief supporters, right, and so now he's down

1124
00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 2: a man, the Africa Report summarizes. In September, Nif and

1125
00:56:48,680 --> 00:56:51,480
Speaker 2: AlJabri learned on live TV of King Solomon's plans to

1126
00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:54,120
Speaker 2: fire the latter, thereby depriving the Interior Minister of his

1127
00:56:54,200 --> 00:56:57,080
Speaker 2: closest aid. A few weeks later, Nief was getting ready

1128
00:56:57,120 --> 00:57:01,040
Speaker 2: to welcome the US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Joseph Westfall,

1129
00:57:01,080 --> 00:57:04,160
Speaker 2: when the diplomat was taken aside by MBS's team and Jedda.

1130
00:57:04,280 --> 00:57:06,200
Speaker 2: The King's son told west Fall that he needed to

1131
00:57:06,239 --> 00:57:08,120
Speaker 2: see him, reassuring him that he would have plenty of

1132
00:57:08,160 --> 00:57:10,480
Speaker 2: time to meet with the Crown Prince afterwards. But that

1133
00:57:10,600 --> 00:57:13,160
Speaker 2: is not the way things went. MBS dragged out the

1134
00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 2: Teta tet for so long that the two men were

1135
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:18,600
Speaker 2: unable to meet in the end. Right, he's separating him

1136
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:22,160
Speaker 2: now from his American friends. He's just kind of isolating

1137
00:57:22,240 --> 00:57:24,800
Speaker 2: him as he slowly draws the noose tighter and tighter

1138
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:28,400
Speaker 2: around Mohammad bin Nayef. Now, some analysts suspect that the

1139
00:57:28,440 --> 00:57:31,600
Speaker 2: wounds mbians suffered in that two thousand and nine assassination

1140
00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:35,320
Speaker 2: attempt were more significant than previously admitted, and so that's

1141
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:38,920
Speaker 2: why he's not fighting back effectively or responding seriously to

1142
00:57:38,920 --> 00:57:42,840
Speaker 2: what his younger cousin's doing. That he's got brain damage basically,

1143
00:57:42,880 --> 00:57:45,800
Speaker 2: and he's gotten addicted to painkillers in the wake of

1144
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:48,640
Speaker 2: having this injury, and he's just not as functional as

1145
00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:50,960
Speaker 2: he used to be. Right So, in addition to the

1146
00:57:50,960 --> 00:57:53,720
Speaker 2: fact that he's being out maneuvered in part because he's

1147
00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:56,920
Speaker 2: just taken too much damage getting to this point in

1148
00:57:56,960 --> 00:57:59,919
Speaker 2: his career previously to hold up against someone like muham

1149
00:58:00,080 --> 00:58:02,520
Speaker 2: and Ben Salomon, who's got his wits about him right

1150
00:58:02,640 --> 00:58:03,280
Speaker 2: whether or like.

1151
00:58:03,560 --> 00:58:08,080
Speaker 4: Your powers in jeopardy, and he's like his ass's.

1152
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:11,080
Speaker 2: Explode eloded right next to me. Can I have more vicotin?

1153
00:58:13,320 --> 00:58:16,040
Speaker 2: So once the two men start fighting, it becomes rapidly

1154
00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:18,040
Speaker 2: clear that the Crown Prince does not have the energy

1155
00:58:18,120 --> 00:58:21,360
Speaker 2: or mental agility to outthink and outfight his rival. The

1156
00:58:21,400 --> 00:58:24,480
Speaker 2: two appeared together at several public events where MBS talked

1157
00:58:24,520 --> 00:58:28,000
Speaker 2: circles around his older cousin. At one twenty sixteen gathering,

1158
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:30,880
Speaker 2: he surprised a group of American officials by announcing Israel

1159
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:34,360
Speaker 2: is not our enemy. In the summer of twenty sixteen,

1160
00:58:34,520 --> 00:58:36,720
Speaker 2: MBS was in a better position than he had been

1161
00:58:36,760 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 2: the year before, not in terms of overseas ventures. The

1162
00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:41,840
Speaker 2: war and Yemen had turned into a true quagmire by

1163
00:58:41,880 --> 00:58:44,800
Speaker 2: this point, one that showed early signs of degenerating into

1164
00:58:44,800 --> 00:58:48,360
Speaker 2: a humanitarian catastrophe. After a year of failed strikes on

1165
00:58:48,400 --> 00:58:51,720
Speaker 2: military and then civilian infrastructure, the Huthi showed no signs

1166
00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:54,280
Speaker 2: of breaking and still held to the capital city and

1167
00:58:54,320 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 2: the key port city. Per that article in the Journal

1168
00:58:57,200 --> 00:59:00,560
Speaker 2: of Genocide Studies quote when the Houthi still refused to surrender.

1169
00:59:00,640 --> 00:59:03,200
Speaker 2: The next stage, beginning in the autumn of twenty sixteen,

1170
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:05,880
Speaker 2: was a full fledged economic war and sealing off of

1171
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:09,080
Speaker 2: the country. Sana Airport was closed off to all commercial

1172
00:59:09,080 --> 00:59:13,240
Speaker 2: flights into persons requiring medical treatment abroad. Occasional blockades of

1173
00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:15,880
Speaker 2: Al Hudaya Port were imposed, and the Central Bank of

1174
00:59:15,960 --> 00:59:18,440
Speaker 2: Yemen was moved to Auden, which made money transfers to

1175
00:59:18,520 --> 00:59:21,120
Speaker 2: Yemeni banks more difficult and caused the payments to government

1176
00:59:21,160 --> 00:59:24,240
Speaker 2: workers to be halted. As Yemen imports over seventy percent

1177
00:59:24,240 --> 00:59:28,240
Speaker 2: of its food needs, these STIPs were devastating. NBS had

1178
00:59:28,240 --> 00:59:30,560
Speaker 2: now laid the groundwork for the worst famine of the

1179
00:59:30,560 --> 00:59:33,680
Speaker 2: twenty first century. As the siege locked into place, he

1180
00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:37,160
Speaker 2: opted for another vacation, this one on the French Riviera.

1181
00:59:37,600 --> 00:59:39,960
Speaker 2: During a stay, at one point, oh yeah, yeah, no,

1182
00:59:40,080 --> 00:59:45,080
Speaker 2: he's look famine starting out. The war is continuing to

1183
00:59:45,120 --> 00:59:49,160
Speaker 2: go terribly. I'm hat jitting off to France to party.

1184
00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:51,120
Speaker 2: He knows how to party. He's doing a tour of

1185
00:59:51,120 --> 00:59:53,520
Speaker 2: the ports. And while he's in one port, he happens

1186
00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:57,080
Speaker 2: across one hundred and thirty five meter long yacht, the Serene,

1187
00:59:57,320 --> 01:00:01,120
Speaker 2: owned by a Russian vodka magnate named Yuri Scheffler. At

1188
01:00:01,120 --> 01:00:03,919
Speaker 2: the time, Bill Gates was leasing the yacht for five

1189
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:06,800
Speaker 2: million dollars a week. He had fallen in love with

1190
01:00:06,840 --> 01:00:09,040
Speaker 2: the boat and was planning to buy it, but Mohammed

1191
01:00:09,080 --> 01:00:12,280
Speaker 2: Ben Salmon is not going to let him do that. Next,

1192
01:00:12,440 --> 01:00:16,120
Speaker 2: per the yachting world website Luxury Launches dot Com quote,

1193
01:00:16,640 --> 01:00:19,680
Speaker 2: NBS caught sight of the yacht. It wasn't docked for sale,

1194
01:00:19,760 --> 01:00:23,400
Speaker 2: but that didn't matter. The Saudi Crown Prince was instantly captivated.

1195
01:00:23,640 --> 01:00:26,200
Speaker 2: As Kevin Kanig tells it, the Saudi Prince didn't bother

1196
01:00:26,240 --> 01:00:29,600
Speaker 2: with negotiations or back and forth discussions. Instead, he simply

1197
01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:31,760
Speaker 2: sent an aid to speak with Scheffler and offered an

1198
01:00:31,880 --> 01:00:34,520
Speaker 2: estimated five hundred and fifty million dollars on the spot.

1199
01:00:34,840 --> 01:00:37,080
Speaker 2: The payment was made in a single wire transfer, and

1200
01:00:37,120 --> 01:00:39,240
Speaker 2: depending on the source, the deal was closed within twenty

1201
01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:41,840
Speaker 2: four to forty eight hours. Scheffler was told to pack

1202
01:00:41,920 --> 01:00:47,680
Speaker 2: up and leave immediately. Now I do love that, Like, yeah,

1203
01:00:47,680 --> 01:00:50,240
Speaker 2: he kind of fucks Bill Gates out of his dream yet.

1204
01:00:50,680 --> 01:00:55,160
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Bill Gates isn't there, Like God, damn it. Ye,

1205
01:00:56,280 --> 01:00:58,600
Speaker 4: rich people are out of their minds. It's like the

1206
01:00:58,640 --> 01:01:01,520
Speaker 4: only lifestyle where you could be at a party and

1207
01:01:01,560 --> 01:01:03,320
Speaker 4: it's like, yeah, what's that guy do?

1208
01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:08,480
Speaker 3: He's an actor? What's that guy though? Of genocides mostides.

1209
01:01:08,640 --> 01:01:11,040
Speaker 5: I don't know what number freaked me out more five

1210
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:13,640
Speaker 5: million a week or five hundred and fifty million in

1211
01:01:13,840 --> 01:01:15,120
Speaker 5: one wire transfer?

1212
01:01:15,480 --> 01:01:20,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's the guy. Has to be sweating bullets

1213
01:01:20,840 --> 01:01:26,280
Speaker 2: getting every number like Jesus. Now, it's unclear to me

1214
01:01:26,360 --> 01:01:29,280
Speaker 2: which of the yachts features NBS fell most in loved with.

1215
01:01:29,440 --> 01:01:33,840
Speaker 2: It reportedly has two helipads, a dance room, an onboard submarine,

1216
01:01:34,120 --> 01:01:36,920
Speaker 2: something called a snow room, which is I think just

1217
01:01:36,960 --> 01:01:40,000
Speaker 2: a room where it snows so you can have snow.

1218
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:41,240
Speaker 3: That's great.

1219
01:01:41,520 --> 01:01:45,400
Speaker 1: I mean just or a cocaine lounge.

1220
01:01:44,800 --> 01:01:45,520
Speaker 3: In New England.

1221
01:01:45,560 --> 01:01:51,280
Speaker 2: Man, Yeah, a piano lounge, a movie theater and multiple spas.

1222
01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:53,240
Speaker 2: And I don't know if he even cared about any

1223
01:01:53,240 --> 01:01:55,520
Speaker 2: of that. Is the primary draw that any of that?

1224
01:01:55,680 --> 01:01:57,400
Speaker 2: Or is it just that Bill Gates wants it and

1225
01:01:57,440 --> 01:01:59,680
Speaker 2: so like, oh, this must be the best yacht for

1226
01:01:59,720 --> 01:02:02,360
Speaker 2: a rich jassalty own. I have to have it right.

1227
01:02:02,520 --> 01:02:02,920
Speaker 3: It's that.

1228
01:02:03,560 --> 01:02:07,480
Speaker 2: It's that. As NBS enjoyed that new yacht, smell, starvation

1229
01:02:07,600 --> 01:02:10,560
Speaker 2: was running rampant in Yemen. By December of twenty sixteen.

1230
01:02:10,640 --> 01:02:14,160
Speaker 2: Charity organization Save the Children estimated that a thousand children

1231
01:02:14,200 --> 01:02:17,400
Speaker 2: were dying every week of starvation and preventable disease in Yemen.

1232
01:02:17,800 --> 01:02:21,760
Speaker 2: Other humanitarian monitors began sounding alarms as twenty sixteen ended,

1233
01:02:21,920 --> 01:02:25,040
Speaker 2: but Mohammed Ben Salomon showed no signs of change in course.

1234
01:02:25,640 --> 01:02:31,080
Speaker 2: And that's part three. She mm hmm, what did we learn,

1235
01:02:31,240 --> 01:02:32,960
Speaker 2: feeling Dave? Yeah, what did we learn.

1236
01:02:34,120 --> 01:02:36,360
Speaker 5: I mean, I learned a little thing about Pitbull.

1237
01:02:37,480 --> 01:02:40,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, we all learned something about mister Worldwide. That name

1238
01:02:40,920 --> 01:02:42,960
Speaker 2: is literal. It includes at least the Maldives.

1239
01:02:44,120 --> 01:02:48,480
Speaker 4: I that doesn't surprise me, I guess. But I mostly

1240
01:02:48,560 --> 01:02:50,440
Speaker 4: learned that if you're gonna put a bomb in your butt,

1241
01:02:50,760 --> 01:02:54,120
Speaker 4: make it a big bomb, because it's all for nothing

1242
01:02:54,600 --> 01:02:57,200
Speaker 4: if you just explode your own butt. I mean, that's

1243
01:02:58,400 --> 01:03:01,720
Speaker 4: that's interesting, because it.

1244
01:03:00,600 --> 01:03:03,080
Speaker 2: All for nothing if you just explode your own butt.

1245
01:03:03,320 --> 01:03:05,720
Speaker 5: I just thought of when tape was going pew pew,

1246
01:03:05,960 --> 01:03:08,200
Speaker 5: that a good A good combination of the pew pew

1247
01:03:08,320 --> 01:03:11,840
Speaker 5: joke and the ass exploding joke would be to go, hey,

1248
01:03:12,000 --> 01:03:13,760
Speaker 5: pew pew and the guy goes pew pew and he

1249
01:03:13,800 --> 01:03:14,360
Speaker 5: goes no.

1250
01:03:14,600 --> 01:03:20,880
Speaker 2: Poo pooh. Sure, clearly I'm a child.

1251
01:03:21,440 --> 01:03:23,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm there too.

1252
01:03:23,560 --> 01:03:26,120
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, you've just told a harrowing story with

1253
01:03:26,200 --> 01:03:29,240
Speaker 4: a lot of genocide, and all I'm retaining is butt

1254
01:03:29,360 --> 01:03:34,120
Speaker 4: bomb from this, so you know, yeah, that's more about me.

1255
01:03:35,720 --> 01:03:38,120
Speaker 5: Wow, Well, Dave, you got anything you want to plug

1256
01:03:38,160 --> 01:03:38,760
Speaker 5: at the end here?

1257
01:03:38,920 --> 01:03:39,040
Speaker 1: Oh?

1258
01:03:39,160 --> 01:03:39,360
Speaker 2: Right?

1259
01:03:40,160 --> 01:03:42,240
Speaker 3: Oh geez, yeah, I do podcasts.

1260
01:03:42,800 --> 01:03:43,080
Speaker 5: Cool.

1261
01:03:43,200 --> 01:03:46,360
Speaker 4: There's a network called Gamefully Unemployed g A M. E

1262
01:03:46,560 --> 01:03:50,120
Speaker 4: f U l O I unemployed where I talk about movies,

1263
01:03:50,400 --> 01:03:54,080
Speaker 4: not uh not genocide as much I do. Also, I'm

1264
01:03:54,080 --> 01:03:57,880
Speaker 4: the head writer for some More News, which is about news.

1265
01:03:58,360 --> 01:04:02,480
Speaker 4: So just like Google some News or just Google News,

1266
01:04:02,760 --> 01:04:05,440
Speaker 4: feel fine me, I'll be there. Uh And that's it

1267
01:04:06,800 --> 01:04:07,800
Speaker 4: all right, Everybody.

1268
01:04:08,280 --> 01:04:09,720
Speaker 1: By James Stout's Book.

1269
01:04:10,640 --> 01:04:14,200
Speaker 2: By James Stout's book again, Good to Hell, I Love

1270
01:04:14,240 --> 01:04:19,440
Speaker 2: You Bye.

1271
01:04:20,040 --> 01:04:22,680
Speaker 5: Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media.

1272
01:04:22,800 --> 01:04:25,480
Speaker 5: For more from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool

1273
01:04:25,520 --> 01:04:28,720
Speaker 5: Zonemedia dot com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

1274
01:04:28,760 --> 01:04:32,640
Speaker 5: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Full video

1275
01:04:32,680 --> 01:04:35,360
Speaker 5: episodes and Behind the Bastards are now streaming on Netflix,

1276
01:04:35,440 --> 01:04:38,560
Speaker 5: dropping every Tuesday and Thursday. Hit remind me of Netflix.

1277
01:04:38,640 --> 01:04:41,320
Speaker 5: You don't miss an episode. For clips in our older

1278
01:04:41,320 --> 01:04:45,000
Speaker 5: episode catalog, continue to subscribe to our YouTube channel YouTube

1279
01:04:45,000 --> 01:04:48,960
Speaker 5: dot com slash at behind the Bastards. We love about

1280
01:04:48,960 --> 01:04:51,000
Speaker 5: forty percent of you, statistically speaking,