WEBVTT - Part Three: Prince Mohammed Bin Salman: The Tyrant of Saudi Arabia

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<v Speaker 1>Also Media.

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<v Speaker 2>Welcome back to Behind the Bastards, the podcast where we're

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<v Speaker 2>continue to talk about Mohammed Ben Salmon and the Saudi

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<v Speaker 2>royal family with our guest David Bell. Welcome back to

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<v Speaker 2>the show. Dave. It's been a little while between our

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<v Speaker 2>first and last recordings. Yeah, been the first recording in

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<v Speaker 2>this one, have you been?

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<v Speaker 3>I got COVID not currently, but I got ice. Yeah.

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<v Speaker 3>I also Robert.

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<v Speaker 4>Last night, I had a dream about you, a dream

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<v Speaker 4>about me. Okay, So my dream was that we were

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<v Speaker 4>taking a shower together in b the suits and then.

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<v Speaker 2>I had to that makes the TV appropriate.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Then I had to poop in the dream and

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<v Speaker 3>left the shower. Day, where are we building to here?

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<v Speaker 3>This is the dream. This is the dream. And I

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<v Speaker 3>went to the bathroom in dream?

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<v Speaker 1>Is it?

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<v Speaker 3>Yes?

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<v Speaker 4>Because when I woke up, I didn't have to poop

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<v Speaker 4>in real life, so I was like, oh, thank god,

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<v Speaker 4>that was just a dream. Yeah, I had to poop

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<v Speaker 4>in the dream. So I left the shower and Alex

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<v Speaker 4>Schmidty was in.

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<v Speaker 2>The bathroom, our other old roommate.

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<v Speaker 3>Making coffee in the bathroom and in the dream classic coffee.

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<v Speaker 4>I should have started with the fact that I have

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<v Speaker 4>terrible dreams, and that that was the dream.

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<v Speaker 2>That doesn't sound like a good one.

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<v Speaker 3>It wasn't bad, it was fine.

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

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<v Speaker 2>thank you for telling the audience about your upsetting dream.

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

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<v Speaker 2>Among our listener base. We were going to react normally

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<v Speaker 2>to your shower story. Ah. You know who else reacts

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<v Speaker 2>normally to things?

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<v Speaker 3>Who me?

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<v Speaker 2>The Saudi royal family, you know, because they're all they're

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<v Speaker 2>basically aside from the billions and billions of dollars in

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

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<v Speaker 2>and the fact that an entire country are basically slaves them,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, they're just down to earth, regular guys like

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<v Speaker 2>Tim the Toolman Taylor from the show that maybe twenty

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<v Speaker 2>percent of our audience remembers.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, the guy that the guy, the criminal guy.

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<v Speaker 2>To me, Tim Allen, a simple everyman with who runs

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<v Speaker 2>a television show out of his house. Anyway, So one

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<v Speaker 2>of the few. As we've stated, most of like the

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<v Speaker 2>young princes, are not super productive individuals, right, They're mostly

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<v Speaker 2>spending their time kissing asked try and get like a

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<v Speaker 2>better cut of the family fortune, doing as little as possible,

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<v Speaker 2>and grafting off of like the money that should be

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<v Speaker 2>going to support the Saudi state. There's a few exceptions

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<v Speaker 2>to this rule, right, Mohammed bin Salmon, the subject of

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<v Speaker 2>our episodes, is one. His father, the soon to be

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<v Speaker 2>King Solomon, is another. And another one of the exceptions

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<v Speaker 2>to this rule was Mohammed bin Nayef, born in Jedda

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<v Speaker 2>at the end of August nineteen fifty nine. He had

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<v Speaker 2>more more than a quarter century on his younger cousin.

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<v Speaker 2>His father was Prince Niaf bin Abdulaziz, full son of

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<v Speaker 2>the Great King Abdulaziz, and a full brother of two

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<v Speaker 2>other kings, Fad and the new King Solomon. He was

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<v Speaker 2>thus a lot closer to the throne from the jump

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<v Speaker 2>than anyone ever thought that mohammadan Salmon was going to

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<v Speaker 2>be right like, he just kind of seems like a

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<v Speaker 2>much better bet as which one of these guys is

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<v Speaker 2>going to actually like make it to the high seat.

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<v Speaker 2>His father, Naif Been Abdulahziz, had been nicknamed the Black Prince,

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<v Speaker 2>and he'd risen to power first when his older brother,

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<v Speaker 2>the Minister of the Interior was assassinated by that other

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<v Speaker 2>prince who was angry about TV being legal. I know,

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<v Speaker 2>there's a lot of princes in this story.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>Nief succeeded his brother, which meant that he was now

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<v Speaker 2>working directly with the Wahabists, who traditionally had allied with

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<v Speaker 2>the House of Saud in order to push their hardline

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<v Speaker 2>fundamentalist policies. Prince Niaf became what the Brookings Institute described

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<v Speaker 2>as an arch reactionary, and he was the orchestrator behind

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<v Speaker 2>many of the kingdom's most puritanical new laws, cracking down

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<v Speaker 2>on freedom and anything that even hinted of social liberalism.

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<v Speaker 2>That's the Black Prince right. He violently suppressed the movement

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<v Speaker 2>to make Saudi Arabia's monarchy more of a constitutional monarchy

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<v Speaker 2>like in the UK, telling one interviewer, I don't want

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<v Speaker 2>to be Queen Elizabeth, which who does.

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<v Speaker 3>Who does you know what I might take it?

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<v Speaker 5>Uh?

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<v Speaker 3>She had, Yeah, well not now, she said, Corkis.

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<v Speaker 5>You know this actually came up on Margaret kiljoy show

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<v Speaker 5>before and we decided I would make a great Queen

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<v Speaker 5>Elizabeth because I would just fire myself and dismantle the monarchy.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, oh yeah, that would be very effective.

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<v Speaker 5>I would be I would be a great queen.

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<v Speaker 1>I go mad with powers and I love corgies.

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<v Speaker 5>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>So he earned the Black Prince earned his nickname because

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<v Speaker 2>of how harsh his policies were to the non citizen

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<v Speaker 2>worker population in the kingdom. So it was noteworthy when

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<v Speaker 2>his so on NBN, we've got NBS and NBN and

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<v Speaker 2>they're about to be rivals, made his debut as a

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<v Speaker 2>public person, spurning his own country in favor of the West.

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

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<v Speaker 2>not interested in attending a school in the Arab world. Instead,

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<v Speaker 2>he goes to like the oppositest part of the world

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<v Speaker 2>he possibly can, Portland, Oregon. I know, Portland shows up,

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<v Speaker 2>You're gonna ask what I was gonna guess, Berkeley.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

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<v Speaker 2>No, he goes to fucking NBN. Goes to Portland, Oregon

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<v Speaker 2>for college. He attends both Lewis and Clark College and

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<v Speaker 2>Portland State University. Incredible, Yeah, really funny. He does not

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<v Speaker 2>graduate from either. Most articles will say that he's a

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<v Speaker 2>graduate of Lewis and Clark or of PSU. Neither is true.

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<v Speaker 2>I can't even I can't even confirm that he got

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<v Speaker 2>a degree. Everyone says he's got a BA right. The

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<v Speaker 2>book Regime Stability in Saudi Arabia by Sticks Dinsley claims

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<v Speaker 2>that he studied for his master's degree in political science

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<v Speaker 2>and graduated in nineteen eighty one, although again no one

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<v Speaker 2>says where. Everyone says he went to Lewis and Clark

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<v Speaker 2>at PSU and he got a degree, but nobody says

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

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<v Speaker 2>either of those colleges.

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<v Speaker 3>I don't know.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Lewis and Clark College. A guy that Mohammed bin

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

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<v Speaker 2>Maybe not the best ad, so yeah, I don't know

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<v Speaker 2>that he actually did graduate. Stigwrtes that he took quote

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<v Speaker 2>courses on security issues with the FBI from nineteen eighty

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<v Speaker 2>five to nineteen eighty eight and trained with Scotland Yard's

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<v Speaker 2>Anti terrorist units in London from nineteen ninety two to

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<v Speaker 2>nineteen ninety four. In nineteen ninety four he began working

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<v Speaker 2>regularly with his father, Interior Minister nief and Riyad, And

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<v Speaker 2>I think this is a situation where he's probably not

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<v Speaker 2>that great a student. I don't think you would have

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<v Speaker 2>qualified to have special training with the FBI in Scotland

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<v Speaker 2>yard based on his own merits, but because he's a

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<v Speaker 2>prince and he's someone who is going to be a

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<v Speaker 2>big part of the Saudi state. When he when he

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<v Speaker 2>expresses I'm interested in anti terrorism work, right, I'm interested

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<v Speaker 2>in like training with Western law enforcement organizations and counter terrorism.

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<v Speaker 2>They're all like, well, this is our chance to have

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<v Speaker 2>a man on the inside, right, this is our chance

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<v Speaker 2>to have like a guy in Saudi Arabia, not like

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<v Speaker 2>a spy, but a guy who's who we know, is

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<v Speaker 2>like a friend to us, who we feel like we

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<v Speaker 2>can trust. As opposed to this this regime is kind

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<v Speaker 2>of a black box to us otherwise, Right.

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<v Speaker 4>It helps, it helps with your credit, It just puts

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<v Speaker 4>it's just a good I get it where it's like,

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<v Speaker 4>all right, you might you might not be. It's like

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<v Speaker 4>when The X Files had Stephen King wrote an episode

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

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<v Speaker 4>the voice of the show, but he's Stephen King.

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<v Speaker 3>Let's throw him on.

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

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<v Speaker 3>It was really. It was also heavily rewritten.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it would have had to be Yeah. Yeah, they

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<v Speaker 2>should have let Mohammed ban Naya write an episode of

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<v Speaker 2>The X Files. Oh yes, he was training with the

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<v Speaker 2>FBI in the nineties. He could have done it watching

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<v Speaker 2>the X Files, right. Oh yeah, he mused to have

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<v Speaker 2>an opinion on Fox Moulder. Oh yeah. So it's unclear

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<v Speaker 2>to me how much the elder and younger Knif coordinated here,

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<v Speaker 2>because remember his dad, the Black Prince, is this guy

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<v Speaker 2>who's very much lockstep with the clerics and is focused

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<v Speaker 2>on we need to crack down on anything that seems

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<v Speaker 2>like someone having fun in the Kingdom, right, whereas his

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<v Speaker 2>son is like, I'm friendly with the West, i went

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

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<v Speaker 2>he's making he's putting out into the world, at least

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<v Speaker 2>image of he's much more of a liberal guy. He's

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<v Speaker 2>much less of a hard liner, right.

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<v Speaker 3>I bet he knows where to get some great ascid.

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<v Speaker 2>He probably did at one point.

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<v Speaker 4>Yeah, Like, there's several places in that list where I

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<v Speaker 4>feel like he.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the FBI academy, I bet they had some great shit.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, So it's hard to say to what extent

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<v Speaker 2>is this, he and his dad are kind of working together,

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<v Speaker 2>knowing that the kingdom needs both someone who can reach

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<v Speaker 2>out to the West and can seem like he's modern

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<v Speaker 2>and someone who can get arm in arm with the

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<v Speaker 2>clerics and feel like, no, no, no, we're not trying

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<v Speaker 2>to draw the country forward into some scary version of modernity.

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<v Speaker 2>But there do seem to have been some real clashes

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<v Speaker 2>between them right One of them is over the fact

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<v Speaker 2>that his dad, the Black Prince, doesn't take seriously the

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<v Speaker 2>dangers of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, Like he keeps being told, hey,

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<v Speaker 2>there's something brewing in your country, and he's like, nah,

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<v Speaker 2>I feel like Saudi Arabia and terrorism are never going

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<v Speaker 2>to be like two words that show up next to

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<v Speaker 2>each other in the public imagination. Per that analysis by

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<v Speaker 2>the Brookings Institute, Naief was conspicuously slow to recognize that

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<v Speaker 2>al Qaeda posed a threat to the Kingdom. He'd become

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<v Speaker 2>friendly with bin Laden during the Russian Afghan War, when

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<v Speaker 2>bin Laden was allied with the Musjahdeen and viewed him

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<v Speaker 2>as being exclusively focused on defeeding the Soviets. Naieff believed

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<v Speaker 2>al Qaida's reputation as a terrorist organization a product of

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<v Speaker 2>American propaganda, and was sure that all Kaita posed no

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<v Speaker 2>real threat to the Kingdom, a delusion he had in

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<v Speaker 2>common with much of the royal family. Prince Niaff was

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<v Speaker 2>not popular with the CIA. He was seen as uncooperative,

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<v Speaker 2>and for good reason. In nineteen ninety six, when chait

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<v Speaker 2>terrorists bombed a US Air Force base in Dahran and

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<v Speaker 2>killed nineteen Americans, the CIA asked Niaf for information on

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<v Speaker 2>the terrorists and their ties to Iran. Despite the Kingdom

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<v Speaker 2>and Iran being ostensibly geopolitical and religious rivals, Niaf stonewalled

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<v Speaker 2>the US. Our understanding is that he was afraid we'd

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<v Speaker 2>attack Iran and he wanted to avoid war. Bruce Rydell,

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<v Speaker 2>author of that bookings piece, was an CIA analyst at

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<v Speaker 2>the time, and he claims the general opinion over here

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<v Speaker 2>is that Niff was simply an American, right, and that's like,

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<v Speaker 2>I don't want to give too much credit to the

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<v Speaker 2>analytics skills of the pre or post nine to eleven

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<v Speaker 2>CIA right, for.

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<v Speaker 3>Sure, for sure.

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<v Speaker 2>So my assumption is that Bruce is like rog about

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<v Speaker 2>some part of the analysis there. I think maybe it's

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<v Speaker 2>just that he's not as much anti American as he is,

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<v Speaker 2>like anti having a problem, and if al Qaeda is

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<v Speaker 2>a serious threat to the kingdom, then he's got a

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<v Speaker 2>problem because a lot of people in Saudi Arabia are

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<v Speaker 2>close to Bin Law and a lot of people in

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<v Speaker 2>like the ruling class, have been funneling money to him

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<v Speaker 2>and organizations that are related to al Qaida, And if

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

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<v Speaker 2>there's just this. It may just be the deep human

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<v Speaker 2>need to like not have a problem, right, That's part

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<v Speaker 2>of what's going on with night.

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<v Speaker 3>No one likes to start shit.

0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.560
<v Speaker 4>I get that where it's like, yeah, maybe Obama, maybe

0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:33.960
<v Speaker 4>he'll you know, yeah, call him Obama, Osama bin Lawn.

0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:35.560
<v Speaker 3>Maybe he'll settle.

0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:39.480
<v Speaker 2>Down, right, he'll calm down. Yeah, and n.

0:11:40.600 --> 0:11:45.079
<v Speaker 4>Sorry forgive me. I'm I'm less educated on like what where?

0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:45.240
<v Speaker 5>What?

0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:49.080
<v Speaker 4>Like what was osamavid Lan's position before nine eleven? Like,

0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:51.080
<v Speaker 4>I oh, I mean like a lot of people only

0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:52.520
<v Speaker 4>heard of him until after.

0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.680
<v Speaker 2>He bombed I mean he and al Kaida bombed the

0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.000
<v Speaker 2>world tradinges that are in ninety three. I think it

0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:03.760
<v Speaker 2>was right, Okay, oh yeah, Now it's very clear to

0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.240
<v Speaker 2>anyone paying attention that Bin Laden is going to continue

0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.600
<v Speaker 2>to be a problem for like the Kingdom and its

0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:14.280
<v Speaker 2>relations with the rest of the world. But there's this

0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:16.040
<v Speaker 2>big doubt with a lot of guys is like, are

0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.400
<v Speaker 2>they really terrorists? Is this the Are the Americans making

0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:20.280
<v Speaker 2>all this stuff up?

0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:20.640
<v Speaker 3>Right?

0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:25.560
<v Speaker 2>And the Black Prince's son, Mohammad bin nief INBN seems

0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:27.440
<v Speaker 2>to have been one of the rare people high up

0:12:27.440 --> 0:12:30.160
<v Speaker 2>in the royal family because of his training with these

0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:34.040
<v Speaker 2>Western agencies. Who actually is like, no, Al Qaeda is

0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.680
<v Speaker 2>probably an issue, and there'll be an issue for us too.

0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:37.080
<v Speaker 3>Right.

0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.880
<v Speaker 2>His feelings, his understanding of the matter is much more

0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.200
<v Speaker 2>in line with how the Americans are feeling, right, and

0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.720
<v Speaker 2>so he spends a lot of the nineties burnishing his

0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.640
<v Speaker 2>credentials and relationships with the Americans who staff security agencies,

0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.400
<v Speaker 2>being like, look, I'm the guy in the royal family

0:12:51.440 --> 0:12:54.680
<v Speaker 2>who sees things clearly that you can work with. There's

0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.680
<v Speaker 2>a big moment of conflict between the Elder Naif and

0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:01.080
<v Speaker 2>the CIA. In nineteen ninety eight, Vice President Al Gore

0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:04.000
<v Speaker 2>goes on a trip to Saudi Arabia alongside Bruce Rydell,

0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:07.160
<v Speaker 2>who's now working for the NSC they met both Naifs

0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.000
<v Speaker 2>and later learned during their visit that the Ministry of

0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:12.880
<v Speaker 2>the Interior had spotted and defeated a plan to attack

0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.160
<v Speaker 2>the US consulate while they were there. Up to that point,

0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:19.439
<v Speaker 2>al Qaeda had mostly avoided operations inside the kingdom, right,

0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.600
<v Speaker 2>And so now while al Gore is in country, they

0:13:22.640 --> 0:13:25.040
<v Speaker 2>bust a plan to attack the consulate while the US

0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:29.520
<v Speaker 2>Vice President there, and that really rattles people. And suddenly

0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.959
<v Speaker 2>Mohammad bin Naief is the only guy who's been saying like, hey,

0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.800
<v Speaker 2>we should be taking al Kaeda seriously, and suddenly he

0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.360
<v Speaker 2>gets a lot of attention, is like, oh, maybe he

0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.160
<v Speaker 2>was right. Maybe MBN has been correct all of the time,

0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:43.880
<v Speaker 2>and we should be listening to this guy when it

0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:45.600
<v Speaker 2>comes to security advice. Right.

0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.000
<v Speaker 4>It's yeah, going back to like people are all like conflict, right,

0:13:49.360 --> 0:13:51.560
<v Speaker 4>and if someone's just like, hey, that guy's a problem,

0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:53.760
<v Speaker 4>that guy's a problem. Will go as long as we

0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:56.720
<v Speaker 4>can up to the point where it's like, oh wait,

0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:57.600
<v Speaker 4>they're going to hurt me.

0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:01.920
<v Speaker 3>Oh well, we got to do something about this. Oh lie,

0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:02.560
<v Speaker 3>oh my good.

0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.640
<v Speaker 2>If al Gore gets killed by al Qaeda while I

0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.600
<v Speaker 2>am in charge of security, that probably is the problem

0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.280
<v Speaker 2>for me. That's bad that like, I probably don't do

0:14:11.440 --> 0:14:12.559
<v Speaker 2>well afterwards.

0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.480
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, no, I'm finding a new career after that.

0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.960
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. So in nineteen ninety nine, MBN is appointed to

0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:23.479
<v Speaker 2>the Ministry of the Interior as a senior minister overseeing security.

0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:25.360
<v Speaker 2>By the fall of two thousand and one, he was

0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:27.720
<v Speaker 2>considered by many experts to be the number one guy

0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.400
<v Speaker 2>in the Saudi government to talk to you about counter terrorism.

0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.960
<v Speaker 2>And then comes nine to eleven. Right, you know you're

0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:38.960
<v Speaker 2>well aware. Yeah, So basically there were some big buildings

0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:43.280
<v Speaker 2>in New York and then there weren't as a result

0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.840
<v Speaker 2>of these guys who learned how to fly, but not

0:14:46.920 --> 0:14:50.080
<v Speaker 2>all the way. Right, that's the that's the brief description

0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:54.000
<v Speaker 2>I would give se yeah, yeah, seventy.

0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:55.520
<v Speaker 1>But the test.

0:14:56.880 --> 0:15:01.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's basically what happened. Right, there were some other.

0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:05.600
<v Speaker 1>Thanksging not wrong. That's what's funny.

0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:08.880
<v Speaker 4>I hate to sound listen, I hate to sound really old,

0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.480
<v Speaker 4>but I'm realizing that there are young people now that

0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.760
<v Speaker 4>do genuinely have to like learn about nine to eleven.

0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:19.600
<v Speaker 2>Now, yeah, we forgot, well they did. Yeah, so they

0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:24.800
<v Speaker 2>cause a massive upset inside the Saudi security establishment. Right,

0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:27.040
<v Speaker 2>this is as big a problem as it could possibly be,

0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:31.640
<v Speaker 2>because fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi. Yeah, that's

0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:35.160
<v Speaker 2>a kind of their deal, right, Bush was rattling his

0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.720
<v Speaker 2>saber at Iraq and they'd had fuck all to do

0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.400
<v Speaker 2>with all Kainda. Like right after the attacks, we start

0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:42.840
<v Speaker 2>making it starts becoming clear we're going to move on

0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:43.840
<v Speaker 2>a rack. Pretty soon.

0:15:43.920 --> 0:15:46.480
<v Speaker 3>They had WMD's Roberts.

0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.240
<v Speaker 2>So obviously, if you're thinking about this from the respect

0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:53.360
<v Speaker 2>of the Saudis, Bush is about to fuck up a

0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:55.640
<v Speaker 2>rock and they had nothing to do with this. We

0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.200
<v Speaker 2>had a lot to do with this. Not only were

0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:00.880
<v Speaker 2>fifteen and the nineteen hijackers Saudi, but a lot of

0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.480
<v Speaker 2>guys in the Saudi royal family. We're shuffling money to

0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.880
<v Speaker 2>places that wound up getting to Al Qaida right one

0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:08.760
<v Speaker 2>where or the other.

0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:12.600
<v Speaker 4>And they're like, hey, that guy you brought is a

0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:15.240
<v Speaker 4>big problem. He's a big problem. And then he hit

0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:18.440
<v Speaker 4>d Trade Center. Yeah yeah, and then you hit like

0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:20.600
<v Speaker 4>the guy next to him because you wanted to hit

0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.720
<v Speaker 4>that guy instead. That's essentially it, right, It's like, yeah,

0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.360
<v Speaker 4>we already had a problem. We didn't like Saddam for

0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:30.160
<v Speaker 4>a while, and we were like that says Adam, last straw,

0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:30.680
<v Speaker 4>you did it.

0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:35.040
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And so there's this worry that like, well, how

0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:37.440
<v Speaker 2>do we know they're not going to fuck with us next, right,

0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:39.600
<v Speaker 2>because we kind of we actually have it coming a

0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:44.280
<v Speaker 2>lot more than erect us. And obviously, you know, it's

0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.800
<v Speaker 2>not just that bin Laden, the guy who plans the

0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:49.240
<v Speaker 2>attack or does is seen as planning the attack, is

0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:51.840
<v Speaker 2>the man is a Saudi too. But the Black Prince

0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:53.520
<v Speaker 2>in most of his peers had scoffed at the idea

0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.520
<v Speaker 2>that al Kaida was dangerous. You know, it doesn't take

0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:57.760
<v Speaker 2>a bright person to see if the Royal family is

0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.120
<v Speaker 2>in danger. Here Mbn is the new blood. He's not

0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:03.880
<v Speaker 2>tainted by the mistakes of his father or the older generation.

0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.720
<v Speaker 2>He's got good connections to US government, particularly in the

0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:10.040
<v Speaker 2>CIA and the FBI, and he starts using them. And

0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:12.280
<v Speaker 2>then in two thousand and three something happened that would

0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:16.080
<v Speaker 2>electrify his career. On February fourteenth, on the holy day

0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.240
<v Speaker 2>of ida A Lada Osama, bin Laden issued a communicate

0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.200
<v Speaker 2>through al Qaeda accusing the royal family of betraying the

0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.480
<v Speaker 2>Last Caliphate to the British Empire and their Zionist allies.

0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:28.720
<v Speaker 2>This mirrored their behavior supporting the US and its wars

0:17:28.760 --> 0:17:31.560
<v Speaker 2>against Muslims. He predicted that the US would use air

0:17:31.560 --> 0:17:34.360
<v Speaker 2>bases in Saudi Arabia to support its invasion of Iraq.

0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:38.320
<v Speaker 2>The announcement was basically a declaration of war against the Kingdom,

0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.439
<v Speaker 2>or at least this has been laden announcing that he

0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.560
<v Speaker 2>was widening the scope of the existing war to include

0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.480
<v Speaker 2>the Kingdom. Right, al Qaeda is now at war with

0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.360
<v Speaker 2>the Kingdom, at least with the Kingdom's royal rulers. In May,

0:17:50.480 --> 0:17:53.440
<v Speaker 2>al Qaida operatives launched an attack on a Riyad compound

0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.679
<v Speaker 2>where Western military advisers worked with Saudi officers. Eight Americans

0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:02.000
<v Speaker 2>and two Australians died, among others. CIA director George Tennett

0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.520
<v Speaker 2>flew to the Saudi capital and warned the Crown Prince,

0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.000
<v Speaker 2>al Qaeda is going to target your family next. Just

0:18:08.040 --> 0:18:10.320
<v Speaker 2>a few months later, Mohammad ban Nayaf has made the

0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.119
<v Speaker 2>number two man in the entire Ministry of the Interior.

0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:15.480
<v Speaker 2>It was a vote of confidence in his ability to

0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.800
<v Speaker 2>orchestrate the Kingdom's response to al Qaeda and to effectively

0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:22.800
<v Speaker 2>reform its security and intelligence agencies. TenneT would later write

0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:25.680
<v Speaker 2>that the Cia considered Mohammad bin Nayef its number one

0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.320
<v Speaker 2>man in Saudi Arabia. Right Dell writes, Mbin led the

0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:32.400
<v Speaker 2>counter offensive. The Interior Ministry issued lists of the most

0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:34.800
<v Speaker 2>wanted al Qaeda terrorists and then proceeded to hunt them

0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.160
<v Speaker 2>down ruthlessly. Whenever any of the men on a list

0:18:37.240 --> 0:18:40.560
<v Speaker 2>were eliminated in firefights or ambushes, the ministry would update

0:18:40.560 --> 0:18:42.320
<v Speaker 2>the list with the names of the next most wanted

0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:45.000
<v Speaker 2>al Qaida fighters. It was a tough and dangerous time.

0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.680
<v Speaker 2>Most foreigners who could leave the kingdom did so, or

0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.600
<v Speaker 2>at least sent their families away. Mbin was the face

0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.160
<v Speaker 2>of the Saudi war on al Qaida, appearing on television

0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:55.879
<v Speaker 2>and in the newspapers to explain the threat the kingdom

0:18:55.920 --> 0:19:00.439
<v Speaker 2>was facing. So he becomes like the figure who is

0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:03.320
<v Speaker 2>like leading the Saudi war effort against al Qaeda. He's

0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.720
<v Speaker 2>like both in propaganda, his face is everywhere and the

0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.720
<v Speaker 2>West season as the guy who's very successfully orchestrating this

0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.160
<v Speaker 2>response to al Qaeda violence in the country and within

0:19:13.240 --> 0:19:15.119
<v Speaker 2>the royal family. He's seen as the guy who is

0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:17.920
<v Speaker 2>protecting us from this like surge of violence, from this

0:19:18.320 --> 0:19:22.359
<v Speaker 2>dangerous and unpredictable network, right, Like he's he's really if

0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:26.040
<v Speaker 2>you're looking at who's going to follow as like who's

0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:29.359
<v Speaker 2>going to be of this generation, Like the guy who's

0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.720
<v Speaker 2>in line to be king Mohammed and Nif is looking

0:19:31.800 --> 0:19:33.800
<v Speaker 2>like someone who might be crown prince and then king

0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:38.000
<v Speaker 2>one day. Right, Like he's he's really distinguished himself, far

0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:40.560
<v Speaker 2>more than Ben Salomon has. He's really nothing at this

0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:41.880
<v Speaker 2>point in time, right.

0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:45.240
<v Speaker 3>Right, Yeah, Now he's gonna fight. He's gonna fight. Oh

0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:46.720
<v Speaker 3>some of the they're gonna fist fight.

0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.080
<v Speaker 2>He's gonna fist fight Bin Laden and make himself the king. Yeah,

0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:53.560
<v Speaker 2>as as we know, kings are supposed you're supposed to

0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:57.119
<v Speaker 2>as a king defeat one dragon and Mohamus ban Lad's

0:19:57.200 --> 0:19:59.040
<v Speaker 2>kind of a dragon, right yeah?

0:19:59.520 --> 0:20:03.080
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, said he was the perceived designer of nine to eleven?

0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.240
<v Speaker 4>Does that mean like was he like the Jon Favreau

0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.240
<v Speaker 4>of it? Like was it like that? Oh, there's other

0:20:08.280 --> 0:20:08.800
<v Speaker 4>people like.

0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:15.520
<v Speaker 2>He's the Matt Groining of nine to eleven. We're like, yeah,

0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:18.160
<v Speaker 2>but he's not. Like Conan O'Brien has a lot more

0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.600
<v Speaker 2>to do with planning nine to eleven than than than

0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:24.119
<v Speaker 2>than Matt Graining. Right, If we're if we're Simpson's name.

0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:27.840
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, like they were, Yes, Like he's in charge, but

0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:30.080
<v Speaker 4>there were a lot of talented people under.

0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.840
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there's a lot of talented Harvard graduates making making

0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:34.200
<v Speaker 2>the show work underneath him.

0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:34.800
<v Speaker 3>Yes, you got it.

0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:38.760
<v Speaker 2>Who's the David X Cohen of al Qaida? Find out

0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:40.240
<v Speaker 2>would we come back from?

0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:41.240
<v Speaker 3>Uh?

0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:42.760
<v Speaker 2>You know this break.

0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:46.160
<v Speaker 5>That was a really good one.

0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.480
<v Speaker 2>We're back. David X Cohen is the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.720
<v Speaker 2>of of nine to eleven. Okay, that's right.

0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:00.520
<v Speaker 3>Thank you.

0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.479
<v Speaker 2>You can graph all of the great Simpsons writers onto

0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:07.480
<v Speaker 2>figures within al Qaeda, very easy to do. You can

0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:09.960
<v Speaker 2>you can graph all of the all of the South

0:21:10.000 --> 0:21:12.600
<v Speaker 2>Park guys onto a member of Isis. You know, that's

0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:14.120
<v Speaker 2>just the way, that's just the way things work.

0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.280
<v Speaker 5>I'm glad to know, like where they all stand.

0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.159
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I would say like South Park has more

0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:23.679
<v Speaker 2>of an Isis vibe, well, where whereas the Simpsons is

0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:25.200
<v Speaker 2>more like an al Qaeda kind of deal.

0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:29.000
<v Speaker 4>So Isis is like two guys, like two guys and

0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:37.000
<v Speaker 4>then and then like a small handful, but the two guys.

0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:40.000
<v Speaker 5>Like some kind of org chart family tree type situation.

0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:42.879
<v Speaker 5>To get clarification, where where does family guy fall in

0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:44.240
<v Speaker 5>in this matter?

0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:46.960
<v Speaker 2>Robert family guy just is an act of terrorism.

0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:48.480
<v Speaker 3>So gonna say it's one to one.

0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.600
<v Speaker 2>Just Ye, it's one to one. So we're back and

0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:56.639
<v Speaker 2>we're talking about Muhammadan Naief leading the Kingdom's response to

0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:01.440
<v Speaker 2>a surge of terrorism by al Qaeda in side the country. Now,

0:22:01.480 --> 0:22:05.199
<v Speaker 2>a major characteristic of Naief's response was a commitment to

0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:07.840
<v Speaker 2>avoiding the kind of collateral damage that would have made

0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:10.960
<v Speaker 2>light it looked like the situation was totally out of control. Right,

0:22:11.280 --> 0:22:14.120
<v Speaker 2>You don't want to be blowing up too many things

0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:16.919
<v Speaker 2>or killing too many civilians as you search out for

0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:19.199
<v Speaker 2>these al Qaida operatives, because it makes it seem to

0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:22.399
<v Speaker 2>the people like maybe maybe the royal family has no

0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:25.080
<v Speaker 2>idea what's going on. Maybe you guys are completely out

0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:26.520
<v Speaker 2>of your depth here, right.

0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:26.919
<v Speaker 5>He.

0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:30.800
<v Speaker 4>You know, these days you can do all sorts of

0:22:30.800 --> 0:22:33.800
<v Speaker 4>things to civilians, it seems in the name searching things.

0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:36.480
<v Speaker 4>But yes, yes, generally you don't want to do that.

0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:38.359
<v Speaker 2>You used to be able to We used to be

0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:42.840
<v Speaker 2>a proper country, you know. Yeah, So he distinguished himself

0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:45.280
<v Speaker 2>from his peers by ordering his forces to focus on

0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:48.560
<v Speaker 2>outreach to the families of dead al Kaida operatives. Parents

0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:51.199
<v Speaker 2>were told their children had been victims and received a

0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:53.879
<v Speaker 2>degree of state support in dealing with the social fallout

0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:57.480
<v Speaker 2>from their children's actions, rather than being suspected themselves and

0:22:57.520 --> 0:23:01.320
<v Speaker 2>told that like your child is you know, you should

0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:03.199
<v Speaker 2>be ashamed of your kid. They were told like, no,

0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.560
<v Speaker 2>you're your kid was a victim of terrorism too, right,

0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:10.080
<v Speaker 2>And the goal of this is to not create more terrorists.

0:23:10.280 --> 0:23:13.359
<v Speaker 2>If you make the whole family seem like they're all targets,

0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:16.480
<v Speaker 2>then more of them are going to be sympathetic to

0:23:16.560 --> 0:23:20.280
<v Speaker 2>al Qaeda and potentially join and become a problem. U.

0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:22.960
<v Speaker 2>So he's trying, Yeah, he doesn't want to do what

0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:23.600
<v Speaker 2>the US does.

0:23:23.760 --> 0:23:27.800
<v Speaker 3>Also, I've used that excuse in my family before, Yeah,

0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:29.560
<v Speaker 3>to get out of all sorts of things.

0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:33.399
<v Speaker 2>No, you guys here victims in this too. Yeah. His

0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:36.760
<v Speaker 2>responses were generally seen as effective reducing al Qaeda's influence

0:23:36.800 --> 0:23:39.159
<v Speaker 2>in the Kingdom. Perhaps the best evidence of that was

0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:41.399
<v Speaker 2>the fact that ben Lauden and company considered him a

0:23:41.440 --> 0:23:45.280
<v Speaker 2>strategic target worth expending resources to take down. Here's how

0:23:45.280 --> 0:23:48.720
<v Speaker 2>Ben Hubbard described the first attempt on Mohammed Banya's life.

0:23:49.600 --> 0:23:52.320
<v Speaker 2>That focus on engagement almost killed him. In two thousand

0:23:52.320 --> 0:23:54.600
<v Speaker 2>and nine, the brother of a storied Saudi bomb maker

0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:56.680
<v Speaker 2>who was hiding out with al Qaida and Yeman, announced

0:23:56.680 --> 0:23:58.680
<v Speaker 2>that he wanted to return to the Kingdom and surrender

0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:01.560
<v Speaker 2>to Mbien in person. The Prince received the man in

0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:04.119
<v Speaker 2>his palace, ordering that he not be searched to avoid

0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:07.480
<v Speaker 2>humiliating him, and sat next to him. The man detonated

0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:10.240
<v Speaker 2>a bomb hidden in his rectum, killing himself and giving

0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:14.320
<v Speaker 2>MBM what we're described at the time as light wounds. Now,

0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:20.080
<v Speaker 2>first off, that's rough, but bomb bad. That's a bad

0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:21.880
<v Speaker 2>assassination attempt.

0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:24.720
<v Speaker 3>I was gonna say, if you're asked.

0:24:24.400 --> 0:24:26.880
<v Speaker 2>First, next to you, Yeah, you're right next to him.

0:24:26.920 --> 0:24:29.280
<v Speaker 4>And you set off a butt bomb. That to me,

0:24:29.400 --> 0:24:31.120
<v Speaker 4>and then it doesn't hurt the person next to him.

0:24:31.280 --> 0:24:34.240
<v Speaker 4>What that sounds like without knowing more information, is that

0:24:34.320 --> 0:24:38.280
<v Speaker 4>your ass exploded and everybody turned and went, oh my god,

0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:39.000
<v Speaker 4>what happened?

0:24:39.000 --> 0:24:41.600
<v Speaker 3>Are you okay? And you're on the ground like I

0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:44.840
<v Speaker 3>need help, My ass just exploded. Like I might even

0:24:44.880 --> 0:24:46.840
<v Speaker 3>try to pretend like maybe there's no bomb. I was

0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:48.080
<v Speaker 3>just like, I don't know what happened.

0:24:48.160 --> 0:24:51.399
<v Speaker 2>An accident, an accident, No, I think he blows into

0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:55.000
<v Speaker 2>pieces because as a spoiler, the public note is that

0:24:55.280 --> 0:24:59.040
<v Speaker 2>MBN was barely wounded. He's there's a lot of evidence

0:24:59.040 --> 0:25:02.000
<v Speaker 2>that he's pretty bad hurt by this, that maybe he's

0:25:02.000 --> 0:25:06.960
<v Speaker 2>actually never the same afterwards. Again, when a man explodes ass, first,

0:25:07.040 --> 0:25:10.040
<v Speaker 2>you're the shrapnel that's hitting you is pieces of a

0:25:10.080 --> 0:25:13.240
<v Speaker 2>man's ass, So among other things, you're gonna get infected, right,

0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:16.520
<v Speaker 2>like his guts and stuff for hitting are getting or

0:25:16.560 --> 0:25:17.680
<v Speaker 2>piercing your body.

0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:22.320
<v Speaker 4>Even if I'm physically fine, I'm not the same after that,

0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:25.159
<v Speaker 4>a man's ass exploded next to me.

0:25:25.760 --> 0:25:28.959
<v Speaker 3>Like, That's all I'm talking about for the rest of

0:25:29.000 --> 0:25:29.520
<v Speaker 3>my life.

0:25:29.840 --> 0:25:34.520
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, a really unique form of PTSD. So the next year,

0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:37.520
<v Speaker 2>mbn's force is exposed and I'll Kita plot to smuggle

0:25:37.560 --> 0:25:40.479
<v Speaker 2>bombs into the US via shipping containers. The bombs are

0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:43.439
<v Speaker 2>intercepted and the attack is thwarted, making NBN into a

0:25:43.480 --> 0:25:47.200
<v Speaker 2>hero at home and within US intelligence agencies. He continued

0:25:47.240 --> 0:25:50.160
<v Speaker 2>to remain the top man in security throughout the Obama years,

0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:53.320
<v Speaker 2>where he developed a close working relationship with CIA Director

0:25:53.440 --> 0:25:57.520
<v Speaker 2>David Petraeus. He also got on tight with John Finer,

0:25:57.600 --> 0:26:00.800
<v Speaker 2>chief of staff for Secretary of State John Cai He

0:26:00.840 --> 0:26:03.879
<v Speaker 2>would later tell a reporter that Inmbian's people saved my

0:26:04.040 --> 0:26:07.320
<v Speaker 2>butt more than once, which given what had just happened

0:26:07.359 --> 0:26:12.640
<v Speaker 2>to NBA John Carreys, where someone's gonna butt bomb him. Yeah,

0:26:13.040 --> 0:26:15.160
<v Speaker 2>he literally saved my ass.

0:26:15.400 --> 0:26:17.560
<v Speaker 3>I'm glad he has a sense of humor about it.

0:26:17.800 --> 0:26:20.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I don't know if he meant that as a joke.

0:26:21.000 --> 0:26:23.080
<v Speaker 2>I don't know that John carries that funny a man.

0:26:23.760 --> 0:26:25.960
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and then a terra somewhere is like, oh, I

0:26:26.040 --> 0:26:28.280
<v Speaker 4>never thought to put the bomb in there, but.

0:26:28.600 --> 0:26:29.560
<v Speaker 2>In his butt.

0:26:29.880 --> 0:26:31.000
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.

0:26:31.359 --> 0:26:34.560
<v Speaker 2>Salmon comes to power as king in twenty fifteen, as

0:26:34.600 --> 0:26:39.520
<v Speaker 2>we talked about last episode, and he very quickly removes

0:26:39.560 --> 0:26:41.640
<v Speaker 2>the guy who had been crown Prince that the old

0:26:41.720 --> 0:26:44.960
<v Speaker 2>king had wanted to succeed after King Salomon, and he

0:26:45.040 --> 0:26:48.240
<v Speaker 2>makes mohammedd b Nayef the crown prince. And this is why, right,

0:26:48.400 --> 0:26:52.840
<v Speaker 2>Mbian is the natural pick to be crown prince, because

0:26:52.920 --> 0:26:56.720
<v Speaker 2>he's the guy who has been dealing with the war effort. Right,

0:26:56.760 --> 0:26:59.000
<v Speaker 2>he's the guy who protected the country, who saved it

0:26:59.040 --> 0:26:59.680
<v Speaker 2>from al Qaide.

0:27:00.000 --> 0:27:01.040
<v Speaker 3>He's his asshole pick.

0:27:02.160 --> 0:27:05.359
<v Speaker 2>He put his ass on the line. He took someone

0:27:05.400 --> 0:27:08.439
<v Speaker 2>else's ass in an explosion right, and a lot of

0:27:08.480 --> 0:27:10.800
<v Speaker 2>Americans cheer. This development is the best thing to happen

0:27:10.840 --> 0:27:13.480
<v Speaker 2>to US power in the Middle East for generations. The

0:27:13.560 --> 0:27:16.840
<v Speaker 2>CIA could hardly have hand picked a better successor. Best

0:27:16.880 --> 0:27:19.480
<v Speaker 2>of all, as they saw it, Nief was a legitimate

0:27:19.520 --> 0:27:22.239
<v Speaker 2>hero in Saudi Arabia. He wasn't someone whose reputation they

0:27:22.280 --> 0:27:24.439
<v Speaker 2>had to prop up. We don't have to make this

0:27:24.480 --> 0:27:27.760
<v Speaker 2>guy into a puppet. He's already a hero, right right,

0:27:29.359 --> 0:27:32.840
<v Speaker 2>it's a it's a great bet. So April of twenty fifteen,

0:27:32.920 --> 0:27:36.120
<v Speaker 2>Naieff has made the crown prince and up through twenty sixteen,

0:27:36.440 --> 0:27:39.560
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't seem like Mohammed bin Salman, who again is

0:27:39.560 --> 0:27:41.919
<v Speaker 2>the subject of these episodes, and we've had to explain

0:27:41.960 --> 0:27:44.239
<v Speaker 2>a lot of other guys. He doesn't like he's got

0:27:44.280 --> 0:27:47.639
<v Speaker 2>any chance of taking the crown or power for himself.

0:27:47.880 --> 0:27:49.880
<v Speaker 3>He's got real Jeb energy.

0:27:50.400 --> 0:27:53.280
<v Speaker 2>He's got a lot of Jeb energy at this point, right, yeah,

0:27:53.480 --> 0:27:59.439
<v Speaker 2>je yeah, real Please got him managing the family like

0:28:00.119 --> 0:28:03.000
<v Speaker 2>office and everything like that, and he's taking on a

0:28:03.000 --> 0:28:06.120
<v Speaker 2>lot of power for himself. But he doesn't seem very special.

0:28:06.160 --> 0:28:09.919
<v Speaker 2>And MBN just seems unassailable, right, Like, how could you

0:28:09.960 --> 0:28:13.399
<v Speaker 2>possibly compete with this guy. You're twenty years younger. You've

0:28:13.440 --> 0:28:16.960
<v Speaker 2>never survived an assassination attempt. MBN is on like his

0:28:17.119 --> 0:28:21.000
<v Speaker 2>third by this point. You've never fought, prosecuted a war successful.

0:28:21.040 --> 0:28:23.400
<v Speaker 2>He's got all these friends in the West. But there

0:28:23.400 --> 0:28:26.720
<v Speaker 2>are already early warning signs for those who truly understood

0:28:26.760 --> 0:28:30.360
<v Speaker 2>inner family power politics within the kingdom. When he appointed

0:28:30.480 --> 0:28:35.280
<v Speaker 2>MBN Crown Prince, King Solomon also collapsed in Mbien's court,

0:28:35.320 --> 0:28:37.920
<v Speaker 2>because every one of these princes at this level has

0:28:37.960 --> 0:28:41.760
<v Speaker 2>their own like royal office. Salmon collapses his court into

0:28:41.760 --> 0:28:45.720
<v Speaker 2>the main royal court. And I think this is streamlined

0:28:46.000 --> 0:28:48.440
<v Speaker 2>like he frames it, says, we need to be more efficient,

0:28:48.480 --> 0:28:50.760
<v Speaker 2>so we need to like collapse all these courts together

0:28:50.880 --> 0:28:54.320
<v Speaker 2>so that they work more effectively. But the crown prince's

0:28:54.440 --> 0:28:57.480
<v Speaker 2>royal court had always been seen as an important perk

0:28:57.600 --> 0:28:59.600
<v Speaker 2>in a good way for an ascendant prince to build

0:28:59.600 --> 0:29:02.760
<v Speaker 2>a base power for his own future reign. You're picking

0:29:02.760 --> 0:29:04.920
<v Speaker 2>out people that you want to be loyal to you.

0:29:04.920 --> 0:29:08.120
<v Speaker 2>You giving them early jobs ways that they can make

0:29:08.120 --> 0:29:11.480
<v Speaker 2>a fortune for themselves. Right, if you don't have control

0:29:11.600 --> 0:29:15.440
<v Speaker 2>over your own royal court as crown prince, you're losing

0:29:15.440 --> 0:29:18.320
<v Speaker 2>out on a way to like build power for yourself,

0:29:19.000 --> 0:29:21.520
<v Speaker 2>and the fact that Mohammed Man Salmon is in charge

0:29:21.520 --> 0:29:24.520
<v Speaker 2>of the royal court allows his twenty six year younger

0:29:24.600 --> 0:29:28.240
<v Speaker 2>son to start making powerful allies and bribing influential royals

0:29:28.240 --> 0:29:31.560
<v Speaker 2>with court positions. So you can see already there's some

0:29:31.680 --> 0:29:35.480
<v Speaker 2>signs that maybe King Solomon doesn't intend for Mbian to

0:29:35.520 --> 0:29:39.760
<v Speaker 2>ever actually take the throne, right, that maybe he's setting

0:29:39.840 --> 0:29:42.040
<v Speaker 2>his son up and kind of doing a fuck job

0:29:42.080 --> 0:29:45.240
<v Speaker 2>on Mohammed Man Nayef. Behind the scenes, people close to

0:29:45.240 --> 0:29:48.120
<v Speaker 2>the royal family begin to whisper that even as he

0:29:48.160 --> 0:29:50.520
<v Speaker 2>took on the crown, King Solomon was suffering from the

0:29:50.560 --> 0:29:54.280
<v Speaker 2>early stages of Alzheimer's. In this version of events, just

0:29:54.320 --> 0:29:57.320
<v Speaker 2>as the king makes Mbian his official successor, he's starting

0:29:57.320 --> 0:29:59.640
<v Speaker 2>to seed a lot of his power and decision making

0:29:59.680 --> 0:30:02.160
<v Speaker 2>to his younger son Mohammad b and Salomon, who he

0:30:02.200 --> 0:30:06.600
<v Speaker 2>appoints as defense minister upon taking office. Right that, maybe

0:30:07.080 --> 0:30:09.560
<v Speaker 2>NBS is orchestrating a lot of this from the start,

0:30:09.560 --> 0:30:13.840
<v Speaker 2>because King Solomon's never all that competent to run anything,

0:30:13.920 --> 0:30:16.040
<v Speaker 2>So maybe from the jump, from the start of his

0:30:16.120 --> 0:30:18.720
<v Speaker 2>dad's time as king, NBS is trying to figure out

0:30:18.760 --> 0:30:22.240
<v Speaker 2>how can I get Mohammad Banayev out from being the

0:30:22.280 --> 0:30:25.320
<v Speaker 2>crown prince right, And so he's orchestrating all of this,

0:30:25.640 --> 0:30:27.480
<v Speaker 2>and he makes sure he gets the job as the

0:30:27.520 --> 0:30:29.760
<v Speaker 2>Minister of Defense because he knows that I want to

0:30:29.880 --> 0:30:32.800
<v Speaker 2>kick this guy out of power. This guy has already

0:30:32.840 --> 0:30:35.600
<v Speaker 2>developed a reputation as a war leader for our people,

0:30:35.960 --> 0:30:38.560
<v Speaker 2>so I need to develop a reputation as a war

0:30:38.640 --> 0:30:42.600
<v Speaker 2>leader for our people. And he wastes no time. Yeah,

0:30:42.920 --> 0:30:45.320
<v Speaker 2>but he's got to do a lot worse bombs than that, Dave.

0:30:47.000 --> 0:30:50.440
<v Speaker 2>In March of twenty fifteen, Mohammad and Salomon orders Saudi

0:30:50.480 --> 0:30:54.520
<v Speaker 2>forces to intervene directly in Yemen's latest civil war. If

0:30:54.520 --> 0:30:56.720
<v Speaker 2>you don't keep track of politics in that region, it's

0:30:56.720 --> 0:30:58.680
<v Speaker 2>important to know that Yemen has been embroiled in a

0:30:58.720 --> 0:31:02.240
<v Speaker 2>series of internescing Conft since nineteen sixty two. There have

0:31:02.320 --> 0:31:05.960
<v Speaker 2>been numerous different sides and coalitions, all backed by foreign powers.

0:31:05.960 --> 0:31:08.480
<v Speaker 2>Over the course of these conflicts, and throughout the last

0:31:08.520 --> 0:31:11.240
<v Speaker 2>half century or so, there have been Saudi military leaders

0:31:11.240 --> 0:31:14.040
<v Speaker 2>and princes who had advocated that the kingdom get more

0:31:14.080 --> 0:31:17.360
<v Speaker 2>directly involved in the fighting. The most recent phase of

0:31:17.400 --> 0:31:19.840
<v Speaker 2>fighting in Yemen was triggered, like so many other things,

0:31:19.920 --> 0:31:23.520
<v Speaker 2>by the Arab Spring. In twenty eleven, mass protests forced

0:31:23.560 --> 0:31:26.680
<v Speaker 2>the current president, a guy named Salah, to resign. His

0:31:26.800 --> 0:31:28.960
<v Speaker 2>vice president took over for what was meant to be

0:31:29.080 --> 0:31:32.560
<v Speaker 2>two years, during which time the government would be reorganized

0:31:32.560 --> 0:31:35.600
<v Speaker 2>into a new federal system and elections would be held.

0:31:35.720 --> 0:31:40.080
<v Speaker 2>Well attempts at working out a political arrangement failed, this

0:31:40.160 --> 0:31:42.640
<v Speaker 2>guy stays in power, and in a desperate attempt to

0:31:42.640 --> 0:31:46.280
<v Speaker 2>deal with the country's crippling economic problems, he cuts fuel subsidies.

0:31:46.680 --> 0:31:50.200
<v Speaker 2>This sparks protests and mass dissatisfaction with a no longer

0:31:50.240 --> 0:31:53.520
<v Speaker 2>scene as legitimate regime, A rebel group called the Huthis

0:31:53.600 --> 0:31:56.640
<v Speaker 2>was perceptive enough to take advantage of the situation. The

0:31:56.720 --> 0:31:59.560
<v Speaker 2>Huthis are a religious minority. They're from the Zadi sect

0:31:59.600 --> 0:32:03.400
<v Speaker 2>of Shia Islam, which is like five percent of the population.

0:32:04.280 --> 0:32:07.840
<v Speaker 2>Schmul and Zohar Letterman describe their motivations and adjourned article

0:32:07.840 --> 0:32:11.440
<v Speaker 2>for the Journal of Genocide Research. The Huthis protested against

0:32:11.480 --> 0:32:14.520
<v Speaker 2>their political and economic marginalization, as well as the encroachment

0:32:14.600 --> 0:32:17.720
<v Speaker 2>of Saudi Wahabi religious doctrine on the Sada province in

0:32:17.800 --> 0:32:21.200
<v Speaker 2>northern Yemen where they were based. So NBS's decision to

0:32:21.240 --> 0:32:24.080
<v Speaker 2>intervene doesn't come out of nowhere, but it's a distinct

0:32:24.120 --> 0:32:26.200
<v Speaker 2>shock to a lot of his peers and family members.

0:32:26.480 --> 0:32:30.200
<v Speaker 2>His cousin, the still crown Prince INBN, wasn't informed ahead

0:32:30.200 --> 0:32:33.640
<v Speaker 2>of time before Saudi forces start going to Yemen, and

0:32:33.680 --> 0:32:36.880
<v Speaker 2>the head of the National Guard, another cousin, also isn't

0:32:36.920 --> 0:32:39.040
<v Speaker 2>told ahead of time, right, none of the people who

0:32:39.080 --> 0:32:43.160
<v Speaker 2>should know before Saudi Arabia sticks its dick into this

0:32:43.240 --> 0:32:46.040
<v Speaker 2>civil war and Saudi operations are going to rely heavily

0:32:46.080 --> 0:32:48.680
<v Speaker 2>on the right. It's like he doesn't tell anybody before

0:32:48.720 --> 0:32:52.120
<v Speaker 2>he does this because he wants it to be his baby.

0:32:52.160 --> 0:32:54.320
<v Speaker 2>He thinks it's going to be a big success that

0:32:54.440 --> 0:32:58.120
<v Speaker 2>like immediately we're gonna kick the Huthis out, We're gonna

0:32:58.120 --> 0:33:01.240
<v Speaker 2>stabilize the situation in Yemen. And I want all the credit,

0:33:01.520 --> 0:33:03.320
<v Speaker 2>right right, I don't want any of these guys to

0:33:03.320 --> 0:33:07.280
<v Speaker 2>get credit. Obviously, it's gonna work quickly, because it always

0:33:07.320 --> 0:33:08.080
<v Speaker 2>works quickly.

0:33:09.600 --> 0:33:14.040
<v Speaker 4>It's always fine. Yeah, there's man, it's a sickness like

0:33:14.120 --> 0:33:16.800
<v Speaker 4>where you can get resumes all the way. Obviously, today

0:33:16.800 --> 0:33:19.960
<v Speaker 4>where world leaders are like, we have created a society

0:33:19.960 --> 0:33:23.320
<v Speaker 4>where to be like respected, you have to go into

0:33:23.400 --> 0:33:26.840
<v Speaker 4>somebody's country and start screwing around and then get all

0:33:26.840 --> 0:33:27.360
<v Speaker 4>the credit.

0:33:27.760 --> 0:33:31.320
<v Speaker 3>And it never seems to work out like that way,

0:33:32.320 --> 0:33:34.920
<v Speaker 3>but I guess it does because we keep doing it.

0:33:35.240 --> 0:33:38.680
<v Speaker 3>We're gonna invade Greenland or whatever where. It's just like,

0:33:38.720 --> 0:33:41.640
<v Speaker 3>that's what world leaders do. They start shit in other countries.

0:33:41.680 --> 0:33:44.000
<v Speaker 3>So I have to do it too if I want

0:33:44.000 --> 0:33:45.280
<v Speaker 3>to seem like a world leader.

0:33:46.200 --> 0:33:49.160
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it'll make me seem powerful, It'll make me.

0:33:49.240 --> 0:33:50.880
<v Speaker 2>I need to prove that I'm better than the last

0:33:50.880 --> 0:33:52.520
<v Speaker 2>guy who couldn't do it successfully?

0:33:52.600 --> 0:33:52.800
<v Speaker 3>Right?

0:33:52.840 --> 0:33:55.760
<v Speaker 4>Should it should have just paid people to put bombs

0:33:55.800 --> 0:33:56.560
<v Speaker 4>in their butts.

0:34:00.040 --> 0:34:02.280
<v Speaker 2>We're all seeing the wisdom of al Kaieda here, right.

0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:04.880
<v Speaker 2>You know, simple goals in life. If all you want

0:34:04.920 --> 0:34:06.920
<v Speaker 2>is to put a bomb in a man's rectum and

0:34:06.960 --> 0:34:09.839
<v Speaker 2>detonate it next to another man, you can achieve that goal.

0:34:09.960 --> 0:34:11.560
<v Speaker 2>No one can take that from al Qaeda.

0:34:11.920 --> 0:34:12.040
<v Speaker 5>You know.

0:34:12.080 --> 0:34:14.239
<v Speaker 4>I have a question, Robert, if you had a butt

0:34:14.320 --> 0:34:17.839
<v Speaker 4>bomb and you what would you say before you exploded

0:34:17.880 --> 0:34:19.280
<v Speaker 4>it next to the person.

0:34:19.800 --> 0:34:21.680
<v Speaker 3>Hmmm, Because I've been.

0:34:23.920 --> 0:34:26.319
<v Speaker 2>That's a good question, Dave, I don't have a good

0:34:26.320 --> 0:34:30.600
<v Speaker 2>retort in my head right now, Okay, Sophie.

0:34:30.400 --> 0:34:33.600
<v Speaker 1>Oh crap, Oh that's good, that's good.

0:34:33.760 --> 0:34:35.840
<v Speaker 4>I would, I would, I would casually turn them and

0:34:35.880 --> 0:34:37.200
<v Speaker 4>go you ever eat asked before?

0:34:37.520 --> 0:34:38.560
<v Speaker 3>And then.

0:34:40.320 --> 0:34:45.640
<v Speaker 2>That's a really good one day. That's a good one, Dave. So,

0:34:45.800 --> 0:34:49.520
<v Speaker 2>the public justification for Saudi Arabia getting involved in the

0:34:49.560 --> 0:34:52.000
<v Speaker 2>civil war that does not involve it is that the

0:34:52.000 --> 0:34:55.279
<v Speaker 2>ousted president of Yemen had asked for Saudi help, right,

0:34:55.800 --> 0:34:59.440
<v Speaker 2>which he kind of he had. But the most obvious

0:34:59.480 --> 0:35:01.839
<v Speaker 2>behind the scene Mean's justification was that the Huthis had

0:35:01.880 --> 0:35:04.799
<v Speaker 2>Iranian backing, right, and MBS, along with most of his

0:35:04.880 --> 0:35:07.680
<v Speaker 2>inner circle, believe the Houthis were nothing but a proxy

0:35:07.719 --> 0:35:09.719
<v Speaker 2>for Iran, which is a probably a mistake that a

0:35:09.760 --> 0:35:12.240
<v Speaker 2>lot of world leaders make, which is like, these people

0:35:12.280 --> 0:35:15.040
<v Speaker 2>are getting arms or maybe training from this other country

0:35:15.080 --> 0:35:17.680
<v Speaker 2>that's my enemy. They must not be a real group.

0:35:17.800 --> 0:35:21.000
<v Speaker 2>This must all be a fiction created by this other

0:35:21.080 --> 0:35:24.000
<v Speaker 2>evil country, as opposed to like, well, the Huthis get

0:35:24.080 --> 0:35:27.000
<v Speaker 2>stuff from Iran, but they have their own base of power,

0:35:27.120 --> 0:35:30.359
<v Speaker 2>they're their own movement. They're doing a lot right, which

0:35:30.360 --> 0:35:32.120
<v Speaker 2>is why they've gotten where they are and they're going

0:35:32.160 --> 0:35:34.360
<v Speaker 2>to be a lot harder to destroy than you think

0:35:34.440 --> 0:35:38.359
<v Speaker 2>as a result of all of that. Right now, that said,

0:35:38.360 --> 0:35:41.400
<v Speaker 2>none of this alone explains why MBS decides to send

0:35:41.400 --> 0:35:44.600
<v Speaker 2>forces into Yemen. Was almost his very first action upon

0:35:44.680 --> 0:35:47.879
<v Speaker 2>getting into a position of power. The Leaderman Brothers write

0:35:47.880 --> 0:35:50.440
<v Speaker 2>that quote, Mohammed ben Salmon seems to have seen what

0:35:50.520 --> 0:35:52.680
<v Speaker 2>he believed would be a short and easily won battle

0:35:52.719 --> 0:35:54.759
<v Speaker 2>against the Huthis as an easy way to bolster his

0:35:54.760 --> 0:35:57.760
<v Speaker 2>images in military and political leader. And I've come across

0:35:57.800 --> 0:36:00.520
<v Speaker 2>several other analysts who say the same thing. Nobody ever

0:36:00.560 --> 0:36:02.200
<v Speaker 2>gives more detail than that, And we don't have any

0:36:02.280 --> 0:36:04.319
<v Speaker 2>quotes from behind the scenes or whatever. He does not

0:36:04.360 --> 0:36:07.640
<v Speaker 2>have a very porous office. There's not a detailed here's

0:36:07.680 --> 0:36:10.400
<v Speaker 2>what was happening, you know, behind the people haven't written

0:36:10.400 --> 0:36:13.719
<v Speaker 2>a dozen books about being inside his office at this time,

0:36:13.880 --> 0:36:16.359
<v Speaker 2>right because that's just not how Saudi Arabia works. You'll

0:36:16.360 --> 0:36:18.520
<v Speaker 2>get bone sawed if you do that sort of thing,

0:36:18.640 --> 0:36:21.359
<v Speaker 2>you will. So I'm left to assume that even these

0:36:21.440 --> 0:36:24.840
<v Speaker 2>much more knowledgeable analysts don't have a great deal of

0:36:24.880 --> 0:36:28.400
<v Speaker 2>detail from inside NBS's office, so to speak. And this

0:36:28.480 --> 0:36:30.240
<v Speaker 2>is one of the most frustrating parts of the story

0:36:30.239 --> 0:36:32.080
<v Speaker 2>to me, because there's not really a set. I don't

0:36:32.080 --> 0:36:33.919
<v Speaker 2>have a good answer as to why did you think

0:36:33.920 --> 0:36:37.960
<v Speaker 2>this would work? Man, he'd grown up and there were

0:36:37.960 --> 0:36:40.000
<v Speaker 2>a good reason to think a guy like NBS, who

0:36:40.000 --> 0:36:42.600
<v Speaker 2>seems to be relatively smart, should have known this was

0:36:42.640 --> 0:36:45.839
<v Speaker 2>a bad idea. He grew up watching the US fail

0:36:45.880 --> 0:36:49.040
<v Speaker 2>in Iraq and Afghanistan, right like you saw this fail.

0:36:49.920 --> 0:36:53.319
<v Speaker 4>We in the previous podcast we talked about like you know,

0:36:53.960 --> 0:36:57.560
<v Speaker 4>teachers weren't allowed to like give him back grase, no

0:36:57.600 --> 0:37:00.239
<v Speaker 4>one can say no to him. It's it's and this

0:37:00.320 --> 0:37:03.839
<v Speaker 4>is it's a sickness. It's like if you spend your

0:37:03.920 --> 0:37:07.960
<v Speaker 4>life where everybody is not allowed to say no to you,

0:37:08.520 --> 0:37:10.640
<v Speaker 4>by the time you get to this point, you're like, yeah,

0:37:10.719 --> 0:37:14.200
<v Speaker 4>it'll all work out, won't it. You know what else

0:37:14.239 --> 0:37:16.960
<v Speaker 4>would like everything has told me that.

0:37:17.719 --> 0:37:20.399
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, yeah, humor yeah.

0:37:20.440 --> 0:37:22.759
<v Speaker 2>So he doesn't pay attention to the fact that this

0:37:22.880 --> 0:37:25.320
<v Speaker 2>never hasn't worked in recent memory. He doesn't pay attention

0:37:25.360 --> 0:37:27.839
<v Speaker 2>to the fact that gibbons dysfunction was spurred on by

0:37:27.880 --> 0:37:31.000
<v Speaker 2>the Iraq War. The Huthi's attacked former President Salah for

0:37:31.160 --> 0:37:33.360
<v Speaker 2>having supported the US during the early years of the

0:37:33.360 --> 0:37:36.520
<v Speaker 2>Global War on Terror. Somehow MBS seems to have convinced

0:37:36.600 --> 0:37:38.840
<v Speaker 2>himself that using a mix of air power and mostly

0:37:38.920 --> 0:37:42.080
<v Speaker 2>foreign troops, he could win a quick and overwhelming victory

0:37:42.120 --> 0:37:43.920
<v Speaker 2>against a group he thought was nothing more than an

0:37:43.960 --> 0:37:47.920
<v Speaker 2>Iranian cutout. This would be proven disastrously wrong, and without

0:37:47.920 --> 0:37:50.640
<v Speaker 2>any more detail behind the scenes, I'm left concluding that

0:37:50.719 --> 0:37:53.520
<v Speaker 2>Mohammad and Salmon made a really bad decision because he

0:37:53.600 --> 0:37:56.279
<v Speaker 2>was arrogant and too intellectually lazy to realize he was

0:37:56.320 --> 0:37:59.200
<v Speaker 2>making a mistake. Most sources do seem to agree that

0:37:59.239 --> 0:38:02.120
<v Speaker 2>he was the deciple and leading voice in Saudi Arabia

0:38:02.200 --> 0:38:06.480
<v Speaker 2>going to war. Many human rights activists Bara Chabon expressed

0:38:06.480 --> 0:38:08.680
<v Speaker 2>to the Middle East IE his opinion that Saudi Arabia

0:38:08.920 --> 0:38:11.719
<v Speaker 2>would have had some involvement in Yemen's civil war no

0:38:11.760 --> 0:38:14.680
<v Speaker 2>matter who was in power, but NBS made it certain

0:38:14.719 --> 0:38:17.919
<v Speaker 2>that that involvement would be direct military. Right, they would

0:38:17.960 --> 0:38:20.160
<v Speaker 2>have done something. They would have tried to send some money,

0:38:20.200 --> 0:38:22.959
<v Speaker 2>They would have tried to, you know, since some form

0:38:22.960 --> 0:38:25.440
<v Speaker 2>of a they would have tried to bribe an official

0:38:25.520 --> 0:38:28.439
<v Speaker 2>or whatever. But because it was MBS, it was made

0:38:28.440 --> 0:38:30.840
<v Speaker 2>a guarantee that they were going to send in soldiers

0:38:30.840 --> 0:38:34.680
<v Speaker 2>and planes and try to intervene directly and militarily. Quote,

0:38:34.760 --> 0:38:37.239
<v Speaker 2>if it weren't for Ben Salomon, Saudi Arabia might have

0:38:37.239 --> 0:38:40.800
<v Speaker 2>influenced the war through funding and supporting certain groups. Instead,

0:38:40.840 --> 0:38:43.120
<v Speaker 2>it takes a direct leading role in a campaign of

0:38:43.200 --> 0:38:46.320
<v Speaker 2>vicious air strikes. For the first few months, the Saudi

0:38:46.360 --> 0:38:49.759
<v Speaker 2>coalition carried out strikes on mostly military targets. They learned

0:38:49.760 --> 0:38:52.320
<v Speaker 2>a version of the lesson the US is currently failing

0:38:52.320 --> 0:38:54.480
<v Speaker 2>to learn over and over again in the Gulf of Aden,

0:38:54.520 --> 0:38:56.759
<v Speaker 2>which is that you can't destroy a group like the

0:38:56.840 --> 0:38:59.880
<v Speaker 2>Huthis just by carrying out air strikes. You can't bomb

0:38:59.880 --> 0:39:03.200
<v Speaker 2>them away. It's really hard to bomb people away when

0:39:03.239 --> 0:39:06.320
<v Speaker 2>they know the terrain and can hide behind rocks and stuff.

0:39:06.560 --> 0:39:11.280
<v Speaker 2>There's caves, there's bunkers, there's just hiding under the fucking sand.

0:39:11.760 --> 0:39:15.879
<v Speaker 2>You know, Like, it's hard to kill people that way

0:39:15.960 --> 0:39:17.200
<v Speaker 2>as much as you need to.

0:39:17.520 --> 0:39:20.719
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, it feels like it's every people as unique, where

0:39:20.760 --> 0:39:22.960
<v Speaker 4>if you go into someone's territory, it's like, well, they

0:39:23.000 --> 0:39:25.520
<v Speaker 4>know it better than anybody. On top of it's that

0:39:25.600 --> 0:39:29.040
<v Speaker 4>realization that it's like it seems like world leaders have

0:39:29.280 --> 0:39:32.200
<v Speaker 4>just as much like knowledge as I do about how

0:39:32.239 --> 0:39:34.560
<v Speaker 4>to do a war, where I'm like, yeah, I like

0:39:34.640 --> 0:39:35.520
<v Speaker 4>the movie top Gun.

0:39:35.640 --> 0:39:36.319
<v Speaker 3>Let's just do that.

0:39:36.560 --> 0:39:39.120
<v Speaker 4>Let's just do like puw pew as opposed to like

0:39:39.160 --> 0:39:41.759
<v Speaker 4>the boring thing, you know, don't do the boring thing.

0:39:41.840 --> 0:39:46.000
<v Speaker 4>Don't like fund groups that that you want to you know, prevail, No, no,

0:39:46.040 --> 0:39:48.880
<v Speaker 4>you just we got all these cool little machines and stuff.

0:39:48.960 --> 0:39:51.799
<v Speaker 4>Let's send them in. Like it's everybody wants to do

0:39:51.840 --> 0:39:52.640
<v Speaker 4>pupu stuff.

0:39:53.440 --> 0:39:57.160
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, everybody wants to do pupu stuff. Nobody actually knows

0:39:57.160 --> 0:40:00.880
<v Speaker 2>how to do pupu stuff. Yeah, it's I mean, the

0:40:00.920 --> 0:40:04.040
<v Speaker 2>best way to win a war is to avoid getting

0:40:04.080 --> 0:40:07.440
<v Speaker 2>involved entirely, and the next best way to win a

0:40:07.480 --> 0:40:11.760
<v Speaker 2>war is to sit on your ass while your opponent

0:40:12.680 --> 0:40:16.200
<v Speaker 2>bombs the country into ruins and then then come up

0:40:16.239 --> 0:40:21.440
<v Speaker 2>afterwards and be like still live, motherfucker. Those are, broadly speaking,

0:40:21.480 --> 0:40:22.919
<v Speaker 2>the two best strategies.

0:40:23.400 --> 0:40:28.799
<v Speaker 4>Oh yeah, don't get into warst Like I've gone yeah.

0:40:27.480 --> 0:40:30.080
<v Speaker 3>Over forty years now without getting into a war.

0:40:30.160 --> 0:40:33.799
<v Speaker 2>Yeah not. You invaded any country, and there's been temptations, you.

0:40:33.680 --> 0:40:36.520
<v Speaker 3>Know, Oh god, yeah, I've had every reason to, but

0:40:36.760 --> 0:40:37.759
<v Speaker 3>like I did.

0:40:37.880 --> 0:40:41.719
<v Speaker 2>I invaded Belgian once kind of accidentally, but but I

0:40:41.760 --> 0:40:43.799
<v Speaker 2>wound up on a train to Germany the next night,

0:40:43.840 --> 0:40:47.800
<v Speaker 2>so it was okay. Speaking of invasions, why don't you

0:40:47.880 --> 0:40:58.800
<v Speaker 2>let these ads invade your mental state? And we're back.

0:41:00.239 --> 0:41:04.880
<v Speaker 2>So Saudi Arabia is carrying out horrific air strikes. By

0:41:04.960 --> 0:41:07.640
<v Speaker 2>August of twenty fifteen, it has become clear that things

0:41:07.640 --> 0:41:10.120
<v Speaker 2>are not trending towards a quick and easy win for

0:41:10.239 --> 0:41:13.759
<v Speaker 2>Mohammed ben Salmon and his coalition. In fact, several of

0:41:13.760 --> 0:41:16.319
<v Speaker 2>his Wanta Be coalition partners had backed out at the

0:41:16.400 --> 0:41:18.560
<v Speaker 2>last minute. These were guys he had relied on to

0:41:18.560 --> 0:41:23.000
<v Speaker 2>provide infantries because the Saudi Arabian army not great and

0:41:23.239 --> 0:41:26.319
<v Speaker 2>it's politically testy to send a bunch of your young

0:41:26.360 --> 0:41:29.080
<v Speaker 2>men into a meat grinder. He was really hoping some

0:41:29.120 --> 0:41:31.800
<v Speaker 2>other young men would do that job, and he winds

0:41:31.840 --> 0:41:34.759
<v Speaker 2>up being reliant on Sudanese war criminal mercenaries to do

0:41:34.760 --> 0:41:36.840
<v Speaker 2>a lot of the gruntwork for him, which is not

0:41:36.920 --> 0:41:39.840
<v Speaker 2>a great call for either a white variety of reasons.

0:41:41.320 --> 0:41:44.200
<v Speaker 2>As the summer reaches its apex the Leaderman's right quote,

0:41:44.440 --> 0:41:47.000
<v Speaker 2>a shift could be discerned from military and governmental to

0:41:47.040 --> 0:41:50.959
<v Speaker 2>civilian and economic targets including water and transport, infrastructure, food

0:41:50.960 --> 0:41:54.200
<v Speaker 2>production and distribution, roads and transport, clinics and hospitals, and

0:41:54.200 --> 0:41:58.719
<v Speaker 2>similar crucial civilian institutions. Right, so as soon as it

0:41:58.840 --> 0:42:01.560
<v Speaker 2>becomes like, oh, they're not just disappeared because we've started

0:42:01.600 --> 0:42:04.560
<v Speaker 2>bombing them and we don't actually know where to keep bombing,

0:42:04.920 --> 0:42:06.680
<v Speaker 2>Like I struck what we're supposed to be all the

0:42:06.719 --> 0:42:10.120
<v Speaker 2>military targets, and it doesn't seem to have harmed their military.

0:42:10.800 --> 0:42:13.680
<v Speaker 2>I guess we just start bombing where they keep the food.

0:42:14.280 --> 0:42:17.320
<v Speaker 2>I guess we start bombing the water treatment facilities. I

0:42:17.360 --> 0:42:20.880
<v Speaker 2>guess we start bombing the hospitals and schools, you know,

0:42:21.480 --> 0:42:23.640
<v Speaker 2>like that's where we go from There is like, well,

0:42:23.640 --> 0:42:26.560
<v Speaker 2>I guess I just have to destroy the whole society now, right, Yeah,

0:42:26.560 --> 0:42:28.680
<v Speaker 2>where's less popular?

0:42:28.840 --> 0:42:29.000
<v Speaker 3>Right?

0:42:29.040 --> 0:42:32.120
<v Speaker 2>But who these are more popular now that you're killing society.

0:42:32.480 --> 0:42:35.520
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, let's make them victims. Now, let's just make them

0:42:35.840 --> 0:42:37.800
<v Speaker 3>like yeah yeah here.

0:42:38.280 --> 0:42:40.520
<v Speaker 2>As opposed to what he should have done is just

0:42:40.600 --> 0:42:44.080
<v Speaker 2>set up an entire fake city, like fifty miles down

0:42:44.120 --> 0:42:48.080
<v Speaker 2>the road from the capitol and be like, hey, free gatorade.

0:42:48.400 --> 0:42:51.320
<v Speaker 2>You know, everybody gets a laptop at the nice city.

0:42:51.560 --> 0:42:53.480
<v Speaker 2>Why don't you guys just come to We're not fighting.

0:42:53.480 --> 0:42:55.880
<v Speaker 2>We got no desire to fight, you know, but you

0:42:55.920 --> 0:42:58.200
<v Speaker 2>know what, we have hamburgers.

0:42:58.560 --> 0:42:59.680
<v Speaker 3>So like a blazing saddle.

0:43:00.520 --> 0:43:03.600
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, exactly, exactly like that, you know, I feel like

0:43:03.600 --> 0:43:06.320
<v Speaker 2>that would work in a lot of wars. As opposed

0:43:06.320 --> 0:43:07.839
<v Speaker 2>to doing the whole invasion thing.

0:43:08.280 --> 0:43:10.719
<v Speaker 4>I think we should at least try to do things

0:43:10.760 --> 0:43:14.000
<v Speaker 4>like paint tunnels on rocks and see if people run

0:43:14.040 --> 0:43:15.759
<v Speaker 4>into the rocks, you know.

0:43:16.040 --> 0:43:18.560
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, what if we had just set up a

0:43:18.600 --> 0:43:21.839
<v Speaker 2>second Iraq and told everybody, look, you can stay living

0:43:21.920 --> 0:43:25.560
<v Speaker 2>under the old Iraq, but the new Iraq free cable.

0:43:26.200 --> 0:43:30.680
<v Speaker 3>Yeah right, Iraq, come on over.

0:43:31.040 --> 0:43:34.239
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, yeah, suddenly said I doesn't even have a

0:43:34.239 --> 0:43:39.560
<v Speaker 2>country anymore. What's he going to do? You know exactly?

0:43:39.600 --> 0:43:41.440
<v Speaker 2>He'd actually have been very happy. It'd have been a

0:43:41.480 --> 0:43:43.920
<v Speaker 2>much happier man. He was tired of being the leader

0:43:43.920 --> 0:43:48.080
<v Speaker 2>of a rock at that point. So right as this

0:43:48.160 --> 0:43:51.880
<v Speaker 2>shift begins, as Saudi Arabia moves its bombing from trying

0:43:51.880 --> 0:43:54.319
<v Speaker 2>to strike in military targets to just trying to kill

0:43:54.360 --> 0:43:58.560
<v Speaker 2>civil society uh in Yemen, Muhammad b and Salma decides, well,

0:43:58.640 --> 0:44:00.560
<v Speaker 2>that's a good days work. I think, guy, I've earned

0:44:00.560 --> 0:44:04.839
<v Speaker 2>a vacation. Boy, a lot of work fucking up a war.

0:44:05.280 --> 0:44:07.680
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna go party. You guys keep blowing up some

0:44:07.760 --> 0:44:11.280
<v Speaker 2>hospitals or something while I'm gone. Okay, So he gathers

0:44:11.320 --> 0:44:13.360
<v Speaker 2>a tight assortment of all of his best friends and

0:44:13.400 --> 0:44:16.360
<v Speaker 2>they leave the capital of Riod to party in the Maldeeps.

0:44:17.040 --> 0:44:20.439
<v Speaker 2>His people rent out the entire Vila resort, which had

0:44:20.520 --> 0:44:23.439
<v Speaker 2>fifty villas and a private coral reef of its own.

0:44:23.800 --> 0:44:27.000
<v Speaker 2>The hotel's regular employees were paid five thousand dollars each

0:44:27.040 --> 0:44:29.160
<v Speaker 2>for one month of work, on the condition that they

0:44:29.200 --> 0:44:32.439
<v Speaker 2>not bring their smartphones or talk to anyone else about

0:44:32.480 --> 0:44:34.880
<v Speaker 2>what they saw while they were there. Even with this

0:44:34.960 --> 0:44:37.920
<v Speaker 2>agreement in place, the prince's household brought its own servants

0:44:37.960 --> 0:44:40.120
<v Speaker 2>to manage the hotel instead, So none of these guys.

0:44:40.160 --> 0:44:42.240
<v Speaker 2>Most of these guys don't even get to work while

0:44:42.280 --> 0:44:45.280
<v Speaker 2>the prince is there because, as a spoiler, they're bringing

0:44:45.360 --> 0:44:48.880
<v Speaker 2>a shitload of drugs and prostitutes right to party in

0:44:48.920 --> 0:44:51.120
<v Speaker 2>them out. They're doing all the stuff you're not supposed

0:44:51.160 --> 0:44:52.960
<v Speaker 2>to do under Wavist Islam.

0:44:53.239 --> 0:44:56.480
<v Speaker 4>It's wild how rich people are a different species yet

0:44:56.520 --> 0:44:57.799
<v Speaker 4>the same species too.

0:44:57.960 --> 0:44:59.720
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, because you can do all that at a motel

0:44:59.760 --> 0:45:02.319
<v Speaker 3>s cheap, you can.

0:45:03.080 --> 0:45:05.680
<v Speaker 2>So he invites this insane guest list.

0:45:06.640 --> 0:45:07.440
<v Speaker 1>We have names.

0:45:08.880 --> 0:45:11.040
<v Speaker 2>These are like his friends, these are people he's now

0:45:11.040 --> 0:45:13.680
<v Speaker 2>we do have some names. He invites one hundred and

0:45:13.719 --> 0:45:17.160
<v Speaker 2>fifty Brazilian in Russian supermodels. Each is scanned for STDs

0:45:17.239 --> 0:45:19.600
<v Speaker 2>and then taken to private lodgings on the island.

0:45:21.600 --> 0:45:24.520
<v Speaker 5>Okay, yeah, yeah, okay.

0:45:25.200 --> 0:45:28.560
<v Speaker 2>Per the Africa Report. To keep these demanding guests entertained,

0:45:28.600 --> 0:45:32.239
<v Speaker 2>there were concerts featuring the rapper Pitbull, Korean pop star PSI,

0:45:32.360 --> 0:45:34.200
<v Speaker 2>and Dutch DJ Afrojack.

0:45:35.000 --> 0:45:36.480
<v Speaker 1>Mister Worldwide.

0:45:40.960 --> 0:45:43.760
<v Speaker 3>He's paid, he's getting skimming paid.

0:45:43.920 --> 0:45:47.720
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, buddy, diet I know to be not a good person.

0:45:47.840 --> 0:45:52.440
<v Speaker 5>Don't know anything about dbro Jack, but he's a DJ.

0:45:52.920 --> 0:45:57.520
<v Speaker 5>He's stereotyping, stereotyping, So sorry, DJs of the world.

0:45:58.960 --> 0:46:06.799
<v Speaker 2>But mister world Wide, mister worldwide, Yeah that's right, baby, yeah,

0:46:06.840 --> 0:46:11.279
<v Speaker 2>mister worldwide. One hundred and fifty quote unquote supermodels and

0:46:11.640 --> 0:46:15.440
<v Speaker 2>Mohammed Ben Solomon and his best friends all partying on

0:46:15.480 --> 0:46:16.279
<v Speaker 2>an eye.

0:46:16.360 --> 0:46:18.840
<v Speaker 5>Did they checked the talent for STDs or was that

0:46:19.080 --> 0:46:22.120
<v Speaker 5>just was that just the supermodels.

0:46:21.800 --> 0:46:24.600
<v Speaker 2>They checked Pitbull for STDs, and the test came back.

0:46:24.760 --> 0:46:29.759
<v Speaker 5>Yes, I'd like I'd like to think Korean pop star

0:46:29.920 --> 0:46:31.040
<v Speaker 5>side f.

0:46:32.840 --> 0:46:36.479
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. It turns out Sigh was just for every cell

0:46:36.560 --> 0:46:39.240
<v Speaker 2>of his body was chlamydia. He's not even a person,

0:46:39.280 --> 0:46:44.239
<v Speaker 2>He's a sentient colony of chlamydia, which you know makes

0:46:44.280 --> 0:46:47.600
<v Speaker 2>sense based on this music. So while thousands die horrific

0:46:47.600 --> 0:46:51.040
<v Speaker 2>deaths from US bombs dropped by Saudi pilots, NBS and

0:46:51.080 --> 0:46:54.759
<v Speaker 2>his inner circle partied. My favorite detail from this blowout

0:46:54.800 --> 0:46:57.680
<v Speaker 2>was that one night NBS got up on stage during

0:46:57.760 --> 0:47:01.280
<v Speaker 2>DJ Afrojack set and took aver his turntables.

0:47:01.840 --> 0:47:04.600
<v Speaker 3>Jesus, there's no way to do this good.

0:47:05.000 --> 0:47:06.440
<v Speaker 2>He can't have been good.

0:47:06.760 --> 0:47:12.960
<v Speaker 5>No, but like, you don't do that.

0:47:13.920 --> 0:47:17.720
<v Speaker 2>What happened? The DJ gets pissed off. I'm gonna guess

0:47:17.760 --> 0:47:20.040
<v Speaker 2>everyone at the party's pissed off, and no one's allowed

0:47:20.080 --> 0:47:22.920
<v Speaker 2>to say anything. I'm gonna guess NBS is also coked

0:47:22.960 --> 0:47:27.120
<v Speaker 2>to the gills during this Right, these these guys are

0:47:27.120 --> 0:47:32.680
<v Speaker 2>flying in a mountain of Peruvian marching powder, and probably, yeah.

0:47:32.800 --> 0:47:37.000
<v Speaker 4>It makes anybody SAYDJ like that's what does.

0:47:37.080 --> 0:47:42.160
<v Speaker 2>That's what cocaine's for. Obviously, no amount of threatening hotel

0:47:42.200 --> 0:47:44.440
<v Speaker 2>staff is going to keep a party like this quiet

0:47:44.520 --> 0:47:46.279
<v Speaker 2>and doing this is not a good look for a

0:47:46.320 --> 0:47:48.600
<v Speaker 2>man who had just started a bloody war. That in

0:47:48.640 --> 0:47:50.439
<v Speaker 2>a man about a year or so, people are gonna

0:47:50.440 --> 0:47:52.680
<v Speaker 2>be talking about what Saudi Ribia is doing in Yemen

0:47:52.719 --> 0:47:55.839
<v Speaker 2>as a genocide. Right, So, after less than a week,

0:47:55.880 --> 0:47:57.080
<v Speaker 2>if I think what was meant to be like a

0:47:57.120 --> 0:48:00.360
<v Speaker 2>month of partying, NBS was forced to pull up stakes

0:48:00.400 --> 0:48:01.960
<v Speaker 2>and take his friends back home.

0:48:03.480 --> 0:48:06.080
<v Speaker 3>Sorry, guys, we gotta go. I did a genocide.

0:48:06.520 --> 0:48:08.200
<v Speaker 1>Uh, I.

0:48:09.920 --> 0:48:11.160
<v Speaker 3>Know you guys.

0:48:11.280 --> 0:48:13.520
<v Speaker 4>You guys can stay here, but listen, I'm not paying

0:48:13.560 --> 0:48:14.400
<v Speaker 4>anything anymore.

0:48:14.600 --> 0:48:16.720
<v Speaker 1>I'm so sorry.

0:48:16.920 --> 0:48:24.120
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, Bingham style, I'm so sorry, mister worldwide.

0:48:25.000 --> 0:48:26.120
<v Speaker 1>We can rage later.

0:48:26.520 --> 0:48:30.360
<v Speaker 5>I'm too busy committing mass murdered genoside.

0:48:31.000 --> 0:48:39.120
<v Speaker 4>I feel like side they probably have contracts around that

0:48:39.239 --> 0:48:42.600
<v Speaker 4>where they're like, okay, they've done a genocide. You never

0:48:42.640 --> 0:48:44.200
<v Speaker 4>hear about, like I wish just once. I want to

0:48:44.200 --> 0:48:46.279
<v Speaker 4>hear about like James Taylor being at one of these.

0:48:46.560 --> 0:48:47.720
<v Speaker 4>It's never changed Taylor.

0:48:48.239 --> 0:48:54.719
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, James Taylor, or uh fucking and and yeah,

0:48:54.760 --> 0:49:00.680
<v Speaker 2>sure you're in the Saudi royal family. Why not. Civilian

0:49:00.680 --> 0:49:03.880
<v Speaker 2>casualties mount as the war drags on. The coalition was

0:49:03.920 --> 0:49:06.760
<v Speaker 2>successful in pushing the Houthies back from their furthest gains

0:49:06.760 --> 0:49:09.400
<v Speaker 2>in southern Yemen, but no matter how much they bombed,

0:49:09.400 --> 0:49:11.920
<v Speaker 2>they couldn't make any headway against the capitol or any

0:49:11.960 --> 0:49:15.120
<v Speaker 2>of the other major cities the Houthis controlled. The Saudi

0:49:15.120 --> 0:49:18.760
<v Speaker 2>war effort was utterly reliant upon the US. The bombs

0:49:18.800 --> 0:49:21.640
<v Speaker 2>they dropped on the Houthis were made by Americans, as

0:49:21.719 --> 0:49:25.360
<v Speaker 2>were the planes flown by Saudi pilots. American political support

0:49:25.440 --> 0:49:29.000
<v Speaker 2>was also crucial to the Saudi war effort. NBS had

0:49:29.120 --> 0:49:32.680
<v Speaker 2>justified the brutality of this campaign by claiming Huthi resistance

0:49:32.719 --> 0:49:34.760
<v Speaker 2>would be smashed in a matter of weeks or months.

0:49:35.040 --> 0:49:38.320
<v Speaker 2>As it became increasingly clear this was a fantasy, resistance

0:49:38.360 --> 0:49:40.840
<v Speaker 2>began to crop up from within the halls of Saudi power.

0:49:41.320 --> 0:49:44.080
<v Speaker 2>Mohammed ban Naya sent his top aide in Chief of Staff,

0:49:44.160 --> 0:49:47.440
<v Speaker 2>Sad al Jabri, to DC to inform his American friends

0:49:47.440 --> 0:49:49.560
<v Speaker 2>that he knew the King's son was an idiot and

0:49:49.560 --> 0:49:52.160
<v Speaker 2>that the war in Yemen was a mistake. The feeling

0:49:52.200 --> 0:49:54.359
<v Speaker 2>one gets is that he was fishing for approval from

0:49:54.360 --> 0:49:56.640
<v Speaker 2>someone in the State Department. If he had an outright

0:49:56.680 --> 0:49:58.120
<v Speaker 2>power struggle with NBS.

0:49:58.239 --> 0:49:58.399
<v Speaker 3>Right.

0:49:58.719 --> 0:50:01.479
<v Speaker 2>Hey, I know this is dumb. This war is dumb.

0:50:01.480 --> 0:50:04.760
<v Speaker 2>You guys hate this too. Right, if there's a power struggle,

0:50:04.800 --> 0:50:06.319
<v Speaker 2>are you going to be on my side or are

0:50:06.360 --> 0:50:08.160
<v Speaker 2>you going to back Mohammed Ben Salmon?

0:50:08.360 --> 0:50:08.560
<v Speaker 3>Right?

0:50:09.320 --> 0:50:12.360
<v Speaker 2>And for his part, MBS doesn't sit on his ass

0:50:12.440 --> 0:50:15.000
<v Speaker 2>watching the war turn against him. He gets hard to

0:50:15.040 --> 0:50:18.080
<v Speaker 2>work finding foreign allies too, instead of heading straight to

0:50:18.120 --> 0:50:20.160
<v Speaker 2>the White House, though he looks closer to home at

0:50:20.200 --> 0:50:24.000
<v Speaker 2>the UAE. His most important early ally was Sheik Mohammad

0:50:24.040 --> 0:50:27.600
<v Speaker 2>Benzayad al Nayon generally agreed to be the guy calling

0:50:27.640 --> 0:50:29.520
<v Speaker 2>most of the shots and the Emirates we'll just call

0:50:29.600 --> 0:50:33.479
<v Speaker 2>him MBZ because everyone else does two and MBZ does

0:50:33.560 --> 0:50:34.920
<v Speaker 2>not like MBN.

0:50:35.320 --> 0:50:35.480
<v Speaker 5>Right.

0:50:35.760 --> 0:50:38.640
<v Speaker 2>A common story you'll come across is that, during one meeting,

0:50:39.120 --> 0:50:42.560
<v Speaker 2>MBZ told MBN that his father, the Dark Prince, was

0:50:42.600 --> 0:50:45.440
<v Speaker 2>so clumsy he proved Darwin was right, which is a

0:50:45.560 --> 0:50:47.319
<v Speaker 2>kind of blasphemer you can only get away with if

0:50:47.360 --> 0:50:49.280
<v Speaker 2>you're a shake. We're not even supposed to like Darwin

0:50:49.320 --> 0:50:50.239
<v Speaker 2>all that much.

0:50:50.520 --> 0:50:52.760
<v Speaker 3>Like, what are you doing? Man?

0:50:53.480 --> 0:50:55.880
<v Speaker 2>But Mbz's in charge of his own country. Basically, he

0:50:55.920 --> 0:50:58.080
<v Speaker 2>doesn't have to abide by the rules, and so he

0:50:58.160 --> 0:51:01.680
<v Speaker 2>starts connecting with MBS because they both hate MBN and

0:51:01.719 --> 0:51:04.440
<v Speaker 2>they both want to take this fucker down their courts

0:51:04.560 --> 0:51:06.919
<v Speaker 2>organize a camping trip in the desert where they become

0:51:07.040 --> 0:51:09.400
<v Speaker 2>fast friends, and they start to strategize a way to

0:51:09.440 --> 0:51:13.560
<v Speaker 2>take out Mohammad Ben Salmon's older cousin. Mbz's first act

0:51:13.600 --> 0:51:15.799
<v Speaker 2>in this new alliance was to start reaching out to

0:51:15.840 --> 0:51:19.399
<v Speaker 2>his American friends and talking up Mohammed Ben Salmon. This

0:51:19.440 --> 0:51:21.440
<v Speaker 2>is enough of a success that people in the Obama

0:51:21.480 --> 0:51:24.400
<v Speaker 2>White House start discussing the need for an MBS whisperer

0:51:24.400 --> 0:51:26.680
<v Speaker 2>to get close to the King's son in case he

0:51:26.800 --> 0:51:30.160
<v Speaker 2>winds up accruing more power. Like so many important things

0:51:30.239 --> 0:51:32.600
<v Speaker 2>during the Obama years, this fell through the cracks because

0:51:32.640 --> 0:51:35.080
<v Speaker 2>no one was interested or had time to do the job.

0:51:35.480 --> 0:51:39.120
<v Speaker 2>Ben Hubbard's book includes these very funny lines. John Kerry

0:51:39.239 --> 0:51:42.400
<v Speaker 2>was suggested to be MBS's friend, but was too busy.

0:51:42.680 --> 0:51:46.239
<v Speaker 2>Ash Carter, the Secretary of Defense, was MBS's natural counterpart,

0:51:46.320 --> 0:51:49.480
<v Speaker 2>but wasn't interested. Vice President Joe Biden was discussed but

0:51:49.560 --> 0:51:54.560
<v Speaker 2>deemed too old, so instead they picked no one to

0:51:54.600 --> 0:51:57.000
<v Speaker 2>do this important job. And so there's no one in.

0:51:56.920 --> 0:52:01.719
<v Speaker 1>The Sorry, they were like, let's have jaw Uncarrie.

0:52:02.000 --> 0:52:03.920
<v Speaker 2>John Carrey be this kid's print.

0:52:04.280 --> 0:52:09.120
<v Speaker 3>I would love to watch Jean Carrey party with this guy. Yeah, yeah,

0:52:10.560 --> 0:52:11.200
<v Speaker 3>video games.

0:52:11.239 --> 0:52:13.800
<v Speaker 2>Like John Carrey comes in with like a copy of

0:52:13.840 --> 0:52:14.960
<v Speaker 2>Halo and a six pack.

0:52:15.040 --> 0:52:19.399
<v Speaker 4>He's like, hey bro, yeah, And again they settled on

0:52:19.800 --> 0:52:22.640
<v Speaker 4>No One and they're like, that's better than John Carrey

0:52:22.840 --> 0:52:24.799
<v Speaker 4>or or Joe Bidenery, like.

0:52:24.840 --> 0:52:29.200
<v Speaker 5>John Kerrey or that that old guy you know.

0:52:30.000 --> 0:52:33.040
<v Speaker 2>Not likes for a job as important as being this

0:52:33.160 --> 0:52:33.800
<v Speaker 2>kid's friend.

0:52:34.520 --> 0:52:38.280
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and then four seconds later they're like he should

0:52:38.320 --> 0:52:39.000
<v Speaker 1>be president.

0:52:39.440 --> 0:52:40.640
<v Speaker 2>He could do that job.

0:52:41.520 --> 0:52:46.080
<v Speaker 4>I'll say this, I saw John Carrey once at a

0:52:46.080 --> 0:52:50.759
<v Speaker 4>at a parade of Saint Patrick's Stay parade, and he

0:52:50.800 --> 0:52:53.560
<v Speaker 4>was he was walking in the parade and he wasn't

0:52:53.560 --> 0:52:55.480
<v Speaker 4>like a float or anything. It was just him walking

0:52:55.520 --> 0:52:58.919
<v Speaker 4>surrounded by like dudes protecting him. And I'll say this,

0:52:59.080 --> 0:53:02.919
<v Speaker 4>he was visible, blee drunk, So I think he would

0:53:03.000 --> 0:53:03.719
<v Speaker 4>have parties.

0:53:03.880 --> 0:53:08.880
<v Speaker 1>All right, mister world, Why the.

0:53:08.560 --> 0:53:10.840
<v Speaker 2>Coolest story about John Carrey I've ever heard?

0:53:11.880 --> 0:53:14.960
<v Speaker 5>Sorry, John carry, I didn't know. I didn't know your game.

0:53:15.040 --> 0:53:19.400
<v Speaker 2>Was unfamiliar with your that's good to know. Wow, we

0:53:19.440 --> 0:53:21.799
<v Speaker 2>could get get him on an island with Pitt Bull

0:53:21.880 --> 0:53:25.080
<v Speaker 2>in one hundred and fifty supermodels. See what he gets

0:53:25.160 --> 0:53:25.400
<v Speaker 2>up to.

0:53:26.480 --> 0:53:29.000
<v Speaker 1>Gonna need your STD checks though, John Kerry.

0:53:29.360 --> 0:53:31.200
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, you don't want to do that. You don't

0:53:31.200 --> 0:53:35.840
<v Speaker 2>want to know where he's been. So my favorite aspect

0:53:35.840 --> 0:53:38.239
<v Speaker 2>of this, just in terms of the overall competency of

0:53:38.280 --> 0:53:42.280
<v Speaker 2>the Obama administration and foreign policy, was this. They start

0:53:42.320 --> 0:53:44.960
<v Speaker 2>to get hints that, oh, this kid's going to be important.

0:53:44.960 --> 0:53:46.960
<v Speaker 2>We probably want him on our side. We should have

0:53:47.000 --> 0:53:50.720
<v Speaker 2>someone like be his friend, and then they have decided, Nah,

0:53:50.760 --> 0:53:52.880
<v Speaker 2>that's too hard, We'll have no one be his friend.

0:53:53.200 --> 0:53:56.320
<v Speaker 2>You know what administration does find someone to be Mohammed

0:53:56.320 --> 0:54:00.440
<v Speaker 2>Ben Salmon's friend is the Trump administration. They picked Jared Kushner,

0:54:00.600 --> 0:54:03.439
<v Speaker 2>and Kushner gets very close to NBS because they pay

0:54:03.440 --> 0:54:07.640
<v Speaker 2>attention to stuff like this. It's just one of these, like, yeah,

0:54:07.960 --> 0:54:11.000
<v Speaker 2>there are actual areas in which the Trump administration was

0:54:11.040 --> 0:54:13.600
<v Speaker 2>more competent than the Obama administration. One of them was

0:54:13.640 --> 0:54:17.160
<v Speaker 2>knowing which rich assholes to suck up to, which matters

0:54:17.160 --> 0:54:19.000
<v Speaker 2>when you're dealing with Saudi Arabia.

0:54:19.120 --> 0:54:21.239
<v Speaker 4>It's still like, all right, I get it. That are

0:54:21.320 --> 0:54:24.839
<v Speaker 4>similar ages but you can't party with Kushner. That's like

0:54:24.920 --> 0:54:29.080
<v Speaker 4>partying with a haunted clock. It's just like there's nothing there.

0:54:29.800 --> 0:54:33.400
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I can't imagine it's great to part with NBS. Yeah,

0:54:33.520 --> 0:54:34.440
<v Speaker 2>Kushner looks.

0:54:34.239 --> 0:54:37.920
<v Speaker 5>Like the skeleton of a fish. Yeah, And they're like

0:54:38.200 --> 0:54:40.439
<v Speaker 5>that guy, that's the guy.

0:54:40.560 --> 0:54:40.759
<v Speaker 4>Guy.

0:54:41.239 --> 0:54:44.920
<v Speaker 5>I have the thought like once a month where I

0:54:44.920 --> 0:54:47.800
<v Speaker 5>think back to the time like early twenty sixteen, where

0:54:47.920 --> 0:54:52.040
<v Speaker 5>Trump's just like, yeah, Jared's gonna create peace in the

0:54:52.080 --> 0:54:53.640
<v Speaker 5>Middle East, that's what he's working on.

0:54:54.680 --> 0:54:58.600
<v Speaker 1>Like, guy, this guy went to Jared.

0:55:00.640 --> 0:55:01.279
<v Speaker 3>Oh Man.

0:55:02.440 --> 0:55:05.600
<v Speaker 2>So, and this is where kind of the fact that

0:55:06.120 --> 0:55:09.680
<v Speaker 2>Mohammad ban Naief immediately goes to his friends in America

0:55:10.080 --> 0:55:13.840
<v Speaker 2>and in the Obama administration is like, look, if I

0:55:13.840 --> 0:55:15.640
<v Speaker 2>have a fight with this guy, do you have my back?

0:55:16.160 --> 0:55:18.719
<v Speaker 2>And they're kind of going to be like, we're not

0:55:18.760 --> 0:55:23.200
<v Speaker 2>going to get involved in any fights, right, Whereas Mahmad

0:55:23.200 --> 0:55:25.360
<v Speaker 2>Man Salmon's strategy is I'm going to start making allies

0:55:25.400 --> 0:55:27.799
<v Speaker 2>close to home, with people that with like that who

0:55:27.800 --> 0:55:31.080
<v Speaker 2>will actually back me right, who have power, who are

0:55:31.160 --> 0:55:33.560
<v Speaker 2>near us, and who will support me because they see

0:55:33.560 --> 0:55:35.960
<v Speaker 2>a benefit in it. I know the US isn't going

0:55:36.000 --> 0:55:38.040
<v Speaker 2>to take a side in this. I know when we

0:55:38.080 --> 0:55:40.360
<v Speaker 2>have a power struggle, they don't care. So I'm not

0:55:40.400 --> 0:55:43.279
<v Speaker 2>going to waste my time trying to get them on

0:55:43.320 --> 0:55:45.520
<v Speaker 2>my side. I'm going to get allies who will actually

0:55:45.600 --> 0:55:48.960
<v Speaker 2>support me. And so while MBN is trusting that, like, well,

0:55:49.000 --> 0:55:51.759
<v Speaker 2>I've spent my whole life building all these connections with

0:55:51.800 --> 0:55:55.719
<v Speaker 2>the security apparatus in the United States, Surely they'll back

0:55:55.840 --> 0:55:58.000
<v Speaker 2>me if push comes to shove, because they want me

0:55:58.080 --> 0:56:00.960
<v Speaker 2>in power. He learns the less, like, you actually can't

0:56:00.960 --> 0:56:04.680
<v Speaker 2>trust the US for anything, Bro, We're terrible friends. We

0:56:04.719 --> 0:56:08.160
<v Speaker 2>don't have your back, we don't have our own back, Like,

0:56:08.400 --> 0:56:11.919
<v Speaker 2>we're not gonna do shit for you, homie. And as

0:56:11.960 --> 0:56:15.040
<v Speaker 2>soon as this message comes out, because Carrie sends a

0:56:15.040 --> 0:56:17.920
<v Speaker 2>message to both Mohammed bin Salomon and mohammadan Nif that like,

0:56:18.280 --> 0:56:21.319
<v Speaker 2>we're not going to intervene in any power struggles between

0:56:21.400 --> 0:56:24.200
<v Speaker 2>Saudi princes, Mohammad bin Salomon takes this as a go

0:56:24.239 --> 0:56:26.359
<v Speaker 2>ahead or at least confirmation that no one's gonna stop

0:56:26.440 --> 0:56:29.320
<v Speaker 2>him from taking down his older cousin, and he uses

0:56:29.360 --> 0:56:32.040
<v Speaker 2>the fact that Nief had sent his aid al Jabri

0:56:32.160 --> 0:56:34.520
<v Speaker 2>to talk to the Americans as an excuse to get

0:56:34.520 --> 0:56:37.600
<v Speaker 2>al Jabri fired for trying to discredit King Solomon's son,

0:56:37.880 --> 0:56:40.840
<v Speaker 2>which leaves Nief isolated. He's now kicked out one of

0:56:40.880 --> 0:56:44.600
<v Speaker 2>Mohammad NIAF's chief supporters, right, and so now he's down

0:56:44.640 --> 0:56:48.640
<v Speaker 2>a man, the Africa Report summarizes. In September, Nif and

0:56:48.680 --> 0:56:51.480
<v Speaker 2>AlJabri learned on live TV of King Solomon's plans to

0:56:51.520 --> 0:56:54.120
<v Speaker 2>fire the latter, thereby depriving the Interior Minister of his

0:56:54.200 --> 0:56:57.080
<v Speaker 2>closest aid. A few weeks later, Nief was getting ready

0:56:57.120 --> 0:57:01.040
<v Speaker 2>to welcome the US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Joseph Westfall,

0:57:01.080 --> 0:57:04.160
<v Speaker 2>when the diplomat was taken aside by MBS's team and Jedda.

0:57:04.280 --> 0:57:06.200
<v Speaker 2>The King's son told west Fall that he needed to

0:57:06.239 --> 0:57:08.120
<v Speaker 2>see him, reassuring him that he would have plenty of

0:57:08.160 --> 0:57:10.480
<v Speaker 2>time to meet with the Crown Prince afterwards. But that

0:57:10.600 --> 0:57:13.160
<v Speaker 2>is not the way things went. MBS dragged out the

0:57:13.160 --> 0:57:15.200
<v Speaker 2>Teta tet for so long that the two men were

0:57:15.280 --> 0:57:18.600
<v Speaker 2>unable to meet in the end. Right, he's separating him

0:57:18.640 --> 0:57:22.160
<v Speaker 2>now from his American friends. He's just kind of isolating

0:57:22.240 --> 0:57:24.800
<v Speaker 2>him as he slowly draws the noose tighter and tighter

0:57:24.840 --> 0:57:28.400
<v Speaker 2>around Mohammad bin Nayef. Now, some analysts suspect that the

0:57:28.440 --> 0:57:31.600
<v Speaker 2>wounds mbians suffered in that two thousand and nine assassination

0:57:31.640 --> 0:57:35.320
<v Speaker 2>attempt were more significant than previously admitted, and so that's

0:57:35.360 --> 0:57:38.920
<v Speaker 2>why he's not fighting back effectively or responding seriously to

0:57:38.920 --> 0:57:42.840
<v Speaker 2>what his younger cousin's doing. That he's got brain damage basically,

0:57:42.880 --> 0:57:45.800
<v Speaker 2>and he's gotten addicted to painkillers in the wake of

0:57:45.840 --> 0:57:48.640
<v Speaker 2>having this injury, and he's just not as functional as

0:57:48.720 --> 0:57:50.960
<v Speaker 2>he used to be. Right So, in addition to the

0:57:50.960 --> 0:57:53.720
<v Speaker 2>fact that he's being out maneuvered in part because he's

0:57:53.880 --> 0:57:56.920
<v Speaker 2>just taken too much damage getting to this point in

0:57:56.960 --> 0:57:59.919
<v Speaker 2>his career previously to hold up against someone like muham

0:58:00.080 --> 0:58:02.520
<v Speaker 2>and Ben Salomon, who's got his wits about him right

0:58:02.640 --> 0:58:03.280
<v Speaker 2>whether or like.

0:58:03.560 --> 0:58:08.080
<v Speaker 4>Your powers in jeopardy, and he's like his ass's.

0:58:07.400 --> 0:58:11.080
<v Speaker 2>Explode eloded right next to me. Can I have more vicotin?

0:58:13.320 --> 0:58:16.040
<v Speaker 2>So once the two men start fighting, it becomes rapidly

0:58:16.040 --> 0:58:18.040
<v Speaker 2>clear that the Crown Prince does not have the energy

0:58:18.120 --> 0:58:21.360
<v Speaker 2>or mental agility to outthink and outfight his rival. The

0:58:21.400 --> 0:58:24.480
<v Speaker 2>two appeared together at several public events where MBS talked

0:58:24.520 --> 0:58:28.000
<v Speaker 2>circles around his older cousin. At one twenty sixteen gathering,

0:58:28.000 --> 0:58:30.880
<v Speaker 2>he surprised a group of American officials by announcing Israel

0:58:31.000 --> 0:58:34.360
<v Speaker 2>is not our enemy. In the summer of twenty sixteen,

0:58:34.520 --> 0:58:36.720
<v Speaker 2>MBS was in a better position than he had been

0:58:36.760 --> 0:58:39.440
<v Speaker 2>the year before, not in terms of overseas ventures. The

0:58:39.480 --> 0:58:41.840
<v Speaker 2>war and Yemen had turned into a true quagmire by

0:58:41.880 --> 0:58:44.800
<v Speaker 2>this point, one that showed early signs of degenerating into

0:58:44.800 --> 0:58:48.360
<v Speaker 2>a humanitarian catastrophe. After a year of failed strikes on

0:58:48.400 --> 0:58:51.720
<v Speaker 2>military and then civilian infrastructure, the Huthi showed no signs

0:58:51.760 --> 0:58:54.280
<v Speaker 2>of breaking and still held to the capital city and

0:58:54.320 --> 0:58:57.160
<v Speaker 2>the key port city. Per that article in the Journal

0:58:57.200 --> 0:59:00.560
<v Speaker 2>of Genocide Studies quote when the Houthi still refused to surrender.

0:59:00.640 --> 0:59:03.200
<v Speaker 2>The next stage, beginning in the autumn of twenty sixteen,

0:59:03.480 --> 0:59:05.880
<v Speaker 2>was a full fledged economic war and sealing off of

0:59:05.920 --> 0:59:09.080
<v Speaker 2>the country. Sana Airport was closed off to all commercial

0:59:09.080 --> 0:59:13.240
<v Speaker 2>flights into persons requiring medical treatment abroad. Occasional blockades of

0:59:13.240 --> 0:59:15.880
<v Speaker 2>Al Hudaya Port were imposed, and the Central Bank of

0:59:15.960 --> 0:59:18.440
<v Speaker 2>Yemen was moved to Auden, which made money transfers to

0:59:18.520 --> 0:59:21.120
<v Speaker 2>Yemeni banks more difficult and caused the payments to government

0:59:21.160 --> 0:59:24.240
<v Speaker 2>workers to be halted. As Yemen imports over seventy percent

0:59:24.240 --> 0:59:28.240
<v Speaker 2>of its food needs, these STIPs were devastating. NBS had

0:59:28.240 --> 0:59:30.560
<v Speaker 2>now laid the groundwork for the worst famine of the

0:59:30.560 --> 0:59:33.680
<v Speaker 2>twenty first century. As the siege locked into place, he

0:59:33.760 --> 0:59:37.160
<v Speaker 2>opted for another vacation, this one on the French Riviera.

0:59:37.600 --> 0:59:39.960
<v Speaker 2>During a stay, at one point, oh yeah, yeah, no,

0:59:40.080 --> 0:59:45.080
<v Speaker 2>he's look famine starting out. The war is continuing to

0:59:45.120 --> 0:59:49.160
<v Speaker 2>go terribly. I'm hat jitting off to France to party.

0:59:49.400 --> 0:59:51.120
<v Speaker 2>He knows how to party. He's doing a tour of

0:59:51.120 --> 0:59:53.520
<v Speaker 2>the ports. And while he's in one port, he happens

0:59:53.560 --> 0:59:57.080
<v Speaker 2>across one hundred and thirty five meter long yacht, the Serene,

0:59:57.320 --> 1:00:01.120
<v Speaker 2>owned by a Russian vodka magnate named Yuri Scheffler. At

1:00:01.120 --> 1:00:03.919
<v Speaker 2>the time, Bill Gates was leasing the yacht for five

1:00:03.960 --> 1:00:06.800
<v Speaker 2>million dollars a week. He had fallen in love with

1:00:06.840 --> 1:00:09.040
<v Speaker 2>the boat and was planning to buy it, but Mohammed

1:00:09.080 --> 1:00:12.280
<v Speaker 2>Ben Salmon is not going to let him do that. Next,

1:00:12.440 --> 1:00:16.120
<v Speaker 2>per the yachting world website Luxury Launches dot Com quote,

1:00:16.640 --> 1:00:19.680
<v Speaker 2>NBS caught sight of the yacht. It wasn't docked for sale,

1:00:19.760 --> 1:00:23.400
<v Speaker 2>but that didn't matter. The Saudi Crown Prince was instantly captivated.

1:00:23.640 --> 1:00:26.200
<v Speaker 2>As Kevin Kanig tells it, the Saudi Prince didn't bother

1:00:26.240 --> 1:00:29.600
<v Speaker 2>with negotiations or back and forth discussions. Instead, he simply

1:00:29.640 --> 1:00:31.760
<v Speaker 2>sent an aid to speak with Scheffler and offered an

1:00:31.880 --> 1:00:34.520
<v Speaker 2>estimated five hundred and fifty million dollars on the spot.

1:00:34.840 --> 1:00:37.080
<v Speaker 2>The payment was made in a single wire transfer, and

1:00:37.120 --> 1:00:39.240
<v Speaker 2>depending on the source, the deal was closed within twenty

1:00:39.320 --> 1:00:41.840
<v Speaker 2>four to forty eight hours. Scheffler was told to pack

1:00:41.920 --> 1:00:47.680
<v Speaker 2>up and leave immediately. Now I do love that, Like, yeah,

1:00:47.680 --> 1:00:50.240
<v Speaker 2>he kind of fucks Bill Gates out of his dream yet.

1:00:50.680 --> 1:00:55.160
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, and Bill Gates isn't there, Like God, damn it. Ye,

1:00:56.280 --> 1:00:58.600
<v Speaker 4>rich people are out of their minds. It's like the

1:00:58.640 --> 1:01:01.520
<v Speaker 4>only lifestyle where you could be at a party and

1:01:01.560 --> 1:01:03.320
<v Speaker 4>it's like, yeah, what's that guy do?

1:01:03.400 --> 1:01:08.480
<v Speaker 3>He's an actor? What's that guy though? Of genocides mostides.

1:01:08.640 --> 1:01:11.040
<v Speaker 5>I don't know what number freaked me out more five

1:01:11.120 --> 1:01:13.640
<v Speaker 5>million a week or five hundred and fifty million in

1:01:13.840 --> 1:01:15.120
<v Speaker 5>one wire transfer?

1:01:15.480 --> 1:01:20.800
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, that's the guy. Has to be sweating bullets

1:01:20.840 --> 1:01:26.280
<v Speaker 2>getting every number like Jesus. Now, it's unclear to me

1:01:26.360 --> 1:01:29.280
<v Speaker 2>which of the yachts features NBS fell most in loved with.

1:01:29.440 --> 1:01:33.840
<v Speaker 2>It reportedly has two helipads, a dance room, an onboard submarine,

1:01:34.120 --> 1:01:36.920
<v Speaker 2>something called a snow room, which is I think just

1:01:36.960 --> 1:01:40.000
<v Speaker 2>a room where it snows so you can have snow.

1:01:40.800 --> 1:01:41.240
<v Speaker 3>That's great.

1:01:41.520 --> 1:01:45.400
<v Speaker 1>I mean just or a cocaine lounge.

1:01:44.800 --> 1:01:45.520
<v Speaker 3>In New England.

1:01:45.560 --> 1:01:51.280
<v Speaker 2>Man, Yeah, a piano lounge, a movie theater and multiple spas.

1:01:51.400 --> 1:01:53.240
<v Speaker 2>And I don't know if he even cared about any

1:01:53.240 --> 1:01:55.520
<v Speaker 2>of that. Is the primary draw that any of that?

1:01:55.680 --> 1:01:57.400
<v Speaker 2>Or is it just that Bill Gates wants it and

1:01:57.440 --> 1:01:59.680
<v Speaker 2>so like, oh, this must be the best yacht for

1:01:59.720 --> 1:02:02.360
<v Speaker 2>a rich jassalty own. I have to have it right.

1:02:02.520 --> 1:02:02.920
<v Speaker 3>It's that.

1:02:03.560 --> 1:02:07.480
<v Speaker 2>It's that. As NBS enjoyed that new yacht, smell, starvation

1:02:07.600 --> 1:02:10.560
<v Speaker 2>was running rampant in Yemen. By December of twenty sixteen.

1:02:10.640 --> 1:02:14.160
<v Speaker 2>Charity organization Save the Children estimated that a thousand children

1:02:14.200 --> 1:02:17.400
<v Speaker 2>were dying every week of starvation and preventable disease in Yemen.

1:02:17.800 --> 1:02:21.760
<v Speaker 2>Other humanitarian monitors began sounding alarms as twenty sixteen ended,

1:02:21.920 --> 1:02:25.040
<v Speaker 2>but Mohammed Ben Salomon showed no signs of change in course.

1:02:25.640 --> 1:02:31.080
<v Speaker 2>And that's part three. She mm hmm, what did we learn,

1:02:31.240 --> 1:02:32.960
<v Speaker 2>feeling Dave? Yeah, what did we learn.

1:02:34.120 --> 1:02:36.360
<v Speaker 5>I mean, I learned a little thing about Pitbull.

1:02:37.480 --> 1:02:40.760
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we all learned something about mister Worldwide. That name

1:02:40.920 --> 1:02:42.960
<v Speaker 2>is literal. It includes at least the Maldives.

1:02:44.120 --> 1:02:48.480
<v Speaker 4>I that doesn't surprise me, I guess. But I mostly

1:02:48.560 --> 1:02:50.440
<v Speaker 4>learned that if you're gonna put a bomb in your butt,

1:02:50.760 --> 1:02:54.120
<v Speaker 4>make it a big bomb, because it's all for nothing

1:02:54.600 --> 1:02:57.200
<v Speaker 4>if you just explode your own butt. I mean, that's

1:02:58.400 --> 1:03:01.720
<v Speaker 4>that's interesting, because it.

1:03:00.600 --> 1:03:03.080
<v Speaker 2>All for nothing if you just explode your own butt.

1:03:03.320 --> 1:03:05.720
<v Speaker 5>I just thought of when tape was going pew pew,

1:03:05.960 --> 1:03:08.200
<v Speaker 5>that a good A good combination of the pew pew

1:03:08.320 --> 1:03:11.840
<v Speaker 5>joke and the ass exploding joke would be to go, hey,

1:03:12.000 --> 1:03:13.760
<v Speaker 5>pew pew and the guy goes pew pew and he

1:03:13.800 --> 1:03:14.360
<v Speaker 5>goes no.

1:03:14.600 --> 1:03:20.880
<v Speaker 2>Poo pooh. Sure, clearly I'm a child.

1:03:21.440 --> 1:03:23.400
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm there too.

1:03:23.560 --> 1:03:26.120
<v Speaker 4>I mean, listen, you've just told a harrowing story with

1:03:26.200 --> 1:03:29.240
<v Speaker 4>a lot of genocide, and all I'm retaining is butt

1:03:29.360 --> 1:03:34.120
<v Speaker 4>bomb from this, so you know, yeah, that's more about me.

1:03:35.720 --> 1:03:38.120
<v Speaker 5>Wow, Well, Dave, you got anything you want to plug

1:03:38.160 --> 1:03:38.760
<v Speaker 5>at the end here?

1:03:38.920 --> 1:03:39.040
<v Speaker 1>Oh?

1:03:39.160 --> 1:03:39.360
<v Speaker 2>Right?

1:03:40.160 --> 1:03:42.240
<v Speaker 3>Oh geez, yeah, I do podcasts.

1:03:42.800 --> 1:03:43.080
<v Speaker 5>Cool.

1:03:43.200 --> 1:03:46.360
<v Speaker 4>There's a network called Gamefully Unemployed g A M. E

1:03:46.560 --> 1:03:50.120
<v Speaker 4>f U l O I unemployed where I talk about movies,

1:03:50.400 --> 1:03:54.080
<v Speaker 4>not uh not genocide as much I do. Also, I'm

1:03:54.080 --> 1:03:57.880
<v Speaker 4>the head writer for some More News, which is about news.

1:03:58.360 --> 1:04:02.480
<v Speaker 4>So just like Google some News or just Google News,

1:04:02.760 --> 1:04:05.440
<v Speaker 4>feel fine me, I'll be there. Uh And that's it

1:04:06.800 --> 1:04:07.800
<v Speaker 4>all right, Everybody.

1:04:08.280 --> 1:04:09.720
<v Speaker 1>By James Stout's Book.

1:04:10.640 --> 1:04:14.200
<v Speaker 2>By James Stout's book again, Good to Hell, I Love

1:04:14.240 --> 1:04:19.440
<v Speaker 2>You Bye.

1:04:20.040 --> 1:04:22.680
<v Speaker 5>Behind the Bastards is a production of cool Zone Media.

1:04:22.800 --> 1:04:25.480
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1:04:25.520 --> 1:04:28.720
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1:04:28.760 --> 1:04:32.640
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1:04:35.440 --> 1:04:38.560
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