[Igor Antunov]

Saudi Arabia announced the arrest Saturday (Nov 4) night of prominent billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, plus at least 10 other princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers.

The announcement of the arrests was made over Al-Arabiya, the Saudi-owned satellite network whose broadcasts are officially approved.

The sweeping campaign of arrests appears to be the latest move to consolidate the power of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the favourite son and top adviser of King Salman.

The king had decreed the creation of a powerful new anti-corruption committee, headed by the crown prince, only hours before the committee ordered the arrests.

Al-Arabiya said the anti-corruption committee has the right to investigate, arrest, ban from travel or freeze the assets of anyone it deems corrupt.

Saudi Arabia is an executive monarchy without a written constitution or independent government institution such as a Parliament or courts, so accusations of corruption are difficult to evaluate.

The boundaries between the public funds and the wealth of the royal family are murky at best, and corruption, as other countries would describe it, is believed to be widespread.

The arrests came a few hours after the king replaced the minister in charge of the Saudi national guard, Prince Mutaib bin Abdullah, who controlled the last of the three Saudi armed forces not yet considered to be under control of Crown Prince Mohammed.

The king named Crown Prince Mohammed the minister of defense in 2015. This year, the king removed Prince Mohammed bin Nayef as head of the Interior Ministry, placing him under house arrest and extending the crown prince's influence over that second armed force.

Rumours have swirled since then that King Salman and his favourite son would soon move against Prince Mutaib, commander of the third armed force and himself a former contender for the crown.

Those arrested and detained so far:

Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal(Billionaire owner of The Kingdom Holding group 17.1B USD net worth)
Prince Mitaab Bin Abdullah (Former Minister of the National Guard)
Prince Turki Bin Abdullah (Former Governor of Riyadh(Capital))
Prince Turki Bin Nasser
Waleed Ibrahim (Owner of MBC Media Company 10.9B USD net worth)
Khaled Al-Tuwaijri (Former President of the Royal Court)
Adel Faqih (former labor minster and current economy and planning Minister)
Omer Dabbagh (Former president of the General Investment Authority)
Saleh Kamel (Billionaire 2.2B USD net worth)
Saud Al-Tobaishi (Head(former?) of Royal ceremonies and protocols)
Ibrahim Al-Assaf (Former Finance minister and current state minister)
Bakr Bin Ladin (Owner of Bin Ladin Group)
Saud Al-Dawish (former CEO of Saudi Telecom Company)
Khaled Al-Mulhem (former Director General at Saudi Arabian Airlines)

http://www.straitstimes.com/world/middl ... -bin-talal

The purge has begun. Many of these individuals own stakes in Twitter and entire media conglomerates. It is being dressed up as an anti-corruption drive by allies of the Saudi medievalist regime.

[Kaiserschmarrn]

Interesting. Is this a mere power grab, as stated in the article, or is there more to it?

[Igor Antunov]

Power grab, many of these figures publicly opposed the new Crown prince.

[ness31]

But I thought the new guy was going to be quite progressive? Or, are they both competing progressive factions?

[Igor Antunov]

Many on the list are progressive. This has nothing to do with that.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

This isn't surprising. With every totalitarian dictatorship comes a period of cleaning house. What the new king and his son are doing is no different than we've seen in history books and in some contemporary dictatorships that have an element of that same absolute authority. He is not only consolidating his own personal power, but he is ensuring that the entire state apparatus is answerable and loyal to him. Traditionally, threats to totalitarian rulers can often originate from the military (and of course, threats to democratic rulers often come from the same source as well), and there were previous high-profile news reports about Mutaib (in charge of the National Guard) being dissatisfied and not loyal, so it is entirely unsurprising he has been sacked.

It's fairly routine and normal for a new regime to spend a year or so cleaning house like this, removing people from key positions who were around during the previous regime and who aren't demonstrably loyal to the new leader.

[Beren]

PoFo should be jubilant that multi-billionaire members of the Saudi elite get arrested for corruption, it's very much like China!

[skinster]

[skinster]

A Saudi prince and others were killed in a crash.

[Oxymoron]

another example of Arabs having no clue how to run a peaceful, stable and prosperous country.

[skinster]

Their your allies tho, Oxy. Aren't you supposed to be supporting them?

[Zagadka]

On one hand, fuck the Saudis. On the other, the situation in the Gulf is a powder keg waiting to explode.

[Oxymandias]

@Oxymoron

You apparently have no idea how monarchy works. This, my friend, is standard practice for a new king who is surrounded by those unloyal to him. It would be stupid for him not to do this.

[Igor Antunov]

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-0 ... ashed-all-

Some already dead.

[Oxymoron]

Their your allies tho, Oxy. Aren't you supposed to be supporting them?

They are my ally only as far as they are the enemy of my enemy.

[Oxymoron]

@Oxymoron

You apparently have no idea how monarchy works. This, my friend, is standard practice for a new king who is surrounded by those unloyal to him. It would be stupid for him not to do this.

That is how fucked up monarchy works.

[skinster]

They are my ally only as far as they are the enemy of my enemy.

They're also an ally of the states you love (US and Israel).

[ness31]

There has apparently been a helicopter crash and a prince has died.

[Oxymandias]

@Oxymoron

That's regular ol' monarchy Oxy, it's how both historical and modern monarchies work. Unless you have proof of otherwise, you're argument is invalid.

[Oxymoron]

@Oxymoron

That's regular ol' monarchy Oxy, it's how both historical and modern monarchies work. Unless you have proof of otherwise, you're argument is invalid.

You argument needs proof just like mine does, otherwise you look like a jackass. In any case most successful Monarchs created Allies rather then enemies. Tyrants usually died a painful death.