First bin Laden, now bin Salman

Where's Waldo?  Photo proffered by DailyPakistan as proof that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is still alive and currently kicking up a fuss with Canada.


First Osama bin Laden, now Mohammad bin Salman - ​Now you see 'em, now you don't.

Like a game of Three-card Monte! (Card Tricks)

GlobalNews:

• “There is an attempt by the Saudis to create some fear and rattle some of those Western governments into not supporting Canada because they may be cut out or shut out from some potential Saudi economic deals and the big boom that it’s undertaking” ...

Oh, there's rattling going on, that's for sure. But the biggest rattle is the least spoken of.

A media maxim: When you can't get an answer from the horse's mouth, call up a university professor who will be so flattered by the attention that s/he will try hard to please.

Not one of them seems to be wondering where the heck the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is. Last we heard he bought an expensive painting and then somehow got two bullets in him. Now we repeatedly get reports that he's alive, none of which comes from him in person.

Meanwhile the media fall all over themselves trying to convince one and all that it is MBS himself who is escalating the situation with Canada ("showing his assertiveness"). But, for instance, why was it felt necessary for the DailyPakistan to state: 

• "With the surfacing of the official video, it stands clear that the photos showing a ‘dead’ MBS were doctored."

Meaning of course, doctored to look like a dead bin Salman, but one might ask as well: Doctored to look like Abdullah?  Read the article, see the photos and then compare them with these others:
​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_of_Saudi_Arabia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_bin_Salman

Take a good look at the poorly lit, grainy image of the corpse, then take a look at the guy they decided it was, and then look at a decent photo of MBS and decide for yourself.

Is this too difficult a question: -- Why hasn't MBS himself posted a video stating his reaction to  Canada's criticisms? Putin would have done that in a heartbeat, but maybe that's because his heart is still beating or, at the very least, he is not comatose with people hoping he will recover. 

Veterans Today, known for hard news of not the extreme Alex Jones variety, quite rightly asked a question in early June that has yet to be definitively answered: Is Crown Prince Salman’s death being covered up? Read what may possibly be an official Saudi internal communication regarding the death of MBS.

Sure there are "conspiracy theories" and yes there conspiracies, but neither might occur if governments and corporate media were not so secretive to the point of being blatant liars and manipulators.

Is it a coincidence that, just as Freeland/Trudeau are busy baiting the dragon, TV Ontario is providing Canadians with the prescribed view to take of the Saudi Kingdom - and in the context of MBS still being alive?

Thanks to long-time, well-respected blogger PennyforyourThoughts for directing me to the TV Ontario series in a comment posted here.  (If you're looking for thoroughly researched, detailed commentary about the Middle East situation, do visit Penny's blog.)

Also: Canada no sooner tells off the Saudis than CNN releases a timeline of 9/11 -- as if to reassure everyone of the status quo: that Bin Laden "orchestrated" it even though Bin Laden's name was never posted on the FBI's wanted list and early reports had him dying of kidney failure in hospital: CBS + Guardian + GlobalResearch.

One thing to remember: If, as many so-called "conspiracy theorists" surmise (among them large groups of architects and engineers, and reputable Canadian writers), 9/11 was coordinated by the GW Bush admin with assistance from the Saudis and Israel, and silence from the UK's Tony Blair - all in order to justify a massive war on "terror" or more bluntly, the takeover of oil countries -- then they may well have been blackmailed into avoiding any public criticism of both Saudi Arabia and Israel.

I include Tony Blair because, for one thing, both he and Bush stated publicly that they asked for God's guidance before completely destroying Iraq - vultures of a feather, you might say - and Tony reportedly had a "special relationship" with Bill Clinton who clearly groomed him, grasshopper style, so that when Blair began his second season in Parliament he was noticeably calmer and more sure of himself, as reported by The Guardian on - get this - September 11, 2001.

Was "God" a euphemism for "Clinton"? And am I a "conspiracy theorist" because I no longer see any difference between the now equally predatory Left and Right?

Or for wondering if, with the time that has passed, and with the persistence of widespread disbelief about the facts of 9/11, the truth may be getting closer to leaking out? It seems that Canada is the only 5(6?)-eyes country that isn't culpable regarding that event, and so not under the same threat of exposure from the Saudis as are the US and Israel. 

As the Saudis kill off anyone in their own upper echelon who steps out of line, there may soon not be anyone left who is culpable for 9/11, and the nice, clean Saudis will be able to blackmail the US and Israel to their hearts' content -- and the US will cater to both as a safeguard. As Trudeau has said, Canada will have to stand alone -- until he is thoroughly discredited by a devastating Far Right Conservative all-out assault on the so-called Lefty Liberals in the next election.

Will Chrystia Freeland then cross the floor? NPost:

• “Principled use of force, together with our allies and governed by international law, is part of our history and must be part of our future.”

She may well be welcome there. Stephen Harper, former PM and current PC leader Scheer's mentor, was big on war too. 

The word "principled" somehow does not seem to go well with the word "force". Ask yourself: Is it a coincidence that the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” is Yemen and nobody utters a peep about it, but instead profits from the sale of war equipment to the Saudis - including pristine Canada?

And as for Obama's narcissistic endeavours, it may well be true that, as a New York Times opinion piece stated in 2002, Bin Laden died of natural causes not long after 9/11. Nevermind that the journalist who said it was soon vilified in the media as a chronic liar (check Wikipedia for Amir Taheri if you're interested) and his career was destroyed.

Let's face it; the rape of Afghanistan was predicated solely on the search for a living Bin Laden!

The BBC shows Bin Laden as a very frail man in December 2001 - not taking personal credit for 9/11 but decrying the US slaughter of innocents.

And if you believe the burly, bragging bloke in this video is Bin Laden, then you must find it difficult to pick out your own brother in a group photo.

Once the rapes of Afghanistan and Iraq were well underway, I can personally recall hearing Bush on TV news say that he wasn't concerned about finding Bin Laden; he had other priorities. Others heard him say that as well, and YouTube has him saying it a whole bunch of times.

But the corporate media immediately rushed in to save the day:
Media provides false "context" for Bush quote on bin Laden

And then Obama took credit for bagging bin Laden, and hiding the body so it couldn't be located except possibly by the navy seal who brags he shot OBL in the face, splitting it wide open. Maybe the powers that be were not so certain the rest of us would see the real Bin Laden in the photos he took after - get this - squeezing the two parts of his face back together?
Newsweek:

• The Navy SEAL who is said to have killed Osama bin Laden claims images showing the corpse of the Al-Qaeda chief are fake and that the real ones should be made public.

Is the whole 9/11 scenario a lie from start to now? Is the US embassy now located in Jerusalem because of the threat of exposure? Is Netanyahu doing whatever he feels like doing both in his business dealings and against Palestinians because he has the power to devastate the US?  

Ask yourself what Netanyahu has on the US that he could show contempt in a brag he indulged in when unaware that a video camera was on after he had asked for it to be turned off. YouTube

And then ask why Canada is getting no support for its Saudi predicament because the US/UK/Israel don't dare criticize the Saudis?

This blogger happens to think those are very good questions.

Related on YYC: Canada's Phoney War of Words With the Saudis

Image: "Not Mohammad Bin Salman corpse" in photo released after death announcement.