IF the new US administration is relying on the suspicions of its intelligence agency cited by the famous report on the murder of the Saudi citizen Jamal Khashoggi, then it undoubtedly needs a careful reading of the history of the agency. This agency is known for its failure in its strategic assessments, starting with Vietnam and not ending with Iran.
This report regarding the Saudi crown prince is nothing more than a trap set to entangle the United States in a problem with its closest allies in the region, which are the Arabian Gulf states, not just Saudi Arabia.
In this regard, President Joe Biden, who is a political veteran, must have, throughout his work in public affairs, come across a lot of American evidence regarding the involvement of the “CIA” in the killing of state leaders and plotting of coups in several countries.
We will not repeat what we said yesterday in this context, but we ask – Are the pages of the US intelligence not full of black spots that make it the most condemned party in the world in terms of human rights?!
Didn’t this agency try 638 times to assassinate the Cuban leader, the late Fidel Castro? Wasn’t it the one that killed US president John F. Kennedy in 1963? These two were revealed in the declassified documents published by American newspapers a few years ago. However, they still deny knowledge of this, in addition to the assassination of public figures who were opposed to the authority such as Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr
Treading on the principle of “worst calamity makes one laugh”, Washington always talks about democracy and the need to build a democratic electoral system that allows people to choose their rulers with integrity and transparency. But it seems that its intelligence agency is not paying attention to this, as its official documents have highlighted its main role in the coup that ousted the elected Iranian Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadegh in 1953, as well as its participation in 1966 in the overthrow of the Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah. It also participated in the arrest of South African leader Nelson Mandela in 1961, who was imprisoned for 27 years.
The same agency orchestrated the assassination of the President of Ecuador, Jaime Rodles, in a plane crash in May 1981. Despite Washington’s official denial of its involvement in the incident, many American politicians assert that the CIA was behind it. In the same year, it orchestrated the assasination of Panama’s de facto President Omar Torrijos in July because of his opposition to American policy.
Prior to that, this agency was involved in the killing of the Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. Perhaps the most prominent assassination was that of General Ngo Diem, President of South Vietnam, who was an ally of the United States, and perhaps its first ally in Vietnam, but that did not intercede for him.
Irrespective of the calculations and objectives that the new US administration seeks by stirring up dust around Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it will strengthen the latter even more. That is because “the bullet that does not kill you strengthens you”, and Saudi Arabia and its leadership are protected by its people such that it does not need borrowed protection.
There is no doubt that the false report will not change the reality in any way. Rather, it leads to more weakness in the historical relations between the countries of the Arabian Gulf region and the United States. If Washington believes that it holds the trump card, which is weapons, then many countries in the world sell weapons. This means the Biden administration should reconsider basing its policies in the region on speculations and allegations.
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
