Syria Assassinates Saudi Prince?

First, a word of caution: this is, as yet, neither confirmed nor denied by Saudi Arabia - hence the "?" in the title of this thread.

Here's what we know: yesterday, the french alternative news network "Reseau Voltaire" announced that Prince Bandar Ben Sultan, a major member of the House of Saud, had been assassinated by Syrian special forces. Bandar had recently been promoted to the rank of Chief of Intelligence by the Saudi King after the successful bombing in Damascus that killed a number of high-ranking Generals, as well as Bashar Al-Assad's cousin.

Here's the link to that announcement (in french):

www.voltairenet.org...

Today, several sources are carrying the story:

english.farsnews.com...

debka.com...

www.voltairenet.org...

Crucially, Saudi Arabia is currently not denying nor confirming the death of the Prince...

Can any member of ATS contribute to confirm or deny this report? If true, what will the consequence be for the region? Could Syria really have carried out this operation on its own, or is it more probably a hit carried out by Iran's unconventional Quds Forces?

I believe this might be a crucial development and I welcome any thought and contributions to get to the bottom of this.

reply to post by Haknow


Looks like it could be ligit to me, I would need to do some more reading

S&F for the find, I will keep a eye on this thread and contribute if I find out any more.

This seems to have been a tit for tat reprisal.
If this proves to be factual, I get the feeling that the Saudies won't let this lie.

Consider saudi-arabian princes are also funding the terrorists known as the FSA. I would not be surprised.
If i were a country, and another country was funding a fake rebellion against my country, i would assasinate those implicated in it too.

Could be true, probably just pinning blame to give the UN another reason to bomb syria.

Maybe the royal family wasn't jiving with the Muslim Brotherhood on some key issues.

Just because Saudi Arabia is an Islamic country doesn't meant that there may not have been dissent in the ranks.

So, all the players now are:

Iraq
Libya
Egypt
Syria
Saudi Arabia
might as well go on ahead and let Turkey join the party, since they've been been doing it behind our backs anyway, and are becoming increasingly complacent about it

Keep an eye on Lebanon and Jordan, since they will probably be the next two to go.

This link gives an interesting perspective:

Caliphate

What is more interesting about this, is if you guys remember seeing Fahrenheit 9-11, this was the guy nicknamed 'Bandar Bush', because of his close friendship with the Bush family & as a former Ambassador to the United States.

So, if it is true (DEBKA reporting it makes it seem unlikely), then this is going to piss off the Americans quite a bit and make thinks a little more heated over there.

reply to post by AzureSky


For once, I'm tempted to say this isn't actually a false flag, but indeed retaliation for the July 18 bombing in Damascus.

Apparently, everybody (within western intel services) is trying to ascertain the actual fate of the prince, as well as debating the next course of action...

This could be what stemmed a long phone conversation between Obama and Turkey's PM Erdogan on Monday. Apparently, they discussed the need to "accelerate the transition" towards a democratic government in Syria...

Here's the link: www.haaretz.com...

Which, in turn, has apparently prompted Iran to issue a warning that it will activate its defense pact with Syria if Turkey makes a sudden move...

english.ahram.org.eg...

Personally, I think this whole thing stinks. The Gulf Countries are too far down the road of destabilizing Syria to backdown now. Which means the have only once choice: to escalate. In practice, however, I have trouble imagining what form this escalation would take, apart from a Turkey-led effort to install a safe zone to the North, in and around Aleppo.

Propaganda/hoax on one side, or a black-out on the other? Who knows? Just have to keep on digging, I suppose.

This is from a Pakistani news source I cited in a similar thread:

www.terminalx.org...

The recent spate of news floating around the Internet which claim a blast at the Mukhabarat al-Aa'mmah or General Intelligence Directorate of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh are absolutely fake and concocted, said a senior Saudi security official when contacted by this scribe.

The short news stint also alleged that Saudi Arabia's deputy spy chief who is subordinate to the newly-appointed chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan was killed in this blast. This was also rejected in strong terms.

"There was no security breach at all in the Headquarters", said an intelligence official on condition of anonymity. "The deputy spy chief, equipment, control rooms, all are fine and well".


"We fail to understand why Iran's media outlets rushed to spread this fabricated story, either their informers are of zero credibility or they published it for a nefarious agenda. Time will tell".

reply to post by nostromo85


Concerning the sources, please note:

1) debka is not the only source reporting it - the original report is French and Iranian, but Debka jumped on it.
2) there really was an explosion in Ryadh at the Saudi intel HQ;
3) Prince Bandar hasn't been seen since then.

Otherwise, I agree with you that, if confirmed, this will piss off the americns BIG TIME.

Saudi Arabia is the US's major and most influential ally in the region, economically, politically and militarily. I doubt the americans would let such a symbolic attack on a key regime figure of their most important client state go without some kind of answer.

reply to post by nostromo85


sorry, double post

Already a thread about this.

Bandar bin Sultan Assasinated

reply to post by Haknow


Don't you mean CIA assassinates Saudi Prince? I bet everyone already came up with that anyway. Just my 2 cents.

reply to post by BurningSpearess


Thanks for that link!

Interesting, though I fail to grasp why Iran would make such an outlandish claim if, indeed, it has no basis in fact??

That, in my view, stretches the credibility of the Terminal X source. Note also that this article is dated July 23...

The fact that Saudi Arabia still hasn't moved to deny it makes me think there's more to this than a "hoax".

reply to post by samsamm9


weird?! I hit search before posting and there wasn't anything there.

Originally posted by samsamm9
Already a thread about this.

Bandar bin Sultan Assasinated

Please add any comments to that thread.

Closed.