Brad Johnson on Jamal Khashoggi update

https://youtu.be/fOtlJFPoYXg
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brad johnson 23rd of december and there
00:03
is much discussed let’s begin with
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Khashoggi who is probably one of the
00:08
most interesting propaganda weapons
00:10
against President Trump I guess somehow
00:12
they twisted a Muslim Brotherhood
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operative that was shot in at or in a in
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and in a Saudi embassy in Turkey I got a
00:20
right tell us what the update is please
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yeah okay at Jamal Khashoggi which was
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murdered back in October of last year
00:29
2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul
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and so all this be this got really
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became a big deal which I’m sure kind of
00:41
intended to catch the Saudis unprepared
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so just to bring everybody up to date he
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walks in he’s getting some documents in
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order in order to marry his longtime
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girlfriend and never comes out now the
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way the operation was done was you know
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he walks in and they had a man take his
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clothes put them on and he was
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physically very similar and walk out
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they knew that there were surveillance
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cameras on the door so they thought they
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were going to get away with that
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essentially and and you know he walks in
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and then he turns and walks out they
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have it on film and they say seeing well
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here’s the video of him leaving and
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that’s in fact what initially happened
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after Khashoggi disappears but multiple
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things they weren’t counting on one of
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which is that the girlfriend was the
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fiancee rather was sitting out in the
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car waiting for him so he doesn’t come
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out ever and she sees him go in and not
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come out so he had somebody on the hunt
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with eyes on the door saying you know he
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never came out and then they they had
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the video tape which the Saudis released
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saying oh yeah yeah he did and then what
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happened was you know devastating to the
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Saudis story essentially and they hadn’t
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counted on the fact that Turkey their
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intelligence operations had bugged if
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you will they had put listening devices
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inside the consulate so they had the
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full recording of Khashoggi being killed
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and there was even little tapes released
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of the Consul General who was posted
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there permanently saying don’t do it
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here don’t do it here no no no take this
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away you know don’t don’t be doing this
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stuff
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that all got released so it just blew
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the Saudis story out of the water so
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initially it was oh no he laughed and
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then well oh well we’re not sure what
02:22
happened we’re still looking and
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eventually of course the after a couple
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of iterations of stories that didn’t
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work because the Turks kept dripping
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stuff out bit by bit just setting him up
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setting them up setting them up so that
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the Turks handled that extraordinarily
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well they have an effective intelligence
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service as you can see by just every
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aspect of this the way they played it
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getting the listening device inside the
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consulate so that they could hear
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everything going on just all of the
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above you you look at it and realize
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that they’re they’re quite sophisticated
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in their capabilities so that was sort
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interrupt I just I have to ask this
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question why would the Turks feel that
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the Khashoggi case was sufficiently
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important that they’d be willing to tip
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their hand that they had bugged the
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Saudi embassy that strikes me as being a
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high price to pay agreed
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and and that’s a very insightful
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question and exactly correct they they
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were giving up a major thing because now
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the Saudis known since then they’ve
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they’ve done a sweep of the of the
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consulate they’ve found these bugs so
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they know precisely the methodology used
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so they would that methodology was
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probably used elsewhere including say
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the embassy for example in Ankara and
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and so the Saudis have have since been
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able to figure that out and probably
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cleaned out pretty much all of it so the
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the Turks were willing to give up their
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listening device program their
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intelligence gathering program that
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would have been of considerable value to
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them on this operation now the why of it
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I think is quite clear and conclusive
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it’s essentially be multiple layers
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first of all Turkey essentially runs the
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mother brother Muslim Brotherhood so
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there it’s a tool of of Turkey now at
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this point and so this person was out of
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the Muslim Brotherhood khashoggi so it’s
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somebody that was one of theirs if you
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will but also more importantly the Turks
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now with essentially being in a position
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under Aragon that they are trying to
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reinstate
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and kind of a new Ottoman Empire and the
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Saudis are at loggerheads their
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competitors and Aragon cannot reinstate
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the out of an empire as long as the
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Saudis are there so he has to damage
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that and he also wants to create a wedge
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between the United States and Saudi
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Arabia which it has been effective at
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that so this is why a year ago it was
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very clear to me that how this was
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essentially going to turn out and I was
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predicting back then late last year that
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what would happen is they would say well
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the Saudi Crown Prince is going to be
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found you know not having known any of
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this and that there would be a person or
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two condemned to death out of this
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because then you can you know there’s
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closure on it the guilty people were
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located they were given a very harsh
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penalty and so we can wash our hands of
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it and all go back to normal and that’s
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precisely how this is played out
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they just got out of court yesterday I
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believe on this case and what happened
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is five people were condemned to death I
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was predicting one or two or three you
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know just a handful of people and 11
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were arrested and tried five were
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convicted of death and three more were
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sentenced to a combined total of 24
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years so we’re not sure they haven’t
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been expressed on that and the others
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out of the rest out of the eleven were
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found not guilty so they were released
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now but now this is highly predictable
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on this and this is something that was
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clear that was going to chant precisely
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that way because it achieves every goal
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that Saudi Arabia needs it completely
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clears the Crown Prince it took it back
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to a level of somebody inside and
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intelligence he was a deputy director of
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intelligence so a senior guy that this
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is how this is played out
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who gave the order to go kidnap
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essentially to render back to Saudi
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Arabia khashoggi
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because he was apparently guilty of
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crimes so they wanted to bring him back
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so that he would stand you know under
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the scrutiny of the justice system and
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pay the price for whatever his crimes
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were which you know
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with it I mean I don’t know that that
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was ever actually the plan but this is
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what’s being stated so that it got out
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of control and somebody further down the
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line then gave the order to go ahead and
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kill him on the spot and so not only did
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the Crown Prince not know these weren’t
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the orders that came out of the senior
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guy and intelligence and somewhere down
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below him is where the order was
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actually given to kill rather than to
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capture and render back to to Saudi
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Arabia for justice so that’s how it’s
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all played out and there’s multiple
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layers of cutting off the the crown
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prince from having any direct knowledge
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of this now of course a lot of people
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just trust that you know I would look at
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that but well you know he may or may not
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have known I mean it is one of those
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things where the guy who runs the
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country and the Crown Prince runs Saudi
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Arabia doesn’t to not keep track of
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every little decision to go that goes
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forward and so it is possible that it’s
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spun out of his control and things took
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place it’s also possible that he knew
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you know we may or may not ever find out
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that’s one of the things with these
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sorts of intelligence related things is
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very often you never find out the truth
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and for our purposes the truth this
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sounds bad but it doesn’t matter because
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the end is here this is what it’s going
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to be now those people convicted have
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right of appeal I wouldn’t be surprised
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to see one or two of those convicted to
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death have their sentence commuted what
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has happened here though is the crown
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prince did take an active role behind
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the scenes to one degree or another and
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the solution was approved by the Saudi
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government and so probably there’s some
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of the people convicted maybe people
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that were from a competitive faction
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something like that the the the crown
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prince is going to place the blame where
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it best suits him and I wouldn’t be
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surprised if some of those people were
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from an opposite faction we may find
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that out and so he was kind of cleaning
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things a little bit to his own favor
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bottom line out of this is he will
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further consolidate his position through
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that process he’ll take advantage and
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this is something I’ve referred to
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before this is a tactic used all the
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time when back in the old days in the
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80s Fidel Castro was caught dealing in
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cocaine there were a lot of photographs
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and videos that they’ve taken of of
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Colombians flying in cocaine and that
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the uniforms people picking it up and
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putting it in speedboats and sending it
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off to Florida and things so when he got
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caught dealing what he did is this
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number eight addthis this judicial case
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ended up shooting four people the who
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were the four people he shot they were
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all of twenty-two the Guardia his
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assistant and and Arnaldo of the main
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one of the main generals and his main
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assistant those are the four people he
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shot and why didn’t he shoot him were
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they involved yeah did he know of course
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he did of this sort of thing you don’t
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bring millions of dollars into a little
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island of of ten million people on Cuba
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without caps are having known so what
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did he do though he saw them they were
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competitors for him he didn’t like their
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popularity among the troops and people
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and they were powerful and knew a lot
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and so that was a good way to get rid of
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any potential competitor now that’s
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going to be used in a similar fashion
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here by the Crown Prince
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so he’s clean the slate a little bit
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tipped things in his favor cleaned his
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name which he may have in fact been
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innocent of actually knowing the details
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who knows someone might have got a
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little bit overly aggressive in this
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operation to try and impress him with
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with their skill or whatever but and it
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was set up such that they clearly had
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thought this through and like I said
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they had somebody who was an
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impersonator who looked like physically
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like a show you take his clothes and
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walk out so I mean that was clearly the
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plan but the turks having given up that
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that that capability of listening in and
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at the consulate and probably the
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embassy and who knows what other
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facility that the saudis have worldwide
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or in that region at least the they were
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for sure targeted by the turks and if
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the turks can get in there they would
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have and now the saudis know their
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methodology precisely so the turks paid
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a big price to do what they did and now
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when it’s all turned out they had a year
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of criticism of saudi arabia it did
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create a lot of stress on the
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relationship that president Trump has
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with the crown prince and Saudi Arabia
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in the United States and so it did
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create a lot of problems however that is
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now pretty much going to be settled I
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think you’ll see I stick with what I
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originally
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I think we are going to see some
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executions out of this they’re saying
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lethal injection which is an interesting
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difference normally they use a sword to
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cut off the heads of people there’s an
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official executioner in Saudi Arabia I
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think that is also deeply significant
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lethal injection is not a process used
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in Saudi Arabia as I said they cut heads
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off so that is some sort of compromise
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behind the scenes to all of this again
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we may or may not find out what that is
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but it’s to make the death of these
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people at least a little bit more
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respectable so that is some sort of
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compromise behind the scenes as to how
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these people will get killed again I
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wouldn’t be surprised if we wanted to
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get off or have their sentence commuted
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to long prison terms versus death those
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three people convicted of the 24 years
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combined that’s probably what they’re
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gonna serve out so I think that’s the
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way we’ll play it out but I there’s
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going to be some executions at least a
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couple so that’s how that’s going to
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play out and then it’s clean slate this
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is done everything has been accomplished
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that they need and the fact is the
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United States needs to have a good
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relationship with Saudi Arabia so it
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there’s the Democrats are going to
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scream over this because they’re close
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to the Muslim Brotherhood they’re
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actually in agreement with Turkey on
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this they support Muslim Brotherhood
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efforts in many ways there’s a lot of
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Muslim Brotherhood people still involved
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from the previous administration under
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Obama’s that are left hold overs from
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there that are still very cooperative
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with Muslim Brotherhood so you have the
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two factions here in the United States
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but basically the Democrats aren’t going
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to be able to say too much they’ll
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scream we’ll hear as the as the news
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cycle hits they’re all home on Christmas
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break right now are we hearing the
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screaming now which again I you know
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this is not an accident as to the timing
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I think that’s on purpose I think it was
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clever on the part of the Saudis to have
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it come out now a day or two after all
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of Congress went on break so we you know
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we’ll hear about this probably to some
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degree after the New Year’s but the new
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cycle is going to be over
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it’ll all be done back in Saudi Arabia
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rather quickly and so it was it has been
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handled well after the fact by the
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government of Saudi Arabia the Trump
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administration itself I think is
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essentially hands-off letting this play
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out but it’s now played out it’s it’s
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played out in a way that that lets the
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status quo continue forward so that’s
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going to be essentially the end of it
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now I wouldn’t be surprised to see these
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executions take place quickly do we will
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see how how fast they can get through
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the appeal process assuming they appeal
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or I mean it’s conceivable that the deal
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has been made such that they all accept
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their fate and move on with life except
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for the people executed of course so
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we’ll we’ll see him see how that end of
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it goes but it’s done deal it’s done
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deal now and like I said highly
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predictable we talked about this a year
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ago so would it be safe to say if you if
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we were to look at the scoreboard that
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nothing’s changed for the United States
14:14
and Saudi Arabia but Turkey took a bunch
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of hit points because they there was a
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giant cost in terms of their
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surveillance programs and in fact it had
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no at the end of the day it actually did
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not achieve any of those strategic or
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tactical goals agreed a short term a
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huge success for Turkey long term a huge
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failure for Turkey like I say did the
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Democrats there now that that are
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essentially in in bed with the Muslim
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Brotherhood and Turkey on this at least
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philosophically really don’t have any
14:50
long term animal out of this and and you
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know President Trump has essentially
14:55
built of Teflon for these issues and the
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stuff just bounces off of him and plus
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his hand was never really involved I
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mean he clearly had nothing to do with
15:07
khashoggi getting killed had nothing to
15:09
do with any of those sorts of things so
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you know it’s not going to be anything
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that can be used against Trump Saudi
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Arabia has worked its way out of it and
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they’re in the clear for now and it’s
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just going to be sailing forward so yeah
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a big I would say overall long term big
15:26
loss for Turkey or certainly a
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significant loss for Turkey but
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if they can build upon it and come up
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with another thing or two to target
15:36
Saudi Arabia then it won’t be in vain
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and that’s where I’m sure they’re
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spending their time right now is trying
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to figure out how to create another
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issue of this sort against Saudi Arabia
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so that you know if it’s happened once
15:48
you know okay it worked itself out if it
15:50
happened as a second time and a third
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time then it just it’s a cumulative
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negative effect so that’s what turkeys
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working on right now you can be assured
15:58
that their intelligence services are are
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looking how to create another issue that
16:03
will drive a wedge between the United
16:04
States and Saudi Arabia and damage Saudi
16:07
Arabia
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