Where is Prince Bandar?
by Pepe Escobar / August 3rd, 2012




Was Prince Bandar “Bush”, 63, son of Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz
(perennial Saudi Defense Minister,1963-2001), semi-perennial ambassador
to Washington (1983-2005), and secretive jihad financier, killed by a
Syrian intelligence death squad?
Thunderous silence prevails on Syrian, Iranian, and Arab media (most
of it controlled by the Saudis). The same applies for al-Jazeera. This
is DEBKA’s somewhat fanciful take.
Dates are crucial. Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud may
have pulled off operation “Damascus Volcano” on July 18. He was
definitely promoted to head of Saudi intelligence on July 19. And he
might have been killed in a bomb attack on the Saudi General
Intelligence HQ in Riyadh on July 22.
One Syrian rumor mill version rules that “Damascus Volcano” came from
Saudi intel — with logistics provided by the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA). This is highly unlikely; the CIA is clueless on how to
penetrate Assad’s inner sanctum. The predominant version circulating in
the Syrian capital is this was a white coup.
“Damascus Volcano”, by the way, was a flop; the swarm of mercenaries —
infiltrated via Jordan — who were supposed to take over the capital had
to retreat up north. Now the news cycle is fixated on another faux
game-changer — the “Battle of Aleppo”.
There are serious problems with all the spin around “Damascus
Volcano”. None of the Assad regime’s four heads of military intelligence
were killed — they are actually running the (ghastly) show in Aleppo.
There are also problems with a Syrian death squad being able to
strike Riyadh’s inner sanctum. But Iranian intelligence could certainly
pull this off. As for Debka’s assumption that Tehran may have hired
al-Qaeda jihadis for an inside job against the House of Saud, that is
rubbish.
The bottom line; no one knows, because no one is talking.


What is certain is that Bandar as head of Saudi intelligence was part of King Abdullah’s hardcore response to the Arab Spring.


In Syria, the House of Saud strategy boils down to regime change —
and a fragile, fragmented, Sunni government in Damascus not aligned with
Tehran.
Internally, the strategy is to viciously smash any peaceful
Shi’ite-majority protest in the eastern provinces. Essentially, there’s
no Arab Spring in Saudi Arabia because the House of Saud either bribes
or intimidates its subjects.
The overall strategy of choice is “blame it on Iran”; as this logic
goes, Saudi Shi’ites are Iranian puppets as much as Bahraini Shi’ites.
The Obama administration blindly subscribes to this fallacy — totally
missing the point; the House of Saud hates any semblance of Western
parliamentary democracy as much as it hates Shi’ites — Iranian and
otherwise.
So what happened in Riyadh? A graphic Tehran message to the House of
Saud? A rogue suicide bomber? An internal Saudi war? The House of Saud
is not talking. And Bandar is not moving.

[*]First published at Asia Times.[/*]