The world was shocked to see images of children's bodies torn to pieces in France after a Tunisian madman inspired by Jihadi propaganda drove a truck of death through revelers celebrating Bastille Day. With scores dead and over 200 wounded, newspapers as far away as the Dominican Republic had to reassure local people that none of their relatives in France had been affected.
Before the dead had all been fully identified, Turkey plunged into chaos as the military initiated a coup aimed at overthrowing the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a coup which many now believe was organized by the Turkish leader himself, with the ultimate objective of strengthening his power and cementing the death of secularism in Turkey's politics.
The people of France are still grieving, and the entire Turkish population is in shock, unsure whether they will continue living in a country that's still recognizable to them, be it a secular government that strives for democracy or one that aspires towards a theocracy.
Amid the intensity of the world events which have taken place over the past few days, the release of the 28 classified pages of the 9/11 congressional report went almost unnoticed, and with it the implications for a breakdown in Saudi/American relations.
Although the 28 pages shockingly detail how the Osama Bin Laden's half brother, who was directly employed by the Saudi Embassy, provided cash and had meetings with individuals directly connected to the 9/11 hijackers, there will be no public outcry calling for a 15-year war in the Persian Gulf.
One emerges stronger and the other largely unscathed. YNW |
The level of coincidences in the now-declassified pages provide far more of a smoking gun for going after Mr. Bin Laden's half brother and the Saudi government than the United States had in going after the leader of Al-Qaeda and the tribal government of Afghanistan.
The entire online world of skeptics would have been throwing dirt at Saudi Arabia this weekend were it not for the truck attack in Nice and the supposed coup in Turkey, which even the mainstream media now admits was most likely nothing but a staged act meant to strengthen the Islamist government of Mr. Erdogan and to distract attention from Saudi complicity in the attacks which have sunk us into over a decade and a half of war against a faceless, ever-morphing Sunni enemy.
Reports that Saudi intelligence agents were directly involved in helping Mr. Erdogan burn his proverbial Reichstag and consolidate the judiciary have already emerged, and it shouldn't come as a surprise when Turkey grows even closer to Saudi Arabia in the coming months.