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For the moment I'm going to rate this story about as likely as Chait's speculation that Trump was recruited as a Russian agent in 1987. Especially right now, in the middle of the impeachment push with all possible distraction bombs flying from many sides.
But let's read the story: A "Kuwaiti-born Canadian businessman," Bender, testifies in the Florida murder trial of a Qatari prince -- by VIDEO LINK from Canada -- as a witness
for the plaintiffs. As an extra, Bender throws in a description of how a Qatari spy chief allegedly tried to recruit him to recruit American spies for Qatar. According to Bender, this spy chief delivered a movie-villain monologue, revealing to him the details of the Qatari spy network in America,
including the name of their prized Philby, Ilhan Omar. Which totally happened.
Since this story started with an advance preview in the Jerusalem Post, I expect further embroiderments are on the way. We may learn some Qatari foundation money flowed her way in the form of a scholarship at some point, when she was studying at North Dakota State University or University of Minnesota, or helped pay for her training as a nutritionist. That will be called a smoking gun!
WR wrote:For her spokesperson to pivot to Saudi Arabia is hilarious -- Americans are not ready to process inter-Arabic rivalries at all
Right you may be, but remember, Bender's testifying for the prosecution. They want to sentence a Qatari prince for ordering his bodyguard to murder people in Florida (so far no connection constructed to Omar on that bit). So yeah, Saudi provenance is likely, fits with the venue that put out the "scoop" before Bender's testimony, and, OH, let's not stop there. Let's look up Alan Bender.
Here's his
Twitter page, with photos of him and Justin Trudeau and him and Canada's hardline-imperialist foreign minister, Freeland.
Here he is (sorry it's FB) being
interviewed on CTV about the Khashoggi case as a "businessman with ties to Saudi Arabia's Royal family." Very interesting, give it a watch. It's 2 weeks after Khasshoggi's visit to the embassy and Bender, repeatedly emphasizing his status as an insider to all the ins and outs of the Saudi Arabian state, expresses his certainty that Khasshoggi's still alive and imprisoned in Riyadh. Also, it could be an unrelated in-studio fuck-up, but we repeatedly hear several people laughing, seemingly in response to Bender's claims.
So what's this guy's business?
No ordinary stitch-up.
.