America Reveals Secrets .. Saudi team for killing, kidnapping and harassment of women

While Saudi Arabia is washing Khashoggi's blood, the New York Times reported on Sunday that the Crown Prince had set up a secret group for quick intervention and had been given the task of silencing dissidents by killing and kidnapping torture and harassment of women.

The group was set up a year before Khashoggi's assassination, according to US officials who have been briefed on intelligence reports and revealed their content to The New York Times.

Beginning in 2017, the group carried out at least 12 operations, which meant Khashoggi's death and his body was part of a broad campaign targeting opponents, according to US officials and some of the victims' families.

One of the victims of this group was a university lecturer who reported on the situation of women and was tortured last year, prompting her to commit suicide.

According to intelligence information, the members of this team did a lot of work last year to the point that they asked for a financial reward for Eid al-Fitr.

Among the operations are the forcible return of Saudis from some Arab countries, and the arrest and assault of prisoners in palaces belonging to the Crown Prince and the King.

Saudi officials have refused to confirm or confirm the presence of the team, while a spokesman for the Saudi embassy in Washington said his country was taking very seriously allegations of ill-treatment of the accused and prisoners.

The beginning of escalation
Saudi Arabia has a long history of persecuting dissidents and dissidents abroad, but this practice has grown considerably after Prince Mohammed was promoted to crown prince in 2017 after his cousin Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who oversaw the security services, was overthrown.

Since then, Saudi Arabia has arrested dozens of scholars, intellectuals and activists, as well as ordinary people who criticize or ridicule power on Twitter.

"We have never seen such an escalation," said former CIA analyst Bruce Riedel. He added that anarchy and confusion of the team reflect that he works freely within the Kingdom and that it is not subject to the control of the intelligence service.

According to US officials, the crown prince was the one who decided to establish the unit, while it was overseen by Saud al-Qahtani, a former adviser to the Royal Court, who was sacked after Khashoggi's death inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.

His deputy is intelligence officer Abdul Aziz Matarib, who accompanied the crown prince on an overseas trip and led the team's field operations.

Among the members of the team is Thaer Ghaleb al-Harbi, who was promoted in 2017 when he resisted an attack on the palace of Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Al-Qahtani is under house arrest, which means it is questionable whether the team is still working.

US officials did not say how the crown prince was connected to the team, but his members viewed Qahtani as a direct channel with the crown prince.

The newspaper report dealt with the Ritz-Carlton arrests in 2017 and how Mar-Qahtani and the lobbyist pressed the princes to force them to relinquish some of their property.

Torture and harassment
According to the report, many of these detainees were subjected to physical torture, while one died during detention.

After the death of Khashoggi, the group's operations began to unfold, as the singer and the war were consulate during the killing. According to CIA findings, Bin Salman personally ordered the killing of Khashoggi.

A US intelligence report said Mohammed bin Salman had threatened Khashoggi with a bullet if he did not return to the kingdom and stopped criticizing the government.

According to the newspaper report, the Ritz in 2017 covered a broader campaign of arrests, including opponents placed in secret places and some were detained in royal palaces.

According to the New York Times, the Rapid Intervention Group was involved in harassment of rights activists imprisoned in prisons, including Jane Hahlul, Aziza Yusuf and Iman Najafan.

Al-Hathul's sister says that the authorities did not detain the women in prison from the beginning, but in a secret location in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

According to the newspaper, the women were beaten, electric shocks, drowning, death threats and rape during interrogation.

Alia al-Hathloul says that al-Qahtani attended several times to torture her sister and threatened to kill her and throw her body into the sewers.

This cruel treatment prompted university professor Najafan to commit suicide, according to US intelligence.

According to the report, this team forcibly returned Rami Naimi from the UAE to Saudi Arabia where he was arrested at the Ritz-Carlton.

Faisal al-Jarba, an aide to a prominent member of the royal family, was abducted from an apartment in Jordan after midnight and transferred to Saudi Arabia in June. His family has no information on the reason and place of his arrest.

In August 2017 Prince Saud bin Al-Montaser was brought from Morocco to Saudi Arabia. In May, a university student - who holds Qatari and Saudi nationality - was arrested during his visit to Kuwait and deported to Saudi Arabia.