Saudi intelligence chief who saved US lives arrested and allegedly ill-treated by Saudi government

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TEL AVIV The Biden administration is under increasing pressure to help a former Saudi intelligence chief credited with saving American lives, who was initially held by the Saudi government during the Trump administration. Two sources familiar with the matter say he was physically abused to the point that he is unable to walk without assistance.

Mohammed bin Nayef, 61, was Saudi Arabia’s interior minister and a close partner of US intelligence agencies in the fight against al-Qaeda after 9/11. After surviving four terrorist assassination attempts, he was arrested in March 2020 by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman as the de facto Saudi leader, also known as MBS, sought to consolidate power and rule out rivals.

Former U.S. intelligence officials who worked with bin Nayef are furious that the Trump administration did not appear to be helping him, and they say President Joe Biden should do more.

“Trump’s White House has done absolutely nothing to help him,” said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer now at the Brookings Institution.

President Donald Trump and his son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, have enjoyed a close relationship with MBS. Biden, however, has released a U.S. intelligence assessment claiming that MBS ordered the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who was killed by Saudis in Turkey.

It is not known whether the Biden administration intervened behind the scenes, but bin Nayef’s detention conditions have recently improved and his family members have been allowed to see him, the sources say.

Bin Nayef was detained without charge. A source familiar with the matter told NBC News that there is evidence that Ben Nayef was recently detained at a government compound next to al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh, the official seat of the Saudi royal court, a few hundred yards away. meters from where MBS welcomes foreigners. dignitaries.

Two people familiar with his situation, who requested anonymity to avoid harm for Ben Nayef, say he has lost more than 50 pounds and can no longer walk without assistance. He suffered serious injuries to his feet from beatings, the two sources say, adding that he was denied pain medication for previous injuries.

“[He] is not allowed out and is confined to his own area, “said one of the sources.” During the day he does not see anyone and has not been allowed to see his personal doctor or representatives legal. “

The alleged ill-treatment of bin Nayef was first reported by the UK’s Sunday Times.

Bin Nayef was decorated by the CIA in 2017 for his support for US counterterrorism efforts. Former intelligence officials say he played a crucial role in thwarting attacks on Americans. Many are outraged by his treatment and frustrated that the US government has not done more to help him.

“It’s horrible, what happened to him,” said Riedel. “He’s a man who saved dozens of American lives.”

Marc Polymeropoulos, who led the main CIA operations in the Middle East, said Ben Nayef was particularly helpful as the United States sought to prevent credible al Qaeda plots in the Arabian Peninsula to shoot down a plane American line.

In October 2010, for example, Ben Nayef played a key role in the last-minute thwarting of a plot by Al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen to bomb FedEx and UPS cargo planes flying from Yemen to Chicago. Officials at the time said the Saudi intelligence chief called John Brennan, the White House counterterrorism adviser, and gave him tracking numbers for packages containing sophisticated bombs disguised as print cartridges. The explosives were intercepted in the UK and UAE and safely disarmed.

And in 2012, Saudi intelligence services led by bin Nayef helped insert an agent into Yemen in an attempt to recover the latest design of a clothing bomb to be smuggled onto an airliner. The agent managed to smuggle the bomb out, which was taken apart and analyzed by FBI experts, intelligence officials said at the time.

“I can attest from personal experience that his efforts have directly saved many American lives,” said Polymeropoulos, author of a new book, “Clarity in Crisis.”

In 2009, bin Nayef was almost killed by a suicide bomber who detonated a underwear bomb after claiming to be a reformed terrorist who wanted to personally surrender to the head of intelligence.

Despite this record, there is no indication that the Trump administration pressured the Saudi government after Ben Nayef was imprisoned.

A spokesperson for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who as CIA director awarded bin Nayef a medal in 2017, did not respond to a request for comment. Former CIA Director Gina Haspel did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Jared Kushner did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for the Saudi Embassy acknowledged receipt of an NBC News investigation but made no comment.

People familiar with the situation believe the Biden administration quietly pressured the Saudis on the matter, but administration officials declined to comment, saying they feared making matters worse for bin Nayef.

CIA Director William Burns knows bin Nayef personally, having met him several times while Burns was a diplomat.

President Biden has not publicly raised the Ben Nayef issue. In its 2020 human rights report, the State Department took note of his plight, stating that “lawyers representing Prince Mohammed bin Nayef have said they are increasingly concerned for his welfare. – to be, alleging that his fate remained unknown five months after his arrest and stating that he had not been authorized to receive visits from his personal doctor. “

King Salman, the 85-year-old ruler of Saudi Arabia, came to power in January 2015 and appointed his nephew bin Nayef crown prince and heir to the throne. But two years later, bin Nayef was deposed as crown prince and replaced by MBS, the king’s 35-year-old son.

Bin Nayef was dismissed from his post, but MBS initially appeared to be in an effort to alleviate his cousin’s disgrace. In a widely publicized video, MBS can be seen kissing the older man’s hand and saying, “We still need your direction and advice.”

Yet, as MBS tightened his grip on power, he began to act aggressively against potential rivals in Saudi Arabia. In November 2017, Saudi security forces arrested dozens of princes and prominent businessmen and imprisoned them inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh. Some have been tortured while in detention, according to current and former US officials.

The Saudi government said the arrests were part of an anti-corruption campaign ordered by MBS.

Bin Nayef was arrested in March 2020 when royal court guards wearing masks and dressed in black arrived at his home, people familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal.

Saudi officials said the arrest was on suspicion of treason, but he was never formally charged. Ben Nayef’s supporters deny that he participated in any plot of treason.

Last year, a bipartisan group of British parliamentarians called on the Saudi government to allow them to meet with Ben Nayef to determine the nature of his detention and his state of health. Saudi authorities have not responded to their requests, they said.

In a report, parliamentarians concluded that it was “highly likely” that bin Nayef and other high ranking prisoners were “arbitrarily detained”.

Biden came under criticism in March when his administration exempted MBS from personal punishment despite an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies that he ordered the murder of Khashoggi, the Washington Post reporter and Saudi dissident.

“We held accountable all the members of this organization, but not the crown prince, because we never, to my knowledge, when we have an alliance with a country, went to see the interim head of state and punished that person and ostracized him, ”Biden told ABC News.

“He said during the last presidential debate that he would treat MBS like an outcast,” Riedel said. “The only manifestation of that so far is that he hasn’t called her.”

But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with MBS by phone, and climate envoy John Kerry met him and was pictured with him at a conference in Dubai.

During the Obama administration, US diplomats pressured Saudi Arabia for the role of religious police and successfully persuaded the government to launch training for judges and prosecutors to raise the professional level of its justice system, according to Joseph Westphal, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Riyadh from 2014 to January 2017.

“We had made significant progress,” he said.

But the Trump administration has abandoned the legal education initiative, said Westphal, now at the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Once we left office, it all came to an end and Trump didn’t take anything back. He didn’t appoint an ambassador for almost two years,” Westphal said.

Westphal said US ambassadors stationed in the kingdom wield considerable influence due to the two countries’ long-standing ties, and that the most effective way to address human rights concerns is usually private conversations with the king and other high-ranking figures. Public reprimands and press releases tend to elicit a negative reaction and be counterproductive, he said.

The Biden administration has yet to appoint an ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

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