All you useful idiots should stop wringing your hands about Jamal Khashoggi

It is clear to date that Russia and its (even then) proxy Syria were involved in the promotion of the September 11. 2001-era conspiracy theories such as ‘4000 Jews Stayed Home on 9/11‘, and ‘Nostradamus predicted 9/11‘.

Today, it also seems increasingly likely (if not obvious) that Alex Jones of Infowarswho claims responsibility for starting the ‘False Flag’ conspiracy theory connected to the 9/11 attacks (in July 2001); and John Hogue — who had the top selling book of the 9/11 timeframe  (and had called out Osama Bin Laden as a candidate for Nostradamus’ “Third Antichrist” in June 2001), are proponents of conspiracy theory serving a Russian perspective.

Following careers launched by viral 9/11-era conspiracy theories, both Jones and Hogue seem to have openly embraced Russia and also paralleled Russian and Syrian lines on the so-called ‘chemical weapons false flag’ of the Syrian Civil War in the 2013-onward timeframe, which at various times attributed prohibited activities of the Syrian government to ‘Allied’/NATO nations, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia (using arguments that originated in Syrian and Russian state media).

It seems that similar mischief is afoot in the case of the ‘poorly disappeared’ Saudi expat journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  The apparent murder and cover up is not something we should be proud of or advocate, but we should stand by Saudi Arabia as our ally and the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since this controversy’s amplified status may bear the fingerprints of Russian information operations and have implications for our mutual security. 

What might it say to you today that  today, Alex Jones’ Infowars takes an incredibly anti-Saudi and anti-CIA take on the Khashoggi killing? ‘I thought Jones was a Trump ally’ you say? Not in this case, anyway. Jones clearly aligns his site’s reporting with a more Paul-family friendly stance on Khashoggi, which is anything but Saudi friendly. (Maybe this shouldn’t be surprising that Jones prefers Paul to Trump, or that Paul adheres to Jones’ conspiraciessince Jones actually launched Paul’s career and is also close to Rand’s Russia-loving father, Ron Paul.)

What might you say today, that despite his success painting Osama Bin Laden as the ‘Third Antichrist’ in 2001, today the unabashed RT proponent John Hogue  (whose most recent prophetic ‘reporting’ suggests that Khashoggi was a Muslim Brotherhood member linked to the CIA) has found an even better candidate for Nostradamus’ Antichrist in his analysis of the murder  –:

“AT LAST the Beast of Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (AKA MBS) is getting unwanted American and worldwide attention for what he is really like, the young and ruthless power behind the throne of his stroke-ridden father, King Salman. Starting last year I began writing about MBS as a new and perhaps the most formidable candidate for Nostradamus’ Antichrist I’ve ever encountered since being on the trail for candidates since 1983… MBS is an evil beast but he’s your beast, Mr. and Mrs. America.”

A quick search of Khashoggi’s name on Google for the site RT.com prior to 2018 shows the first result as being reporting for his December 2016 critique of Trump, and the second result for his being in a November 2017 appearance on RT (which was after the Intelligence Community assessment that it was a vehicle for Russian subversion and ultimate requirement for FARA registration).

A quick search of the Khashoggi name on RT from January 1, 2018 to present shows the term “MBS” (which Hogue used frequently) associated with the search results (seemingly an attempt at OBL‘ing him or KSM‘ing the Crown Prince –). As Hogue has claimed that RT is one of his top two preferred media outlets, perhaps we can infer where he got the term.

Don’t fall for it. Please.

Why have Russian propaganda organs and their left/right conspiracy theory proxies been so involved in the Jamal Khashoggi case? Beyond RT, why has Vladimir Putin himself gotten so involved?

Noting that Hogue and Jones’ sites had apparently ‘come out swinging’ for Khashoggi along with Russia; I decided to look back at Khashoggi’s reporting from the past to see what kind of stance he had on the issues.  It was obvious just from the 11 or so results at Google Scholar which referenced to Khashoggi’s reporting with him as author that he has been a long-term ‘agitator’ and skeptic of Saudi Arabia. It turns out that as early as 2003 he was fired for his writing which was perceived to link the Saudi clergy to terrorism.

I also found it interesting that in tracking down some of these stories, Khashoggi had closely hewed to an ‘intelligence failure’ narrative of 9/11 which clearly also inspired Seymour Hersh, Michael Moore, and others (seemingly the kind of narrative which ignores long obvious Syrian intelligence connections to 9/11). Khashoggi by October 1, 2001 had claimed the 9/11 attacks “unveiled the vulnerability of the US security system” (and that “the FBI committed some errors” and had “mixed up” facts in its investigation).

Similar sentiments can be found in another Khashoggi story from Fall 2001 called War on Terror: A Saudi Perspective‘ which I could only find in a quick search in English on the site moscow.icro.ir at the *.ir (IRAN) internet TLD (cached link). It has more clear FBI-critical and pro-Palestinian sentiment, with a healthy dose of anti-Israeli arguments for good measure.

I’m sure I’ll be back to this idea, but for now I would ask you to stand with the Saudis and shed few tears for Khashoggi.

I can only be left to ask if Khashoggi was a Russian or Syrian information asset or useful idiot? Why was his reporting so close to that of other conspiracists like the left wing John Hogue, or the right wing Alex Jones in 2001? Why do Hogue and Jones seem to protest this death so forcefully today? (And notably for Jones in a way which breaks with his past professed love for Donald Trump?)

This seems to go to the core of modern culture war and infowar people. Don’t let your biases cloud your judgement or render you a useful idiot of Russia and its information proxies when it comes to Jamal Khashoggi just because you don’t like Trump. Instead, demand better of our allies as they modernize their political systems (and demand better of us too when it comes to quashing disinformation networks before they spiral out of control).