This Former Intelligence Official Was a Hero by David Ignatius

Political Crossfire

This Former Intelligence Official Was a Hero

By David Ignatius

For intelligence officers, there’s a special horror at abandoning colleagues who helped fight common enemies. There’s a sense of moral betrayal and shattered trust – a violation of the unwritten rules of the spy trade.

Some former senior U.S. and British spymasters are feeling that shock to the conscience now, as they watch the plight of Saad Aljabri, a former top Saudi intelligence officer who helped build the kingdom’s counterterrorism capability – and, in the process, provided what intelligence officials describe as invaluable help to the West.

Aljabri’s son Khalid, a cardiologist who lives with his father in Toronto, said during interviews that two of his younger siblings – Omar, 21, and Sarah, 20 – were seized and imprisoned in mid-March by the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is often referred to as MBS, as leverage to force their father to return to the kingdom from exile in Canada.

MBS’s squeeze on a former pillar of the kingdom’s counterterrorism program stuns those who have dealt with Aljabri. The crown prince’s allies have circulated accusations: that Aljabri knows about theft of operational funds by him and his patron, deposed crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef, and that he’s a sympathizer of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Khalid Aljabri rejected the allegations: “These are baseless claims, and we have proof that they are politically motivated. Whatever allegations they make, nothing justifies holding his children as hostages.” Saad Aljabri declined to comment, as did a senior Saudi official.

“What is happening to him and his family is wrong,” Michael Morell, a former acting director of the CIA under President Barack Obama, said

Then-Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, left, with then-Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, in 2016

of Aljabri in a text message. “His work saved Saudi and American lives, in the kingdom and outside. I would trust him with my life, with my own family. I can’t fathom that he would ever plot against his own government.”

George Tenet, who served as CIA director during the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, expressed similar confidence in Aljabri. “He was just a very solid person,” Tenet said during an interview. He worked with Aljabri, starting in 2003, to build a modern Saudi security system that could combat al-Qaeda and penetrate the ranks of the terror group’s affili

ate in Yemen. Aljabri helped oversee a network of informants that exposed a 2010 plot by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to send undetectable bombs in computer printer cartridges on American airplanes.

Saad Aljabri, 61, wasn’t born to wealth and privilege in Saudi Arabia’s insular society. He was a policeman with an unusual aptitude for computer science. Early on, he became a protege of Prince Nayef, the interior minister, and his son, Mohammed, who was an assistant minister, then head of counterterrorism, then minister himself, and finally the crown prince.

In the courtier society of Saudi Arabia, commoners such as Aljabri rise and fall with their royal patrons, a fact of monarchal life that is central to the tragic end of Aljabri’s career. In January 2015, King Salman assumed the throne after the death of King

“I don’t want to get caught in a royal ‘Game of Thrones,’” Aljabri told his son.

Abdullah. At first, things seemed to be going well for Aljabri. His patron, Mohammed bin Nayef, also known as MBN, was named crown prince. But the bad news for Aljabri was that one of the new king’s young sons, Mohammed bin Salman, became deputy crown prince.

The power play was beginning. Khalid Aljabri recalled that his father had forebodings of the trouble ahead. “I don’t want to get caught in a royal ‘Game of Thrones,’” Aljabri told his son.

The rupture came during the summer of 2015. King Salman was vaca

tioning in Morocco, and MBN, then the crown prince, was acting king. He approved a visit by Aljabri on July 2 with then-CIA Director John Brennan at Langley. MBS evidently thought Aljabri was plotting behind his back on behalf of his rival, Mohammed bin Nayef.

Aljabri’s troubles deepened the following month, when he visited the White House to discuss the Yemen war, accompanied by Khalid bin Salman, MBS’ younger brother, who was then the Saudi defense attache in Washington, later ambassador, and is now deputy defense minister. Aljabri briefed MBN and the royal court when he returned from the trip, but that didn’t satisfy MBS. Aljabri was sacked on September 10, 2015, as MBS was returning to Riyadh from a visit to meet with Obama in Washington.

On May 17, 2017, just before Pres

ident Trump’s visit to Riyadh, Aljabri fled the kingdom to a vacation home in Turkey, and later moved to Toronto. Sensing disaster ahead, Aljabri tried to get all eight of his children out of the country, but several remained.

Here’s where this story of palace intrigue becomes a humanitarian tragedy.

On June 18, 2017, according to Aljabri’s son Khalid, MBS communicated with Saad Aljabri in Toronto. The gist of the message, said Khalid, was that the crown prince wanted Aljabri back in government and would offer him a better job than he’d held before.

Aljabri stalled for time. He told the crown prince that he would return in two weeks. His son Saleh left the kingdom that day, but two teenagers, Omar and Sarah, were waiting for U.S. visas.

The coup happened June 20. Mohammed bin Nayef disappeared for eight hours, and when he emerged, he swore allegiance to the new crown prince, MBS. Omar and Sarah had booked a flight from Riyadh the next morning, June 21, but they were stopped at the airport and prevented from leaving the country – on orders, it was said, of the Mabahith, Aljabri’s former service.

The family stayed silent for 2½ years. Omar and Sarah attended school in Riyadh and got good grades. U.S. officials quietly sought to intervene in the case, with no success. MBS still wanted Aljabri back, and he was preparing to increase the pressure.

On March 16, at 6 a.m., dozens of security officers raided the family compound in northeast Riyadh and arrested Omar and Sarah. They were taken to an undisclosed location. No charges have been filed. “They are hostages,” Khalid Aljabri said. “The ransom is my father’s return.” (c) 2020, Washington Post Writers Group